8 Interior Design Trends from 1966

If you suddenly found yourself back in 1966, you’d see homes filled with a unique blend of styles, colours, and designs. The 1960s was when interior designers revisited older styles, not for nostalgia, but because they added value to how people lived.

Designers at that time appreciated good design from the past while also looking ahead to the future. This was different from many designers today who focus more on current trends.

The mid-1960s had its own unique design rules. People mixed colours and patterns in new ways, and elegant furniture could share a room with rustic, textured walls. Here’s a glimpse into some of those 1960s design trends:

1. The Victorian Fillip

A few things can be as sexy in a room as the elegant curves of one good piece of Victorian furniture. Delightfully out of context, an elegant old roll-arm sofa covered in white velvet sits calmly amid the most straight-lined mid-twentieth-century furniture.

2. Moorish Complexity

The fascinating complexity of the pattern the ancient Moors were fond of cut a swathe in this garden room. The vinyl tile is in four colours and laid right up and over the pool. The antique grillwork is screening the glass doors. The iron bosses stud the plastic-surfaced bank of closets like a Sultan’s front door. In sympathy with the Morrocan tradition: quiet, legless, floor-hugging chairs covered with lush, plushy fabric.

3. Lowered Levels

Closer-to-the-floor furniture became an apt and remedial answer to low-ceiling rooms, in this below-eye-level arrangement. All the table that hugs the floor include flat poufs and backrests, rise to normal-height seats with low chair backs. Cubes between chairs can be sat on or topped with marble slabs. They can even cradle a record player kept dustless with a plastic bubble.

4. Mirror Magic

A mirrored wall makes a room look bigger and brighter, especially if it has a fancy Venetian mirror like this one. Another cool trick is to use a single light colour mixed with white. It makes the room feel fresh and clean. You can use three-fold screens in the corners instead of over-curtains to enhance the look.

5. Pattern Medleys

Paisley, blown up to proportions it never knew in a shawl, makes this Kitchen’s most dashing of pick-me-ups. Reflecting a 1960s trend towards combining patterns, the next-door dining room is dressed in the same colours (but with less abandon) in a wallpaper patterned with stripes and circles and door-hung, accordion-fold shade printed to match.

6. Nineteenth Century design, 1960s colours

Nineteenth-century furniture surrounded by a spate of bright colours was a coming idea that appealed to people who liked antiques but disliked fustiness. In the mid-60s, “parlour” was styled after the nineteenth century. A vibrant rug, vivid walls, and the inspired use of the curtains’ floral border as a frieze.

7. Brown and White

Softer, subtler, less pungent than black and white, brown teamed with white made velvety news. Nipped with yellow accents, they made news here: on the walls with a flocked paper and in the foyer with stretched plissé—the windows with plissé over-curtains framing white curtains held taut by rods, top and bottom. Fresh touches at the time were a mirrored screen to add sparkle and velvet patchwork cushions.

8. Calculated Contrast

In the 1960s, people started using old fancy furniture with simple walls instead of fancy ones. In this living room, rough wood walls go well with rich fabrics and a mix of old items. An excellent idea is to group Canton China pieces like a bouquet.

Sources

Leonard, T. (1966, January). Great Expectations: The materials, designs, colours, patterns, and arrangements you will see a great deal more of in 1966. House & Garden.

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