1950s Life in a Yellow House

Meet  Joyce and Edward  Smith 

and their little daughter Sydney.

 

They live in this big yellow house.

 

Their house has six rooms....living, dining and kitchen

 on the first floor and two bedrooms and a bath upstairs.

What's Edward doing? 

"Damn! It's 1950. 

When are they going to invent a remote control for TVs?

 Tired of getting up to change the channel."

"Yes, Sydney, you may go outside to ride your tricycle."

         

"Hmmn. Five years old and still having to ride a tricycle.

 I want a  Schwinn Sting-Ray bike with a banana seat! 

Will Schwinn never get around to making them?"   

"Hmmn. Fridge is empty. Tony, Andy and Stan 

haven't been born yet, so there is no way 

I can order from DoorDash tonight."

Maybe I will just sit here and drink my wine. 

Damn, I opened the wrong bottle."

"Joyce, I need a pillow for under my head....and also a refill!"

"Well, Mom and Dad may be lost in the fifties, but I am not!"

I have my Hello Kitty bedroom furniture.....

....and my Princess telephone!"

This model #541 Keystone dollhouse 

was shown in a Keystone brochure in 1950.

The living room is furnished with Stombecker furniture.

The modern design of the sofa and chair first appeared  

in 1938 in brown, and later in blue  as part of  their 1942 Deluxe line. 

The sofa and chair were described as being 

finished in "Dubonnet Izarine similated upholstery". 

The secretary is part of Strombecker's Custom-Built Line from 1937-38. 

The lamp and modern coffee table were introduced in 1938, the TV in 1955. The round end table was part of Strombecker's  " 3/4" Scale Playhouse with Furniture" from 1942, but not part of any known set.

The dining room is also furnished with Strombecker.

 This 1" scale modern dining room is from Strombecker's 1938 production line. The top drawer on the buffet opens. The additional pieces in the set included a tea wagon, a bowl and two candles.  I didn't read that information before I decorated or I would have added candlesticks....

but there was absolutely no room for a tea wagon.

Keystone changed the construction of their houses around 1950 

by putting the frame inside of the house. 

This change made the end rooms narrow for placing furniture.  

The "breakfast bar" in the kitchen was created by removing

 one side of the platform feet of a  1931 living room central table.  

The stove, sink and fridge are  part of the Modern style kitchen produced in 1938. The chairs are from the same set but were orange; 

I painted them red to match the breakfast bar.

Bedroom furniture is Strombecker from different years of production.   

The beds, chest of drawers, dresser and opening bench are part of the 1936 DeLuxe Bed Room. The night stand and vanity bench came with the 1938 Modern Furniture bedroom. The lamp with the yellow shade was produced in 1942 

and the lamps on the dresser in 1934.

 

This is a Hello Kitty bedroom set made by Sanrio.

I couldn't pass up this set when I saw it on Ebay. 

It brought back happy memories of my daughter Jill,

 and her delight in her Hello Kitty items at a young age. 

Another room filled with Strombecker furniture.

Pretty in light green, this bath set is from Strombecker's 1935-36 DeLuxe Bathroom set. The yellow waste basket was part of the 1942 DeLuxe kitchen set, and appeared again as part of the 1955 kitchen set. 

The scale is from 1938.

YES! The garage door does open, and there is a perfect corner for Sydney to park her tricycle! 

All of the information on this dollhouse furniture comes from one of the many books on vintage dollhouse furniture written by Patty Cooper. All of her very informative books can be found of Blurb.com. You can find a link to all of them under Resource Books and Guides listed under

 the Pages column on the right side of this blog.

Keystone of Boston dollhouse, circa 1935

 

This is an older model Keystone of Boston dollhouse,

most likely from their initial dollhouse production

 year of 1935. It is a two storied house with four rooms.

Marta and Bernhard Schmidt live in this little house.

The back roof is attached to the front roof 
with fabric tape. The roof flips up 

to make the top floor available for playing.

Now this little house is ready for play.

This house is in fairly good shape for its 90 years. 

All the  window inserts are still with the house.

The kitchen has room for appliances and a large table with four chairs. 

Not sure what the hole in the center wall is for. 

There is a similar sized hole in the floor of the bedroom.

The bathroom is found on the second floor. 

I almost typed upstairs, but there are no stairs

 so that wouldn't be quite right.

The bedroom is large with room for twin beds, a night table, a dresser, 

a dressing table and chair, and a comfy chair in the corner.

Being somewhat crafty, I covered the hole in the bedroom floor with a carpet.

Marta is standing in the kitchen. 

I wonder if she is thinking about making supper,

or telling Bernhard they are going out for dinner.

Bernard is looking in the bathroom mirror

 wondering if he needs a shave, 

before Marta tells him they are going out to dinner.

 

And here are Marta and Bernhard Schmidt on their way to dinner. Good thinking Bernhard! 

