1970s Decor (part 3 of 3)

Finally, the best part of the How To Make Your Windows Beautiful series is the pages of inspiring bedroom design ideas.

1. Luxury in Mustard Yellow


2. This one isn't too shocking. It is one of the many rooms in the book that looks like it's attempting to imitate the outdoors with green carpets and floral or botanical motifs.


3. This is the artsiest children's attic room I've ever seen! Unfortunately, the floor doesn't continue the pattern.


4. It's the coming of the Age of... Pattern!?


5. The top (left) room is a bit like a nightmare come to life. And more proof that yellow is great on the walls, ceiling, floor, bedspread, chair, and flowers!


6. A kind of sparse children's room. It looks like there's a full set of encyclopedias, though.


7. More colorful crimes


8. Certainly this is a room that no one could defend?


9. A hip way to deal with small spaces


10. The bottom two-bed room features 'hanging fabric panels under a boxed cornice-type valance to form ceiling-high "headboards!"'


11. Yikes.


12. The best thing about this room isn't the endless pattern but the odd poster hanging over the desk. I'm not sure if this is an adult or teen room. The poster and guitar case could suggest a teenager lives there, but the rest of the room doesn't seem to match.

Okay, that's it for this wonderful book. If only this book had thousands of pictures! I hope you enjoyed this stroll down designer memory lane!

1970s Decor (part 2 of 3)

More from the mesmerizing 1972 classic, How To Make Your Windows Beautiful. This set of pictures demonstrates the sophisticated way to decorate your dining rooms, kitchens, and other nooks.

1. Manor house elegance


2. This is what it would be like living inside a lemon and blueberry, respectively.


3. A very busy corner


4. A rustic dining room and two more blue and yellow rooms


5. You be the judge: a corner full of perkiness or a corner full of bad taste?


6. This room is kind of cute. Although, how many people actually have rooms that look like this?


7. I wonder if there are windows behind all of that curtain.


8. Bringing the outdoors inside. Who has shag carpet in that awful green anyway?


9. A classy little nook


10. The 70s were clearly all about patterns. Here is a bright pattern..


11. ..and a drab pattern.

1970s Decor (part 1 of 3)

I recently found a book so overwhelming, so life changing, and so loaded with full-color pictures that I'll have to devote three posts to its miraculous contents. Perhaps you're thinking that only a home decorating book from 1972 with almost 150 pictures could be that good. You'd be right! How To Make Your Windows Beautiful is an 'inspiring, all new guide for creating today's best window treatments.' Each picture, from the curtains to the furniture and other decorative pieces, offers an inspiring and awe-inspiring look at class and creativity in the 1970s. This first batch of pictures is predominantly living rooms, dens, and other designated lounging areas

1. The glowing front cover


2. A colorful introductory panel from the title page


3. An impressive start to the book, this room is meant to show off draperies with a stylish 'hand-woven look,' but the eye inevitably travels to the violent-hued carpet, the chic lucite furniture, and that fiber optic thing on the table.


4. The heading for this page claims that 'the best decorating is self-expression.' That surely doesn't reflect well on the designers.


5. Here the book discusses informality in room design. One definition of informality in decoration: 'A room where you can feel free to peel an orange.' I can't imagine this room achieved its purpose. Something about it is kind of disturbing. Plus, I don't see a trash receptacle for the orange peel.


6. Ornate, plush, and patterned


7. The lobby of a strange hotel


8. The main thing I notice about a lot of these settings is the mismatched furniture. The left side of the room (with the cool lucite items) doesn't go with the fancier chairs and coffee table on the right.


9. Astroturf makes great carpeting!


10. A modern minimalist look. This is probably the most stylish look in the book..


11. ..Unlike this picture. I think that's the family pet in front of the accident-waiting-to-happen coffee table.


12. 'Just a single "pow!" addition to a room can be the wonder-worker you're looking for'! The "pow!" addition to this room is a chain 'curtain,' apparently.


13. Finally, here is the Brady's den set up for a dinner party. Alice did a great job setting up those tiny tables!

Kraft Hostess Awards

In 1974, Kraft published a book featuring the winning parties from the annual Kraft Hostess Awards. The resulting book is as much party planning guide as it is cookbook, and no doubt it inspired great bashes in the mid-1970s.

1. What exactly were the Kraft Hostess Awards? Click on the picture above for the introduction from the book.


2. A picture of the Kraft National Hostess Award Winner of 1974. If you're looking to 'mix the hard work [of doing the layout and paste-up of your school newspaper] with fun and good food,' you might want to take a look at the menu of the winner's 'Paste-Up Party'!


3. A look at the 'Paste-Up Party' - Note the centerpiece made of newspaper flowers stuck in a typewriter.


4. 'Hang Ten'! This luau dinner party originated in Maryland, a state known for its great surfing. Nondescript squares of... cheese?


5. The 'Come To The Fair' party is a 'remedy for the middle-of-the-year-I'm-tired-of-school blahs,' as you would expect any party with Wiener-Go-Rounds would be. I really just like the plastic dinnerware, though. I especially love the salad server that is like a golden daisy. It's not only stylish, it's also utilitarian!


6. The craziest party of the 1970s was the 'Orchestration' party. Between the striped Harmony Salad and the Classical Casserole, this one had to be a Top Ten hit! More nice maize-colored dinnerware!


7. I didn't know that parties were held for threshing crews, but apparently in Minnesota there was once an 'Enough To Feed A Threshing Crew' party. It sounds pretty fancy with it's Twice-Baked Potatoes, Lawn Croquet, Fancy Lettuce Salad, and Handled Flatware.


8. And here we can confirm the formality of the 'Down On The Farm' soirée!


9. Eureeka, someone threw a 'Gold Rush of '73' party?! Well, how could you not strike it big with tin cups of Sluice Juice and a magestic Vein Of Gold (Baked Alaska)! This is, perhaps, the most creative, and the most unnecessary, party in the book!


10. The 'Annual Hobo Breakfast Gathering' - I think it's really nice that 'hungry-eyed' teenage hobos were thrown a party, but I think it's patronizing to mockingly dress up like the guests of honor in 'grubbies.' Moreover, why is almost half the menu Mexican? In retrospect, I think this is the most offensive party in the book!


11. Here's a photo of some of the hobo breakfast.


12. The 'Huck Finn Adventure Party' boasts the best looking food. The Congealed Salad is tops! This party is guaranteed to last until twilight!

Better Baking (1952)

Here is another old baking booklet from 1952. Better Baking was put together by the home economics department of Proctor & Gamble's Crisco, a canned vegetable shortening. The front cover shows lushly colored cookies and other baked goods. The insides are filled with charming, though odd, illustrations of women with no facial features, hobos, and anthropomorphic baking implements.

1. Front and back covers


2. Essentials of Better Baking


3. Baking Equipment - This is my favorite drawing from the book.


4. "Two-From-One" Yellow Cake - Odd illustration of a (mostly) bodiless and faceless woman.


5. How Does Your Cake Rate?


6. Cake Problems: Causes and Corrections


7. Pies - Soon to be stolen by this hobo!


8. Another mostly featureless woman peruses the entire collection of "Suggested Baking References for Class Assignments."