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"Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"

alex9179
9 years ago

It's on TCM tonight at 5:15 central!

One of my "Hey!" movies and has one of the Decorating boards favorite scenes.

Muriel Blandings: I want it to be a soft green, not as blue-green as a robin's egg, but not as yellow-green as daffodil buds. Now, the only sample I could get is a little too yellow, but don't let whoever does it go to the other extreme and get it too blue. It should just be a sort of grayish-yellow-green. Now, the dining room. I'd like yellow. Not just yellow; a very gay yellow. Something bright and sunshine-y. I tell you, Mr. PeDelford, if you'll send one of your men to the grocer for a pound of their best butter, and match that exactly, you can't go wrong! Now, this is the paper we're going to use in the hall. It's flowered, but I don't want the ceiling to match any of the colors of the flowers. There's some little dots in the background, and it's these dots I want you to match. Not the little greenish dot near the hollyhock leaf, but the little bluish dot between the rosebud and the delphinium blossom. Is that clear? Now the kitchen is to be white. Not a cold, antiseptic hospital white. A little warmer, but still, not to suggest any other color but white. Now for the powder room - in here - I want you to match this thread, and don't lose it. It's the only spool I have and I had an awful time finding it! As you can see, it's practically an apple red. Somewhere between a healthy winesap and an unripened Jonathan. Oh, excuse me...
Mr. PeDelford: You got that Charlie?
Charlie, Painter: Red, green, blue, yellow, white.
Mr. PeDelford: Check.

Comments (9)

  • maire_cate
    9 years ago

    That's one of my favorite old films and the best scene is when Muriel tells the painter about her color choices. It's just the best!

    Thanks for the reminder.

    Here is a link that might be useful: you tube - I want it to be soft green.............

  • bbstx
    9 years ago

    For those of you who missed it (like me), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House will be on TCM at midnight 12/8/14. I don't know what time zone that is.

  • rockybird
    9 years ago

    LOL That was great!

  • Rudebekia
    9 years ago

    It really is an entertaining movie! Having just bought an old house and feeling overwhelmed, I needed a good laugh. Myrna Loy is particularly wonderful in the role--she was gorgeous, wasn't she?--and I love that 40s era with the formal clothing.

    On the other hand, it is always bemusing to see that even small families in cramped NY apartments had a servant in the kitchen. And of course that servant saves the day with the ad jingle and gets only a measly raise. . .

  • awm03
    9 years ago

    Wouldn't it be fun to make a sequel: Mr. Blandings Renovates His Dream House. A third generation of Blandings updating the old family homestead...

    "And for the living room I want a warm gray. Not a lavender gray or a blue gray, but a soft gray with a warm undertone such as you'd see in Pennsylvania fieldstone: gray with a bit of beige in it, but no pink or green."

  • bbstx
    9 years ago

    awm03, YOU NAILED IT! Your description is hilarious....and too true.

  • Gracie
    9 years ago

    The Youtube link of that scene was posted in a few forums about a month ago. I told DH about it and we spent the weekend describing things as if we were Mrs. Blandings. Quite fun! But not the exhilarating fun you'd expect on the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland, and not the subdued fun of shopping at Nordstroms with a $20 gift card from your cheap in-laws. Somewhere in between.

  • mtnrdredux_gw
    9 years ago

    LOL Mayflowers and AWM. Tee hee

  • Holly- Kay
    9 years ago

    Oh May you had me ROFL!!! You are so funny.

    Awm, I can hear it now! So true about the grey.

    I have not seen the movie. I will have to see if it is available on Prime Instant Video.

    Our local newspaper has been running a comic strip where the wife is redecorating. DH has cut the strip out for me three days in a row now and we have laughed ourselves silly over the scope creep in the strip! We all can certainly relate to it.