Vintage Decorating for Children's Rooms - 1971

I have been working on sorting books over the last week or so - 99% of them were kids books, but a few other random ones were mixed in (no surprise there). One of them is a little booklet called Decorating Your Child's Room from The DoubleDay Home Decorating Program, circa 1971. It's a winner, so I have to share!

The scans are a little small, since it is more of a booklet rather than a full sized book, but I hope you can get the general idea...

First up we have a little boy's room. I kind of dig the beds and dresser, and even the numbers, but the whales have me totally confused. As far as the colors go, the book says, and I quote: "Make sure to select a color scheme (like avocado green and blue) that is easy for lots of people to live with for a long time to come."

Really. Really?

Here is a lovely yellow and green girl's room - another stunning use of avocado green! The trundle bed is kinda cool, in fact the author of this book seems to LOVE trundle beds. Wicker furniture is also prominent, for some reason...

I find the flooring especially interesting - "Note that the gay design is carried out in the easy-care, easy-to-apply hard surface flooring." It looks cool, but man, if little Suzie falls out of bed, she is going to get one good conk on the noggin!

Now here is a color combo that I actually really love, bright red and baby blue. I also really love that wallpaper! But, I think the carpet is a bit much, and the soldier is a tad on the creepy side. The bed unit is pretty awesome, and for some reason the pillow with the red square in the middle leaning against the polka dot wallpaper makes me happy...

A girl's room, of course. You can tell by the pink telephone, if the stuffed leopard (?!?) wasn't enough of a clue. Again we have wicker furniture, and crazy wallpaper. And a super fuzzy rug - at least Suzie won't hurt her head falling out of this bed!

I think it is interesting that the books on the shelf that don't match the color scheme are wrapped in paper so that they will... I like the idea in theory, but the idea of wrapping all of my books is pretty overwhelming!

I think the rule for designing boy's rooms in 1971 was use primary colors, and large letters and numbers. And they weren't allowed to have pillows, apparently. I love the lamps in this room though!

Hopefully, this is designed for a teenage girl - I can't see little Suzie enjoying a fake zebra skin tacked on her wall. Well, I guess I can't really see *anyone* enjoying a fake zebra skin tacked to their wall. And what is that head on the shelf under the window? Creepy. I do like the bedspread, and how the shade over the window matches.

Here is another room that has more of a teenage feel to it. I love the desk and chairs under the window, and the bedspread is kind of cool. Taking it all the way to the ceiling behind the bed is a bit much. Again we have a wicker chair - was wicker really all the rage in the early 70's?

Last but not least, we have this pink monstrosity. The only thing I kind of like about it are the shelves on either side of the vanity. The rest just hurts. And why hang modern art on the walls only to surround it with such an over the top floral pattern? I just don't get it.

I wish there was more, but most of the photos in the book are too small to scan in well, or are in black and white. Still, a fun little look into 1971!