What goes around comes around. It’s an old saying, and these days it applies to youthful homeowners and apartment dwellers alike who are seeking to re-capture the moment when I Love Lucy ruled the airwaves and foil-wrapped TV dinners — served on TV trays — were an amazing innovation.

For baby-boomers who grew up with the eye-jarring bubblegum pink bathrooms of the 1950s or the soothing lines of minimalist furniture that distinguished the 1960s, this fashion re-run is inexplicable. But the look is nothing less than classic chic to today’s younger generations.

It doesn’t matter if you live in a classic mid-century ranch (kin to the mass-produced homes first built in Levittown, NY) or a modernistic confection (vaulted ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a glass atrium) or even a home built before 1945 or after 1968: The resurgence of retro home furnishings has become so powerful that it supports countless vintage stores across the nation and has inspired furniture manufacturers to create new lines that capture the quintessential look of that bygone era.

Living in a Time Capsule
Returning a home to its mid-century roots or just giving a single room a retro nod is easily accomplished, says Christopher Twombley, owner of Lounge Lizard, a vintage furniture store located in Portland, OR.

For example, if your dream scheme is kitchen kitsch, look no further than Formica. This is the company that first produced the original star-spangled countertop and has since re-issued similar patterns, Twombley says. Going this route costs less than granite, fits the home’s period design elements, and yields “a wonderful look.”

But he urges would-be designers to blend the best of the era and not lock-down on creating a period-perfect home “that looks like the set from a 1950s film. It’s no longer necessary to have the house frozen in a particular year,” he explains. “It’s great to include elements from the 1950s and 1960s. The best houses have design elements that mix it up a bit.”

However, if someone wants a period-perfect home, “Study finishes predominantly popular when the house was built,” he suggests. “If a period home has a focal point — like a fireplace trimmed in its original wood paneling — you should use that to dictate the decor.”

Andee Hess, owner of Osmose, an interior-design firm based in Portland, offers similar advice: Use the home’s architectural attributes to determine how the interior should look. Then its original essence can be recaptured by choosing materials that reflect the era and can still be obtained.

“You won’t find asbestos tiles anymore,” she says.

For most homeowners, getting the look back is a reasonable undertaking. “Visually, you can take it back to its original shell, because you are not matching the trim work and crown moldings of older period homes,” Hess says.

It is possible to strike a balance between personal taste and the funky design elements of the era. “A lot of it can be playful, and that’s the fun of it. We’re in a day and age where its easy to have [vintage] pieces that pop and are a throwback to mid-century styling. It comes down to deciding what you want to live with,” she adds.

The New Old
Why are mid-century furniture styles popular again? Spencer Staley has a theory: “The kids are loving it. Retro and vintage items are shown on TV. They see the stuff in ads, on TV shows, the furniture is used as iconic images, and they’re drawn to it.”

Staley helps run Portland-based Hawthorne Vintage, an upscale store that sells original mid-century Danish and Scandinavian furnishings.

The look is “cleaner on the eye, streamlined. There’s not a lot of wasted space, it isn’t clunky, and doesn’t have ornate or extra
details,” Staley explains. “This [style] only has what was needed to achieve its purpose.”

The “old stuff” is also higher quality than today’s reproductions, notes Miles Ramsey, co-owner of Deco to Disco, also located in Portland.

“Older furniture is better made, and a lot of it was made here in town,” he says. “We have access to good wood products here, and there used to be a lot of upholsterers in the area. Portland made a lot of furniture until the 1980s, before it went offshore [to be built].”

Ramsey is a furniture handyman, responsible for reupholstering, refinishing, and refining almost every piece Deco to Disco sells. To him, mid-century furniture is determined by how it’s made.

Mid-century modern couches, for example, are armless. By contrast, a lot of 1950s couches and chairs were square-looking with big, wide arms, “You could set your drink on them. And Deco-era couches have more rounded arms with wood detailing.”

Retro: There’s No Escape
More than 50 years have passed since the dawn of the mid-century architectural and furniture movement.

It’s now 2007 — nearly a decade into the new millennium — and high-tech living has stamped American culture with its own version of stark lines and sharp angles.

Architecturally, vaulted ceilings, oversized windows, and glassed-in patios are the norm for newer homes, and Asian design philosophies continue to reign in home and garden design.

Inside and out, today’s homes are both futuristic and modern, echoing what designers were striving to achieve back when Eisenhower was president.

“Retro has infiltrated [everything],” Hess notes. “You’d be surprised by what is considered mid-century and what is modern today. It’s become so popular…we’re more retro than we realize.”