"How to Decorate Your Small Bath"

One of the lovely gifts that Santa left here when he called on his way back to the North Pole the other night is a set of bath linens for two in a shade that could probably best be described as a deep robin's egg blue. Happily, it matches the blue in my shower curtain to a tee. (Good job, Santa!) This is the first time in the three years that I've lived in this apartment that my bathroom has actually sported some hand towels. Let's hear it for meeting the very bottom-most standards of etiquette - no more asking my guests to dry their hands on a bath towel or wash cloth! So it's a start. And since I've been trapped at home nursing this cold for the last couple days I've had lots of time to look 'round and take stock of my bathroom decor. I clearly need some additional bath linens, but what more can I do to improve the look of my bathroom...

Where better to find some inspiration than the past? Here's an article called "How to Decorate Your Small Bath" which appeared in Wilmington, Delaware's Sunday Morning Star on September 5, 1948:

Small spaces require more care in their planning and decoration than large, and the bathroom is no exception to that rule.

Plenty of color may be fine in the rest of the home, but the bath should be kept simple and done in one or two carefully selected shades, says a Tile Council report.

Best idea, it suggests, is to plan the bathroom walls and floor as a background rather than as the dominant room element. Major color interest can come from towels, shower curtain and bath mat. A change of shade in these will give the effect of a redecorating job.

Gray-blues and blue-greens add to the apparent size of a room and are therefore particularly suited to the small bath. Red, red-orange and yellow-green are too intense and seem to hem in the room. Bathroom design can be kept simple by finishing the ceramic tile wainscot with a cap of the same color rather than black or a contrasting shade. This plan helps make the room appear larger and more restful, says the report.

Woodwork in the small bath should be painted the same color as the walls. If there is a window over the tub, its sill can be finished in the same color tile as the wainscot, thus fitting it into the color scheme and waterproofing it at the same time.

When two colors are used in the bath, the lighter should be for the walls and the darker for the floor. A dark floor seems more restful underfoot.

My bathroom at present is finished in three shades of what I like to call Apartment Beige. The paint on the walls and the tub/shower surround are finished in Apartment Beige No. 1 - a creamy, off-white color. The mottled beige vinyl flooring is accompanied by a vinyl toe kick in Apartment Beige No. 2 - a tan. The bathroom sink is laid in a countertop in Apartment Beige No. 3 - a grainy tan with a yellow undertone. (Those of you who have lived in rentals can probably relate to the feeling of being surrounded by beige!) There's not a whole lot I can do to remedy the beige situation, but it certainly works with the article's recommendation that I treat the bathroom walls and floor as a "background" rather than as a "dominant element." What woodwork there is in the bathroom is indeed painted the same beige as the walls, and the flooring is ever so slightly darker in color than the walls.



So I guess I'll need to rely on bath towels, shower curtain, and bath mat to supply my small bathroom with any "color interest." Popular towel colors during the 1940s were dusty rose, seafoam green, maize, wedgwood blue, coral, navy, white, yellow, peach, and jade green. Patterned towels were hot, as were striped towels, plaid towels, gingham towels, and towels finished with a different color hem. The towels Santa gave me are in just the kind of shade that is supposed to "add to the apparent size of a room" according to this article. My shower curtain is in good shape. It's an opaque white curtain covered with rows and rows of tiny ovals in robin's egg blue and pistachio green. (I have a small plastic wastebasket in that shade of green on the floor beside the sink.) If I could find more of these bath linens in the green shade or even in another contrasting color - maybe a raspberry or a rosy peach? --- all that's left would be a bathmat. I've avoided bathmats for years because they always seem to pick up every piece of hair or lint in the house, but it is awfully nice when I'm visiting someone else's house to step out of the shower onto a warm bathmat. Have any of you had luck with a particular type of bathmat that easy to keep vacuumed and hair-free?

I've also noticed that there are houseplants in most of the bathrooms featured in vintage ads. This may be just a whim of the part of the illustrator, but plants would probably give a bit of life to a bathroom without any windows. I'll have to find a variety that does well with humid air and no natural light. Any ideas?

Crushin'

My kitchen and I are becoming friends. I'd never have thought it possible. But as I hoisted my garbage can out from under the sink last Saturday and scrubbed it clean, it became clear that something's shifted in our relationship. I'm not afraid of my kitchen anymore.

