Category: Queensland State Archives’ Photostream About Fortitude Valley

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Ideas For Decor

If you have a collection of small objets d’art, snuffboxes, etc., group them all on a table covered with a Victorian velvet cloth, falling to the floor and heavily fringed. (The velvet protects the objects from breaking or getting swept off the table.)

Combine different styles of furniture by upholstering them all in the same coloured fabric. Get interest in this scheme by using different textured fabrics of the one shade.

You can make furniture “vanish” in a small room by matching it to the carpet.

In a small house or flat it is often better to use the main colour throughout several rooms to give continuity and make the rooms seem larger – carpets, walls, and curtains in the same colour, or in varying shades of the same colour.

Important to remember: The window wall of a room is the darkest, but you can offset this

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

The 1950s kitchen

Although the kitchen was commonly situated at the back of the house, it became a central part of home life in the post-war period.

The 1950s kitchen was invariably U-shaped and it was where the housewife spent much of her time. She had all the latest appliances, from a mixmaster for baking to the latest bubble fridge.

Decor was a whirl of pastels and florals.

Motto: Match your apron to the wallpaper.

Description source:
www.realestate.com.au

View the original image at Queensland State Archives:
Digital Image ID 9987

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Attractive interior for home ‘needn’t be dear’

An attractive interior need be no more costly than an ugly one, says Mrs. Merci Jeffery.

Mrs. Jeffery, who advises on interior decoration, specially curtains, for a city store, has made a study of the subject in England, America, and Australia.

She is particularly interested in helping young couples with limited money for furnishing. She gives the following pointers to interior decorating in a small home:-

Stick to a basic colour scheme throughout, introducing stronger, or varied accents in different rooms. This applies particularly to floor coverings and walls, which should be harmonious when seen through open doors. Interior woodwork should match walls.

Make long, narrow rooms more symmetrical by painting the narrow walls a darker shade than the others. A fire-place at the narrow end, flanked by bookshelves, also has a broadening effect.

Base the room’s color scheme on a favourite picture or

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

A Dining Nook In My Living Room

More than half the population of this country eats today without the benefit of a separate dining room.

I do, as the towering costs of building and the saving of every inch of house space have contributed to the disappearance of the dining room.

Recently I planned a corner dining alcove and am delighted with it. Would you like to share the idea with me?

And if you have a growing family to be considered, there is nothing so useful as a big spreading steady table always ready for use.

Now for the plan – I took the corner of the kitchen with the window space and made a window box for outside the window. This facing south, flowers bloom well in the summer-time.

On the floor of that corner I placed a sisal mat. Seating space under the window and one wall was

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

How You Can Make The Best Of Your Bedroom

Exciting designs and colors are out of place in the sleeping room, where the effect should be restful. In the small home of today while individuality should be a feature of each bedroom, there should be overall harmony, otherwise the effect will be unpleasant when all doors are open.

Color note of paint and floor covering in one room might match the hangings in another – in some respect there should be, is possible, an overall color scheme.

Room which gets the morning sunshine may be decorated in cooler colors than that which gets its sunshine late in the day.

A room with little natural light must be decorated and furnished in light colors which will reflect what light does enter it.

Most important piece of furniture in this room is the bed, and the very best should be bought with

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Light And Colour

Decorating the Home Interior

(By P. R. Thoms).
Do you feel that there is something just not quite right with the interior decoration scheme in your lounge? Has the main bedroom become rather “bitty” – a bit of this and a bit of that – with no overall plan?

Nearly everyone can answer yes to these two questions, and formerly most people would have been thrown on their own resources if they sought to remedy the condition, but to-day there is in Brisbane an attractive young woman who has at her finger-tips ides, plans, chintzes, handblocked linens, carpets, etc., and is just itching to aid people – particularly countrywomen – to make their homes both liveable and lovely.

Gabrielle Livingston, a charming young Melbournian who came to Brisbane to start her own interior decoration business, has very definite ideas on the subject.

“People in Queensland are in their

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

All-Purpose Living Room

What do you require of a living-room? For present purposes it has to serve all those activities which were at one time spread over drawing-room, library, sewing-room, card-room, and games-room.

Living room planning should recognise the fact that we can no longer afford to set aside a great area for the sole purpose of feeding, and that we want this space to be so related to the living room that we can more easily use it for living room activities when necessary – as for entertaining.

This list of activities can be divided into furnishing groups. Conversation needs the main lounge group of furniture, which will also be the reading group. It can be divided into at least two portions in any room: (1) round the fire; (2) at the window for the view; or (1) with its back to the light for reading and

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

50’s

As Australia becomes more prosperous, home ownership rates soar. Simultaneously, the world sees a higher production of plastics and composites which become a fixture in contemporary interior design. Welcome to the decade of lino, melamine and brightly-coloured feature walls!

Description source:
Budget Direct

View the original image at Queensland State Archives:
Digital Image ID 16346

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Decor Depends Upon You

That word-of-the-moment, decor, should not frighten any woman who wants to furnish her home with individuality. A successful home depends not so much on any current trend, any decorator’s dream of decor, as on an artistic balance in furnishings and furniture. Your decor depends upon you.

Old furniture – for example, those pieces of cedar or walnut which are now so precious, but which a few years ago were in the discard – is not incompatible with modern streamlined furniture provided that the pieces in both styles are selected carefully. Many of these old pieces have great charm and decorative possibilities.

…
Women who have little knowledge of furniture periods and styles would find it an interesting study to help them to select furniture for their homes with greater taste. Modern production methods put good furniture within the reach of everybody, but unfortunately not all

See Full Post >>

Queensland State Archives posted a photo:

Road Safety Council “Results Disappointing”

Brisbane: “Despite the good work the Road Safety Council had already done the results are disappointing,” said Mr. Wood (Lab., North Toowoomba) in Parliament yesterday when speaking on the Transport Department’s estimates.

Mr. Wood said that the Road Safety Council should look for new methods of impressing on the public the danger of road accidents. In 1948-49 130 people were killed on Queensland roads. In 1949-50 the figure had risen to 143. It appeared that many people could learn the principle of road safety only the hard way.

“It is really tragic to see the number of lives lost each year when a little care would have avoided the accidents,” added Mr. Wood.

Descriptions source:
Warwick Daily News, 22 November 1950

View the original image at Queensland State Archives:
Digital Image ID 17631

See Full Post >>