Get the look......A retro interior

February 16, 2009

By Sinead Van Kampen

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Creating a space that is fun but not overbearing is not as easy as it looks on the pictures. I mean, how much fun should one put in a 'fun room' anyway ? Too much fun, perhaps, and your room looks like a recently renovated end of the pier arcade, not enough fun and it looks like a tame pastiche of a recently renovated end of the pier arcade ... I'm sure you understand the dilemma.

We’ve taken our inspiration from this great Image from Domus.Lets start with the paint, if you've lots of woodwork, old detailing or period features this look will almost certainly fail, in fact, it will look terrible, however, on the plus side, the look does work for both enclosed and open spaces ! Begining with the floors, the room itself needs to be kept as a simple backdrop for the prints and furniture and as such its best to strart with mid-tones. 'Neutral wooden flooring' probably won't support the look your after, if you don't have mid-grey slate or polished concrete floors, old floorboards can be filled and painted in light grey tones (any 'eggshell' paint from most paint suppliers will be fine.) and don't forget to undercoat the floor first.

Paint and papers for the walls are probably the easiest part of the this look, be careful about the balance between the wallpaper and the paint and try using a bright paper with a circular or repeating pattern. We found 'Very Retro' from ukwallpaper.co.uk and this can be combined with a soft blue from Dulux ( try Celestial blue 6), alternatively, if your adding lots of furniture or smaller scaled items to the finished room you may want to use a light/mid grey coloured paint (try Dulux Mineral Haze 1) or 'Blue Ground' from Farrow & Ball, alternatively, pick out a tone from within the wallpaper or floor colours.

Obviously, the fun part of a fun room must really be the furniture. Anything bright that distorts conventional shapes and colours should work brilliantly. Its best though, to get the balance right, so two or three statement pieces should be fine rather than a full on retro cavalcade of items salvaged from the bins at the back of 'retro-world superstore'. If your worried about the room looking a little too polished, you can distress the room by adding a little wood, shelves are ideal, or a genuine 1950's piece bought at auction. Finally, stay away from jukeboxes, don't ever be tempted, they look naff in almost every setting, if you want a jukebox, go to the pub, like normal people !

For the storage units try http:plan-itinteriors.com ( remember to scale to your room first ) and for a modern twist the 'Space' table from Domus, combined with our absolute favourite, the 'Kermit Chair' from designshopuk.com will give the room the twists and contours that form the basis of this look. When it comes to dressing the room, try a few Roy Lichtenstein prints (these prints look great with any decor style) and use the Copenhagen69 lampshade for pendant lighting. The rug used in the room is available at funkyrugs.co.uk and is made of suede which adds a great textured layer. Have fun !

Sourcebook

Wallpaper :

Very Retro £12.99 per roll from http://www.ukwallpaper.co.uk

Paint:

Blue ground by farrow and ball - http://www.farrow-ball.com

http://dulux.co.uk

Furniture:

Space table - €495.50 - WWW.DOMUS.SH

Brown suede rug – funkyrugs.co.uk

Kermit chair- £275.00- http://www.designshopuk.com

Units from http://plan-itinteriors.com

Lighting: