It seems that the weirder the world gets, these days, the more we find ourselves looking back to the past. And here is no single decade that exemplifies North American optimism as fully as the 1950s. No wonder it’s a popular theme in home decorating.
Get the look of the Fifties with strong clean lines, cheerful bright colors, and a few selected few accents that evoke that retro era, but have a more contemporary twist — maybe a mini-Wurlitzer, (StacksandStacks.com) a tabletop CD player juke box that’s also an AM/FM radio.
Spin a set of record label coasters (UncommonGoods.com) and your vintage formica tabletop is safe from those wicked cherry-cola spills. Bowls and snack trays in classic vinyl, too.
A little bit of Elvis
hip action, anyone?
Ah, the 1950s…
Ah, Happy Days…
We look back on it now as a time of post-war prosperity, a time when Hollywood glamour was just a Marilyn-style angora sweater away. A booming industrial economy promised a chrome-laden automobile in every suburban driveway, a high-speed highway for the open road, and an episode of “Leave It To Beaver” on the television after a nutritious family dinner of space-age convenience foods prepared in a whiz-bang kitchen full of shiny new labor-saving appliances.
For furniture inspiration, I turn to those great old roadside diners for something like a set of 1950s Diner Style chrome swivel bar stools (check OneStopDecor at Amazon), yes — but also to the fabulous cars of the era: all chrome and shining curves, with big bench seats on the interior, upholstered in solid-solor fabric or leather/vinyl that was stitched in simple verticals.
This was the heyday of the automobile, and it was also the very beginning of the true Atomic Age, remember, so everything was about power and progress and shooting for the moon. And, to be frank, the big boom of North America’s full-blown consumer culture. Vintage (or reproduction) advertising evokes the era like nothing else — Fifties decor “goes better with Coke!” and Coca-Cola collectibles continue to be incredibly popular.
Okay, so there’s something to get you started. And for more 1950s theme decor inspiration, take a cruise around BenniesFifties: it’s a little bit tacky, but then, so was that whole decade!
