Need ideas to decorate your 1960s or 1970s home? Paint colors for your 1960s living room, dining room, bedroom or kitchen? I recently acquired a bundle of vintage Sherwin Williams 1960s decorating brochures, and Matt has been scanning like a madman. So here we go, with the launch of a festival of 1960s interiors.
The interior designs in this 1965 paint brochure are doubly fun because, well, they depend on paint, and as a result, many of the rooms are kind of like those home decorating shows today that mostly involve buying $1,000 worth of outrageously colored paint and painting everything. Usually not to such great effect. Except somehow, it all looks much more appealing circa 1965. Sherwin-Williams Suburban Modern palette? Love it today. Love it even more yesterday.
To view the slide show, click on the first thumbnail. Once it’s enlarged, click on the arrow below to move forward or back. You can start the slide show from any spot…
Wonderful pages. I am a big fan of the 1960s and 70s style.
I really love the panels on the entrance at the left side of picture #2.
What a wonderful place to live. Everything looks alive!
Pretty conservatively “drab”.
I can see why one year later, decor went berserk.
Berserk is the wrong choice of word.
The point I was trying to make is that: within 3 years, these rooms were considered outdated.
Gavin, that’s true…these styles didn’t last long, but that’s what makes them so unique today.
Wonderful pages, indeed. Great cabinets shown here; also luscious light fixtures, as in lower left of Image 3. Love the color palettes of ’57 through ’65.
Too many curves and patterned fabrics for my taste, in general, but I love the cabinets and colors in Image 7 and Image 14-top–soft aqua-green and zingy yellow, so clean and fun!
And, by the way, Pam: Retrorenovation soothes what ails me on a DAILY basis!
I love having my senses stimulated and my nostalgia and creativity activated by your (and your vivacious intern’s) posts!
THANKS!!!!
Wonderful pics. Could look at them all day long!
Do the set designers from Mad Men ever contact you? Not that they don’t do their own research, but why would they? Everything you have here is so comprehensive!
What fun! I love those blues and greens. Some of those patterns are more than my mid-mod brain can deal with, I’m afraid.
What an absolute TREAT! Thanks for sharing. I love, love, love almost all of them.
Hurray for 1965–the year I was born! I think these interiors are absolutely stunning. I especially like all those hanging wall units–combinations of desks, bookshelves, entertainment centers. Anyone know where to find building plans for something like that?
Mitzi, I think all the old Popular Sciences and/or Popular Mechanix’ are online – I bet they would have some.
I could look at these forever. Don’t know if everyone has already enjoyed this HI-larious book. When it all started to go crazy… you can see that some of these rooms were already heading down this path:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/1400046408/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
Hi Devon, I’ll allow your comment BUT note, I don’t think 1970s interiors were hideous.
No…not at all. I’m a fan of your site, so of course see the fun and beauty in much of it! But the ones he features in his book and his comments are very entertaining! It’s a different take on the era… even the sears clothes catalog from ’73….
http://www.lileks.com/institute/sears1973/index.html
Devon- Every era has some spectacular and tragic fashion. What is good enters the mainstream and the bad falls away. Don’t believe everything you read: I saw many beautiful interiors in the 1970′s that could well hold their own today.
Gavin,
There was a famous interior designer of the early 1970′s whose name escapes me, but I’m sure you’ll remember, who painted rooms chocolate brown – ceiling and all. He was featured often in “Architectural Digest” back then, as I remember. This is my idea of an example of a 1970′s interior which would hold up well today.
Oh, the green, blue & yellow pallettes are just dreamy!!! Not all of the taste is my cup of tea, but it’s like every era, it’s always quite varied, otherwise how boring would it be if we were all the same!!! Thanks for sharing Pam
Love the pix, takes me right back to my pre-house and new house days. We shopped endlessly, of course couldn’t afford anything new. Our beautiful 1927 plaster walls were all white when we got the house and we painted them all bright colors with contrasting accents for the trim. “Psychedelic” said the old folks. Some of these colors are just about what we used, greens, yellows and blues, inspired by beautiful watercolor flower sheets that got made into curtains for the big front window.. The garage sale furniture was quietly unassuming next to our walls.
Interesting how the focal points of the living arrangements is NOT a TV.
Also… for anyone wanting to try the blue tones pictured, go easy folks. The back of one of my closets STILL casts a dark blue tinge from when my Uncle Mike painted his room with primary colors in 1966.