1950s and 60s interior design context

1950s:

Post war

·         During the war, people in Britain had become accustomed to living frugally. Rations and DIY tactics dictated  their everyday lives for 5 years, decorating their homes was the least of their worries.  Therefore, the end of the war introduced a whole new consumer. One, who felt so elated at their new found freedom to shop and buy, that really appreciated the idea of luxury.

·         The impact of the Second World War on the social, economic and physical fabric of Britain was immense. The task of reconstruction dominated the post-war years. The drive for modernity in the rebuilding of Britain changed the nation forever. Events such as the Festival of Britain in 1951 presented a progressive view of the future and in the decades after the war Britain’s cities and homes were transformed.

·         However, a preoccupation with British traditions was often just below the surface and the grand spectacle of the coronation in 1953 reaffirmed traditional values for a world-wide audience. For many, the heart of British tradition was seen to reside in the land and many artists and designers explored themes that celebrated rural life and the countryside.

·         From the 1950s a new generation of Britons challenged the values of their parents. The focus of design moved from reconstruction to revolution. In the 1960s and 1970s, fashion, music, shopping, interiors and film enjoyed a fresh prominence as expressions of identity or radical intent. To adapt a common phrase of the time, the personal became political – and visible.

·         Good design became more readily available to the average consumer with works by designers such as Day, Mahler, and Groag, as well as Paule Vezelay, Mary White and Mary Warren. These innovative designers contributed to the country’s spirit of renewal and helped define a historical turning point in the development of international textile design. 

·         The response to drab war-time design was a riot of brightly coloured textiles, printed in bold and sometimes humorous graphics, often in vivid pillar-box and claret reds and acid greens. 

·         While the new interiors magazines allowed Fifties housewives to pore over soft furnishings from their kitchen tables, it was developments in DIY tools which turned their dreams into practicable realities. It had previously been unthinkable to try to tart up your living room without skilled help, but ready-mixed wallpaper paste and electric power tools allowed the amateurs to transform their own interiors.

Interior Designer Profiles

Robin and Lucienne Day

The furniture designer ROBIN DAY (1915 - 2010) and his textile designer wife LUCIENNE (1917 - 2010) transformed British design after World War II by pioneering a new modern idiom. He experimented with new materials in inexpensive furniture for manufacturers like Hille and she revitalised textile design with vibrant patterns for Heals.

Like many architects and designers during the optimistic post-war period, the Days believed in the transformative power of modern design to make the world a better place. They rose to prominence during the 1951 Festival of Britain

Robin’s inventive response to technology reflected the positive, forward-looking mood of the early post-war era. His sparing use of materials and economical approach to construction, using the minimum number of components. From the outset Robin Day was a deeply moral and highly principled designer, who was not interested in making a design statement, but in solving practical problems in the most rigorous, efficient and cost-effective way.

The originality of Lucienne’s early patterns grew from her love of modern art. In 1957 Lucienne reflected:

“In the very few years since the end of the war, a new style of furnishing fabrics has emerged…. I suppose the most noticeable thing about it has been the reduction in popularity of patterns based on floral motifs and the replacement of these by non-representational patterns – generally executed in clear bright colours, and inspired by the modern abstract school of painting… Probably everyone’s boredom with wartime dreariness and lack of variety helped the establishment of this new and gayer trend.”

Jacqueline Groag

Czech-born Jacqueline Groag was one of the most versatile women designers of this period. From the colorful and playful to the abstract and representational, Groag’s work contributed to Britain’s spirit of renewal and defined the popular “contemporary” style. An extremely inventive artist with a finely tuned sense of color, Groag utilized collage and drawing to develop her exceptional child-like visions.

 

Many examples of her work were featured prominently at the Festival of Britain and from then on she became a major influence on pattern design internationally. She developed a large client group in the United States during the fifties and sixties, amongst whom were Associated American Artists, Hallmark Cards and American Greetings Ohio. In the later 1950s and throughout the 1960s, she became increasingly involved with Sir Misha Black and the Design Research Unit (D.R. U.), working on the interiors for boats and planes and trains, particularly the design of textiles and plastic laminates for BOAC and British Rail. One of her last commissions from Misha Black, in the mid-seventies was a distinctive moquette for London Transport, for seating on both buses and tube trains. Her work and influence did not just extend to the large corporations and exclusive couturiers but was familiar to the general public through stores and companies such as John Lewis, Liberty of London, David Whitehead, Edinburgh Weavers, Sandersons, Warerite and Formica.

Photos from: Fiftiestyle: home decoration and furnishings from the 1950s by Lesley Hoskins

From the Geoffrey museum http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/period-rooms-and-gardens/explore-rooms/living-room-1965/

Living room, 1965

A living room in 1965 photographed by Chris Ridley

This open-plan, living/dining room is based on that of a typical town-house of the early 1960s in Highgate, North London. The large windows and double-height dining area were designed to create an impression of space. These houses were generally fitted with a central heating system, making the television rather than the fireplace the focus of the room. Social and domestic conventions relaxed considerably in the 1960s, and the family living room now had to provide for activities like homework, watching television, eating and entertaining. 

The room is furnished in the ‘Contemporary’ style, which was influenced by Scandinavian interiors and, in particular, Danish design. The furniture was plain and undecorated, and the wood was simply varnished. Chairs were upholstered in textured woven fabrics. In modern interiors walls were often painted white, and pattern and colour were largely confined to the soft furnishings. The floor was often of wood parquet blocks, as here, with a rug laid in the centre of the room to add contrast in colour and texture. The low coffee table was introduced in this period, designed so as not to obstruct the view of the television and to provide a surface for magazines, drinks and snacks.