Sunday, June 2, 2013
Guest Post: Going Retro
Going Retro!
In home décor retro is the new 'now.' Even if your home has all the mod
cons, latest gadgetry and shiny new furniture you can add a touch of vintage
warmth to any room. You have great freedom of choice in your particular decade
of retro, with everything from the 1920s to the 1980s making a comeback in
interior design and on the catwalk alike. You can choose to remodel the entire
room, or just add touches of retro glamour here and there to hint at homage to
days gone by.Flapper fun, short hair and feathers: Ode to the Twenties
Polished wooden furniture with a clearly visible grain, lace doilies and ornate ormolu ornaments and clocks to perch on the mantelpiece add a touch of twenties sophistication. An old-fashioned gramophone or an old-style telephone provides a wonderful historical note to a corner. Beautifully polished brass coal scuttles also add warmth to the fire surround while imbuing the room with 1920s comfort. Peacock feathers make a wonderfully retro display in a vase, although some do consider them to be bad luck. Colonial touches like African masks, Indian artworks and icons and sculptures or stylized native weapons hearken back to the exciting, if somewhat inconsiderate, days of Imperialism.
Chrome plated, bouffant beehives and bright colours: Song of the Fifties
We remember the 50s as being something of an age of innocence: pop music had yet to discover the darker throbbing notes of rock and roll, children imitated their parents instead of growing their hair and getting piercings and tattoos. The movie houses were full of good-looking boys and girls, driving large colourful American cars and singing and dancing through life! Retro style kettles, toasters and even radios are fairly easy to source and instantly open a time portal to those sunny, musical days!
The seventies caught the tail end of the hippy phenomena, a softer kinder view of what had been quite an anarchic period of time. Early hippies were discriminated against, turned away from shops and stores and generally considered to be a destructive force working to break 'the system' especially by those in positions of authority. By the time the seventies came along society had learned to adapt to hippies and their 'make love not war' philosophy. Add 70s style to a room with colourful patchwork and vibrant orange and yellow chevron patterns on cushions and throws, or add some lively peace signs to the décor. Leather or crochet fringes on lamp shades look fabulous and create wonderful shadows in the room, while paying homage to the period. You can find one retro style lampshade for your bedroom from here.
The 80s, décor-wise, went in several directions simultaneously. The truly rich and powerful appointed apartments and houses with rich upholstery, thick soft carpets and sumptuous ornamentation, with the first sign of the trend for ornate and expensive front doors for that all important first impression. Career professionals, or yuppies, opted for minimalist furniture and sleek, easy to clean appliances, being too busy working to spend very much time at home. Elsewhere, old furniture was out and the average person had no time or money to spend on antiques. The focus was on new and up-to-date; and flat-pack furniture made its first appearance. Add a touch of the eighties with an old-style boom-box or put up pictures that evoke those heady first days of technological change.
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