What are the key elements of 1940s interior design? What colors, designs, patterns and “feel” did we generally see? And why? To my mind, based on the advertising illustrations and magazine articles that I’ve seen from the period, typical designs from the immediate postwar 1940s – say, starting with 1946 – through to about 1953, had this variety of characteristics: innocent, sentimental, sunny, sanitary, patriotic, traditional, Hollywood glamour, and carryover streamline-deco-jazz age from the prewar period. Special thanks to: Bradbury & Bradbury, which made this slide for me. It also showcases one of their 1940s reproduction wallpapers. Heck yeah there is more →

Do any longtime readers remember the time I featured 70 pink kitchens during a weeklong spree? There is getting to be so much on the blog… in my upcoming update you’ll get improved navigation to make it easier to get at all the juicy retro bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms, exteriors… all of it.

Let me take you on a little stroll though kitchen design history from the 1930s though the 1950s — with this terrific series of images from Kohler. Vicki Hafenstein of the media relations team at Kohler is really helpful and responsive, and quickly supplied these vintage kitchen photos and illustrations to help with the etsy.com video. She is also hunting some pink bathroom illustrations for my talk in Charlotte. I really appreciate your help, Vicki!  I also wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Kohler makes two hudee-rimmed porcelain-on-cast-iron sinks still available today — they would be my top choices for a Retro Renovation kitchen. Oh, and have I ever mentioned that when I found my 67 vintage Geneva steel kitchen cabinets, the former cooking-school set also came with four vintage, 42″ wide, double-bowl, hudee-ringed Kohler sinks? One is now installed in my kitchen. Heck yeah there is more →

This is a terrific 1956 kitchen that shows the continuing popularity of Early American design, but with modern touches…  “coolonial.” The Early American design is visible enough — the copper pots and ironstone, the cast-iron trivets and the cabinetry, the simple and patriotic paint scheme, the forefather portrait, the scallops and the captain’s chair. Heck yeah there is more →

Welcome to 1952. A few years ago I read the terrific book Populuxe, Thomas Hine’s look at American popular culture and design spanning 1953-1963. These were the years of amazing exuberance that we remember as “the fifties.” 1946 to 1952, on the other hand, were kind of the “end of the 1940s” as the country climbed back to normality following World War II. It took time to launch new designs, so home interiors still had a kind of old-fashioned 1930s0 / 1940s streamline look for a while. Here’s a little survey — 20 images of basements, living rooms, kitchens and bathrooms from 1952 that show the changeover in progress. Mouse over the photos to see the products being advertised. Oh, and I just bought another Hine book, The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager. In 1952, as evidenced in the ad above, I think he would say they were still on the rise.
Heck yeah there is more →