The Best of British Homemaking 1966

The recent television series ‘Back in Time for the Weekend’ sent me scurrying to find my stash of old magazines. For those of you who’ve not seen the programme it features a British family living in six different decades starting from the 1950s and ending in the present day. 

Having lived through all the decades showcased in the programme, I'm having difficulty deciding which I preferred. I was a small child in the 1950s a teenager in the swinging sixties and married with a child in the seventies. Any or all of those years could be classed as my favourite but the 60s were certainly the most colourful as demonstrated in this Best of British homemaking magazine from March 1966.

The Best of British Homemaking March 26th, 1966.

Unbeatable quality, unbeatable choice – here’s Good Living Unlimited for your home!

Any moment now ... they'll be talking about furniture.  Really?

That special blend of cosiness, comfort and quality that makes the British Home the castle it is!

The world's widest and finest choice of furniture - that's our lucky lot! Here is an eyeview of some of the good buys around.  

Every room in the house bursting with our new colour skill. Coolly modern, richly traditional, warmly cottagey - whatever the type of furnishing style it's the colour that makes a room remembered.   

I wonder how many of you remember Ladderax (as shown above - and in the photograph below). It was all the rage when we got married and looking on eBay, I see it’s making a comeback. It even has its own Facebook and Wikipedia pages! We got rid of our ‘modular storage’ years ago believing it to be old fashioned, but perhaps we should have kept it.

I always liked the checked wallpaper in the sitting room (above) it made a perfect backdrop for the Ladderax. The photo was taken not long after Terry and I got married. If you look closely you can see our pet budgerigar on Terry’s shoulder. We named the budgie Tarzan thinking he was a boy but when he later turned out to be a she we renamed her Jane!

Tarzan (or Jane) pales into insignificance against the dining room wallpaper. 

Update 17th March, 2016.  If you read the comments at the end of this post, you might have seen the one from Anne Marie at Campfire. If not this is part of it; 

I noticed the Parkray in the photo - we had one of those, set in a natural stone fireplace, a long one with a TV pod on one side.  Above the Parkray we had hand done split wooden laths, in a weatherboarding effect (my mother in law asked what colour we were going to paint them!). There was a sage green feature wall and a Habitat white round centre stemmed table with chrome pod, and matching chairs. The sideboard was a beautiful teak one long and low and surprisingly went with the table. The sofa was pre-formed in black 'leatherette' very new and made especially - and it was so blinking uncomfortable. The curtains were orange and sage green checked wool tweed, in quite a large check, all very nice I thought.

Anne Marie followed up by sending an email and a photograph (taken from a slide) for me to share with you. She remembers the chairs being very uncomfortable, made of a basic polythene shell covered with artificial leather. She also mentioned the walking sticks on the wall, and the black moulded plastic coffee table in the foreground. She ends by saying, “we were so 'designer' then. None of our friends were so daring.”

Thanks Anne Marie, loving the chairs and would you believe we had curtains just like that! Barbara x