Mid Century Modern MCM Wall Decorations

Hi folks,

happy new year for you all, hope nobody is freezing over there!?

While I hear it is a little chilly on the east coast right now, we have the pleasure
of a very early spring this year with modest temperatures, which help us with
the renovation of a nice little MCM family home, we were finally able to aquire.

As I am browsing through the materials and color palette, that were originally
used during the time (early 60ies) I am stuck with the wallpapers.

At the moment we have still some wild decors going on, which I feel are too much
for the small bedrooms.
Example:

The large living and dining space in contrast has the walls covered with “ingrain
wallpaper” which is a simple “hide any defect” solution to revert everything back
to plain white.

Example:

It is period correct for Germany, but my wife absolutely hates it and with some
reason.

Question: What type of wallpaper, decoration or plaster would have been used in
the US for a “white wall”?

Example:

I googled for some Images but nothing is showing the walls in detail or high resolution.
So I am calling the Core77 guys for help.

Thanks

mo-i

Period correct for US architecture I would say would be either just standard paint finish (no texture), or possibly grasscloth, though not white. Wallpapers of the MCM era would be more geometric, metallic or pastel colors. The illustrative one you have posted would be much earlier, possibly 30’s-40’s.

R

Thanks for your reply,

We have grasscloth in the hallway, but it has some sunbleaches.
Want to find a way to deal with that as well.

Can one clean or paint it? Otherwise Ill need to find a
70ies painting going over it,

mo-i


You can paint over grasscloth. Wouldn’t originally have been painted, but I’ve seen it done before. If it’s old, it also can be kinda dusty.

Other materials look more 80s to me (flower print). I’d ditch those.

R

I love seeing these photos. Why haven’t we had a thread posting random photos of our houses yet?

Why haven’t we had a thread posting random photos of our houses yet?

Oooo oo o, I likey. I’ll only need a few weeks to dig out the family room.

The 1949 vintage tract home I grew up in was standard issue gypsum dry wall, with wall paper. Eventually the walls were stripped of the paper and simply painted. The original pecan floors, however, were always my favorite part of the house (why they were installed in a tract home I’ll never understand, but ours was not the only one with them). Eventually they succumbed to wall-to-wall carpet. When I was selling the house, after they had passed on, I had the w-t-w carpet yanked out, reconditioned the hardwood, and went with area rugs.

This very much looks like it came from the interior of my Great Aunt’s home; built in 1936.

What are you trying to achieve? If it’s “flat” walls it’s labor intensive since most walls really aren’t flat. Have you considered the various “knock-down” and other similar textures?

Thanks, Lew for the warning. I already sanded down and replastered the walls of a rented appartement at the
time. After that I got my dad to hire a contractor to smoothen out the walls in a flat he was renting out. He still
complains to me about the cost of that measure. (Well, I was a design student back then.)

Now I know, that I do not have the time to redo the walls myself and not the deep pockets to get it nicely done
in the whole house. Maybe I’ll have a contractor do the big wall in the living space and will do the childrens rooms
myself. They are toddlers. They’ll use crayons on a 2K wallcovering…

mo-i

Maybe I’ll have a contractor do the big wall in the living space and will do the childrens rooms
myself. They are toddlers. They’ll use crayons on a 2K wallcovering…

Easy, peasy mo-i!!!

Chalk Board Paint!!! :wink: