9 November 1956 “Early American and Realizations”

I came across this advertisement for Big Top Peanut butter and thought it fun to share. As you can see it comes in a reusable glass. Such promotions as these were becoming common in the 1950’s as it would encourage you to buy their brand, as you intended to collect up the glasses. I rather liked it because it describes the Sherbets and Goblets in the ‘Early American’ design.
I have spoken of this little known movement before. While many think 1950’s was all Eames chairs and wall to wall carpeting, the movement and look towards ‘Early America’ or Colonial was happening. Though, in true 1950’s fashion, they were not trying to fool you into thinking they had actual antiques, but rather pieces inspired by the early days.
This dining room set is an example of this. It is certainly Early American, even by the definition of the description in the magazine. Yet, the piece is obviously modern and look at the clever ‘pass through’ from the kitchen that appears to be part of the hutch. Those chairs, many people propbably recall, as they lasted well into 1970’s design.
I have been becoming increasingly partial to this mid-century movement, as my own house, which is in fact actual Early American, that is built in the American Colonial Days, is quite happy with these pieces.
This is a great shot of a lovely hall in Colonial/Early American. Here they show the wallpaper is meant to appear antique and certainly the grandfather clock is old. Yet the little hall piece with the ivy could be Drexel Heritage. The wood floors and rag rug show that it wasn’t all orange shag carpet and plastic floors back then.
 Though even in a more modern kitchen such as this you see the Early American influence. This wallpaper, which is quite bold and graphic, is Early American in its scene. The old wood cook stove and the vignette of the ‘early days’ becomes modern in its use of color, scale, and how it is placed on the feature wall in this bright modern kitchen.
I love that about the movement: that is didn’t take itself too seriously. I think in modern design there can be a bit too much seriousness. I mean, we are meant to live in and enjoy our homes. I like a formal/colonial style, but I will have an old bust on my mantle wearing one of my vintage hats or a strand of old shell bead necklaces that were once in a keepsake box of an old relative. I think the introduction of the personal with style and humor is really important. I think that is also important in life as well.
I think in some aspects I was beginning to lose that this past year. My realization as time went on to how our country has changed and in what way it has changed has hardened me in a way. It sort of took my humor and made me a bit dour and sad. I couldn’t really help it, as I felt almost lied to by our country from what we once had and could have made into what sad state of affairs we have got. Yet, I am one little sad voice in a sea of much more powerful voices, so I think I have sort of come from those ashes, phoenix style, ready to just be happy again.
I cannot change the world. I have only just, in the past two years, learned how to change myself for the better. So, I had better stick to that and be happy in it. Be content in my little house, puttering about my garden and messing about with my chickens. Enjoying my further research and study into the past. Sometimes we need a break from our ideas before they become so heavy we can move for them.
I hope you enjoy the Early American style. I do have a Flickr Group dedicated to trying to gather these images together if you would like a look or to join. I shall add these images to it as well.
I hope all are having a lovely day and Happy Homemaking. Now, I am off to make candy. I have promised a friend to do a craft/food fair with her this weekend and there is brittle and toffee to be made. I will share recipes and pictures after it has happened.

