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Culture |
How to make you home more 80's: Is it feeling all to uncomfortably modern in you home? Well if you want to step back in time and be rid of cheery modern decor you've come to the right place for help. I'm extremely puritan about the eightiesnes of my home and won't have any modern rubbish in here, in fact I even keep a selection of denim clothing and frosted make-up by the front door to lend to people before they enter! Well i'm not that bad..... Yet, but I strongly believe a rubix cube and intelivision placed ostentatiously on a coffee table is NOT retro decor! For that really time-machine effect you need to be quite excessive, selective and sometimes creative with what you have. News flash: Artex and texture paper isn't just something people do to hide the giant subsidance cracks in the walls when selling their house! Trust me when I say that there is nothing like a swirled artex ceiling and beige wood chip to drag you screaming and kicking back to the past by your frizzy permed hair. If you go to the right kind of shop you can find all your favourite texture papers realy cheap, then all you have to do is pick the best 80s paint colors to match. Tile transfers: All it takes is a few geometric tile transfers and you've added at least fifteen years to the age of your bathroom. Find old stuff at jumble sales, car boot sales and garage sales. You can find great bargains there and have fun looking too, the amount of times i've been inspired by something i've seen or thought something like "Wow that's a nifty retro thing i'd forgoton about or haven't seen in ages". There are just some things you can't buy in a shop now, no mater how much you are willing to spend. So if you want to find great priced retro stuff or want to break away from the over-mass-produced high street feel of shops, you'll have to try second hand sales. Self adhesive stick on faux wood laminate! Do you remember when everything came with that fake plastic wood effect, and it was really tough and lasted forever? Well now you can make anything look retro while renewing the finish with this easily applied self adhesive laminate. The stuff I found is called Venilia, I expect your local DIY/decorating store will have a similar product for sale. I've already used it to cover a badly scratched fridge, some dented Hi-Fi speakers and recover a old car dashboard. Posters are the best, easiest and quickest way to create a retro feel, provided they are from about the right time. You can find original posters on Ebay, but they are usually mega-pricy. So what does the non rich person who won't spend huge amounts of money on paper do for old posters? Well you can sometimes find re-prints of old band and movie posters online or in shops cheaply. Or look in magazines like Melody Maker for older posters. A creative way i'm hoping to try is when I get a photo real printer I can download pictures and print them as posters. Don't hide your records in cabinets! Things like shelves of records or books add unintentional depth due to the varying sizes colours and patterns created when put on a shelf, and also help any retro decor. Denim is a great fabric for clothing, but few people have considered it's potential for use in a retro decor atmosphere. The more creative people could cover a whole sofa with it, but as an easy fun project try this; Get some old padded seat chairs, and find some tatty old denim jackets for about 50p in Oxfam's bargain bin. You will notice that underneath most chairs have some simple clips holding the seat on, once you've got the seat off put the large sections of fabric on the back of the jacket over the top of the seat. It really won't matter if the original jacket seams show as they just add to the effect and look deliberate. Then with a heavy duty stapler staple the fabric to the underside of the seat like the original fabric, trim round the edges and replace. This also works for leather jackets, but they are harder to find in Oxfam's bargain bin! Retro record ash trays. To make these you need: Some really dorky sad vinyl records (Handy hint: Try your little sisters room). You also need some boiling water and a large container like a kitchen sink that's big enough to accommodate the whole LP (Note: some peoples mother's like mine won't appreciate you re-forming records in their kitchen) Step one, place the really dorky sad vinyl record in the boiling water for five/ten minutes, be sure to keep watch for both mother and little sister at this point! Step two. carefully remove record from water (Note i'm sure you mother has some sort of strange kitchen implement that could be adapted to this use, and if your really carefully you'll only leave minimal plastic deposits on it) Step three. slowly bend record to desired shape and use a biro to mould the places to prop ciggies, (Handy hint: try to bend slowly but finish moulding soon as possible because the record goes brittle quick) . You are now ready to enjoy your first Retro record Ash Tray cigarette! NOTE: you may want to fill the hole in the middle, and yes, I am aware hot cigarette ash and ends pemantly mark this ash tray and make it butt-ugly after a few months! You can also make bowls this way, but there not to good for food which falls out the centre hole and sticks in the grooves. In fact there just plain gimmicky and useless, just the way all retro accessories should be! I will be adding to these throughout the future, and if you have any nifty 80's decorating tips just send them to me for inclusion here. |
