Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Decorating Loves

I love old 50's and early 60's decorating books for ideas for my own house. Here are a few of my favorite images from the Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Ideas book 1960.


I love this kitchen.. I have stared at this photo longer than I care to tell you people! I love the color scheme and those metal cabinets! I love that little fridge too.. I have one pretty similar to it, matter of fact...now looking at it I think they are the same band...Frigidaire made by General Motors.


I like alot of the furniture in this den but not the yellow and green color scheme...it's a little too much on the brink of the 70's for me.


and this is a great color scheme... The clown pull down table is a bit of nightmare fuel but the rest of the room is pretty cool.



this room wows me... I generally hate the color orange but when used with the black/white tiled floor it works... and don't get me started on those awesome couches!




19 comments:

pretendingsanity said...

oh, man, I'd kill for that kitchen sink!

Anonymous said...

I loooove the wall clock in the last photo, the spindly one. I've seen replicas but none as perfect as the real ones from the 50s/60s.

It seems people are starting to catch on to the retro redo fad. Used to be I could find stuff like this cheap on Ebay, but nowadays it is more expensive than the replicas. *sigh*

woof nanny said...

"nightmare fuel", lol. I love orange--I'm a bit bummed it's all the rage now, because it takes the wow factor out for me. I love cranberry too. I even have orange and black dishes. It just worked out that way.

AMCSviatko said...

At first I thought the woman in the clown photo was using her laptop - took a couple of seconds to realise they didn't exist back then... :-)

Monica said...

My parents had an orange couch and I hate orange but i wish i had it now, they got it in the early 60's and it was soooooo cool, with a BRIGHT blue matching chair !! i have to show you pictures you'd drool over the furniture

teacherarbc said...

I LOVE THESE PHOTOS...LOVE THEM, LOVE THEM, LOVE THEM....I WOULD LOOOOVE TO BE IN THAT KITCHEN!!!!

Anonymous said...

yummy photo's!

Anonymous said...

I really love the curtains above the cabinets in the first picture - we have not pretty things in that area of our kitchen and it would be so nice to mask them...hmm :)

Anonymous said...

I have/love that book ... see the aqua-ish pegboard in the kitchen? I made that for mine! Now I'm using that color for my bedroom. I love how the pegboard looks in the rec room, too.

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the book "Atomic Kitchen"?

Mary-Frances said...

You have to join my flickr group (please add these photos to the group..they'd be a fantastic addition!) - so I don't seem like a weird spammer, go to my blog (http://www.mbatr.blogspot.com or the site at www.midcenturystyle.net) and there's a link on both of those. We've also started a webring of people who are remodeling 50's houses!

Mary-Frances said...

P.S. Not sure where you keep this book - mine was on a lower shelf in the living room - very kid accessible..not dusty tho because I use it a lot! However, they go for anywhere from $85 to $125 in the current market. Needless to say it's on shelf..little more protected now!

Gina said...

Could do it in red too (the couches). Very cool photos!

Thriftin' Gal @ Junk In My Trunk said...

The kitchen and the den are my favorites - oh, I could just jump into those pictures and live happily ever after! :)

P.S. I linked to you from my site, hope that is OK.

Lori said...

Those are incredible decorating pictures! We are remodeling the basement into a joint studio space and the orange couch picture is giving me some ideas. I love the black and white floor and those couches!!!!!! Time to hit some yard sales and see what we can find....
Lori

Anonymous said...

What fun your blog is.
I love it, thanks for the inspiration.
: )

Anonymous said...

Love the kitchen - perfect for wearing my hostess apron...I'd hate to cook in there and mess it up...

I have this book too and love to study the pages.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I've got some of that furniture in our office.

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking of using that pegboard in my kitchen to hold pot and pans. Seen it on one of the home improvement shows, I just don't know what color to paint it yet..
I also have a wooden living room furniture set that I bought for cheap from one of my ex-bosses. I did some research and found out it was made during the early fifties for the plantation hands here on the islands of Hawaii. All it needs is some fixing up due to the fact that my puppies had a go at it a year ago. The cushion is still the original and firm as ever.