Tuesday Flashback Design: Sunny coral, green & yellow 50s kitchen

Isn’t this a happy Dream Kitchen?

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Illustrator Al Parker helped define 1950s domestic ideal

Yesterday my husband David and I went to see “Ephemeral Beauty: Al Parker and the American Women's Magazine, 1940-1960” ...

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My first: 'Flashback design tips'!

As a regular new feature, I'll be deconstructing vintage kitchens - usually from vintage ads. I think there's a lot to learn about design from these 50s examples -- given the era, people were obsessed with design so incredible thought went into it!

This kitchen is a favorite, and led to some of my kitchen's features. Let's get to it, starting from the left:

1. Notice how the stainless steel storage cube is built into the wall. You can see it to the right of the curtained window as well. Great use of recessed wall space, but don't overdo it or you could end up with a very cluttered feel.

2. The soffit comes out just a tad beyond the wall cabinet. This is helpful, too, if your room is not square. If you're wallpapering, the pattern should run level on the bottom of the soffit, not the top.

3. Really cool how they raised the soffit above the sink. It creates a nice cozy 'nook' feeling in this much-used work area and moreover, allows for maximum picture window space.

4. Classic window treatments: Pinch pleats over a blind. Embrace your inner traverse rod! Also notice how they've mixed patterns - the fabric drapes are a vertical stripe, contrasted with the geometric wallpaper. Fabric really softens the coldness of steel cabinets BTW.

5. Picture window sets as low as possible. You'll get water on it from the sink, but light reins.

6. Super cool windows below the wall cabinets - if you can do it!

7. Warning: These cabinets hang too low, given the cooking surface below.

8. Warning: Put your HVAC at ground level, not in the soffit.

9. Very nice how the soffit comes out with the oven unit. You can do this above a fridge, too, if you don't have cabinets that work. I did this above my Sub-Zero and it looks great.

10. And of course: The wallpaper treatment. You can see how this clearly adds a sense of height to what appears to be an 8.5' ceiling.

More great 50s style kitchens!

It's an abundance of kitchen designs this week! Starting soon I will be analyzing each kitchen and pointing out great design features and ideas to consider for your own 50s restoration!

What's not to like about these retro kitchens?

Come on, how can you not LOVE LOVE LOVE these kitchens?

In our collective American memory, we may think of 50s kitchens as kitschy -- and maybe that is one word you can use. But, in my view, these kitchens are full of great style... daring, exuberant and non-conformist. In addition, there's a lot we can learn from layout and use of materials in these designs - which benefited from learnings from time/motion and efficiency studies that went earlier in the decade and post-WWII, were being brought into the home.

An inspiration kitchen - the epitome of 50s style

In preparing to R&R the kitchen, I did tons of research. On eBay, I've bought many booklets from 50s-60s steel kitchen cabinets - and these have been great sources of design detail. Here's a photo that I particularly liked.

"The Bible" of 50s style and all things retro

My husband and I have found this book to be incomparable, in terms of generating ideas for every aspect of decorating our 1951 ranch. The interiors were all created by interior designers charged with selling Armstrong flooring. As such, they're "over decorated" -- but that's part of what makes this book so AWESOME. I've paged through it at least 1000 times, so far! It is well worth the cost.

Final note: You can see, I am not a midcentury modern snob. Sure, I like the expensive, renowned designer pieces. But only the rich lived like that. I love the eclectic mix - the fact that ambitious women were turning their creativity toward their home - and of course, the exuberance - of the period.