The sofa, chair and end tables are part of Nancy Forbes #070 Living Room. The ottoman is from the Donna Lee #020 Living Room. The coffee table and end table are from Donna Lee's #022 Bed Room. This information was found in Patty Cooper's Nancy Forbes and Donna Lee Dollhouse Furniture 1940s found on Blurb.com.  The fireplace is unknown, although it closely resembles the fireplace listed in the 1928 Schoenhut catalog. 

The grandfather clock is probably of German origin. 

The sink and stove are Strombecker; the fridge is either a German or Japanese import. 

The maker of the table and chairs is unknown.

The table, with different decorative accents, came with the four chairs.

Strombecker lamps and clock and a Queen Anne lounge chair for the bedroom. 

The bedroom set is most likely a Japanese import 

that has been modeled after a 1931 Schoenhut set. 

Here is a comparison of the pieces with the Schoenhut furniture on the right side 

and the imported furniture on the left.

           

The sink, commode, stool and scales are Strombecker. 

The tub is hand crafted and I think rather unique.

The table and chairs and the bedroom set came from the same Ebay seller. 

I painted the sofa and chair to carry on the happy theme of this little house. 

Marta and Bernhard Schmidt are 4½ " tall bisque dolls imported from Japan.

A Keystone of Boston dollhouse from 1938-39

Say hello to the Jurgensons....

Jerry, Janice and their little daughter Jezebel.

This is their home, a two story, five room house

with side chimney and attached kitchen.

It was manufactured by Keystone of Boston 

and appeared in their catalog of 1938-39. 

Jerry and Janice saw it, liked it and ordered it immediately.

Janice insisted I wallpaper every room, 

not my favorite thing to do.

         Here we find Jerry and Janice sitting quietly in the living room.

Pick one:

1) not on speaking terms.

2) waiting for the other one to fix dinner.

3) hoping the other one will tend to the demanding  Jezebel upstairs. 

4) stoned.

No one has set the table for dinner! Janice must think that is a job for me. 
But she is very happy with her modern dining room furniture.

I hate cooking. (That's me talking, but I think Janice must feel the same.)

She needs to figure out a way to get out of cooking. 

(I did, but that's my secret.)

Hopefully he lifted the lid. At least the blinds are shut.

HELP! I'm stuck in a bamboo prison! 

WAAAH! Get me out of here!

Often Janice sits in front of her mirror and thinks

"Beauty is in more than the eye of the beholder."

 Yes, this is the original color of the modern dining room set.

The lace curtain was decoration on a dress I bought in 1967. 

Anyone else a hoarder?

The appliances and table and chairs set are Strombecker. 
It seems like I use this floor paper in all of my houses.

 Some little critters found the floors in this house

to be tasty, so the floors had to be covered. 

Nothing like a pink and blue bedroom for adults. 
The spreads, pillows and curtain 
all came from different Ebay sellers. 

I was not feeling crafty when I set up this house. 

More Strombecker furniture in the bath. 

The first, and probably the last, time I attempt to make a shade. 

Hung it anyway.

I tried very hard not to over-decorate. 

More successful this time!

One of the unique features of this dollhouse

 is the side chimney.

 As far as I am aware, this is 

the only Keystone house with a side chimney.

This is the only cupola appearing on a Keystone dollhouse 

until Keystone produced a dollhouse 

sold exclusively at FAO Schwarz in the 1960s. 

It was modeled after their largest dollhouse, #510, produced in 1955.

The kitchen window has a curtain printed on the interior side. Keystone printed shades on the interior sides of their earlier 1935 dollhouses. 

This dollhouse (lower right) was shown
 in Keystone's 1938-39 catalog.

 I am assuming it came in two different color designs....

red roof with white quoins and the combination

 on mine, green roof with red quions. 

This is a nice little Keystone of Boston five-room dollhouse. 

It came from the collection of Geraldine Scott.

 The Strombecker chairs, sofa and end tables were introduced in 1942, while the grandfather clock as early as 1934. The fireplace is a remodeled Nancy Forbes, the coffee table, missing the mirrored top, is also Nancy Forbes circa 1940, and the lamps are Dolly Dear.

Strombecker produced this Modern Colonial Dining Room  in 1938.

This style kitchen table and chairs set was produced by Strombecker as early as 1933. The three appliances were part of the New Modern Furniture sold in 1938.

The bedroom set was sold by Strombecker starting in 1942. The lamps

 are Dolly Dear and the "bamboo prison" is a Japanese import.

Strombecker introduced the bath set in 1942. The clothes hamper is Nancy Forbes.

                                                

The Jurgenson adults are small scale German Caco dolls produced probably in 1950-60s. Jezebel is a larger scale Caco and produced later when the dolls still had metal feet. The best information on Caco dolls can be found on https://diepuppenstubensammlerin.blogspot.com/.

Now this post is ending and we must bid adieu to the Jurgensons. 

Wave goodbye to Jezebel!