In From The Cold...

The Wende Museum in Los Angeles has over 60,000 artifacts from Cold War era Eastern Europe, including: paintings, sculpture, posters, and furniture. By preserving these Cold War artifacts and history the museum provides a way of 'applying historical lessons of the past to the present'. 
See more of it's incredible collection here.

Watered Down Design...

New York's distinct wooden water towers, while appearing awkwardly out of place in the modern world, add a unique charm to the city skyline. The furniture company Bellboy has taken the well-aged wood from some of these towers (which need to be replaced about every 35 years) and turned them into these sleek modern chairs.

Phoning the Past...

The phones once prominent placement in the home allowed designers to create unique designs that often were a blend of pop sculpture and functionality. More phones here.

Window Shopping...

Boutiques published in 1936 was a beautiful french book featuring a variety of deco storefront illustrations, as well as some photographs of store interiors. Although it's old and rare you don't need to put on white gloves to leaf through the book here.

Chair-ish...

100 Chairs in 100 Days is an intriguing project by designer Martino Gamper. Using discarded and unwanted chairs Gamper's reassembled them over a 100 day period into new one of a kind creations. While each one explores the potential of design and creativity, he hopes that they also tell a story of their past lives. More here.

Say Cheese...

An ingenious idea by Jason Hull, who repurposes vintage (but never rare) cameras into cool nightlights. See more here.  Via: Junk-Culture

Products with a Past...

Some classic industrial design from the 60's and 70's. More here.

It Takes All Types...

Beautifully restored typewriters that have been customized with an artistic edge by Kasbah Moderne. See many more here.