15 October 1956 “1930’s Decorating Class”

I thought it might be fun today to look at some 1930’s interior design images. As I have mentioned before, my 1956 homemaker would have been a young lady or teen in the 1930’s. And in my study of home economics, I would probably have seen many of these types of styles and interiors and furniture.
I have a few wonderful 1930’s interior design books as well as cookery books. I am hoping to increase this collection as I begin to look further into what would have made me, a 1950’s homemaker, esthetically and from early teen age training.(all images can be enlarged by clicking on them and those I borrowed from other sites have links by clicking the image, thank you.)
I think this illustration from one of my books shows the fashion for painted furniture. As one can tell, many of these pieces are actually older late Victorian or even Colonial inspired pieces (these colonial pieces began being reproduced in the 1930’s as well) and are enlivened and made modern with paint. I rather like the color tones of this era of reds, greens, yellows, soft blues and all grounded with some form of black. I think these pieces, as well, work very well in a 1950’s kitchen.
I most likely would have some pieces from my mothers own 1930’s kitchen that I would still use in my modern 1956 kitchen. Certainly the colors could and would harmonize.
Even the lines of the modern chairs of the 1930’s show that the similar angles and lower position to the floor had begun in the 1930’s. These drawings by the 30’s furniture maker Ernst Kauffman demonstrate that. And the Eames work, as this famous chair and these Herman Miller Eames chairs exhibit similar lines.
The color palette, especially in baths, were much softer and more muted in the 1930’s.This lovely frieze of wallpaper above the tiles from a 1930’s wallpaper book I have, are really beautiful. The design is more more enchanted almost fairy book in its organic movement. While a 1950’s paper would be more stylized and patterned as this 50’s bath shows.
The 1950’s has the ‘new’ plastic tile. It was an easy application a Do-it-yourselfer could manage for less effort and money than actual tile. In the 1930’s linoleum was still very popular. Here we see a bath with what looks like a papered top and a tiled lower wall.
Yet, the lower wall was actually a product called lin-o-wall, also found in my 30’s wallpaper design book. Here are more examples of the 3-d style it came in.I have to say, I am rather enamored of these looks. The stone and the brick, but especially the lower left images would look so good painted in a turn of the century home. And, what is lovely for today is linoleum is a very ‘green’ product in that it is made literally from wood/cork pulp mixed with linseed all and is very renewable. I wonder if any such things are being made currently?
Here are some fun wallpaper examples from the 1930’s.I think some of these would be great in a traditional home, but some of the more modern patterns would be fun in a kitchen or bath. The sample on the right with the kitchen breakfast room is geometric and organic combined. I think the top paper on the right ad which looks like blue and white delft tiles would be so lovely in an all blue and white breakfast nook. White painted furniture and woodwork. Soft white sheer drapes with blue and white seat cushions. And little punches of yellow in some framed prints of daffodils or ladies in yellow dresses. It would be such a bright way to start your morning.
How adorable is this little bedroom? I love the mixture of both the very glamorous skirted dressing table and the stoic ladder back colonial chair. The wall paper is very traditional and yet look at the whimsy of the rug under the chair? The mixture of both old and ‘new’ is done white great affect here, I think. I can’t imagine even needing to change the dressing table for the 1950’s although you might use that wonderful little side chair as your dressing table chair and cover that and the table skirt in the same fabric. A room I certainly would enjoy greeting the day with, how about you?
I think I shall close with this video of a 1930’s fashion show (of course fashion and interiors always played off one another). It is quite fun and taken from the 1930’s movie “The Life of the Party”.

Well, that was just some fun interiors from the 1930’s. As my project begins to come upon the beginning of its third year, I am left wondering where to go next. And, I really think in understanding myself in 1950’s, as the decade wanes, is to understand myself in the 30’s and 40’s both politically, and through the design and food. So, I may do more ‘between the war’ posts, if that would be of interest to any of you.
Have a lovely day and Happy Homemaking.

