Mid Century Modern Decorating and Kitchen Ideas from May 1961

 "Good News in home furnishings"... in the Family Circle magazine of  May 1961 looked like this:

 Left: "Designer Allan Gould's space-problem solution--a storage system with supporting poles (some wired for lighting fixtures), shelves, cabinets, hi-fi and-turntable unit, stereo speakers, record rack, magazine rack, and dining table.'

Top Right:" Lawrence Peabody designs a modern bedroom that's easy to live in. It features a tilt-for-reading headboard, a night table (with a plastic-surface drop-down door that's big enough for a breakfast tray), a plastic-upholstered bench, a wicker chair with zip-off cushion covers."

Lower Right: "Industrial designer Walter P. Baermann's revolutionary concept for the production of living-room furniture uses one-piece molded seating frames with polyurethane cushioning. This brings you sofas for under $200 and chairs for under $100, with zip-off upholstery for redecoration, for replacement, of for seasonal changes."

An easy 'queen bed' was to have one headboard with twin beds.

 Kitchen Ideas To Adopt or Adapt

"A cutting board bolted to a shallow cabinet built next to a range extends the cook's work surface a much-needed two feet. Closet holds supplies for which there was no wall-cabinet space, since windows line wall opposite the range in this tiny L-shaped kitchen."

I note the copper pan, turquoise coffee pot and salad bowls, and the pink stove top.(In 1978 our parsonage had a pink refrigerator that was replaced after it broke down twice!)

"Colors in this kitchen--white, pink, orange, and brick red--blend with those in family room beyond. White of cabinets reappears in floor of family room; orange walls are picked up in counters; appliances' pink is repeated in family room curtains."

The corner sink gives me shudders, since we lived with one! It was quite small and next to the dish washer and stove. It was a one-cook kitchen.

Lower Left: "This well-equipped kitchen mixing center serves also as a planning desk, a snack bar, and a place to display decorative and useful antique containers and jars. Metal inserts in drawer next to mixer hold flour and sugar. Mixer swings into cabinet when not in use."

Upper Right kitchen is in seven colors and has mahogany cabinets!

I had no idea that kitchen had drawers for dishes back in then.

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Guide to Traditional Decorating, 1962 style

The March 1962 Family Circle magazine offered ideas for decorating in the 'traditional' style that the women in my family favored. I think that the cover of this magazine influenced Mom's decoration of the dining room of the house we moved into in 1963.

Mom chose a blue and white wall paper with a repeated eagle motif  and outfitted the hutch with blue flow plates from her great-grandparents. She had Dad install a chair rail and painted the wall beneath it blue. Mom had a braided rug too, just like in this picture.

 I loved that room.

Mom's hutch with the blue flow in my home.

Another dining room idea offered in the article was more elegant and traditional and less colonial.

 Living room ideas included this wild gingham check motif! Love those toile' fabrics.

The couch and chair and even the tables look similar to what I grew up with. We even had a white painted fireplace for a while.

This more elegant room has drapes similar to ones Mom had in the later 60s, a Jacobean influence. I always loved the camel back rolled arms sofas and owned one for many years.

 We have had wing chairs for many years. Again red and blue but with a deeper red, paler blue and creamy beige.

Bedroom ideas in red, white and blue

My mom bought Family Circle and Women's Day at the grocery store, and would get me a Golden Book. She once said that had she had her health and worked she thought she would like to have been an interior decorator.