How to Add a Retro Feel to Your Modern Home
The love for vintage style, timeless antiques and retro touches hasn’t disappeared from modern interior design, and it would seem that we’re still obsessed with all things retro when it comes to decorating and furnishing our homes. But how do you add the right amount of vintage to a property to enhance it rather than make it feel dated? The trick is to be intentional with what you choose – here are some valuable tips for adding a retro feel to a modern property.
Don’t be afraid of layering textures
Homes of previous decades were filled with tactile materials, from boucle fabric sofas and wicker furniture to wooden parquet flooring and macrame wall hangings. Mixing textures creates interest but also comfort, and it’s easy to bring this retroelement into your home without it feeling too over the top or dated.
Add a shag-style rug under your furniture, decorate with mirrors framed by rustic wood or add a fringed cushion to an antique leather armchair for a balance of texture that mixes materials and eras. Another option for a mid-century look to any room is to pair wooden pieces with resin or plastic furniture, like a coffee or console table. The key here is to mix soft and strong, modern and aged, for contrast and elegance.
Get creative with flooring
The floor of any room is a big feature, so to inspire a retro feel, it needs to be in keeping with the time period you’re striving for. Flooring specialists Harvey Maria believe “a statement luxury vinyl tile floor holds the key to achieving an authentic retro feel. Tiles can be laid as a checkerboard effect or uniform with a bevelled edge – pair with crisp white furnishings for a modern take on a retro-style”.
Whether you choose to redecorate your kitchen, hallway or living room, the classic checkerboard style instantly gives a retro diner look and works so well with modern and vintage pieces.
Decorate with vintage colours
There are certain colour schemes that instantly evoke a more retro feel, such as avocado green, terracotta and mustard yellow. The right colour palette can instantly transform a space from modern and contemporary to vintage, and it’s an easy swap that doesn’t look too old fashioned.
Choose muted shades over bold tones for a colour scheme that is fresh, fashionable and inspiring but also provides that all-important classic look of the era you’re mimicking. However, if bold colours are more your thing, decorating supply company, Lick, recommend using them as feature colours: “strong accent colours pair beautifully in smaller areas and woodwork, or make wonderful accents in little nooks and archways”. They love the combination of blue and orange as focal points against neutrals such as white for a stand-out look.
Get the lighting right
Lighting creates a certain ambience in a room, and depending on the look you’re trying to achieve, that ambience can either be classic or contemporary. Mid-century homes were partial to large, sculptural pendant lights that served as a focal point in the room, and there was often a fusion of different styles. Alternatively, you may want to go for the domed mushroom lamps of the 1970s that celebrated geometric shapes.
So, instead of matching lamp sets, why not choose a bold centrepiece for the room paired with a vintage table lamp in a different style? Searching for a genuine second-hand classic can amp up the retro feel even more and creates an impactful look. Small items can often make all the difference in tying the room together and evoking a vintage look.
Create a gallery wall
Make use of your local jumble sales and second-hand shops to seek out antique artwork and frames, then create a gallery wall in the home of your finds. Focus on styles from the period you’re passionate about, such as art from the ‘50s or 1970s paintings and photographs, to really showcase the era without completely overhauling the whole room.
The pairing of vintage frames will also help with this. Modern frames won’t achieve the same aesthetic, as they’ll look out of place against the older art. You want a mix of sizes, colours and styles to create a unique result.
In summary
Retro homes are inspiring and creative, and they’re easy to achieve with the right balance of modern and classic. Put your own spin on vintage pieces by mixing contemporary items with older pieces for balanced decor for a fresh take on retro that won’t look too outdated or out of place. The best way to add a retro feel to your property is to cherry-pick key features, colours or items and build the rest of the room around them, so it’s not too overwhelming or stuck in one era in particular.
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