19 June 1956 “Fishing in Time’s River and Esthetics: How Much are they Part of Time?”

Today I have thought of Thoreau’s words:
“Time is but the stream I go fishing in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It’s thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”
Certainly the meaning for me may be different than what he had in mind, but the overall affect of not being to concerned about the past and present actually does seem to be relevant to me. Odd, that I should say such a thing when you think how much the past has come to me, but I don’t think I am truly ‘trapped’ there. Rather the opposite, really, for having set myself the task of being ‘trapped’ in a year in the past, my whole Future and perception of my Present has opened up and changed. By treating Time like a river into which I can toss my line, as it were, and snag out fish of interest has allowed me a perspective that puts me on the banks of time. I can watch it rush by me or look down and see the source of the stream or toward the horizon and peer into what rapids or turns in the river might lie ahead. I even sometimes feel I have fashioned a raft and Huckleberry Finned my way about wondering at the way things are today. Rather they are right or wrong, much as Finn did with his good friend Joe and what was to happen to him when they touched shore, I happily cast my line and only reel in and keep that which I choose.
I know this month has seen me very little up0n this screen. Time, too, has such an elastic quality when one can immerse themselves in the home. It makes me realize the 50’s housewife probably didn’t quite understand her hippy daughter away at college explaining to her how she was ‘wasting her time’ and ‘letting her youth get taken away’. When one is ‘at home’, as I am, and is filled both with the work of it (and it is work) but also reveling in the very creative joy of nesting and gardening, sewing and creating, it can be a timeless place. I am sure the old homemakers of yore never felt their time was a wasted endeavor (those who did not feel trapped by it of course, if one is called to be a doctor or lawyer, then by all means go free) when they had enjoyed themselves along the way.
I think today modern people tend to measure their ‘success’ or how far they have come by how much they have accumulated. I think I once heard, “whomever has the most toys at the end, wins” not a surprising mantra in our age of materialism and consumerism. But, really, when one measure life and its accomplishments in the moment, you can see how silly this incessant drive to have things can be. If I am blissful as I prepare a meal, try out a new recipe, feel accomplished in the arrangement of the table and meal I have prepared, even if only my hubby and I see it, is it less valid? When one can learn to measure their happiness, contentment and joy in the moment ( and that includes reveling in your moments prepared by you earlier, such as breaking the seal on that jam you set last fall) this anxious rush to buy and need goes away. Why shout at the shop girl because they don’t have your new gizmo. Why feel the need to keep going out and buying the next cell phone, the new i-Pad, every new thing, just tossing aside what you have replaced it with. We can be like big children so interested in the next toy, we just let drop our beloved toy of only moments ago. But, we are not children, we are (or are suppose to be) adults.
So, my excuse, if I am indeed making one, is that I have found my moments strung together like lovely little pearls and I have not wanted to break their pattern for then they might fall to the floor. But, I must also remember to stop and share with all of you as well.
My garden is growing rather nicely. I sprayed by grapes and hopefully they will make it, if not then next year I will be prepared for the bugs. The garden is such a good lesson in patience and our need to prepare and wait. Another reason, that as we have moved away from the land and the garden, it is natural that we should be so impatient. When our food is frozen and nuked in minutes, who understands patience?
My chickens are growing rather large. They have moved to their intermediary pen, as I finish up their final home. We have one very friendly little pullet (future hen) we call Buttons ( as she is intent on removing any button on your clothing when you hold her) and she always manages to get out. But, I don’t worry, because she is so tame, she merely lets herself out and then wanders the yard as I am gardening or working on my construction. My dogs, of course, love her and when my Italian Greyhound gets too feisty, buttons merely turns and pecks, as if to say, “To me, you are just one big button to be removed” and then continues on her way, scratching and eating slugs and bugs.
I think I will leave you with these pictures of what is considered the latest in beautiful for bathrooms. Then, lets ponder, how much of our personal esthetic is simply derivative of the time in which we live. Are we So connected to our media and advertising that our very desires for what we consider ‘beautiful’ today really just the dictates of the latest magazines, tv shows, internet? Even those of us who are now incessantly trying to recreate a vintage home, is that a new to buy up and own a time we respect? It is the simple solution that we are used to? We have so much at our fingertips and so much or our life is instantaneous, do we think we can buy up the honor and respect of a time gone by through acquisition? I don’t know, I have struggled with this thought’s as I have had my own esthetics thrown about these past two years. I find my style or desire change and then I look at some older modern magazines I like with interiors ( as an experiment) and soon found my tastes returning again. It is interesting to ponder, none-the-less.
And I am not placing any value judgment on it, right or wrong, but it does become interesting when you begin to dissect ‘why you like this or that style’.  It does seem to have greatly influenced our 1950’s counterparts, as many of the bathrooms I see in magazines look like the Before in a modern magazine today. Do we really find these ugly? Do we simply change our tastes, supposedly a core element in ‘who we are’ by the subconscious accumulation of information that we are bombarded with in the modern age? What do you think? Is your esthetic from your parents? Your teachers? Someone you admire or a great house you love? Or do you know really know why you gravitate toward one thing or another. Interesting to think about.
I thought I would throw in two living rooms as well for us to consider why we might find it ugly or not.  The second has a much more current modern feel due to its technique of keeping to almost two colors with only white accents.  
Until next time, Happy Homemaking.