Home - Mid-Century Style Magazine

From Flame to Flicker: Inside a Working Neon Shop

You walk into a neon shop expecting nostalgia. You leave thinking about chemistry, electricity, municipal zoning codes, and 1940s craftsmanship. That’s what happened when I toured Morry’s Neon, a family business opened in 1985 by Morry and his son Glen, a business built on a neon legacy that began in 1946 when Morry first started bending glass. Established the same year America decided diners, drive-ins, and optimism were perfectly reasonable things to mass-produce, Morry’s has

Route 66 at 100: Why the Centennial Is Igniting a New Era of Retro Road Trips

As the Route 66 Centennial approaches, something interesting is happening. This isn’t just an anniversary tour or a nostalgia lap. It’s a full-scale reawakening of interest in the American road trip—one rooted in history, preservation, and the lived experience of the road itself. The centennial is acting like a spotlight, illuminating not just the highway, but the stories, architecture, roadside culture, and communities that grew up along it. And people are paying attention. Travelers want

Los Angeles Potteries: A Whimsical Walk Through Mid-Century Ceramic Dreams

From our retro coffee table to yours comes a great book – an awesome gift or something to pour over in our own home! Suppose you’ve ever spotted a cookie jar shaped like a hamburger or a canister set with tropical fruit motifs and thought, “I remember that design!” or “I have to have that design!”. In that case, you’ll want to get your hands on Los Angeles Potteries: A Collector’s Journey through Artistry, Craft,

El Cortez Hotel: Where Vintage Vegas Still Lives

Opened in 1941, the El Cortez Hotel & Casino is one of Las Vegas’s oldest operating casinos — and one of its most authentic. In a city obsessed with reinvention, the El Cortez is a rare survivor, maintaining its vintage spirit while still feeling alive and relevant. Preservation That Matters In 2013, the El Cortez earned its place on the National Register of Historic Places, and it’s easy to see why. The building’s Spanish Colonial

Stylish Windows

Window dressing was huge in the 1950’s, but we don’t seem to have resurrected the love of pinch pleats:Interesting suggestions – would you use these in your home? And we couldn’t resist – the wall of curtains! Taken from the “Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Book” Copyright 1956, we thought we’d turn Mid-Century Photo Friday into a learning experience. As usual you can leave a link to your Mid-Century Photo Friday in the comments.

'30's House post – My friends are doing "Trading Spaces"

So, for the next few days I’m going to digress from my love of 1950’s vintage homes because my two friends in the neighborhood who own 1930’s homes are both taping this week for an episode of “Trading Spaces”! What’s particularly amusing about this, is that neither house (or owner) is particularly “design challenged”….I think both of them have done a nice job of decorating….however, they thought it would be fun! I’m DYING to see

Best renovation strategies – or how to start a controversy

Based on this article which ran a while ago (although it was published in February so it’s even older than that) – this makes for a fantastic discussion among re-modelers and preservationists. If you read the article in the link, they did research and then tried to make the remodel look progressive. In preservation, we’ve certainly run into a lot of this on the road with mid-century motels where they have to keep it looking