A second image from my collection of 1950 National Plan Service homes courtesy the Indiana Coal and Lumber Company. This little series of homes — just about perfection.
A 1950 American Dream Home
Posted by: • October 28, 2008
Mid Century Culture
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A 1950 American Dream home 
A 1950 American Dream House 
1950 American dream houses – we start a new series 
Become a fanKitchens – Countertops
Over at her blog The Home Project, reader Linn and her husband continue to chronicle the remodel of their adorable bungalow kitchen. Recently, they rolled up their sleeves and installed a stainless steel countertop right over the old, existing laminate countertops. The headline: When first considering the stainless steel countertop option, Linn contacted a big [...]
My local Re-Store was offering some maple flooring from bowling alley – and some handy homeowner re-purposed it into the most excellent countertop. Isn’t it great?! …Right up there with the Teacups Chandelier we looked at a while ago. Related Posts Basement bowling alley in 1962 Michigan time capsule house for sale — heaven! What [...]
Many thanks to Whitney, who just tipped me that Wilsonart has introduced 11 new colors of boomerang laminate. There now are a total of 14 colorways — the most of any manufacturer. I am quite liking the “butterscotch” above — looks like you could use this in a kitchen with yellow kitchen cabinets. There is [...]
UPDATE (Oct 2011): Click over to –> this story to get an update on all three sources for boomerang laminate. Here is a third selection of boomerang laminates to consider for your retro kitchen renovation. Wilsonart has informed me that residential buyers can buy from this “Indie” line …. it is just a special order placed [...]
The new crop of laminates suitable for mid-century kitchen countertops continues. Reader Jon gets snaps for spotting this new “Motion” series of laminate from Pionite. Jon writes: Hi Pam, First, I love the site. I’ve been reading it since December when I purchased my teeny tiny 1946 house (originally a summer home) on the shore [...]
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So cute! Isn’t it funny how in the post-war era of prosperity, the majority of new houses being built were well-designed, but small? Everything was supposed to be efficient and useful, none of the over-the-top excess we see in 90′s-2000′s houses (where it would be torture to have less than 4 bathrooms)! Hmmmm, living within your means… now there’s an idea!
Hey Pam and others,
See those white wrought-iron looking pillars above? Do they have a name? I have some of that curly iron-work on my brick ’59 house. I refer to it as “Metal Gingerbread” but there’s likely a name for it.
Now that we know that the metal ring surrounding an old sink is called a “Hootie Ring” – I expect everything has a name!
All the best,
Dana in Chicagoland
Hey, that’s my house! (though we have wood siding rather than brick)
Check out http://www.antiquehome.org/House-Plans/
Scroll down on the left for several house plan sections from the 1950s, including National Plan Service, Aladdin, and others.
DanaMc, we have the same wrought iron porch support on our ’56 ranch, but I don’t have a name for you. I wonder where the trend inspiration came from: it seems so different from the rest of the design sensibility of ranches, yet so common. Could it be a leftover from colonial revival?
Elvis and Dana – I have many many references to what I believe is called simply, ‘ornamental ironwork’ on mid century homes. I’m not academically sure of its design evolution – but will be on the lookout and plan for some authoritative posts in the future.
In terms of an educated guess, though: I tend to think that this ornamental ironwork was just a decorative effect to spice up otherwise boxy, similar ranches…another example of variation added to subdivision homes that would otherwise have been quite cookie cutter. The ironwork also provided posts for a relatively inexpensive and cheery front porch or door entryway also. Metal would have been plentiful post war – so this was a good way to integrate it. Finally – I think this will also turn out to be a mass-produced, great grandchild of Victorian ironwork.