Monday, August 10, 2009

Not so 80s

I love interior design books. I used to buy them regularly but now with so many fabulous home decor blogs out there and with high quality "coffee table books" getting so expensive I tend to use the internet more for my inspiration.

It's always a treat to come across a nice interior design book in an op shop or at a market, however they're usually out of date and not very relevant to current design. I recently came across Terence Conran's "New House Book" in Vinnie's, I looked at the copyright page and saw it was published in 1985. At only $2 though I decided to buy it anyway, planning to take it home and have a chuckle at what was considered stylish in the 80s.

However when I looked through it I was interested to see that many of the interiors featured would look perfectly at home in today's top design books, here are a few...


These gorgeous rooms, photographed almost 25 years ago just go to illustrate that simple design, with vintage touches, is pretty much timeless.

What kid wouldn't love one of the above rooms?

The book is also full of practical advice on room layout, renovation procedures, materials to use etc. So what was originally a $2 purchase for a bit of a laugh has now become one of my favourite home decor books :-)

3 comments:

The Queen of Clearance said...

those are very nice rooms! Im surprised that even tho the book was older the designs are still something that I would have in my home today! I think that is a great find for $2!

home girl said...

great find, i have the original house book which i paid much more for from a 2nd hand bookdealer and ordered specially. its one of my fav books. late 70's but most of it still totally modern. lots of quirky affordable ideas too that i love. we will have to get together and compare the books one day when they invent interstate teleporting!

Missa said...

I love thrifting old home decor books! So much of modern design is some sort of through back to bygone eras that it's kind of like going straight to the inspiration source or something if that makes any sense.

I need to take pictures of my home books from the 70's for a post soon, they are such gems!