We watched Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House last night.
A great movie from 1948 with deep social underpinnings — the mass relocation of Americans from city to suburbs — but just as importantly, Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Melvin Douglas as funny and wonderful as ever.
Check out the Colonial architecture and interiors (and the Woodard patio furniture in the thumbnail photo above.)
Coincidentally, I had just loaded a bunch of 1948 kitchen photos — mostly of St. Charles Steel Kitchen cabinets. I’ve been doing a lot on exuberant colors for 50s and 60s kitchens – and thought it only fair to give white cabinetry its due!
To be sure, white cabinets were always the #1 choice of American homeowners in the postwar period…they are very flexible to decorate with…they convey a sense of cleanliness and order…and as you can see from the first, large photo below — perky, cheerful color was still a very important part of the design scheme (e.g. see Bradbury & Bradbury’s 40s wallpapers — you can see how they’d look great with white steel cabinets.)
If you’re redoing your kitchen — there are lots of great retro kitchen design details and ideas that you can pick up from these examples. Have fun!
Click on all the thumbnails to enlarge.
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You’ve likely seen it, but here’s a fabulous video from the 1950s about the “Step-Saving Kitchen.”
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/tsgtv/index.html?id=AQ106-02&link=TSGTVshlk
Thanks, Tomorrow Windy. This is so fun! Pam
I especially love the red kitchen at the top of the post with the border that features what are apparently vegetables that sing and dance. -Julia
Yes, the dancing veggies are kind of scary. Be sure to click to enlarge the photo. My goodness.
I also just have to say that I’ve watched “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House” too many times to count over the years. I love giving the DVD as a housewarming gift to people who have built their homes. Great post! -Julia
Those dancing veggies remind me a little of the old drive-in movie short with the marching popcorn boxes and fries…”Let’s go down to the snack bar…”
Yes! I was thinking the same thing (about the movie shorts with marching popcorn boxes).
FYI, I just told my “Hooked on Houses” readers to check out this post and see the dancing veggies for themselves. You can see what I wrote about your site here:
http://hookedonhouses.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/get-your-house-fix-2/
I hope some of them will take my advice and stop by! -Julia
hooked on houses reader here! LOVE THAT KITCHEN!