Saturday, September 4, 2010

Vintage Sherwin Williams Decorating Guides

I scored a huge box of vintage decorating magazines from the 60's and 70's at a sale - talk about vintage geek heaven! There is a ton of goodness up at auction right now - click on over to check them all out...

My favorites are the Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore decorating guides - it's all about the color with these paint people, you know. I wish I had time to scan every page, but of course I didn't, I just had to hit the highlights (click to enlarge):


The 1001 Decorating Ideas magazines I got along with these I listed in lots of 10 - there is some good stuff inside them, but mostly in the Early American style - which apparently was super popular, but for whatever reason isn't so popular with us retro lovers today. There is this gem inside one:


With this to go with it:

Some of the magazines I got I kept, with the high hopes of scanning in the best bits and pieces for the blog. Here's hoping I manage it at some point this decade! ;)

10 comments:

Small Town Boy said...

Nice find!

Frenchee le Trip said...

What a score! I love this. Wouldn't it be amazing if they actually repainted that living room for the photos? (As opposed to scanning in another wall color...)

Thanks for the post - very fun to perouse the pix.

Amber Von Felts said...

Thanks for the scans! I have seen those sheets in thrift stores. Must've been a popular print. I love those old design guides. Some of the stuff holds up, some of it is silly now a days, but its all great!

Tera said...

Enviable score for sure :> Thanks for sharing!

Tera said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

What an amazing find! Thank you for including scans of a few pages. It was fun to see the unique designs that aren't as popular today.
I can imagine how wonderful the rest of the pages inside the magazines look. Scherwin Williams still has great variety of color for paint but the focus of selecting the "right" color for certain rooms was evidently huge in the American culture during the 60s and 70s. I think this has a lot to do with the emphasis of family and creating that perfect American home, it was a time of economic affluence. It was also a time when bedrooms were being broken into parts of the home where certain activities took place because American's began to own more space. Home appliances were also making the home a funner place during this time.
These pictures really want to make me redesign my apartment.

Video Zeta One said...

Amazing find! Loved it. Thanks for taking the time to scan this.

Home Builder Melbourne said...

Amazing scans! All the homes featured on the magazines seemed to be very well-built by amazing home builders!

Tatieva said...

So pretty...
I love colors, all colors !
Ca met du soleil dans son quotidien !
Kisses from France,
Tatieva, artiste

melina bee said...

so jealous of these beautiful images! I would happily occupy any of those rooms.