Fort Worth 'Mad Men' Fans, Start Your Bidding!

Dashing Don Draper and his buddies didn't steal EVERYTHING when they left Sterling Cooper -- their awesome office furniture stayed behind, and some of it is up for grabs on eBay!
Sure wish the Peter Hvidt chairs in Don's office were among the goodies, but there's still lots of cool stuff to choose from -- everything from Pete Campbell's office settee (surely the one on eBay is too small to be the one in that very special scene with Peggy) to the fantastic abstract art in the conference room (top photo) to the numerous black chairs on casters in "the bullpen" (below).
Oh, yeah, and vintage clothes aficionados will be salivating over this: Three dresses worn on the show are also up for bid. How cool would it be to catch Los Noviembres at Scat Jazz Lounge decked out in the outfit shown here, the one that Betty wore to the Stork Club. Just go easy on the champagne, OK?
To add to the temptation, shipping for many of the sofas, desks and other large furniture pieces is FREE. The 10-day charity auction ends Sunday, with proceeds benefiting City of Hope, a medical and research institution dedicated to fighting cancer.

Pink Enamel Midcentury Appliances

I love Craigslist. RetroMania posts lots of things there, and last summer I stumbled across some to-die-for appliances on the freebies listings and -- Bonus Round -- also came to learn about a wildly talented local man, the late Wayne Grubb. Here's more about the appliances and Mr. Grubb.

Oh-so-smart little midcentury credenza

So often, each vintage credenza we find is as long as a city bus -- which can be a good thing, depending on your space. This retro baby is in fantastic shape, and it's a great size: 63 1/2" long, 29" high, with interior space that's 15 1/4" deep. Two drawers and two levels behind the sliding cabinet doors. So many possible uses! Of course, as with most midcentury furniture, it's built to last -- waaaaay past any wackiness 2012 might bring (aren't those Aztec calendars cool-looking, though? Dig the green-turquoise color!)

RetroMania's Christmas Visitors

Next door to RetroMania is Retromania Too, opening up especially for the holidays so we can share our retro-riffic Christmas stuff with the rest of the world. We're just one door down (look for the mid-century light-up Santas and aluminum Christmas trees!). For items in the Christmas shop, payment methods are cash or check. For credit purchases via PayPal, our e-mail address is retromaniafw@gmail.com

A Vintage Thanksgiving Feastival

Well hey there, Pilgrims! Because we're traditionalists here at RetroMania, we refuse to skip straight from Halloween to Christmas. No sir. Especially not when we've got so much to be thankful for, not the least of which is our fellow retro and modernist aficionados, aka you guys! Thanks to all for the kind words and the warm welcome, and for stopping in to check out the midcentury stuff that gets us goin' in the morning. Now, how about passing that Russel Wright gravy boat this way?

Happy Halloween, Retro Ghouls & Boys!

We're suckers for retro holiday kitsch, which must be painfully apparent to anyone who's drifted into our shop this past month. (Next up: wacky tacky pilgrims!) To our fellow MCM enthusiasts in Fort Worth and Dallas, have an over-the-top, insanely fun -- oh, and OF COURSE, safe -- Halloween!

Restoring midcentury furniture

I'm currently working on refurbishing this little Lane table (top photo) to put in the shop. In this line of work, we see lots of furniture that needs love. Some of us are better than others at bringing these works of art back from the brink. On Dallas and Fort Worth Mid-Century Modern, I recently interviewed a man named Hank Tosh, who is dead serious about this endeavor. Check out his shop,Toshmahal (it's on Hampton Road in west Dallas) and you'll see: This man knows how to restore the glory of these deco and midcentury works of art. This is a Lane table (bottom photo) that Hank features on his website. Don't the contrasting colors just melt your heart?