Mid Century Muse: Contract Magazine Vintage Furniture Advertisement Inspiration


One morning after making a post office delivery I decided to swing into a nearby Goodwill as soon as it opened. I was rewarded by a stack of Contract vintage magazines and a few other retro interior design and office furniture catalogs from the late 60s and early 70s. I like to pretend came from a 1970s interior design firm.

I've been enjoying flipping through these for inspiration. They recently sold so I took some time to photograph my favorite pages before shipping them out to the next creative they'll inspire. Let's look at the groovy goodness!


Love thus hippie chick on a bike to advertise...rugs? That is actually an incredible rug in the background, would love that for my living room.


Too clinical and clean for me but felt a twinge of inspiration from this ad, had to include it!


Woah this collage is a whole lot of want. I adore the colorful chairs, the lamps, even the couch is kind of nice. Funny how this furniture includes a lot of the neo-modern look that crept into early 1980s stuff...absolutely hate that stuff! Glass tables with metal legs = my childhood cleaning the smudges off with windex. Noooo!


Sexy tulip chairs. A lot of the design in these rooms remind me of 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange and it's definitely been cyclical, being fully desirable now. I love Kubrik's incredible ability to predict the future, life post 2000 looks a bit like he envisioned, doesn't it?


Woooah, love! Love the primaries, love the rectangles everywhere, love how a lot of my childhood schools still had this look from the 1970s due to lack of updating fixtures to save money. It's a little too cold, could use some details to break it up but overall, just love this look. You could tempt me to go back to the office world if my cubicle looked like this...maybe.


Love the orange chairs and lamp. Bright orange and red orange are my favorites colors followed by blue.


Oh, I was born 1986 but man this look stayed in style in households for a long ass time, my mom had furniture like this! Ew! Sorry mom, hate it, haha! Likewise she loathes my taste for the tacky plastic furniture in primaries and secondaries.


The signage, the interior, wow! Gorgeous restaurant, very groovy.


Lovely office again. A bit clinical with the harsh metal but the colors! So much happier than offices today.


I'll be back to share more of my favorite spaces from these magazines soon but let's leave off with my favorite. Wow. Love the colors and styling in this photo and the girl, too. Reminds you of Megan Draper, neh? You wouldn't think a lot of these pieces, like the ornate tiffany lamp, would go together but everything wrks beautifully in this photo. Can I live here?

Any wants in these ads for you? I'd love some of these rugs, office storage units and chairs/couches in particular. I'm inspired to get thrifitng for more pieces soon, the house and inventory is getting empty (as desired!) It's all on sale by the way, get it!
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