Is it the fact that I'm actually learning how the things in my kitchen work? One Saturday, I was cleaning out one of my drawers and rolled the drawer out just a little too far in the process. The little wheel came off its track and, try as I might, I couldn't get it to roll back in properly. For about one minute, I thought I'd just have to leave it sagging there until the landlord could get to it. Something moved me, though, to pull the drawer all the way out, kneel down and poke my head in there so I could figure out how the other drawers operated. Lo and behold, I figured out exactly what I needed to do, and the drawer rolled back into place perfectly! And I had to do some investigating, but I was able to get my microwave functioning again, too.

Maybe it's just the fact that I'm spending so much darn time in there cooking. No longer is my visit to the kitchen just the booty call it takes to reheat a frozen pizza. I'm right in there washing, chopping, peeling, grating, mixing, kneading... doing the stuff it takes to make this relationship work. (I'm not sure I like where this metaphor is going!) I'm not always successful in the kitchen, but I'll not make the same mistake too many times. And all this one-on-one time has really made me notice things I never noticed before. Like that my kitchen sink has a brand name etched into it. Who knew? It's a Kingsford II.

And let's face it, we women like a kitchen that's a little rough around the edges and needs some taming. I've been putting my Saturday cleanings to good use by reorganizing things to make my storage space more efficient. Breakfast cereals are now stored together instead of being mashed into whichever cupboard would have 'em. Likewise with baking staples, canned goods, and dishes that don't get everyday use. Just last weekend, I cleaned out that mysterious fourth drawer I'd forgotten about and put it to use holding my aluminum foil, plastic wrap, freezer bags, cheesecloth, and extra sponges.

Henry Humphrey, the editor of Woman's Home Companion Household Book (1948), tells us that beauty trumps even efficiency when it comes to the kitchen. It is vital that a room in which the average homemaker spends more than four hours per day sustain her spirit with vibrant colors, contrasts in texture, and cheery novelty motifs. Some of his advice is surprisingly practical advice, however. Here are some of my favorites:

• Good kitchen color schemes are bright. Since there is generally so much white in the kitchen (sink, stove and refrigerator), it is advisable to stay away from white walls unless the room must have them to reflect light.



• There are many styles from which to choose when decorating a kitchen. Early American, French Provincial, Mexican, South American, Swedish, Polish, Pennsylvania Dutch all have been used successfully. You may add to the list indefinitely, but your kitchen will be much nicer if you pick a style before beginning to re-decorate.



• Wallpaper is a charming finish for the breakfast nook. It offers both texture contrast and eye-interest as a relief from the smooth kitchen walls. Wallpaper also relieves the feeling that meals are eaten in the kitchen, and gives the effect of a separate room.



• Never hang curtains on a window over or near a stove.



• Breakfast nook windows should be treated in accordance with the view outside. If... nothing can be seen but ash cans, a blank brick wall or your neighbor's kitchen windows, Venetian blinds with a fluffy valance and short window sill-length draperies will make your breakfasts pleasanter and more private.



• In the interest of safety and cleanliness, carpets and rugs of any kind should never be used in the working area of the kitchen.

Humphrey suggests several color schemes for the kitchen, each of them grounded in either a dark colored linoleum or wood floor. Which scheme is your favorite?

lemon-yellow/turquoise
pale turquoise/cherry
yellow/shrimp
apricot/pale green
chartreuse/sea-green
lavender/deep blue-violet

Housework and Childcare

The last few days have been frazzled ones. My niece (I'll call her Kitten) has been sick with a virus since the day her mother left. Poor thing! My brother-in-law and I took her to the emergency room last night as we were getting really worried about dehydration, but the doctor told us she was in good shape and the virus would just have to run its course. We just have to keep finding creative ways to get her to drink, drink, drink. And with a toddler - even with a low energy level - the last thing they want to do is be in the dreaded bed, so she's still up and about. I've been trying to find lots of quiet things we can do indoors. Just this morning, I'm starting to feel a little peaked, so I'm afraid I've caught the virus myself and won't be of much help in a day or two.

