When designers, manufacturers, and customers talk about retro furniture, they're often referring to a style of furniture that pays homage to styles that were popular years ago. That is, retro furniture was popular in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Furniture from the 1970s refers to the furniture style popular in the 1970s. Often, furniture was placed with eye-catching fabric patterns and colors.
The eye-catching designs and prints were also used profusely in other decorations. Other design elements found in furniture and interior decoration in the 1970s included the use of brown, purple, orange and yellow colors (sometimes all in the same piece of fabric), furry furry rugs, textured walls, lacquered furniture, eye-catching lamp shades, lava lamps, and molded plastic furniture. Velvet furniture was a big hit in the 1970s and is still present in modern home decor. From retro sofas to a cushion with a touch of color, velvet is a great way to add texture and luxury to your living room.
Over the centuries, furniture fashion has shifted from classic, ornate styles to contemporary furniture styles that blur the lines between art and functionality. Now that you know which of the different furniture styles and design elements are your favorites, you can surround yourself even more with the design you like. For the untrained eye, identifying the specific style or era from which a piece of furniture comes is not always easy. As you'll see in the list of furniture styles below, modern and contemporary are actually different types of design in and of themselves.
While colonial furniture could be said to be a form of traditional furniture, it encompasses a wider variety of styles from the British colonial period. I think I still associate them with a more traditional and timeless style, but they also have some modern and contemporary furniture. Louis XVI furniture is characterized by Greco-Roman influence, straight lines, classic motifs such as stretch marks and richly carved details. Here's a summary of historic furniture styles and the key characteristics of these traditional furniture styles, many of which were influenced by classic furniture styles.
First, we'll look at historic furniture styles that go back hundreds of years, influenced by classic furniture styles that are even older. While you can find historic furniture styles in specialty stores, today's styles are very different. While mid-century modern furniture technically belongs to the era of retro furniture, most of the design pieces associated with that style are considered ingenious and highly valuable examples of classic design that will always be appealing (and 50 years from now, they will surely be considered desirable antiques).
