THE 1970s interiors bible
I was in Oxford overnight on saturday and the hotel I was staying in had a library whereupon I found on its shelves a book – nay the book – from the decade of my birth.* By one Terence Conran. The House Book was published in 1974 and is already recognised by industry-folk-in-the-know as a very good flick-through. They said as much on Instagram as soon as I got snap happy with it.
I can see why – amazing interiors aside, the book is full of handy advice delivered in nice fonts. I will now exclusively reveal to you that not that much has changed in interiors since the year of the book’s release, although we’re less forgiving of the electric fire nowadays.
The light was a bit poor in the library where I found it, but this will give you a general impression:
*I was born closer to the next decade mind, lets get that straight.
One-room living – bet Tezza had no clue just how necessary that chapter would be come 2015. #austerity.
Lets jump straight to the fireplaces now.
I could take both of those photographed, but see what I mean about the graphics on the accompanying page of text? ‘Sure Tel, I’ll draw 12 different ‘leccy fires for your book,’ is what i’m imaging the resident illustrator saying with a heavy sigh. FYI today it’d be wood burners.
Zig-zag decorating however? Yup that’s a thing again.
But how would you feel if the jazzy sofa came back?
I’ll leave you with the Kitchens chapter, which shows both how we’ve not moved on from open storage / displaying nice jugs and how carousels and pull-out largers still look ropey in a photograph.
Joking aside, the book is brilliant, I’ll be looking out for it at the next car boot.
Thanks for the reminder, I use to have a copy (and the 2nd edition and ten years of Habitat catalogues from the first one – lost them all along with a lot of other books in a messy divorce!)
Though I never had the money or the space to emulate Conran’s ideas I would enjoy looking through them in the same way as books on artists and works of art.
They do turn up in second-hand bookshops sometimes, hopefully one day I’ll find a copy!
Oh no Mike – well good luck in the second-hand bookshops. I won’t fight you for it if I see you.
Take a look for Conran house books here. So cheap and no postage charges.
http://www.awesomebooks.com/search/default.aspx?q=Terence+Conran+&mediatype=all&sc=82&sort=relevance_desc&c=all&pg=1&inc=1