Cover of Beaver Lumber's 157 Ideas for Better Living catalog 195?

All about Sylvaply

All about Sylvaply (via Beaver Lumber)

Sylvaply Booth

Sylvaply show booth

Beaver Lumber was a Canadian Lumber store owned by Molson and opened in 1906. I have fond memories of going there with my dad for various projects, mostly because I really liked the beaver logo. Beaver Lumber was purchased in 2000 by Home Hardware and the remaining stores were rebranded.

We came across this catalog/brochure at a used book store, published in 1959 and filled with all kinds of interesting projects and products, from complete house packages (3 bedroom bungalow for $4488… including cement!), to cabins and vacation properties, all extolling the virtues of Canadian wood products, and in particular Douglas Fir plywood.

We were surprised to find in the middle an eight page colour section which talked all about a decorative plywood product called Sylvaply. Sylvaply is basically a sheet of 1/4 in Douglas Fir plywood that had a decorative pattern pressed into it. It’s intended to be used instead of wallpaper to give texture and dimension to a room. The Calgary Trend House features three different patterns in the dining room and kitchen. The dining room walls are made from the SylvaCord pattern, and the kitchen walls are SylvaCraft pattern, while the ceiling of the kitchen is made from the SylvaTile pattern.