Retro Renovation

1948 was a very good year: Awesome retro kitchens and Cary Grant’s Dream House, too!

50sPam on Nov 23 2007 at 3:33 pm | Filed under: kitchen, paint colors

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.

10 Responses to “1948 was a very good year: Awesome retro kitchens and Cary Grant’s Dream House, too!”

on 23 Nov 2007 at 4:33 pm 1TomorrowWindy

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

on 26 Nov 2007 at 12:07 pm 250sPam

Thanks, Tomorrow Windy. This is so fun! Pam

on 21 Dec 2007 at 2:27 pm 3Retro Renovation » Big news — St. Charles steel kitchens are coming back — with big bucks marketing, too

[...] my other St. Charles kitchen posts, circa 1948 and 1957. And don’t forget to check the Forum for cabinets for sale across the [...]

on 27 Feb 2008 at 1:00 am 4Hooked on Houses

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

on 27 Feb 2008 at 1:05 am 550sPam

Yes, the dancing veggies are kind of scary. Be sure to click to enlarge the photo. My goodness.

on 27 Feb 2008 at 1:10 am 6Hooked on Houses

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

on 27 Feb 2008 at 1:30 am 7Femme1

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…”

on 27 Feb 2008 at 2:42 am 8Get Your “House Fix” (2) « Hooked on Houses

[...] at Retro Renovation there’s a post about the classic Cary Grant movie “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream [...]

on 27 Feb 2008 at 2:58 am 9Hooked on Houses

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

on 27 Feb 2008 at 3:41 am 10maya

hooked on houses reader here! LOVE THAT KITCHEN!