Customizing the Lustron Interior
To help Lustron owners finesse the decorating of their porcelain-enamel clad interiors, the Lustron Corporation published a planning guide for demonstration homes. Published around 1948, the guide outlined issues to consider when decorating the home “in the Contemporary Manner”:
- Scale . . . has to do with the size of furnishings in relation to each other, to the room, and to the human figure.
- Color . . . can accomplish more at less cost than any other element of interior decoration.
- Form . . . is the shape of objects. It is form that distinguishes the various styles or periods in furniture. Well designed furniture is simple in form. . . . The principles of form apply not only to furniture but to certain fabrics, lamp and lamp shades, picture frames, etc.
- Arrangement . . . is governed by real limitations such as the intended use of the furnishings and the position of doors, windows, wall space and other architectural features. Arrangement influences the degree of formality of decoration, the usefulness of floor space and the sense of spaciousness in the room .
The compact, semi-open floorplan, featured common living spaces that flowed into one another. Although the floorplans differed slightly, the configuration (bedrooms separated by a utility closet, kitchen adjacent to dining room, etc.) of the interior space was the same. Although the Lustron featured the clever use of built ins, pocket doors and other space-saving features, the Lustron offered owners little variation in terms of interior layout.
‘Flipping’ for Floorplans: Ideas Unrealized
Architect Carl Koch, who Lustron retained as a consultant shortly before the company went bankrupt, examined the two footprints Lustron was using: 29 feet by 37 feet, and 29 feet by 45 feet. He found that in the future Lustron could offer more variation-”four different plans for each, including several for three bedrooms. Any of these plans, moreover, could be ‘flipped,’ that is to say, built as a mirror image of itself. And all plans, together, would use the same component parts, with virtually no exception[CKR2] .” Unfortunately, Lustron’s collapse left Koch’s creative ideas untried.
“All You Need Is a Range, Refrigerator and Furnishings”
Although Lustron interiors were similar, there was some variation from model to model. The Westchester Deluxe, described by Carl Strandlund as the “aristocrat” of the Lustron line-had a vanity-bookcase, a china cabinet with a pass-through separating the kitchen from the dining area, ceiling radiant heat, a bay window, and a bathroom vanity. Asphalt tile flooring and window blinds were also part of the package. “All you need is your own range, refrigerator, and your own furnishings,” claimed a Lustron advertisement.
By contrast, with the exception of blinds and flooring, none of the features mentioned above were included in the Westchester Standard. The Lustron Corporation explained that the “Westchester Standard, Meadowbrook, and Newport series have a conventional heating system, minimum built-in features, floor covering supplied by builder.” In promoting the Meadowbrook, the company touted things that were, for the most part, quite basic: “Automatic hot water heater, six large closets, bathroom fixtures, screens, dishwasher-clotheswasher unit, ample kitchen storage space and many other fine features.” Few of these paired down models were ever manufactured. The most economical of the houses, the Newport, available in two and three bedroom models, was marketed in promotional materials to “buyers who can afford only a minimum of investment in a home or who want to build several homes for rental housing.”
The unique amenity included with all models was the Thor dishwasher-clothes washer. A buyer could chose to substitute a double sink for the washer and save $215 on the price. The only other custom options for the interior were steel venetian blinds in ivory and a picture hanger kit.
Interiors and the Lustron System
A Lustron’s structure is created by an interdependent system of exterior wall frame sections, the enameled panels that cover them, and the roof trusses. Unlike wood-frame houses, the structure does not rely on interior “bearing” walls for support. On many conventional houses there are interior bearing walls which are structural, they help hold up the structure. The interior walls of the Lustron are simply partitions separating spaces.
Assembly
Of course, when the walls contain bookcases, vanities, and other built-ins, their assembly is far from simple, as is evidenced by pages of instructions in the erection manual. Just as assembly of the exterior required a complex series of steps that had to be carried out in a specific order, so too did the assembly of the interior.
Work on assembling the interior began after the exterior wall and roof systems were in place. Since the ceiling panels serve as the bottom of the plenum for the radiant heating system, they were installed first. The interior wall frame sections were put in place before the interior wall panels were attached to the exterior walls. Next came the closets, the vanity, and the cabinets for the kitchen and pass-through. Workers suspended the furnace from the utility room ceiling and laid the tile floor before placing the bathroom fixtures and completing the plumbing and electrical work. Finally, if they were part of the installation plattern, the mounts were installed and the venentian blinds were hung.
Sources:
Lustron Corporation, The Lustron Home Planning Guide for Your Demonstration Home (Columbus, Ohio: published by the corporation, [c1948?])
Carl Koch with Andy Lewis, At Home with Tomorrow (New York and Toronto: Rinehart and Company, 1958), 119-120.
