Because of World War II restrictions, it would not be until the late 1940s and into the 1950s that many of these new materials found their way into home design. Chiefly, the rationing of metal adversely affected the production of steel kitchen cabinets. Home design styles in the 1940s straddled the 20th century. On the one hand, kitchens were still fairly small. Linoleum was still widely used as a floor covering. Colors often hovered in the range of pastels. Iconographic shapes like scallops, sweeps, and curves were common. Unfinished pine was a favored inexpensive wood often used for kitchen cabinets. These were touches that hearkened back to an earlier, more innocent age before the war. On the other hand, the sleek styles that would characterize the Jet Age period of the late 1950s and 1960s, while still on the horizon, would begin to occasionally show up. Large tempered plate glass found its way into higher-end homes. Some of these curves and scallops began to straighten out. Lines and planes were common. Much of the furniture is made of furniture-grade plywood. Plywood as a design element is popular once again. In the late 1940s and into the 1950s, higher grade plywood was often used to make nightstands, beds, cabinets, and chairs. Edges would be rounded off with a router, sanded down, and lacquered to help smooth them down. The shower is enclosed in a glass cabinet and with a curtain at the door. To save space in this children’s bedroom, these three beds become one. In the morning, the middle bed slides under the tall bed, and the short bed slides under the other two beds. Shelves behind the beds are staged proportionate to the height of each bed. A movable ladder helps the children access the upper cabinets.