The first evening I was there, Kitten was still feeling pretty good. As I tried to wash up the dinner dishes while she was playing in the living room, I couldn't help thinking about housework as it relates to childcare. Mothers of small children really have to be quite creative and flexible in order to get anything done. It seems to be all about corraling them where you can watch them long enough to do a few dishes here, a load of laundry there. Naptime or bedtime seems like it would be a great time to get things done, but Kitten's nursery is on the same floor as the kitchen and living room, so I don't want to make too much noise until she's sound asleep. (It'll sound too much like there's some party she's missing!) Besides, I found myself taking a nap at naptime yesterday.

The manual mentions children frequently. The authors recognized how important it was in designing or redesigning work spaces that mothers be able to keep an eye on their children at all times. "One end of the kitchen, away from dangerous areas near the range, can sometimes be reserved for play space." Here, a "low cupboard" could be set aside for toys or "cooking equipment" with which children might safely play. They encouraged mothers to find housekeeping tasks that children could help with even when it made the job a bit longer:

Small children are always intrigued by the work that is done in the kitchen. Almost invariably they want to "help," and if this urge is understood and valued, the children will find tremendous satisfaction in cooperative work, besides feeling "wanted," which is important to happy family relationships. Then, too, the educational value of guided cooperative work is an important factor in child training.

The laundry room is also a space where mothers had to spend a significant amount of time before the process was better automated. An "enclosed play space" was recommended for this room so that babies and toddlers could amuse themselves under Mother's watchful eye. Older children could play outdoors, but a window should look out on the yard so that Mother could keep an eye on them, too.

A whole chapter is dedicated to furnishing rooms for children - from nurseries for infants to rooms for adolescents. The authors of the manual advise their readers, though, that children should spend most of their time with the family. By the 1940s, the age of nannies and governesses was long gone in the U. S., and mothers were expected to be the primary caregivers for their youngest children. Living rooms should also contain "child centers":

"A table, chairs, and shelves for toys and games can be assembled inexpensively..."

Here, on my own child-less home front, I've been getting along pretty smoothly. I moved Thursday's cleaning-of-the-bedroom to Friday evening. It occurred to me while dusting that it's no coincidence the manual instructs the housewife to dust everything before vacuuming. All that dust that's been building up on surfaces high and low should be lightly settled on the carpet before it's vacuumed. I also realized that my dust rag didn't get near as dirty this week as it did last week. If you're dusting your bedrooms every week, your cleaning materials will be easier to wash themselves.

I didn't plan my morning very wisely yesterday and ran out of time before making my bed. When I got home from the hospital, I was feeling so blue I skipped the evening routine entirely, but I wasn't too blue to notice how much it crapped to be climbing into an unmade bed. It's amazing how quickly I've become accustomed to that little luxury!

The Business Center

One of the things I love about the manual and lots of vintage women's magazines, cookbooks, etc. is that they give total props to the work of housewives as a profession. They get it. They get that these women spent seven days a week on the job. And we all need a corner office - or even just a corner of an office - to call our own. In this case, it makes perfect sense to locate the housewife's "business center" in the kitchen. It's the place where she spends hour after hour preparing and cleaning up after meals. It's the place many a housewife stores the tools and solutions needed for cleaning the rest of the house. The first stop when she gets home from doing her marketing and sometimes even the place where she does the wash and the ironing:

The kitchen is one logical location for the homemaker's "office," which need not occupy much space if it is well planned.

Every homemaker needs a desk of some description, where accounts can be kept, shopping lists made out, recipes copied and quiet planning accomplished. Files of bills and receipts, manufacturers' direction booklets, guarantees, etc., should be located here, as well as reference books on homemaking problems.

A calendar is a necessity in this business center, and a small radio and extension telephone might well be part of the equipment. A bulletin board to keep the family posted as to each person's whereabouts, to hold reminders for the forgetful ones, to hold order lists, and to give news of general interest, may be hung on the wall.

Where should I make a little "business center" for my new job at home? I don't have a whole lot of room in this one-bedroom apartment, so I think I'll let my kitchen table do double duty - actually it's triple duty now since that's where I'm doing my ironing! There's a tall cabinet just a couple steps away from the table which has been serving as kind of a catch-all for me, but I'm going to clean it out a bit and clear off one shelf for just the kinds of things the authors of the manual describe: my cookbooks, my recipe file, the operating guides for some of my small kitchen appliances. I've already got a radio on the table and a magnetic notepad on the fridge where I keep track of the groceries and supplies I need to pick up next time I'm out. Now that I know that the drawer under my range doesn't have a broiler inside, I'm going to use that space to store some of the pots and pans I'm not using every day.

