Janis Joplin, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, is just a few bands you can pull some inspiration from to bring back the "all you need is Love" days. Going with a retro inspired design these days is actually very modern and not out dated at all, it is all the rage. Keeping these four key elements in mind is sure to have you grooving back in time: color, lighting, furniture and accessories.
Colors - The grooviest color palette for your walls when recreating a retro feel is brown. Any shade of brown for your walls will be a perfect backdrop for all the playful patterns and tie-dye pillows you will be adding for finishing touches. A fun idea could be to paint three of the walls a shade of brown and then add retro inspired wallpaper to an accent wall. Any wallpaper with a repeating geometric shape pattern will work. Think lines, stripes, squares or circles. Having the neutral background with the brown will allow you to play with many other elements of color and still ensure a cool vibe without being too busy. Accenting with bold colors like orange, lime green, turquoise, or teal is sure to give the retro feel.
Lighting - Lighting for this space will play an important role for creating the mood. You want a soft orange glow to set a relaxing and chill mood. Try using a bright orange plastic or acrylic lamp shade. This will help add a fun accent color and cast an orange glow for a mellow vibe throughout the room - yeah baby!
Furniture - There are many options when it comes to retro inspired furniture as well. Plastic, bright colored chairs make great accent pieces. You can find anything from the chairs to your coffee table made of acrylic or plastic, and in abstract shapes as well. For the couch anything simple will do. You don't want the couch too busy, because with the patterned wallpaper, bright orange lamp, and the white fluffy sheepskin area rug you will not want to overdo it; however, you can still have personality in the choice. Choose a colorful couch that goes with the rest of your theme in the space, and add tie-dye throw pillows to top off the look. If you cannot find throw pillows it may be fun to make them. Buy stark white pillows and a tie-dye kit from a craft store, crank the Jefferson Airplanes and your flying high!
Accessories - Lava lamp, lava lamp, lava lamp! No retro inspired space is complete without one. It's the tell tale sign, if no one picked it up from the tie-dye pillows or white shag rug, that you are portraying a retro inspired space. Anything accented with bright colors, stripes, and tie-dye will fit in perfectly. Keeping fresh flowers and potted plants will also add to the flower child feel of the space.
This era was a blast, filled with good music and parties. Keep it fun and alive by considering the key elements mentioned above and you are grooving to your own tune of your new space!
