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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

Feng-Shui for Mid Century Modern designers

I’ve had my Mid-Century interior design books out a lot the past month. We purchased a new flat screen TV and despite the design possibilities it adds, it also creates a ton of design dilemmas. 1950’s home designers never pictured a room designed around a TV much less a flat screen that hung on the wall. According to the Ladies Home Journal Book of Interior Decorating, “Television need never dominate a room but it must

Guest Post: Home Office Essential – The Eames Office Chair

A home office isn’t an essential space for all homeowners but, for those who get to experience the privilege of working from home, it is nothing short of essential. It just isn’t possible to work effectively at home unless you have a space dedicated to it. Working from home is becoming increasingly prevalent in the 21st century as technology improves and makes it a much more streamlined process, so more and more of us are

Saving Vegas in Lights: A Look Inside the Neon Museum

When you step into the Neon Museum in Las Vegas — known as the “Neon Boneyard” — you step into a glowing archive of the city’s mid-century soul. This outdoor museum is home to more than 250 rescued neon signs, each telling the story of a bygone era when Vegas was all glitter, glamour, and grit. From Preservation Dream to Living History Efforts to save Las Vegas’s neon history began in the late 1980s, driven

Dome Theaters in San Jose in danger!

In danger of demolition are the Winchester Theaters, a group of dome-shaped movie theaters which opened nearly 50 years ago showing It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World to herald both the space age and new cinema. The buildings—originally called the Century Theaters—were the first theaters of their kind. Designed by San Francisco architect Vincent Raney and opened between 1964 and 1966 to accommodate a new widescreen technology called Cinerama that was developed to help theaters