I made the Broiled Grapefruit again this morning with just a sprinkling of brown sugar. It was a little better, but I'd certainly rather just have it fresh from the icebox. It's hard to improve on Mother Nature in this case! Humble Labor made a great point though in her comment to my blog two days ago. A warm fruit dish is very fitting for chilly winter mornings.

"To make you look your prettiest at bedtime..."

Colored sheets were apparently one of the hottest new trends in home decor during the late 1940s. Pepperell Manufacturing Company published a little booklet called Sheets and Blankets: A Housekeeping Guide in 1948 with tips on everything from making beds to finding the color in bed linens that was most flattering to you. Which color would you have purchased?

To make you look your prettiest at bedtime, choose a tint to set off your own coloring. Golden blondes look lovelier still against a background of peachbloom, maize or ashes of roses; brunettes are more glamorous when their dark beauty is set off by maize or aqua; auburn hair is ravishing on a background of cool aqua; while hyacinth blue is becoming to everyone...

Use a tint to match your blankets. Or a color that will combine prettily - maize sheets turned down over green blankets, rose over blue, and so on. At the same time, carry out the decor of your bedroom by choosing sheets that match or contrast smartly with draperies, wallpaper and other furnishings.

The Streamlined Bed

I've found another cereal that ranks right up there for me with Wheatena. Weetabix. At least when it's prepared with heated milk to make Weetabix Hot. Here's my 1945 breakfast menu for the day:

Mixed Fruit Juices (combined leftovers with lemon juice)

Cooked Whole-wheat Cereal

Since I hit the grocery store yesterday, I had three different kinds of fruit juices to mix together. And what thrifty '40s housewife wouldn't love a chance to get rid of the dregs of juice still remaining in several bottles? It's killer to get that fridge space back. Especially if you're headed out to do your marketing later that day. My glass of Mixed Fruit Juices was made up from equal parts orange juice, pineapple juice (should have stopped here), and tomato juice. With a squeeze of lemon which - perhaps not surprisingly - did nothing to improve the taste of the concoction. It was edible, but that's all.

I also picked up some Weetabix yesterday and found a recipe online for Weetabix Hot. It's a Whole-wheat Cereal, so I thought it would fit the bill nicely... unfortunately, it tasted like cereal that was already partially digested. Happily, I've just learned that Weetabix wasn't introduced to U.S. markets until 1968, so it's well past my timeframe. I think I'll try this stuff cold next time a Prepared Cereal is on the menu and see if it's a little more palatable.

Today was Day Three of bedmaking-by-the-book. Because of the warm weather in this corner of the world, I don't keep much in the way of covers on my bed: a fitted sheet, a flat sheet, a thin quilt, and a throw blanket. So making my bed doesn't take nearly as long as it must have for somebody following the instructions in the manual. The authors expected their readers to have two sheets (bottom and top), at least two blankets, a third sheet or blanket cover, and a bedspread. The blankets and blanket cover were all expected to be tucked in at the foot of the bed with mitered corners. It was even suggested that the bedspread have mitered corners if it wasn't already a fitted piece. A streamlined bed, I guess you could say. A design choice right in keeping with some of the latest architecture, vehicles, dinnerware, and clothing.

One of the questions I had early on during this experiment came up when I read the list of bed linens recommended for the new bride in a 1941 etiquette book. The author mentioned a "night spread" and, just now, I found a reference online at the website for Pioneer Linens, a company established in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1912:

Blanket covers are traditionally called a night spread, and used to decorate the bed when the bedspread is removed... Blanket covers are light in weight and can be finished in a pique, seersucker, and matelasse or percale... Use over a thermal weave blanket for added warmth during the winter months.

I had no idea! So it sounds like bedspreads were not used during the night - just folded down to the foot of the bed. The blanket cover and top sheet, which could both be more easily washed, protected heavy woolen "winter blankets" and fancy bedspreads alike from wear or soiling.