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through-a-historic-lens

Ava Gardner At Age 15 In 1937

fawnvelveteen

David Jagger, Portrait of a Woman, 1945.

magnatoneman

glacenoire

Since this is basically a powder room, lets go bijou. Jewelry box it is.

There was a coral pink that was popular in the 1930′s and 1940′s, and since the bathroom is going to be dark wood and smoky mirror, I think the coral color will balance that out and make it a little more luxurious.

1. Remove the small wall mirror and change out the modern taps for 1930′s taps.

2. Dark wood wainscoting on all three walls up to the bottom of the window, topped with single panel smoky mirrors on the right and left walls.

3. The back wall is going to have filigree wood panels on either side of the window. On the right side the wood panel will overlap the window glass by about 2 inches to make the window appear centered on the wall. The panels will need to be applied in three strips on each side so you can open the window.

4. Paint the wall, the window ledges, and about 2 inches of the window glass on the right a dull copper that will show slightly through the perforations on the wood. Make the bathroom window to have the same proportions as the tall thin kitchen window.

5. In the 1930′s it was very elegant to have ‘shrimp-colored glass curtains’, or as we would say today, coral sheers. I want a pull-shade made from coral sheer material, and for the heavier outer pull-shade I want a coral brocade with a richly carved coral colored jade medallion on the end of the pull cord.

6. We’ll have to box in the base of the sink with perforated wood panels, and hang a small copper rack on the left wall near the sink for hand towels.

7. Since this is a powder room, lets carpet it wall to wall with extremely plush coral carpet that looks like it was cut from an expensive Chinese rug.

8. For the shower to the right, a shower curtain made from the same coral brocade as the blind. And it should be quite flat to the wall as a split panel, not billowy like a curtain.

glacenoire

Walking into this tiny kitchen should be like walking inside a cherry or a raspberry.

1. Remove the chrome fixtures, the stove, refrigerator, and flooring.

2. Replace the 1970′s brown counter tile with original 1930′s tile in white and burgundy.

3. Raspberry Marmoleum floor, slightly darker raspberry walls.

4. Underneath the circular light, a small wall shelf with a chartreuse pottery pot with sweet potato vines for the contrasting focal point.

5. Place a low and narrow dark wood cabinet where the stove and refrigerator used to be, with a bar refrigerator and a hot plate inside. Very simple, like the cabinet shown above, but much wider.

6. There appears to be a strange, long recessed shelf that runs the length of the kitchen near the ceiling. That could be the most interesting part of the room - lets put some sliding wooden filigree panels up there. Something like the top panels of the Chinese screen - dense, with small perforations and mother of pearl inlay.

You should walk in there and be startled. But in a good way.

glacenoire

There was a High Tower studio apartment available a few years ago, and I really wanted to decorate it in that 1940′s bachelor pad/blackmail opium den style from The Big Sleep.

In the movie an innocuous stockbroker Tudor house is fitted out as a den of iniquity on the inside.

This apartment is ocean liner moderne, so why not do the same thing and fill it with unexpected chinoiserie? The lower level would have one of those low beds and a cocktail cabinet, the little upper level would have one of those big 1940′s radio/record player consoles.

That terrace with its lovely view makes this little place the perfect seduction pad.