Retro Renovation» 1941

60-page vintage Sherwin-Williams paint and style guide

pam kueber — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:01:31 +0000

Flickr friend Java1888 is just the best. He found a 1941 paint brochure — 60 pages long — from Sherwin-Williams, and has posted the whole thing on his flickr photostream. These kinds are guides are treasure troves of inspiration about how to decorate historic homes. In this case, you can get lots of ideas for paint colors for a 1930s or 1940s house — including interior paint color schemes and decor, and exterior paint color combinations and landscaping, too. To get to Java’s lineup, click directly on either the large photo or the thumbnail — then go to the 60-item set in the right-hand column. Many thanks, J!

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The 1941 Cessna Family Car of the Air

pam kueber — Tue, 19 May 2009 07:59:23 +0000

It’s a bird… it’s a plane… no, it’s Mrs. America in her flying car. Seems that in 1941-1942 Cessna had a plan to build the Cessna Family Car of the Air after the war ended. Wonder what happened… guess the Flubber didn’t work out after all.

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Vintage 1941 Montgomery Ward metal kitchen cabinets

pam kueber — Sat, 09 May 2009 08:00:16 +0000

VINTAGE EYE CANDY today — a complete catalog of steel kitchen cabinets from Montgomery Ward, circa 1941. You can see from this brochure, how much simpler kitchens were in the pre-war era. Of course, we were still in recovery from the Great Depression. Even a kitchen like this — which would seem so basic today — would have been immensely luxurious in 1941.

Here we see again, how an average housewife of the era may only have been able to afford and purchase the sink cabinet alone, with its porcelain-enamel-on-cast-iron drainboard sink-top… While the catalog is presumably about the full range of cabinets, it is principally marketing the “Modern Cabinet Sink.” This would be the first piece a homemaker would buy — she would then integrate this into her farmhouse kitchen – which may have had homemade wood cabinets or not, or into her apartment kitchen to replace the old wall-hung kitchen sink. She could buy the rest of the pieces later. What a move forward: Built-ins, made in a material, steel, that was “vermin-free.” Oh, also notice the stainless steel drainboard sink on p. 4 – a look you can replicate with Elkay aluminum drainboard sinks today.

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