Retro style is popular in different design projects and also in interior design. No doubt to get desirable results you need to know basic things about this style and things about how it can be adapted in your house. Here you can find different modalities of retro style and their role in interior design. 

What is retro style?

Technological progress influences  all spheres of our daily  life. It happens too fast and sometimes it is very difficult to follow the changing trends in the world. But sometimes you really want to return to the past and feel the breath of the past era. At least a little "catch the spirit" of that time. Many older people are nostalgic for the "Roaring Twenties", "Free Sixties" and "Bright Eighties". The stylization under the USSR of the 30s - 50s is also popular. And even some of today's youth may be quite interested in twentieth-century art history. That is why they often include some elements of the so-called "retro" style in clothes, shoes and even interiors.

Types of retro style

"Retro" style can be divided into several types: 

• older things are classified as antiques
• younger things in vintage style. 

It is important to decide which of these styles and eras appeals to you. Items in this style include cars, books, furniture, clothes, music, posters, cars, and household items. 

In this article we focus on household items in retro design reality. The 60s belong to the classic and brightest stage of retro. But retro is not always antiques. After all, you can simply take any items of our grandmothers or parents and turn it into a stylish, sophisticated piece of furniture. But the rest of the items should fit into the overall style of the interior design of the room or apartment.

The main elements of retro style:

• stationary and mobile pieces of furniture;
• the use of graphic patterns and geometric patterns on walls, furniture, carpets, wallpaper;
• materials used: glass, plastic, wood, chrome;
• a bold combination of color palettes;
• sofas and couches of unusual shapes and combinations.

What should be the furniture in this style? The main emphasis then was on a funny form. An unusual chair in the form of a flower, lips or a human palm will fit perfectly into the overall bright interior and will remind you a little of Andy Warhol's famous factory. All the furniture of that time was concise, light and elegant. If you need a more budget option, then your parents' garages and attics could well have a lot of interesting items lying around. They can be ennobled and breathe a new second life with the help of hauling, polishing and painting. And since it was the heyday of the hippie era, they often used the most unpredictable, crazy and incongruous colors - light green, sunny yellow, bright red, green, orange and pale blue. Ethnic motifs in interior decor and textiles were very popular. We used bright fabrics with colorful patterns for the upholstery of sofas and armchairs. All this fit into the general atmosphere of post-war joy, kindness, love and prosperity. In addition to bright colors in the interior, geometric patterns on carpets, upholstery and wallpaper were very popular: circles, squares, lines and squares.

Materials used for retro style objects

In terms of materials for making objects, they used wood for chairs, glass for coffee tables and plastic. By the way, there were no big wardrobes  that visually reduced space and occupied most of the room. Also they used small bedside tables, small tabletops, elegant coffee tables and hanging shelves for books. On the shelves they kept not only books, but also various figurines from travels, photographs. The book was a mandatory attribute of the interior. That is why various rounded floor lamps, pendant lamps and oblong chandeliers were widely used. Surely, now in many book markets and second-hand booksellers you can find an original book that has been gathering dust on the shelves for half a century and included in your library.

Also a characteristic element of the decor of the 60s were paintings and posters. The 60s were the years of the development of pop art and abstract expressionism, so on the walls one could often see images of Andy Warhol's famous soup can, a reproduction of a portrait of Marilyn Monroe and paintings by Jackson Pollock, which are large canvases depicting non-geometric brush strokes , using a quick drawing technique. An obligatory element of each apartment was an original clock.

The windows were decorated with curtains of light fabrics with floral prints, but the curtains should have been thicker. In kitchen design, for example, a soft mint green color was often used, but dishes and tablecloths were always bright.

Combining all these elements gives you a possibility to obtain desirable results and really to travel to another century. In the flat designed in retro style you will always have the possibility not only to enjoy your cozy and stylish apartment but also to organize thematic parties and invite your friends to share with them the perfect atmosphere of your redesigned apartment.