Yes, white and silver might feel more space age to us, but if you want a true 1960s kitchen, it’s all about embracing colour.Mid-Century Modern Furniture & Home Décor Tips But if your appliances are all white or silver, think about changing them for colourful ones. Clever touches like pull-out shelving and modular units that slot together to save space are also a good choice.Ĭhances are that you’ve got most of the so-called “modern technology” that wowed housewives in the 1960s. Large built-in units are ideal, especially if they’re finished in some sort of laminate to create a high-tech sheen. While your chairs and accessories should be making a statement, your storage furniture should be as sleek and minimalist as possible. Remember, this look was, in many ways, about making a statement about the future and how different it would be to the bleak decades that had just passed, so embrace wacky and unusual when recreating your look. Whether it’s a pod chair or a kidney-bean table with a tripod leg formation, forget traditional and go for outlandish wherever you can. Then again, perhaps the homeowners of tomorrow will look back on our eco-friendly light bulbs and upcycled furniture – good for the environment and budget – and smile indulgently at the way it used to be. It’s funny to think that what we now see as retro was once considered the height of futuristic design. Designers became cleverer at secreting elements of a room away – for example, creating disappearing tables in kitchens – and modular furniture, from shelving units to sofas, gained in popularity, too. There was also a rise in colourful appliances, many of which featured a removable front panel that could be replaced with one that matched your kitchen decor.Įlsewhere, clean lines were vital to the space-age look, leading to a boom in fitted furniture, with its clean lines and minimalist way of hiding clutter. In the kitchen, the desire for space-age gadgetry – not to mention the increasing liberation of women – gave rise to ever more sophisticated fridges and freezers, built-in ovens (far more streamlined than the previous free-standing ones), and time-saving technologies such as dishwashers and washer-dryers. Also in 1968, the Panton chair by Verner Panton, a cantilevered design that was the first to be moulded from a single piece of plastic and was easily stackable. And the 1968 Garden Egg chair by Peter Ghyczy, which opens from a flying-saucer form made of brightly coloured plastic. Hence, we have the ubiquitous Polyprop chair, invented by Robin Day in 1962, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the Sputnik satellite, with its spindly chrome legs. Every 1960s designer worth their salt was trying to invent a unique, futuristic design that would change the way seating was viewed, using cutting-edge technologies from polypropylene plastic to foam moulding and stretch fabrics. Or the various “atomic” lamps, with their UFO-shaped shades and metallic bases. Could there have been a more rocket-like design than the lava lamp, invented in 1963 by Edward Craven Walker? Not to mention the high-tech nature of the wax from which it takes its name. There were a couple of key areas where the space race had a particularly noticeable effect. A new minimalism echoed futuristic labs, gadgets were in high demand and everywhere you looked, spaceships and rockets lent their form to furniture, fittings and accessories. Indoors, capsule- and pod-shaped furniture dominated the prevailing decor. In architecture, increasingly bold statements were being made by the likes of John Lautner, with his iconic Chemosphere in the Hollywood Hills hovering like a flying saucer above the treeline, and Eero Saarinen, whose elegant Gateway Arch in St Louis, United States, built between 19, still has a futuristic feel. The overarching themes of the space race were experimentation, technology, modernism and optimism a fresh new adventure after the tragedy of two world wars and subsequent years of rationing and frugality. Unlike anything seen before or since, many of these iconic designs remain desirable even today. While the world’s superpowers were pouring their resources into conquering the universe, designers were competing to create the most ultra-modern homes they could imagine, drawing as much from science fiction as from the realities of the decade’s breakthrough technologies. While the 1960s may bring to mind pop music and hippie festivals, there was another powerful influence on home interior trends that came to define the decade: the space race. Just as today’s interior design has been shaped by the global recession and the need to reduce our environmental footprint – to name just a couple of examples – designers throughout history have been inspired and influenced by prevailing economic, social and technological factors.
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