Mid-Century DIY

Mighty headboards from slender saplings grow, according to this 1955 cartoon. It'll be a few years before these well-chosen (if closely spaced) hardwoods put our tree-planter's hammer-and-saw skills to the test.

Below, DIYism in the news, 1954...

Ottawa Citizen, April 17 1954

Do-it-yourself-ism was a meme, in the strict and original sense of the word. It was octothorpe-worthy. It was, beyond any dispute, a "thing".

According to Newspapers.com, instances of the phrase "Do it yourself" in Ottawa papers started to climb in 1954, peaked in 1959, then re-peaked around 1977-78 and have since trailed off to early '50s levels. The late-'70s peak reflected a flood of ads for "Do It Yourself Centres". The B-under-a-roof logo looks oddly familiar and warrants further poking at...

Ottawa Journal, May 18 1978

The above ad reminds me of That '70s Trend, the basement rec-room*. The wood-grain printed panelling that became a fixture of so many (often DIY) "semi-finished" basements would come back to haunt us in 1995, as the literal backdrop to a series of controversial Calvin Klein ads — what are those kids getting up to down there? They're being too quiet!

 Of course, that which had grown tacky... is chic once more.

*Which is me trying to say something catchy and failing splendidly. The rec-room, sometimes called the playroom or the kids-room (in our east-end Ottawa nabe, at least) was a commonly understood concept by the 1950s. And the Forman's basement walls, those parts we could see on That '70s Show, were exposed cinder-block. So much the funkier.