A Man of Few Words

My Dad.  I don't know many Dad's that aren't "men of few words".  You never know when they really like something.  But, MY Dad - I can tell.  It's when he says the same thing over and over again.  "This is really nice", or "This is so cool".

This weekend, my sister, Mom and I redecorated his "man cave" in a retro 50's diner theme as an early Fathers Day gift.  He has been working on building a bar in the basement for months, and he finally finished it.  He had hinted at a 50's theme, because they were his glory days.  My parents were married in 1959, and he was a very hip teenager in the 50's playing sports, going to drive in movies, sock hops, and eating burgers and milkshakes at the local diner.  He loves Elvis and James Dean.  He had a 1950 Ford Prefect and it was his pride and joy. 

Here's my Dad in the 50's.  Handsome fella, wouldn't you say?

And here is the before and after.

This wall was beige, until we painted it this awesome retro red!

This is the bar my Dad built.  He did a fantastic job, and the red lights look great!  The glass shelves are from Ikea ($14.99 each), and the mirror is from my bathroom.

 After - with the Coke bottles and mugs, retro popcorn maker, glass jars of candy (all my Dad's favourites!), and bar stools.

This Coke cooler was purchased at Homesense (Canadian version of Home Goods), and the black satin curtains are from Walmart ($35 per panel).  We will add a tie back with a crystal knob accent. 

This picture wall is our pride and joy.  It took weeks to find the right frames, hours to locate the right pictures, and many glasses of wine and rearranging to get it to look just right on the wall.  We have photos of James Dean, Elvis, Kim Novak, records of Dean Martin, Elvis, and Pat Boone, movie posters from Giant and Rebel Without a Cause, a few old photos of my parents when they were dating in the 50's, a photo of Buddy Holly performing on stage, and a very artsy photo of the grill from the front of a Ford Prefect.  My parents last name starts with an R, so I had to throw that in there to mix it up a bit.  The empty frame is for my Dad's pick.  We told him he can put anything he wants in there.



He loved it so much he said "this is really cool" about a dozen times! 

...Fancy