1950s Contemporary Style Homes

Furniture

• Many 1950's designers are still hugely popular for contemporary interiors. The 1950's style is typified by materials like plastic and bent plywood and simple, elegant shapes with minimal adornment. Inspired by the Bauhaus, 1950's designers looked for their designs to be fit for purpose, rather than overly decorative. Designers to look out for are Arne Jacobsen, famous for the Ant chair that still makes a great dining chair today, and Charles and Ray Eames, whose lounge chair and fiberglass rockers are typical 1950's furniture designs that would look great in a contemporary interior.

Textiles

• Textiles in the 1950s typically feature simplified motifs, inspired by the art nouveau movement and the modern atomica trend. Look for designs that feature stylized leaf and plant motifs, and use them as cushions in a contemporary interior. Lucienne Day is a good name to look out for in textile design from the '50s. Boucle was popular in the '50s, so use it as an upholstery fabric in a contemporary interior.

Accessories

• Use 1950's-inspired accessories to bring a touch of mid-century style to a contemporary home. Look for sunburst or atomica-inspired clocks, and tripod lamps designed by names such as Eames and George Nelson. Fornasetti designed wonderful decoupage-style accessories in the '50s, including plates and magazine racks. Murano glass ducks were popular ornaments and are collectable today. A bakelite telephone would complete the look.

Color Schemes

• Sugary pinks, pale teal blues and mustard yellow were all in fashion in the '50s, and adopting an ice-cream color palette is a great way of bringing '50s style into a contemporary home. Don't slavishly recreate the mid-century color scheme, but use one or two of the colors as highlights in a neutral color palette, or use more muted, pastel, versions of the colors to contemporize the '50's color scheme.