DIY Retro Themed Accessories

Finding retro and atomic themed accessories can be a challenge and expensive. For our new mid century modern inspired sunroom I had to make a few things on my own.

This post contains affiliate links which help to support this blog if you were to purchase anything through these links, at no additional cost to you.

For me, atomic themed art and accessories from the 1940’s through the 1970’s are fun and nostalgic. Some remind me of my childhood and a few spark my enthusiasm for mid century décor and iconic designs by the architects and designers of that age that I admire like Helen Knoll and Ray and Charles Eames.

But finding these authentic accessories can be challenging and expensive.

For the most part, I am very practical and won’t spend lots of money on things that I then have to “protect” from dogs and grandkids.

Instead I found a way to include these atomic icons in our new sunroom with some easy DIY projects and reproductions.

For our mid century sunroom, I not only shopped many thrift stores for retro finds, but I also put my Cricut Joy™ and some cut files purchased on Etsy to good use.

On Etsy, I purchased some atomic symbol themed cut files from a vendor that included the iconic boomerangs, triangles, stars, and even the spaceship and galaxy motifs. The first project I used these on was my Mid Century Inspired Door Mat.

Afterward, I was inspired to make a few more items like these coasters and flower pots for the room.

Since I purchased a retro style plant stand for my sunroom, I needed retro looking pots to display on it!

This was a simple project of painting clay pots white and adding vinyl cutouts made on my Cricut Joy™ to them.

The project started with some small clay pots and saucers that I painted all white.

After painting several coats of white acrylic paint on the clay pots and saucers, I then sprayed each pot with Rust-Oleum Triple Thick Spray Sealer.

To keep the bottom of the clay pots and saucers from scratching the paint on the plant stand, I added cork to the bottom of each saucer.

First I traced the outline of the bottom of the saucer with a pencil on the sheet of cork.

Then I cut it out, applied Clear Gorilla Glue on the bottom of the saucer and attached the cork cutout to it. So easy.

The last step was to add the decorative atomic vinyl cutouts I made on my Cricut Joy™ around the sides of each small painted clay pot.

Well actually the last step was to plant something in them so I started with small succulents.

Next up is the atomic coasters I made for the room.

I am including the projects for the painted clay pots and the coasters in the same post because they used the same vinyl cutouts, and because they are each so very similar and easy to do.

The coasters were the easiest and most inexpensive DIY I have ever attempted. The glossy white tiles were just 8 cents each at Home Depot. Love that!

First, I placed the tile pieces on a roll of cork, leftover from other projects of course, traced the outline and size of each tile piece, and then cut them out.

Then I used Clear Gorilla Glue to attach the cork cutouts to the back of the tiles.

To make sure the tile surface was clean of residue and able to accept the vinyl cutouts, I cleaned the surface of each tile with rubbing alcohol.

Next, I cut out several colors of atomic symbols on vinyl and attached them to the front of the coasters.

These atomic themed coasters not only serve the purpose of protecting the furniture in the room but scatter these fun and colorful atomic images all around the room as well.

There were a few other things in the room that are just as fun and quirky with retro vibes like this fun lampshade I purchased online at Zazzle.com and the wooden cat statue I found in a thrift store.

In the next few years the look of this room may change and evolve and I will want to replace these accessories. For now, they just add the right amount of fun and retro vibes to our new sunroom.