House Beautiful - Circa 1979

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

launderess

launderess

Well-known member
Platinum Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2004
Messages
20,655
Location
Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage
Enjoy!

https://archive.org/stream/housebeautiful121jannewy#page/n5/mode/2up

There was a time when every home of quality had House Beautiful lying about somewhere. Ladies (and some gentlemen) consulted this bible of decorating and household arts for everything from redoing the guest room, to planning out the garden.

Looking back can only wonder what Mother and some of her peers were thinking decorating wise. Watch lots of OTA broadcast of television series from the 1970's early 1980's so these interiors look so dated.
 
Oh the 70s

Were SO bad, How a country which had brought forth the wonderful modern designs of the 50s could get so tacky in only a few years!...My Mother and Aunts decorating was early American floral...EVERY damn thing had to have vines and flowers with green being the predominate color, My Aunts house STILL has lots of floral stuff, Their style is one reason I love what My Mom and her Sister called the tackiest of the tacky 50s design, Pink, turquoise , gold threads in fabric,blonde furniture and LOTS of chrome trim in the kitchen!
 
I Must Have Bad Taste

because I liked some of what I saw there! What I didn't like was the cluttered look of everything, and the way that so much patterned material made the rooms appear smaller. It seemed rather oppressive on a lot of it. And I never liked that Spanish provincial look. But I was reading Zen back then and my home was very 'Zen' as we put it. And all the cigarette ads! I smoked More cigarettes back then 'cause I was in college and they lasted so much longer than regular cigarettes. Of course, you could get a pneumothorax from having to suck so hard, but I guess that was part of the fun.

It's always been fun to laugh at prior decades and what was popular; remember all those damn shoulder pads in the 80's? Boy, future people will have a really good time laughing at us and all our thug/street/tough affectation.
 
This was a reaction to the modernism of the 50's, I can understand that. What I don't understand that it never went away. Still a lot of people like the 70's design including oak kitchens and lots of brown, brown, brown.

Thanks for sharing the links to the magazines. There is a whole lot of them in those archives.
 
memory joggers for sure

Thanks for posting those Laundress.
Plenty to admire, or not to. My parents had Pennsylvania House furniture.
Having been a young adult then, I got a lot of ideas from Architectural Digest, and H&G. Though I had a K Mart pocket book then, we learned how to not call the Decorating Den, and do it on a dime.
As we became more upwardly mobile, some dreams happened.
While no longer a fan of Herculon, never of oriental, I still have my Howard Miller Milano tall clock.
Traditional is always in style. The rest changes. Sometimes it comes back.
I still have my Crystal D'arques Longchamp crystal stem ware. It's from France, 24% lead. I don't have my Libbey bronze bamboo everyday glass ware.
Jeanette china and glass ware, long gone. Lee's carpet, long gone.
Food processors were a new trend.
The 60's were the wonder years. The 70's were refinements. I think the 80's became malaise.
 
While a lot of rooms -most - are what I'd call over done, this was a high end look and magazine.  What was the worst was the low end stuff.  All the frilly curtains, the Holly Hobby crap, dark dark wood looking plastic stuff and on and on.  The HB look was a bit much but the low end stuff is enough to make you retch.
 
Modern

My favorite will remain mid century modern, because it's what my family had, and my relatives had, when I was little. My parents had a pink sofa with little black knobbly things on it! Blonde oak all around, red linoleum kitchen counters, that speckled black linoleum in the dining room, etc.
 
A lot of the '76 magazine reminds me of the decor in my grandmas house, which had been last decorated some time in the early to mid 70s. More tasteful than the outright vomit we associate with the 70s, but to me most of it was still downright hideous...Like the translucent drop ceiling with the lights behind it in the kitchen, or the gold sofa and huge gaudy gold curtains in the living room. I was only really intrigued by the things that looked like takes on MCM.
 
One thing the 1976 issue proves

is that Philco-Ford was still in the appliance business. See page 27.

The ad also gives electric rates around the country, from 8.9 cents per kW/h in New York City to 2.9 cents in Sheridan, Wyoming.

This must have been the last gasp for Philco refrigerators, though.
 
I love old magazines

Mainly for the great ads. I have a few boxes of Life from the 60's, BH&G from the 50's (really great), and a few random titles from the 70's. I go through them every few years and can't seem to throw them out!
 
We go trough phases and also different countries take different approaches.
A lot of European 1970s stuff was quite modernist for example.

I quite like 70s design though. It sort of combines modern and natural and it wasn’t afraid to be really bold with colour.

The 1980s were very dull in comparison.
 
I worked in the library in highschool.  We had several bound volumes of old magazines from the 70's.  I'd sit in the back room on slow days and look at the ads from the year I was born - 1971.  I was amazed/amused that a brand new Mercedes was only $3995 back then!  My grandmother used to keep her old Sears catalogs.  I'd get tickled looking at the fashions that were popular, even though I can remember seeing them in person.
 
Here in Europe there has always been a strong modern stream in interior design. I bought magazines back then like the Dutch Eigen Huis & Interieur and the German Haus & Garten. Even in the dark brown period there were some lighter colours. Especially Scandinavian design was often lighter, you don't want to sit in a dark interior in the winter close to the north pole.
 
Launderess, you are an absolute genius. Thank you for posting this. Had never heard of magazine before. I wish I could jump in the TARDIS and go back to '79. Harvest gold and earth-tones forever!
 
Design Within Reach

For others who enjoy modern design, I'd suggest 'Design Within Reach' at www.dwr.com. They have truly beautiful modern furniture. It ain't cheap, but the few things I've bought there have been of high quality and certainly worth what I paid. The catalogue is just pure eye candy.
 
Did anyone notice?

Not a single minority pictured in all those 1970's HB magazines, well outside of a few adverts. Pearl Baily for Westinghouse Appliances for a start. If there was one, certainly missed it.

It is amazing how much things changed in forty years.

Cuisinart/food processors were all the rage in 1970's and 1980's; now does anyone bother? Sears of course was all over the place, including Kenmore sewing machine adverts. Guess if one couldn't afford a decorator you simply ran your own up.

Looking at all those HB magazines put one in mind of a famous song from a 1970's musical (Company), called "The Ladies Who Lunch".

When Joanne launches into her bitter drunken tirade against those "lounging in a caftan and planning a brunch...." it was the HB crowd she was going after. The women who spent vast sums of their husband's money turning their homes and gardens into calling cards. Trying to out do each other in the Bougainvillea or rose garden department. That and or giving intimate buffets or dinner parties for "tasteful friends".



[this post was last edited: 10/31/2017-15:12]
 
Cuisinart

My Cuisinart food processor is worth its weight in gold...their coffee makers, not so much. Something about them catching fire for no reason.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top