70s interi­or design book

Published Categorised as Book scans, Books, Popular Posts, Retro Stuff 1 Comment on 70s interi­or design book

Here are some scans from a 1970s interi­or design book- House by Terrence Conran. Some of the stuff in it is really really 70s look­ing, and some is very clean and time­less-look­ing. The pictures I’ve scanned are a mix of the two categor­ies. I just scanned the pictures that appealed to me, as it’s a massive book. Some of them are a little grainy due to the print­ing tech­nique. I scanned anoth­er 70s interi­or book I have here.

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The book starts with the exter­i­or, and then works its way through room by room, with build­ing and archi­tec­tur­al advice as well as decor tips. The exter­i­or section recom­mends doing some horrif­ic things to fine Victori­an brick­work with brown paint. There was a time in the middle of the 20th Century when no-one seemed to want Victori­an terraces. My nan was happy when her two-up two-down in Batter­sea was knocked down and she was given a modern flat instead because it had prop­er plumb­ing and heat­ing (noth­ing that couldn’t have been fitted to the old house). Now people pay a small fortune for the identic­al houses on the next street, and people think the 60s flats are ugly.

My dad also remem­bers help­ing friends nail sheets of plywood onto the panelled doors in their houses in the 50s and 60s to get the modern flat door lookMy dad spent his whole life as a build­ing survey­or. He wanted to be an archi­tect really, but it took long enough to finish the night school classes to be a survey­or. He had/​has a side­line in design­ing exten­sions and renov­a­tions for people and doing the plan­ning applic­a­tions, though, but I don’t think he’s ever designed a whole build­ing from scratch, and he’s a bit old to start now. You go anywhere with him, and you get an impromptu archi­tec­ture quiz/​lecture about the build­ings along the way. If anyone ever threatens to shoot me unless I answer wheth­er those semis are Edwar­d­i­an or inter-war, I’m sorted. Apart from that, it’s a useless skill.

Anyway, I do like these blinds.
(Late Victori­an, I’d say- bay windows and elab­or­ate porch, but sash windows on the side. Useful, huh?)

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Pretty much my ideal kitchen. Glan­cing at the side­board makes me see a laptop with my modern eyes.

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I like this enorm­ous room too, although watch­ing the tv on that book­shelf looks a bit awkward. The room looks like it could do with a piano I think though, for the full effect.

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The floor­ing section has these really pretty water­col­our floor­plans.

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A living room for inter­galactic voyaging.

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Vari­ous ultra-70s door treat­ments. The one on the bottom left isn’t glass, it’s silver foil.

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Guar­an­teed to smell of patchouli.

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The complete oppos­ite. It really looks like a double bed edition of UK univer­sity accom­mod­a­tion.

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This is my favour­ite thing in the book, a studio flat belong­ing to an artist.

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And to finish, some elab­or­ate topi­ary of terri­ers.

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