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Jessica Strange
Sandra Schramm stands with her favorite piece, a turquoise starburst Pyrex casserole dish, in front of her dining room cabinet packed full of midcentury artifacts.
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Jessica Strange
A mix of Sandra’s collection of enamel cookware by Cathrineholm of Norway is displayed on her cooktop.
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Jessica Strange
Sandra’s 1950s Holt Howard condiment set and Lefton bluebird ceramic bird collection.
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Jessica Strange
Sandra’s Fire-King mug collection wall
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Jessica Strange
This vintage Zenith television set is purely for decoration. Sandra says they may covert it into a bar stand soon. The magazine rack displays advertisements designed by Frank’s grandfather in London during the 1960s.
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Jessica Strange
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Jessica Strange
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Jessica Strange
The Schramms recently reupholstered a set of vintage chairs to match their midcentury lemon slice dining table.
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Jessica Strange
The Schramms eat dinner on their vintage pink dinette table every night.
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Jessica Strange
Sandra’s nearly complete Little Miss Structo metal replica kitchen made by General Electric in 1955 is displayed on her kitchen counter.
Sandra Schramm was browsing resale listings online — a hobby both she and her husband, Frank did often. The self-proclaimed treasure hunters love the thrill of finding a good deal on a highly sought after item. Sandra’s neighbor, an experienced eBay seller, had told her that vintage glassware was worth a pretty penny, so when Sandra came across a listing for a set of 1972 avocado green “Spring Blossom” Pyrex, she hopped on the deal.
She thought she might resell the dishes, but once she got them home, cleaned off decades worth of dirt and saw their original luster, she realized she couldn’t part with them. Sandra started buying all the Pyrex she could get her hands on. Then, she branched out to other makers of collectable kitchenware — Fire-King, Hazel-Atlas, and Cathrineholm. Before she knew it, her house was filled with vintage, midcentury kitsch from top to bottom.
“I was addicted,” she says.
The Schramms live in a rather nondescript suburban neighborhood in North Richland Hills. You can’t tell from the outside, but walk through their front door, and you've essentially stepped into a time machine with the dial set to 1963. Sitting on their retro turquoise sectional in their living room feels like being on the set of "Mad Men," and Sandra’s kitchen, chocked full of funky tschotskes, would make any grandma avocado green with envy.
Jessica Strange
There’s just something about this era that draws Sandra in. Seventy years ago, things were just made better, she says. The bright, cheery colors that were so popular in the '50s, '60s, and '70s aren’t found on shelves today.
“Everything was made with love,” she says of midcentury manufacturing. “Everything was more fascinating. That makes everything more desirable.”
Luckily, her family supports her nostalgic habit. Frank goes along with her to hunt for “honey pots” — their name for a treasure trove of vintage. She finds it particularly endearing when he takes time to read up on her collections.
“There's nothing in the world that makes me happier than my kids and my wife,” Frank says. “Not only do I indulge her, but I join her.”
The Schramms have two kids, Norah and Nicholas, who know not to touch mom’s expertly displayed décor. They’ve even inherited their parent’s love of the hunt and have their own collection of vintage toys. Transformers, She-Ra dolls, and Care Bears fill the kids’ rooms.
“A bunch of toys from nowadays, they don’t take time on them and make them really cheap,” Norah says while cradling a Care Bear Cousin. “Back then, they made them really pretty.”
Jessica Strange
Sandra and Frank Schramm, with their kids, Norah and Nicholas.
There’s a deep, personal connection that Sandra has with her treasures. On top of a well-stocked, midcentury cabinet in their dining room sit three retro busts that the Schramms named Madeline, Rita, and Tracy. They’re part of the family, too. At dinner, the family takes turns talking about their day to the plastic trio from the family’s 1950s pink dinette table.
“We love those girls,” Sandra says.
Jessica Strange
The busts that top Sandra’s hutch were originally used for Old Navy displays, but she dresses them up with vintage scarves and earrings to play up their retro look. The family named each of the girls: (left to right) Madeline, Rita, and Tracy.
Sandra is a part of multiple online groups for collectors. She loves the response she gets from people when she posts a photo of her cabinets filled to the brim with hundreds of hard-to-find bowl patterns and rare figurines. She’s also an organizer of the DFW Pyrex Swap — an event where collectors come together to trade pieces of their collection.
She’s amassed such a large collection that she sometimes sells her extra pieces to others — but don't call her a “dealer.” To Sandra, that’s a dirty word. Her passion is finding treasures and, sometimes, when her vintage Fire-King mug runneth over, she gets to share that passion with others.
