I 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 –>
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”.
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.
It’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…
Sauna alert!
I 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:
Focus on the bathroom faucet handles — glass or crystal or maybe plastic, each bathroom looks to have a slightly different designYes YEs YES!
Okay, 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.
Ann B says
I remember wallpaper like that. My folks had some in a foyer. Can’t say I’d want it but these pictures give me hope for my bathrooms. And the six panel doors!! I’d wanted to get rid of mine because they aren’t original but darn if others can have them, I’ll just change up the hardware on mine.
Kathy Shaffer says
I’m so glad I found this page! I am fixing up a former home before I move back in. I purchased the house from the original owners in 1985 and they built it in 1960. Tenants have done a number on the bathroom, and I had decided to give up on it and tear down the pink ceramic tile. The previous owners had also trimmed with dove gray ceramic tiles and the tub and commode were the same gray. All accessories were chrome.
Well, the tub and commode have to go, but I was just in the decision process when I came in here today. I had not seen the little pink ceramic floor tiles before. I love shabby chic, so I have decided to look for the additional tiles and go retro with a shabby twist!
Oh, and did I tell you that they had foil wallpaper in there when I bought the place? It was on the upper third of the walls and on the ceiling as well. It was one of my favorite things about the house! It had a silver background, and the very showy flowers were in shades of pink and rose red. The vanity top was pink. And…the base cabinet was exactly as above in the pic…French provincial!! So the bathroom was overall shades of pink and gray or silver. It was gorgeous…and will be again!
pam kueber says
Yay. Welcome, Kathy. For replacement tiles, see all our research in Bathrooms/Tile category.
EJ Birch says
My dad was an interior designer and I grew up in the 70s so oy, do I know foil wallpaper! Had many books covered in the samples. Nice memories, thanks.
Zoe says
Can’t believe I missed this post the first time around. So much awesomeness in one house! I would never do this to a house, but if I found a house in this condition, YES, I would at least try to keep it this way. It would be great as a second house! Not sure I would be able to leave it all as is if I was going to live in this house day in and day out. But awesome as a wallpaper museum!
Leanne says
Love it! Not sure I could live with it, but it is super kool!
Kathy says
Did we notice the sconces in the bathroom? How unusual! I say that these people MUST have been in the wallpapering business to 1. AFFORD all that foil paper, & 2. Have hired a pro to hang that stuff-because there is NO room for error with foil…it shows EVERYthing behind it. What an amazing place though. Wow.
Rachel Zabar says
who makes these wallpapers and where can i get some? this is UNREAL! maybe one of my favorite posts of all time! thank you thank you!!
John says
PS one more thing..I agree with Dee..I think vintage foil is attractive in a bathroom or powder room but it’s odd to see it in bedrooms! My parents had a beautiful, sedate deep turquoise foil with aqua bamboo overlay in our 1963 house in the half bath. They installed it in the half bath in 1966. It was complimented by a Roman mini tile aqua and white floor and white sink with white Formica and embedded gold fleck cabinet. It was sedate and elegant because it was a small room. Large rooms like bedrooms or family rooms have too much wall space to use large patterned papers on all the walls which would most people vertigo!
John says
The foil wallpapers in this house are definitely 1970s. I worked in the D&D building in NYC and when Decorator’s Walk was moving out of the building in the early 2000’s they gave me volumes of their discontinued wallpaper books from the 1970s (still have them). All of their 1970s wallpaper books featured foil designs and most were of the scale in the home in this article. My parents put up some foil and flocked with foil wallpaper in our 1963 house in 1966 but the scale was smaller and the designs were not as large and few were the graphic stylized geometrics as 1970s foil. Foil had a great following in the 1970s because it paired very well with all of the modern polished stainless steel furniture so popular in the early 1970s. I agree that by around 1980 foil wallpaper was becoming a thing of the past (although I still love it). The 1980s was the beginning of boring in interiors and when 80s interiors were not boring they were horrible shades of mauve and forest green (think of those ugly 1980s JC Penny comforter and sheet sets in Victorian patterns of mauve mixed with forest green…yuck). Long live the 1960s and 1970s..I lived it, I loved it and I stil do!
Carrie McNeese says
I would not have thought I would like this much foil paper, but I do! I think it looks great and it really goes with the house. I especially like the bathrooms– I think the wallpaper makes the bathrooms.