Sunday, April 7, 2013

Vintage Floral Contact Paper


The sun is shining, birds are chirping, flowers are blooming. Yes, spring is in the air! (At least in this hemisphere...) The Hausfrau has come out of her winter hibernation and is dusting off the Hausfrau Journal to prepare it for some more frequent posts.

As a modest beginning effort, I am sharing with you a lovely vintage contact paper I encountered in an heirloom dresser. The contact paper probably comes from the 60s by the look of it (any differing opinions?), but the dresser likely dates back to well before the turn of the century.





This reminds me a bit of the radish contact paper I found and posted about a while back. (See my post on that here.) Have any of you dear readers encountered enchanting vintage contact paper?

5 comments:

  1. Hi! I'm so happy to see you back! :) (I've been a reader for a while, but I think this is my first comment)

    I bought a little ochre yellow commode back in Sweden a few years ago. The piece is probably about the same age as yours, but the paper in the little drawer from the fifties(?) with vegetables like cabbages, pea pods and tomatoes in greens and reds strewn across the pale lemon-y yellow paper. The corners are held down by mismatched thumbtacks. I like to imagine where the last owner placed this piece...I use it as a nightstand but perhaps she had it in the kitchen. Maybe it was her telephone table, the drawer would have been the perfect place for her address book, a pad of paper and some pencils.... The one corner of the top is significantly worn than than the others, is that where she rested her elbow while she chatted and listened to the voices of loved ones traveling hundreds of miles of telephone wire? I wonder.... :)

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    1. That's really nice of you to say, Dorothea! I'm happy to be back and have been smiling more than usual now that I again have time to devote to my journal.

      How fascinating to read about your commode. Do you happen to have a picture somewhere? There must have been a whole subset of contact paper in the 50s (and 60s?) devoted to kitchen themes. Why else would we be finding themes such as your vegetable medley and my radishes? My hope is that more people will come forward with pictures/descriptions of unusual themes like yours.

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  2. I think it's always a lovely surprise to open the drawer or cupboard of an old piece of furniture and find vintage contact paper. It reminds me of what I'd find lining the draws of the dressers at my Grandma's house. At my parent's house we also have beautiful early 1970's kitchen contact paper lining the shelves of our pantry. I've told my mother that if she ever decides to remove it, it's going to me!

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    1. Yes, I totally understand! The other day I was washing my kitchen floors the old fashioned way (on my knees with plenty of elbow grease...) and looked up to discover that the island in my kitchen have a funky 50s print laminate on the undersides of the shelves. Not what I was expecting, but it certainly brought a smile to my face.

      Hopefully your mother will oblige your request. Do you know if contact paper can safely be removed without damaging either the paper itself or the surface it's on?

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    2. To be honest unfortunately I am not quite sure. I have heard some things about applying heat to the paper, like using a hair dryer or by ironing it with a piece of cloth over the top. I think this might work by helping to dry out the glue of the contact paper. I'm sure there are some handy methods of how to do so online, both to protect the paper and the surface it is on. I am very lucky in the sense that the paper at my mother's house in the pantry was never glue down, so it can just be carefully lifted off. I'm pretty sure we have some more roles of it elsewhere too.

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The Hausfrau eagerly awaits your thoughts.