Posts Tagged ‘The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement’
It’s Spring, Let’s Go Outside!
Saturday, April 11th, 2009
These are all, as usual, from The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement, Greystone Press, 1970. I love the photo of the little garden house with the abstract geometric painting, above, and the book actually includes plans for it (click at bottom). One of the things that is so great about 1960s and 70s decor books is that many of the best ideas come with DIY instructions or are just simple to make, like the cedar privacy wall below.
“A screen is often more than a screen. When properly designed and placed, it can become an important part of the design of a home – as illustrated convincingly here. This rather Oriental redwood-slat screen acts as a noise-and-weather baffle and masks a view of neighboring houses. The screen solves several problems unobtrusively because it has been planned to blend with the character and construction of the house it serves.”
Bicycle wheel potato chip cart! Happy Spring.
1960s DIY projects – geometric wall treatment, vertical lanterns
Monday, January 12th, 2009
Here are two quite beautiful DIY projects from the 60s, both found in The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement, Greystone Press, 1970. Most of what we found in there was quite kitschy, but these two ideas seemed particularly striking. The instructions are a little minimal, but a pair of fairly handy people could probably figure them out. Caption for the white relief wall treatment above: ”Cover a wall with lattice molding. Between two 1×2s, space as many strips of lath as you need and nail them in place. Cut a diagonal strip at top and a circle in the middle. Nail and cement the lath to the wall, but slightly offset the sections. Paint the entire surface in flat white.”
This lamp is attractive, and with the new LED Christmas light strings, it would be easy to make without threat of burning the rice paper. These lampshades are cheap to buy, but the effect when they’re strung together is more than the sum of its parts. “Paper lampshades come in a multitude of shapes and sizes – here we have a cylinder, an oblate spheroid, and globes in three sizes. This cheap but glamorous installation was made by sewing the shades together with wire wrapped around the wood frames. Illumination is provided by a Christmas tree light string carrying small frosted bulbs of low wattage.”
Still life with stereo and ketchup
Saturday, January 10th, 2009
A ketchup bottle on the stereo speaker really completes a pad. In the Sixties, it’s a new kind of baroque. Ketchup aside, the wall-mounted amp is genius, and the wall painted in four colour blocks is great. Photo is from The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement, Greystone Press, 1970. Click here to see the whole page with original caption. This set of encyclopedias is an incredible source for retro DIY ideas and often far-fetched photos that we haven’t seen anywhere else. It’s part of Sarah’s most excellent collection of retro decor books. You can get a whole set of these encyclopedias for yourself on abebooks.