25 October 1956 “Ladies Winter Boots, Early American Wallpaper, and Vintage Kitchen Clock”

As winter approaches again, I am always left wondering what did ladies in the 1950’s wear as boots? You often don’t find images of ladies boots. Last year I was able to find images of sort of rubber golashes one would wear over your shoes and then also high heeled boots.
This image, which I was happy to come across in an add for heating, shows a closer view. I think we can assume these boots are, as I suspected, meant to be worn over your indoor shoes. They look solid and warm, but allow you to wear them over heels and then when you get where you are going (office, home, visiting) you slip them off and have lovely dry shoes underneath. Obviously out marketing and such, or going to the movies, you would leave them on. Yet, if you were popping over to a friends, you could pop them off to dry by the door while your dry clean shoes would not mar your friends carpets.
Very smart and it would allow for the need for less boots, one nice pair for heels, and also only worn outside, not as a ‘fashion statement’ all day indoors. I would love to find such a pair, but my feed are often too large for actual vintage shoes. If anyone knows of such a place to get these today, please let me know.
I have talked of my growing love for the “Early American” or ‘Colonial’ look becoming popular in post war era decorating. This ad, for wallpaper has a great example. If you want to see the whole ad go to the Vintage Advertising Page of the site and click on the thumbnail. You can see the use of reds and greens and blues but also little vignettes of ‘colonial’ times, very stylized and made quaint. I would love such a paper in my kitchen when I finally redo it. And it’s stain retardant properties make it ideal for a kitchen setting.
I have also started a Flickr group called Early American Decorative Collective and it is there that I will collect up all my EA images and hope others will contribute as well. It can be found HERE.
I also found this ad from a 1953 Better Homes which now helps me date my Kitchen clock. Here it is in my kitchen.You can see, at least I think so, that it’s modern styling works fine with more Early American items such as my tole lamp and matchstick holder. The Green Fire King  juicer/measure cup was a gift from my MIL. The Tomato slicer also works. I always keep its vintage paper on when I am not using it to protect the metal. I love moments like that, when you can finally connect the exact time and place.
Happy Homemaking.

1 October 1956 “Sweet Extra’s With Late Season Vegetables”

I just thought this image from an ad in one of my 50’s magazines did a good job of showing another way the ‘Early American’ look was expressed. It almost has a ‘modern country’ look to it with the clean lines of the sofa with it’s bold plaid paired with the Windsor chair. The old bench as a coffee table is darling and I love the bold use of the bright wallpaper and the complimentary color of the solid green three tiered curtains.
Another aspect of this photo that is telling of the times (the early 1950’s) is the vast farmed field across the way. This home might very well be sharing their side of the street with many similar houses built on old farm land. And most likely that view across the street will change by the 1960’s as the building boom continues and farm land is converted to sub-division. A pretty prospect from their window now, though and I love their ‘woody station wagon’ in the drive. The entire scene makes me want to put on the fire and sip cocoa. It did a good job of not making me dread our coming winter.
This is a great article from an October issue of Better Homes and Gardens from 1954. It gives three recipes and ideas on how to use up those late summer vegetables in the garden in a fun way. I think I shall try these. Simply click on them for a full size view.


Enjoy and Happy Homemaking.

21 September 1956 “Small Kitchen and Early American”

I have mentioned before how my home, which is quite old, has a very small kitchen. It was most likely added around the turn of the 20th century. It’s cabinets show that it was updated sometime in the 1950’s but unfortunately it is in a sad state. At some point the whole thing must be redone.
I originally had thought of making it larger and every time I draw out plans I continue to scale it down. In fact doing the opposite of what happens in my favorite movie “Mr. Blandings Builds A Dream House”. Mr and Mrs. Blandings (played by Carey Grand and Myrna Loy)are in their architects office just to ‘look’ after having to give up on their antique home to the bulldozer. By the time they leave they have added extensively to the basic plans. At one point Mrs. Blandings exclaims, “I will not subject my daughters to live in a home with less than four bathrooms”. Though, they currently live in a one bath two bed apartment in NYC. It is a great movie and really shows the beginning of the American move towards the bigger home. Though, it won’t really come to fruition decades later for most of us.
So, to my point, in one of my vintage interior design books, I found this kitchen.It is so tiny yet so pretty. It has even made room for an eating area for two. Here is the blueprint of the room.Yes, you are reading that correctly. Roughly an 8 x 8 room. That would be a walk in closet in a modern home! Yet, my own kitchen is just about 10 x 10, quite small. I have no problem whipping up all kinds of lovely dinners and desserts in there. It has its quirks of a floor that slants to the right. I have to prop up my cakes in the oven with little rocks so it sets evenly, but I deal with it.
So, the more I think of any of the expense that will have to go into this room shall be in the basics such as tearing up the floor to have new joists installed and a new subfloor. While doing that I might move the door and simply rearrange the layout of the room to fit my needs based on various ideas from my vintage magazines and books. In other words, the smallness is really growing on me.
I also have really come around to the Early American look. I have talked of this little discussed decorating style of the mid-century. It was a modern/quirky take on colonial furniture. Copper jell-o molds, colonial inspired fabrics, knotty pine and anything ‘old’ made into lamps and tables such as spinning wheels and butter churns. There is a very tongue in cheek quality about it that I have come to appreciate.
Since my own home is from the actual New England colonial era, I think it a very fitting look for my new vintage kitchen when that time comes.
 I love the use of the bright red counters with the knotty pine. I think I would have my trimmed in either the 50’s aluminum or see if I could get a vintage aluminum dipped in ‘copper’. And though I am going to have a new subfloor, rather than put in heart of pine wide boards like the rest of the house, I want real linoleum (not vinyl). This is actually kind of expensive, but again, if I were to keep the room it’s original small size, than one could have nicer quality items as it would be used sparingly. Even a vintage roll of wallpaper can be as costly as 100 dollars a roll, but when one only needs one roll to do one wall and maybe the back of one open set of cupboards, a realistic expense. The same goes with vintage fabric, which is often hard to get in large amounts.
How many of you are unhappy with the size of your kitchen? Could you be actually happier with less space, but better laid out with your own choice of nicer appointments which would be less expensive due to the smaller space. And as always with small spaces, less clutter when one had less space to accumulate, right?
What are your thoughts on smaller vs. larger in the kitchen? How much space do you actually use in the kitchen? Are there cupboards or counters that actually just hold ‘junk or mail’ and don’t actually serve a practical purpose? It is a fun project to look at a room and think, ‘hmmm, what if it was smaller, what would I keep?”

