How to style a retro cocktail cabinet for your New Year’s Eve party

December 29, 2018.Reading time 4 minutes.

If you’re planning a party for New Year’s Eve, why not make it a retro one? Step back in time to the 70s and recreate the cocktail cabinet that all mid-century housewives wished they had. We’ve styled up this G Plan Fresco cabinet with vintage barware and snacks so here’s how you can do the same…

Where to find bedding in mid-century colours

March 9, 2017.Reading time 5 minutes.

Hurrah! We finally have some new bedding for our new bedroom. After weeks spent stripping off wallpaper, days painting layers and layers of while emulsion to cover up bright peach walls, and even more hours spent laying beautiful laminate flooring, I think it was about time that we got a little reward for all our hard […]

Minimalist mid-century modern window dressing

March 6, 2017.Reading time 8 minutes.

There’s a lovely big window in our living room. It lets in so much natural daylight and offers a lovely view over the garden. In fact, it’s pretty-much the only feature of the room at the moment, so I want to make the most of it. I wanted to give it a sleek, contemporary window-dressing but […]

Norman Foster’s Willis Building in Ipswich – 1970s architecture & interiors

October 11, 2016.Reading time 8 minutes.

Today’s blog post is rather photo-heavy, but I wanted to share some snaps I took while touring Norman Foster’s famous Willis Building. My husband and I went into Ipswich as part of the Heritage Open Weekend and visited half-a-dozen or so historical buildings that are not usually open to the public. Among them was the […]

This old thing ~ My ‘new’ vintage dress

July 28, 2014.Reading time 4 minutes.

I’ve been massively inspired by watching Dawn O’Porter’s This Old Thing show on channel 4 for the past few weeks. I know thrifting is nothing new to this blog and I’m sure you all know that I was huge fan of vintage long before this programme was launched, but it’s just given me an extra […]

Inspirations for my retro living room – vases & flowers

March 28, 2013.Reading time 2 minutes.

After putting up my retro pattern wallpaper, I thought I had nearly completed my retro 60s/70s-inspired living room, but I don’t think I’ll ever really be finished, especially when there are so many vintage bargains to be found in the charity shops and at car boot sales. This week I was lucky enough to find these […]

Interior Design Inspirations for a Retro Home: Lighting

December 3, 2012.Reading time 2 minutes.

Now that I am at the stage of adding the finishing touches to my retro living room, my attention has turned to lighting and I wanted to get a couple of lamps and shades that would compliment the 50s and 60s style that I’ve used throughout the room so far. I’ve been keeping an eye […]

My retro-inspired living room – Lego accessories

September 29, 2012.Reading time less than 1 minute.

As you probably know by now, I am slowly but surely funking up my living room to create a kitsch 50s/60s/70s look and, as Lego was invented in 1958 and was the must-have toy of the time, I’ve looked into getting some bright & plastic-y Lego accessories. This Lego-brick CD player was a gift for […]

My retro-inspired living room – an old armchair rescued!

September 14, 2012.Reading time 2 minutes.

I am pleased to say that I’ve got another freebie for my retro living room design project – an armchair that was on its way from a vintage furniture shop to the dump. It didn’t exactly look like this when my hubby brought it home to me; it had a cream damask patterned cover over it which […]

My retro-inpired living room – a vintage sideboard

September 2, 2012.Reading time 2 minutes.

As many of you know, I’m collecting together a few pieces of furniture, amazing art and lovely soft furnishings to create a retro-inspired, if a little garish, living room interior design project. If you’ve not yet seen my mood-board here it is again: And how’s this for a pretty similar sideboard to the G-Plan one above? […]

A gorgeous piece of artwork for my retro living room – by artist Mable Tan

August 10, 2012.Reading time 2 minutes.

I saw this funky retro-inspired photograph when I was recently browsing on artist Mable Tan’s website Happee Monkee and instantly knew it would be perfect for my 50s, 60s & 70s interior design project (here’s my mood board). You may remember that I shared an interview with Mable Tan on my blog recently and this is the piece of […]

A new table for my retro living room – and it was free!

August 4, 2012.Reading time 3 minutes.

As you probably already know about me, I’m quite thrifty and I like to get a bargain but this one takes the biscuit – I got this lovely retro table completely free! I was pretty lucky with this one, as it was sat outside a house nearby (I was just walking past back from the […]

In the best possible taste eh, Grayson Perry?

June 14, 2012.Reading time 2 minutes.

Last night I watched the Channel 4 programme by artist Grayson Perry ‘In the Best Possible Taste’ in which he researches the British class system for his recent artwork: 6 tapestries titled The Vanity of Small Differences. Grayson believes that taste is directly influenced by our class and has created the tapestries to show the […]