Guest post- Color in the Sixties!

This article is provided by Adam.

It might have been fifty years ago, but the looks and colors of the nineteen sixties are as influential as ever. Not since the Baroque period had there been such an explosion of color. Men proudly sported pink shirts and women … well, we would not mention what women did to their bras.

After a period of drab austerity, where colour seemed to be have been rationed just as much as food and other necessities - and allied with scientific developments in new, bright pigmentation and materials like plastic - the world suddenly became as big and bright as a Jackson Pollock painting.

Mix in space travel, men on the moon, winning the World Cup, and mini skirts - and there was undoubtedly a new, dazzling optimism in the air. This was reflected in the way we styled our interiors, bringing color back into our lives big-time.

Warm, fully saturated colors like reds and oranges began to feature in wallpapers, carpets and curtains and great designers like Verner Panton revolutionised our interiors while artists like Mark Rothko began their formal experiments in color.

Where we might nowadays add a splash of red in a vase or centrepiece to accent an overall colour scheme - our approach in the sixties was more likely to accent a bold, hot toned red with a blob of cold, neutral grey. Some would say the approach was over the top, but it was undoubtedly daring and innovative and without the economic stability of the period it might not have happened.

Heralding in the seventies, the Vietnam War brought with it unemployment, uncertainty and self-doubt - and there was a sea change in cultural attitudes. The boldness began to fade, saturated colours mutated into muted, unsaturated colours, and the mini became the maxi. Pyschedelia was considered naïve and by the end of the period punk designers like Ron Arad were recycling found objects to make furniture and household accessories - paving the way, some would argue, for today’s popular industrial style of design.

We are now, in the twenty-first century, inhabit a more democratic design period. Tolerance and individual choice means the world of interior design encapsulates styles as different as shabby chic, traditional and baroque bohemia. For a wide, well thought out selection to revamp and revitalise your home - Design 55 are one of the best online stockists and really care about good-looking things.

So if you are going to decorate, do not just get yourself a wad of colour swatches, think about the mood you want to evoke - and use the colors of the past for inspiration to take control of your home in the present.