5 August 1956 “The Boldness of Mid-Century Interiors and A New Dress…Almost”

I thought for a quick post today I would show the boldness of the 1950’s interior. Now, certainly not all homes had such bold looks, just as today most homes don’t look like magazine shots. But, there was a bravery, an almost innocent brashness in the post war color scheme.
This bedroom has no apologies. And the color combination is like a jewel box with Deep purple and coral pink and touches of teal blue. It makes me think of the colors of a coral reef. In fact, when you see this color in the context of nature, you can really see its beauty. And you could even add some orange to this bedroom with pillows and it would work as it does in nature. And you can see the boldness of this color scheme in a bath. Here the Golds and Browns remind me of this moth. And this same color scheme, with the green of the leaf, works in this dining room of Heywood-Wakefield Furnishing.
Even the Early American and Colonial mid century home boldness is the key.The contrast of the rough pine open shelves with the bright modern vinyl floor works because of the deliberateness of the room. The chosen items displayed in the window and on the shelves.
This living room gives me inspiration for my own actual 1700’s house using the bold strokes and colors of mid-century. The clean starkness of a Colonial home is enlivened with a daring pallette of pinks and greens. The inside of the shelves pick up the colors of the sofa fabric and even the pink tones in the brick. The mid-century decorator had an almost Victorian approach to color. Though they were much more selective with objects than their Victorian ancestors, the colors remind me of the unhindered use of color. There seems to be a deliberateness and confident action in ‘what is right and what should be done’ in many things done in the 1950s. And though there were things we are glad to have moved away from, the feeling of rightness of place and mature decision seems to permeate the decade as a whole. That is something I have truly come to love about my project and the decade.
Now, onto sewing.That same boldness of color and decision surely hit me in the making of my latest dress. Though it is not yet done, I wanted to share with you my latest attempt.
I found this lovely navy fabric with the dots of red white and a lighter blue. It just screamed vintage, though there was not enough to make an entire dress. So, I chose to match the lighter blue dot and used a solid cotton. The skirt will be the solid blue and trimmed in the patterned fabric. I had wanted to make a peter pan collar, but it did not work out as I had planned. So I am taking the large scale ric rac you see and pinning it and placing it where I would like to cut the new neckline. It will dip in the back like this. Now you can still see the fabric above the ric rac, but I will pin the ric rac down and then cut the new neckline, hem it and attach the rick rack to the neckline. I adore the look and to me it was a natural conclusion. It has a determined action of color and boldness the old me may not have taken, but now, 1956 style, it seems, well, natural. I will share the dress when it is done with how I trimmed the edge of the skirt.
Well, that is it for me today, Happy Homemaking all.