These illustrations from the National Plan Service courtesy Indiana Coal & Lumber companay are idealistic – picture perfect – to be sure. Even so, they all include great little ideas to scrutinize and consider replicating in our own little jewel box 40s 50s and 60s ranches, colonials, capes, splits and contemporaries.

Some tips from this model:

• Color scheme – I personally am a huge fan of gold as a paint color for ranch homes.
• Cupola – a great great addition to a postwar ranch, cape or colonial
• Lots of cool ironwork – connected to lighting
• Note the mix of horizontal and vertical wood, stone, and fretwork above the picture window
• The glass block wondow near the little pine tree, and the window on the green mudroom door are delightful
• Ooooh, and look at the planter with horizontal, minimalistic trellis.

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A classic colonial 50s home

A little two-story colonial action from my stash of dream homes, courtesy the Indiana Coal and Lumber Co. and National Plan Service. Isn’t this dreamy?

As we’re looking at these, notice the little design touches to emulate. Here: Green roof with green/grey shutters… the light above the garage – (we know where to buy this)… the ornamental iron work holding up the porch… the mixture of vertical wood, horizontal wood and brick… the way the fence meets with the hedge and the house…the two decorative corbels connecting the first story of the house to the second story… the upstairs pull-shades and curtains perfectly matched for curb appeal… the decorative bathroom window visible within the porch… the scrolled trim above the garage door… in fact, this two story colonial has a bit of storybook ranch going on!

Click the ‘tag’ below to see the whole series.

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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.

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This year I was really fortunate to nab a real treasure –an expansive portfolio of 1950 home plans, from the Indiana Lumber and Coal Company. It is a big, wonderful binder – 18″ x 24″ – with 37 large watercolor prints of home plans for sale from the National Plan Service, Inc.  It appears that potential homebuyers would come into the store and look through this binder. Or even more likely – considering the minimal wear, they ordered a copy of their own and spent time with it at home. It must have been expensive, though – the binder is in full color and huge. From what I can tell googling around, the NPS was a prolific distributor of house plans in the postwar era, although I can’t find any mention of them still existing today.

Over time, I will feature all of these homes. They are just stunningly beautiful. So full of hope and appreciation and simple amazement for this thing – a new house. In addition, the watercolors showcase lots of design details that we all love to scrutinize and potentially apply to our own retro renovation projects.

Which one to start with? At first, I thought, a tiny house. Because back then, that was enough. Plenty. Then, I saw this image. Dad’s come home.

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