» Sixties Style: Buttoned Up | DESIGN SHRINE | Your Source for Interior, Web and Style Design

Mad Men

The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963)

Mad Men is hands down my absolute favorite show on television. If you've watched Mad Men, you know that Sterling Cooper is in the business of making things look good. Appearances are everything at this fictional 1960s New York advertising agency, both in and outside of the office. The Sterling Cooper crowd want to live the good life. Its account executives may not be fabulously wealthy, but they do make enough to surround themselves with the trappings of success, even when they come at a high personal cost. (Pete Campbell must have swallowed hard when his wife, Trudi, talked him into accepting the down payment for an apartment they couldn't afford from her parents.)

Mad Men's story line is seamlessly woven together with its set design to capture the style of the era and reflect the aspirations of its characters. One of the fixtures of Mad Men's set design is the Draper's turquoise button-tufted headboard. Week after week, the distinctive headboard serves as a backdrop to the troubled marriage of Don and Betty Draper. Turquoise, velvet, and padded, the headboard is a paragon of sixties style.

A headboard similar to the one on Mad Men can be seen in the 1963 film The Courtship of Eddie's Father. The shape is somewhat different, but the color and tufting are nearly identical. The resemblance between the two pieces gives an idea of just how well Mad Men recreates the style of the early sixties.

Spring Green Tufted Cotton Swivel Chairs

These spring green tub chairs are another example of enviable, tufted furniture. The chairs, which are available through C.Bell and 1stdibs, remind me of Ruthie Sommers' green club chairs. Both sets of chairs even have white piping. Before Sommers re-upholstered the club chairs in a moss green colored linen, they were covered in white vinyl.