Retro Tuesday Goes Tumbling into the Fifties...
I love Retro Tuesday...
Every time I think I've exhausted my magazines
I find something new that interests me.
See this room?
(read on)
I really like it.
It's interesting to me. This house. It still has the geranium red that screams the forties.
Unmistakeably the forties.
And yet is seems to be moving quietly into the fifties... Seamlessly even.
I find something new that interests me.
See this room?
(read on)
I really like it.
The thing is, I'd kind of given up looking at the magazines from the forties. While I find them interesting for some things; I find the interiors clunky. It's not that I don't see the appeal, sorta... I guess, I don't know they don't have the atomic design I love about the fifties or modern quirk that morphed from that in the sixties...
And t's not that I don't like anything from before the fifties, Art Deco with it's feminine undulating lines and detail is fabulous. Leaves me breathless, even. But the forties leaves me flat.
And t's not that I don't like anything from before the fifties, Art Deco with it's feminine undulating lines and detail is fabulous. Leaves me breathless, even. But the forties leaves me flat.
So when I was going through a Good Housekeeping from 1949 and went, WHOA! Baby! I was kind of surprised. I was eyeballin' a decorating article about a 'mediocre house' ...they called it... and how a 'well-known' designer named Paul Mac Alister turned it fabulous (for himself) in Lake Bluff, Illinois.
Yeah, he did for real, but who the heck's Paul Mac Alister?
Well, he was the designer of that room....and boatloads more than that. He founded the Interior Design Institute national design awards program. He was one of the first designers to venture into television. He later served as a consultant and appeared frequently on the NBC Home Show.
And he lived in (of course) Lake Bluff, IL.
And he lived in (of course) Lake Bluff, IL.
Unmistakeably the forties.
And yet is seems to be moving quietly into the fifties... Seamlessly even.
This is so fifties, no?
I don't know if you've ever seen those gambling machines with the 'pushing' quarters? Where you shoot a quarter in and than it's pushed to an edge and there are like a jillion quarters all waiting to fall? And it seems like they are all just ready to go on the next quarter and so you keep feeding the thing quarters because you just 'know' the next quarter is going to sent a thousand of them over the edge?
Well, that's what this house looks like to me. It's like perched on the edge of the fifties waiting to fall over...
And listen, I almost never embed video but I found a clip of The NBC home show with Charles and Ray Eames on the The Home Show with Arlene Frances I couldn't resist...
And listen, I almost never embed video but I found a clip of The NBC home show with Charles and Ray Eames on the The Home Show with Arlene Frances I couldn't resist...
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8 People got a gold star today!:
You are so right! It's the perfect transition to the 50's!
Happy RT Tracy! :)
The furniture is incredible. I'll try to visit you next Retro Tuesday--camera's full of photos but the battery died, waaaah. But then EVERY day is Retro Day in my world, LOL!
Lovely!-I love the video (and how she had to adjust/carry the microphone cord ;)
I of course always enjoy your knowledge of retro things- I often think how you would love to take a tour of things around here (Tulsa) lots of Art Deco buildings and the 50's housing addition of Lortondale: http://www.lortondale.com/History/tabid/54/Default.aspx
-I even lived there for a little while as a small child :)
Vonlipi - Happy Retro Tuesday back atcha! Yours was better than mine! (I added a video since you saw mine and yours was still better!)
Christine - You can link to an old post if you want! But I hear you, retro day is every day around here too...lol
Mom May - I'll tell you something - well, two things... I go visit retro blogs and there are so many places in the country better suited for thing things I love than NJ, because there arent good finds around here. And not that much to see... And as far as knowledgeable. No way, I'm not at all, Im really just an observer who looks for information after something strikes my fancy!
Wish I was!
Tracy
It would have been nice if that video were in color.
Is that a floating shelf style console on the left in the top picture? I love that! I wish I could find something like that for myself, it's perfect for my living room. Very attractive room actually. Not my color palette, but it seems very put together but not at all "designed", you know? Excellent find!
I have to dig around and see what I've got for this week... will pop back over later with a link! :)
Dang, those folks are excited about chairs!
Hello Tracy
I love so much about the 50's..I especially like the Eames era furniture and the atomic designs printed on the Bark cloth fabrics during that time. I collect vintage bark cloth and have a few of the atomic fabrics.
Thanks for a great post! And thanks for stopping by my place for a visit!
♥ Love & Faerie Dust ♥
Stephanie
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