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Home / The Museum of Mid Century Material Culture / time capsule homes

1960 Houston time capsule house — Foil wallpaper galore, you know I luv it

pam kueber - August 21, 2012, Updated: August 13, 2021

foil mylar wallpaper on the ceilingtime capsule tuesday on retro renovationI bumble bumble don’t even know how to start. The bedrooms and bathrooms in this 1960 Houston time capsule house — are just blowing my mind. All the glorious, mirrored vintage wallpaper — covering the walls, covering the ceilings… accented with glamorous lighting, raised platform beds, smoked plexiglass screens, yadda yadda yadda sing: We got the funk, we gotta have that funk…”. Thanks to reader JamieAbe for tipping us off to this beautiful home — gold star! And thanks to real estate agent Linda Scarborough for permission to feature these photos — I am showing 9 11 fabulous photos in all, prepare your eyeballs –>

mylar wallpaper on the walls and ceiling of a bedroom

Above: You know I adore the wallpaper, along with the overall layout of the room — amazing. I am thinking those are vinyl parquet floor tiles, though. Not so much likey if they are vinyl, but if I bought this house and they were in fabulous shape, I would probably keep them. I certainly like the look. Much of the parquet flooring in old houses was real, 3/4″ thick wood, cut special to make a parquet design. I have it my dining room. At the time, it was more expensive than tongue-in-groove oak laid the regular way.

House details: 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2928 s.f., on the market for $450,000. Right now the listing says “option pending”.

mylar wallpaper on the walls and ceiling of a bedroom

Fantastic colors. Love the green. You know, there is a lot of vintage carpet h*** bombs being thrown around these days, I think. If it’s in great shape, I say clean it and keep it. In particular, I love carpet in a bedroom and in a family room.

mylar wallpaper on the walls and ceiling of a bedroomIt’s impossible to choose a favorite, because there seem to be new delights behind every bedroom door. This vintage foil wallpaper design is just wonderful…

mylar wallpaper on the walls and ceiling of a bedroomSauna alert!

mylar wallpaper on the walls and ceiling of a bedroomI am not a huge fan of fiberglass shower inserts. But I would keep this. Super cool. Update: I super duper wooper agree with reader/commenter Patty who wants to see the faucet handles. I have just added close ups from two bathrooms, there seem to be two different designs:

vintage bathroom faucet glass handles
glass lever faucet handle bathroom Focus on the bathroom faucet handles — glass or crystal or maybe plastic, each bathroom looks to have a slightly different design

Yes YEs YES!

beautiful vintage bathroomOkay, so now I’m gonna say I like this one the best. French Provincial cabinetry… meets crazy foil wallpaper… my oh my. Note: There is a Joan Rivers video from her 1960s talk show in which she talks about this foil wallpaper, calling it “the new look” or something like that. It was ALL THE RAGE. I gotta go find that episode.

Yes, there is an outside the house. And a kitchen, too. The kitchen seems lovely, but a much more sedate, newer wallpaper there. I would love to see photos from the 60s – I bet there was mod wallpaper in the kitchen, too.

This house overall: YOWZA, Fantastic in so many ways!

What do you think?
Could you live with all this foil wallpaper?
P.S. Even if your answer is “no”, please express your opinion in a nice way, let’s spread luv 🙂

(That is: I’m moderating downers, so phrase it happy-like even this ain’t your cuppa.)
Link luv:

  • The listing (property now sold) — shows “pending option” right now.
  • Linda Scarborough, of the Reyna Group.

CATEGORIES:
The Museum of Mid Century Material Culture time capsule homes

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91 comments

Comments

  1. Madeline says

    January 22, 2017 at 9:45 am

    Those faucets look a bit like these… http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Mid-Century-Artistic-Brass-Co-Vintage-Chrome-Bath-Faucet-Orange-Ball-Handles-/161953700818?hash=item25b5315bd2:g:tS0AAOSwwbdWH9~Q

    • pam kueber says

      January 22, 2017 at 9:52 am

      Woah – fantastic!

  2. Carrie says

    September 2, 2015 at 10:24 pm

    I am in love with every detail! If I lived here I’d never want to leave! I’d just drift from room to room every day wearing my long satin housecoat and maribou slippers congratulating myself on my good fortune <3

    • Denise says

      December 29, 2016 at 2:48 pm

      Dear Carrie,

      I just recently purchased a home in Las Vegas, Nevada that looks very similar to this. All foil wallpaper, vintage wall hangings, antique lowboy Kohler toilets, tubs and sinks!! It is wild and we LOVE it!!

      Denise

      • pam kueber says

        January 3, 2017 at 8:01 am

        Woot! Lucky you! Do you know how expensive vintage foil wallpaper is today! It’s soooooooo expensive…. sooooooo desirable! Congrats!

  3. Emily says

    July 17, 2015 at 12:47 am

    I am in love with that green room! Amazing.

  4. Mary says

    June 8, 2014 at 3:49 pm

    The house I currently live in had one room, the den, that had foil wallpaper when we moved in. It had 3 different styles, and colors, in this one room. I felt ill every time I looked at that room until the day we removed the paper. Today the walls in the den are stark white and I like the room now.
    I have to say this about foil wallpaper…”what were they thinking when they developed this stuff?”
    I can see using it on hue ceiling in your kitchen if you wanted to mimic the old metal ceilings in stores of yesteryear. I still frequent businesses that have those wonderful ceilings.
    But walls, in your home??????? Ehhhhhhh……..
    Not my taste at all.
    Sorry.

    • pam kueber says

      June 8, 2014 at 7:23 pm

      I ADORE IT – to each their own!

  5. Jeanne says

    March 4, 2014 at 3:22 pm

    I could lie with all of this forever. Love the foil.

  6. Tammy says

    March 4, 2014 at 10:27 am

    Personally, I love it. I wouldn’t want to live with it every day, but I love the over-the-topness of the whole thing. My grandmother had foil wallpaper in her beauty shop in the early 70s and I remember loving it as a kid.

    On a side note: I just learned a friend of mine bought a house and destroyed the fantastic pink bathroom. I’m seriously reconsidering our friendship! 🙂

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