Nostalgia is a powerful thing. Most of us remember days gone by and think fondly of those moments. The past is almost always portrayed in romantic shades in more than one movie and sitcom.
Bringing the classic eras to one’s home is possible and fairly easy through the execution of a retro home interior design project.
One thing you need to understand about the style is that retro and dated are two very different things. Retro interior design is chic and timeless. It will be prominent in one year and it will maintain its appeal in five decades.
Achieving such timelessness and being true to a past era necessitates some preliminary planning. So, if you’re looking forward to a retro interior design project, you will need to keep a number of important essentials in mind.
1. Understand What Retro Means
Retro is a general term and it could mean very different things to different people. Some find the style of the 70s retro. Some would go back to the 50s. For others, the 1990s could be quite a distant time, which would take these years to the retro realm.
Getting that nostalgic vibe is all about choosing a past era you like and feel a connection to. Mixing different retro elements from various periods could also work but you’d have to be careful. Such eclectic executions can easily become too busy and overpowering.
When you have a certain era that you want to bring to your home, start considering the home interior design and home décor elements that were most prominent at the time. The selection of the right colours, textures, patterns, materials and textiles (as well as art pieces) will quickly transform your home and take you back in time.
2. Choose Vintage Furniture
While there are brand new furniture pieces meant to replicate a certain style, it’s always best to go genuine.
Vintage furniture is your safest bet if you want to go retro.
Luckily, you can find such items in numerous Singaporean vintage shops and thrift markets.
Even if you upgrade vintage pieces a bit to bring them up to today’s comfort standards, you’ll still have a genuine element that belongs to a time period you’re interested in. Not only that, vintage furniture often comes with a sense of distinctiveness that’s missing from today’s mass-manufactured items.
When it comes to vintage furniture and decorations, quality is much more important than quantity. Choosing one outstanding statement piece will give you a much better result than shopping like crazy and scattering lots of stuff throughout your home. You need a focal point that you’re going to base the design of a certain room upon.
3. The Right Colour Palette
A lot rides on the selection of appropriate colours and patterns.
Choosing the right palette is one of the easiest ways to bring a retro interior design to life.
A combination of black and white tiles in the kitchen, for example, will give you a checkered look that’s very indicative of the 1970s. The same applies to a shag rug in colours like green or blue. Kitschy wallpaper is a mid-century interior design staple that you can find easily to bring the right tones and graphics to your wall.
If you’re looking forward to 1950s decorations, choose pastel colours like pale yellow, blue, turquoise and pink. All of these shades were very popular and they’re instantly recognisable. Alternatively, adopt the so-called Scandinavian interior design colour scheme. It was also popular during the 1950s and it’s heavily inspired by natural tones and shades.
As already mentioned, fabrics and textiles give you another very easy opportunity to make your home as retro as you want it to be.
The best fabrics for the purpose are the ones that come with bold and bright patterns and designs.
In the 1950s, for example, fabrics often featured stripes, stars and polka dots. Floral and fruit-based patterns were also very common (especially for kitchen textiles). These trends changed quickly and in the 1960s, pop art dominates both painting and textiles. Stylised florals were also abundant in interior design and in fashion.
If you’re clueless about the right textiles to use, a little bit of online research will come in handy. There are lots of galleries you can browse through to find the right patterns and colours. These are especially prominent on Pinterest and you’ll discover entire boards dedicated to a certain past period that you can use for retro interior design inspiration.
5. Be Bold and True to Yourself!
Looking at your home as a canvas will give you an opportunity to transform the space and give it a ton of personality.
For the purpose, you have to be true to yourself and your aesthetical sense.
Don’t be afraid of coming up with an interior design project visualisation, even if you’re not a professional. Drawing a sketch, using magazine cutouts or creating an entire vision board will be very beneficial down the line.
You can use that information to acquaint a professional home interior design company with your concept. That’s how you’ll make sure that your idea is brought to reality in the best way.
Contact Home Guide now if you want a genuine retro interior design in your home. We understand past eras and we work hard to personalise every single project that we’re tasked with. Rest assured that your concept will be understood and the home renovation will be executed exactly the way you envisioned it.