Today’s vintage 1960 catalog is a real treat — especially for those of us who love knotty pine. And even if you are not sure about the knotty, this 1960 look at “101 Home Ideas Featuring the 10 Fine Woods of the Western Pine Region” might update your view. For example, I have always considered knotty pine in terms of its Early American heritage…. something that today, we’d play up in a kitschy way. But take a look at the kitchen above: Knotty pine goes all mid century modern — and it looks pretty good! Check out this catalog — 24 pages — to see wood the way that homeowners saw it back in the day.
This Americana kitchen looks like it belongs in a Storybook Ranch house — look at the awesome built in controls for the stove top and the decorative scalloped trim on the counter edges and undersides of the upper cabinets. Dig the window treatments. Dig the wallpaper. Is that a built-in barbecue peeking at us over on the left? Is that a Lamb Chops cookie jar over on the right?
Here’s another view of the same kitchen, taking a look at the eat-in bar area. It combines knotty pine with stone to face the bar. The flooring (vintage Armstrong, wethinks) continues the stone motif throughout the kitchen, while the posts that hold up the interior awning coordinate with the captains chairs at the bar.
Above: A third photo of the same house — you can tell because the window treatments are carried room-to-room. This is a great design idea if your house is small and you want to unite adjacent living spaces; it also saves on agonizing decisions about often-expensive window treatments. We love this cafe curtain treatment, as well — a nice design idea if you want privacy and light at the same time. The curtains themselves are also beautifully designed — a little bit of color, but not so much as to draw too much attention… and the scalloped design where the cafes hook to the rod is a nice, subtle touch.
The kitchen above has a more modern looking pine design — the use of multi leveled counters with what must have been the most cutting edge custom, built-in appliances and lack of ornamentation make this kitchen feel more minimalistic than kitschy.
Does anyone else love the tea kettle pendant light in this kitchen as much as I do? And, laying the copper metal tiles on the diagonal is a lovely idea. Wallpaper: A small-print geometric, on the soffits, just like in Pam’s kitchen. These are nice design touches that adds a bit of fun to this otherwise straight forward utilitarian space.
Could this be? A pink vintage pine bathroom? Yes: The text says, “A gray-glazed pink enamel over clear grade ponderosa pine….” Yum. Terrific storage in this pine bathroom, too.
Here’s a bathroom with loads of personality. Scalloped edges are everywhere. White knobs pop off the wood, over exaggerated hinges line the doors — and those decorative fish tiles set into the backsplash — to die for. I also spy a Hall-Mack revolving toothbrush holder. This bathroom has it all.
More scalloped trim decorate the built-in light fixture and shelves in this mid century bathroom. It is nice to see the pine mixed with pastel and checkerboard in this space — which gives the bathroom a balance between a masculine and feminine feel. Interesting also is how things line up in this bathroom. The curtains meet the edge of the trim on the light, the tile backsplash runs all the way up to the underside of the shelf and mirror. These touches give the room a very intentional and finished feeling.
If it is possible to go overboard with knotty pine in a bathroom — this would be that bath. Knotty pine covers every surface — the walls, the counter top, the knobs, the medicine cabinets — heck, I think if it were possible, they might have used knotty pine sinks and toilets. Sound yucky? Don’t forget: It wasn’t until after World War II that many homes got indoor toilets. Before that, we had outhouses — wooden thrones. We love outhouse stories. Here’s our favorite: An outhouse named Sally.
Round rooms are always intriguing — but this one takes the cake with its radial pine domed ceiling, high shelf for knick knacks, flamboyant wallpaper, and paneling that follows the curve of the room. All with pretty modern looking furniture!
Surely it is not a normal thing to make a fireplace out of knotty pine — even the inside seems to be pine-lined. Huh?
This adorable vintage laundry room — love that washer/dryer combo — employs pine in the built-in cabinet that must conceal all the “un cute” items that belong in a laundry room.
The basement rec room — or in this case, workshop — is a place where we often see wood paneling in a mid century home.
Here an entire basement has been transformed into a fun and usable space with the help of Western Pine. Complete with a built-in bar, shelves and TV space, this is one terrific space.
Speaking of built-in television sets — here is another — this one presumably on the main floor of the house. In the days before flat screen TVs, this must have been an exciting space saver.
The catalog shows several finishes and effects that can be achieved using different pine species and glazes. Yellowstone appears to be the color most people think about when they imagine an knotty pine room. We *think* that Amber Shellac — still available today — is the classic finish.
To see all 24 pages of this fantastic catalog, view the slideshow below.
Thanks to the MBJ Collection via archive.org for making this catalog available via Creative Commons license.
Tips to view slide show: Click on first image… it will enlarge and you can also read my captions… move forward or back via arrows below the photo… you can start or stop at any image:
Jacquie Y says
Didn’t know so many of you were from PA, I grew up near Butler
Jacquie Y says
I’m sooo glad you started this part of the blog. This has been one of our favorite looks in any cozy home for such a long time. Glen and I always wanted to find a way to incorporate it into our decor, but the good stuff is hard to find and very expensive.
Patience always prevails…we were fortunate enough to see an ad on Craigslist for 20 -12 inch wide Pickwick panels salvaged from a 70+ year old home in Prescott, AZ. about a month ago. My husband is the greatest! He took his brother with him to load and bought it all.
I took a few out of the truck at a time, cleaned them, and did an amber shellac, and they look new. A few of the panels were a little damaged, so we have designed a way to get the most out of it and onto our dining room walls. There wasn’t enough to do full walls where we want it, so it will be cut to 5ft lengths, and put up from ceiling to the bottom of the dining room window.
We had to buy trim, and after many coats of the shellac, it will be a good match. The panels are hard heart pine…beautiful. So glad we could give it a new home. .. the installation will be done Saturday Oct. 11th..can’t wait!
I am envious of all the lovely homes with original pine decor, but now am happy to have the chance to use some that we “saved” . It looks so homey..will be a lovely addition to our dining room.
A sidenote*. I know you wanted a little more history of the pine, and I came across a website you might enjoy, and then can do a little more hunting from there. Southwest Forest Industries was a company in McNary AZ. You can find more info online about the company, I was reluctant to send all of it because it is subject to copyright, but I had to send this one on to you. If you enlarge the pictures of the black locomotives, you can see the Southwest logo..on several of my panels, the logo is very visible, and looks to be branded into the wood. So neat! http://www.rgusrail.com/azslm12.html. Hope this helps with a bit of the research! I’m sure you know how to work out the copyright thing if you would like to use the pictures on your blog at some point.
Thanks Pam and Kate for everything…you are the best. (Hope the recovery is going well Pam!)
Dana says
When we bought our 1956 split foyer home 12 years ago it still had the original knotty pine kitchen cabinets, albeit in very poor condition. When we renovated the kitchen we made the bad decision to replace them with modern maple. If I was doing the renovation today I’d have the original cabinets refinished. There’s nothing like knotty pine! On the plus side, I did have the sense to save our original pink tile bathroom, with frosted glass light fixtures.
Cheryl says
Wow! I’ve lived in my 1947 home for 30 years and have always wondered what color stain the original owners used on all the knotty pine. It is somewhat unique and not as beautiful as most, but we have grown to love it. Thanks to your post, I now know that the color is “Klickitat Cloud”! BTW—I always love your posts.
pam kueber says
Cool!
LauraRG says
Just a guess, but I bet that large cabinet in the laundry room photo is actually where laundry goes after it’s dropped down the chute. That set up is very similar to what was in the house I grew up in with a terrific KP family room (c. 1948)
tammyCA says
Coincidentally, last night I was browsing through a ’59 Better Homes/Garden magazine and recognized some of the same rooms featured above. 🙂
Susan c. says
I like the floating tea kettle. The diagonal copper metal tiles look have that quilted look. Love your website!
pam kueber says
Thank you, Susan!
J D Log says
My house has a fake wooden fireplace as well complete with electric heater and electric fibreglass glow logs it was strangley one of the 1st features which made me fell in love with the house.
The first house I owned had a knotty pine pine kitchen from the early 70’s with the brightest yellow formica so painted over it.
My father still has a knotty pineroom in his 70’s mission style house with a fake potbelly stove. I really do not like that stove and have offered to take it out for him so many times
tammyCA says
That little tip about putting metallic gold paint and wiping it off to get the golden effect is neat.
Of course, I love KP and scallopy trim…that lower scallop trim is on the original cabinets in the garage…but, they aren’t KP, maybe, Douglas Fir with lots of tree rings.
Recently, I found an old photo in my mom’s stuff of the only grandmotherly person I had, a wonderful neighbor & friend to us…and, the color photo was taken in our knotty pine kitchen in the ’50s.
Will KP ever return? It seems everybody on those ‘home wrecking’ shows despises it..along with anything with charm & color.
nina462 says
Thanks! I have the full knotty pine basement/bar combo that sold me on my house when I bought it. What’s a house without a bar in the basement ?
Thanks especially for the cafe curtains pictures. I’m always at a quandry on what type of curtains to put up since my dining room/living room is one big room with picture windows on both sides (yeah, you can look right through my house). I have drapes up now, but switch to swaggy shears in the summer. Maybe it’ll be cafe curtains this year –