Ruffles and Pleats

27 Jan 2006 

I bought a curious book at a thrift shop yesterday. It is the 1954 edition of Ladies' Home Journal: Book of Interior Decoration by Elizabeth T. Halsey. It's a large book, similar in size to what Life and Look magazines used to be.

When I opened the book and looked through the pages, I knew I had to buy it and preserve it as a historic document. The photographs give me a sense of déjà vu. Specifically, the book reminded me of a childhood visit to the Arthur and Mary Mallory home, somewhere in Iowa, in the late 1950s.

The Mallory Brothers (I think they were Arthur and Dwight) raised and sold Black Angus breeding stock. We were at their Iowa farm to buy bulls, and we spent the night with Arthur and Mary-- a most uncomfortable night, in my opinion. Mary Mallory's home seemed so elegant to me, a country child, that I was afraid to speak beyond a whisper. It was not a place where I felt I could relax. If Mary had ever had children, her house showed no sign of it.

The photographs in this LHJ decorating book are a visit to Mary Mallory's house, all over again. The slipcovered armchairs are color coordinated to the floor-length pinch-pleated draperies. Ruffled bedskirts match the ruffled pillowcases, and the bedspreads match the ruffled skirts of the vanity tables. The floors are carpeted wall-to-wall. If anything is homemade, it is the lace tablecloth on the dining room table. There's not a quilt or ragrug in sight.

I don't know the name of this decor style, but it wasn't the "mid-century modern," streamlined look that's often associated with the 1950s. This country child would still feel uncomfortable in it.