Oh Barbara... The cover alone was enough for me to pick this book up. Look at her. She's the epitome of decorator perfection right?
Barbara Taylor Bradford. The name might sound familiar. She's a pretty popular novelist who has penned titles that have become instant made-for-tv-movie-of-the-week, like
A Woman of Substance, and the 1992 classic,
To be the Best. But before all of the Hollywood glamour, back in the 60's, Barbara was an accomplished writer on decorating and interior design. She had an award winning column, "Designing Woman", which ran 3 times a week in 183 newspapers across America.
Easy Steps to Successful Decorating (1971) apparently was her third book on the subject.
Bookmarked, is an opportunity for ATLA and our readers to revisit some of the triumphs, follies and ideas from decor publications and books from the past. If you've got a great decor photo/image or design idea from an out-of-print source, please send it to la(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com, including the title and publication information.
As I mentioned, I was already sold just by the front cover. But flipping to the back, I swear I could have been looking at an inspiration page from
Domino, with the white laquered chair and yellow trellis print wallpaper! (Sorry, my copy was pretty thrashed) Inside, she breaks the book down into 12 chapters, ranging from How to Bring a Room Into Focus, to The Importance of Lighting. As with all dated and out of print decorating books, you have to look past much of the kitsch factor. If you can visually remove some of the weird tchotchkes that many of the rooms have, there's actually some great decor and color ideas that can easily be adapted to still look amazing today. The text portion has some good "evergreen" advice as well. Here are a few more of my favorite shots from the book:
You can still get the book
pretty cheap online (as low as a penny!?) Does anyone have any of
her other decorating books?
Cool, nice find. I don't think I have any of her decorating books but I do have several from roughly the same period as well as before and after, going back as far as 1965/66 with the Double Day book on decorating to roughly 1976 with the Better Homes and Garden's version in a 3 ring binder.
I tend to favor more of the modern interiors of that time period. So many are less fussy and such than their more traditional and country cousins tended to be. However, some of the color choices though. :-)
One combo I liked and still do to some degree is the royal/ultra marine blue paired with a bright kelly green
view ciddyguy's profile
That last picture looks like the Brady Bunch's den!
view MEP's profile
Don't you just love that sword within easy reach of little hands? (shudder!)
view boomer's profile
I tried submitting this but the AT:LA mailbox is full.
A great subject for a future post would be the movie "Forbidden Planet".
Made in 1956 it's a perfect peek into how mid-century-modern was used by period designers. The sets created for Dr Morbius' home are awesome.
I particularly liked the use of Sputnik lamps as *wall* fixtures. One scene shows two of them on either side of a doorway as accent lights. You never see them used that way today (I don't, anyway) so that was a nice treat. As was seeing very young Ann Francis in that hot 50's mini-skirt...
view boomer's profile