Beautiful but Deadly Mid-Century Modern Kentile Asbestos Floor Products Salesman Sample Set

Beautiful but deadly.  Mid-Century Modern colors by Kentile, a Brooklyn based company which lasted nearly 100 years before asbestos forced them into bankruptcy.  Today, a search on the company turns up far more hits for respiratory disease then floor tiles, but you'll still find a few folks trying to match colors and patch-up the floor in the ping-pong room. 

Kentile had an eight-story tall sign visible from the Gowanus.  It rusts there still, I guess,  a reminder for product safety and essentially a gigantic memorial for the workers and homemakers who lived with Kentile.

By far the most popular and familiar Kentile floors were the dapple-like pieces shown in the ad below.  They epitomize the 1950s, but don't scuff your feet too hard and stir up the fibers.  Don't grind them up when you remodel either.  I think they were trying to create a vinyl marble, or a marbling effect. To me, the patterns define the era as much as the beautiful plywood furniture…and I grew up within a few miles of the Herman Miller company and my folks dragged me along to the now famous company tag sales, so I know.  Of course, even then, Kentile was the stuff you pulled up to create an even more modern look…or covered with shag.  You can connect with other trendy retro-renovators HERE
 

The colors in this salesman sample box have names as pretty as the colors.
Sagebrush
Burnt Orange
Bangkok Pink
Hot Canary
Avocado
Bristol Blue
Terra Cotta
White
Black



Kentile Salesman Sample Set of  Solid Colors Designer Palette Vinyl Tile No Date
Collection Jim Linderman

Jim Linderman Books (and Affordable Ebooks) are HERE at Blurb.com 

Want to see a "smart" woman and "wise" woman put floors down the easy Kentile way?

Design Art of the Pamphlet A Tribute and Essay by Jim Linderman

Waiting rooms. The domain of the pamphlet. Public Service or propaganda, these graphic little printed booklets are probably the most common art form never really appreciated. They are seen but neglected. A million artists have worked on them without credit. Your doctor will tell you about smoking. Your Secretary of State will tell you about driving safety. Your employer will tell you rules, give advice and describe the procedures. Each will be printed in stapled form, some eight pages or so, and they will always be free. Sometimes the cost is born by the government, sometimes by a corporation hoping to score points. But the common theme to all is a lack of artistic credit. As the purpose is to spread the news like wildfire, they often carry no copyright. No library holds them. Once the rack is empty, a new one will come along to fill the space.

Everyone of these splendid and striking little works of art come from one of the millions and millions of pamphlets sitting in racks now waiting to be left in the car, then weeks later taken in and forced into an overfilled kitchen trash can. They'll help you push down the coffee grounds without getting your hands wet.

The artist is unidentified. He worked in the orange color used in traffic signs as that has been determined to be the brightest shade to attract the eye. His or her graphics are simple, easy to understand but accomplished. There is room for creative expansion but little abstraction to confuse.


Images from "Do You Have Mile-A-Minute Eyes?" Employee Rack Service of Western Electric Company 1959. Pamphlet Collection Jim Linderman

Mid Century Modest Ranch Style House Design

Ranch. The Greatest Generation, AKA "squares"...had one thing right. Low, sleek, not much adornment and cheap as can be. A style which looks best with virtually nothing expensive inside or out. In the 1950's, ranch accounted for 9 out of 10 houses being built. After the mid-1960's houses started getting taller, but not better. They also started having manufactured materials rather than organic, staples rather than nails, dry-wall rather than plaster and were being built to last as long as the rat-ass shag carpet. There are millions upon millions of small, cheap, solid, simple ranch houses out there waiting to be fixed up without "elevated rooflines" to heat. And since there are no jobs left and none coming, I'm afraid...they make good places to hunker through the sundown on the union. These images are from a 1956 National Plan Service brochure. NPS printed the catalogs and let individual builders and lumberyards stamp them with their imprint. Most are a modest 1,000 square feet. Two cool sources. Atomic Ranch Magazine and Mid Century Home Style.

Modern Ranch Homes Brochure 1956 34 Pages Collection Jim Linderman