Displaying posts labeled "Vintage"

From dining rooms to family rooms. That’s Volume 7 of The Practical Encycylcopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement. Along the way there are dishwashers, dividers, dressing rooms, eclectic style and exercise rooms. So much retro goodness. So many reminders that it is good to move on (or run away screaming). I love the pink dressing room. Curly cane… yum. The shag pile stairs however remind me how much I hate housework. Thank goodness that one has passed… for now. Images scanned from The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement, Vol 7 DIN to FAM, Greystone Press, New York, 1970.

Don’t let these scans fool you. If you ever come across a copy of Unique Home Improvements run. Run fast. Do not look. The vast majority of this English publication is horrid. Think wall to wall bathroom carpet, tapestry chairs and shag pile, multiple platform levels lying in wait from unsuspecting punters, acres of knotty pine and brick and wallpaper covering everything from pipes to light switches. These are the few images that didn’t terrify me. You have been warned! Unique Home Improvements, edited by Harry Butler, Golden Hands Books, Marshall Cavendish, London and New York, 1975 run

The early 70s what a wonderful time for interior design! I’d love to say that that’s a photo of me above but my room back then was nowhere near as groovy. I must be getting old though because I need to turn the volume down on the colours on most of these. Thoughts please on the built in tiled toilet and Mr Super Smooth. Today’s scans from Golden Homemakers 100 Ideas to Beautify Your Home, Gudenian Rockail & Mayer, Marshall Cavendish, London, 1972.

Vintage jars as lights? I’ve seen that lately in several eco chic shops. Grain sacks and feed bags? Nothing new obviously… except that they must now be European linen or burlap. Large fiddle leaf figs in the corner of a designer room feature regularly in a well known American shelter mag. Definite déjà vu. Personal wish list includes that loft with those Italian leather chairs but no need for the jumpsuit or the platforms (or her guest). As for our gentleman friend perched on his bed, I’m still chuckling over the inappropriateness of several props. The 70s obviously had no problems with an overflowing ashtray and cigarette packet. So much so that there is a torn open carton of cigarettes in the corner shelf. Don’t get me started on the series of “bottoms” crawling across a bachelor pad bedroom wall and his skyscraper phallic t-shirt or maybe I’m reading too much into it 😛 I will however take ownership of his typewriter. Once again scans from The Apartment Book, by the editors of Apartment Life magazine, Meredith Corporation, 1980.

Knotty pine bookcases and water plants in bottles? Check! Sheep skins on  carpet? Check! Cactus western print fabric and obligatory director’s chair? Check! Bad hair cut? Check! Corduroy shirt over check shirt, desert boots and hot whisky with lemon and cinnamon sticks? Check-a-rooney! Pipe and book. Must be the 70s! Could this guy be any more cool? (You don’t have to answer. And is it my imagination or does he look like Seinfeld?) If he has kept up the pipe smoking since the photo was taken he’s probably dead by now. Just goes to show that everything retro isn’t good! Scans from The Apartment Book, by the editors of Apartment Life magazine, Meredith Corporation, 1980.