The 1950's diner style

Recently, there was a new restaurant that opened up in Leeds, and they’ve gone for the typical 1950’s diner style when it comes to both food and interior. Well… they’ve tried to make the restaurant look this way, but they didn’t do a very good job with it! It looks a bit tacky to be honest…

The real 50’s diner style should look like it does in “Grease”, with lots of pink, turquoise and red. And the black and white chess-like floor of course!

Booths with colourful leather sofas, plastic or leather barstools, and lots of shiny chrome. Just like the cars at the time looked like as well.

Have a look at the amazing diners below, and get inspired!

This image is actually of an original diner of the 1950's. It's called Peggy Sue's Diner and is located in the States. Notice how the checked floor is of the typical 50's muscle car colours light pink and turquoise rather than black and white.

This last image is of someone's private kitchen. I think it's amazing how they achieved to create a 1950's diner look in their own home. This style can actually be quite simple to create if you’re a handy person who’s up for fixing stuff yourself. As you can see the kitchen cupboards are just black, so you don’t really have to think about them – they’re only basic. All you actually need to do is add a lick of paint to your wall, and in this case also the kitchen worktop. What really makes the 50’s diner style is the little details such as the red lamps and the barstools. Lamps like that can be found in most lamp shops, and you can purchase barstools of this style in shops such as Lakeland Furniture.

H&M's Autumn home range

Although I’m a Swede and you’ll find the Swedish fashion store H&M in every town back home, I’ve never actually come across a single one of their shops that store their home range. It was only recently that I discovered their home range on their UK website, and it was love at first sight!

For their latest collection they’ve mainly focused on two different styles; the bohemian look with lots of patterns and bold colours, as well as the French countryside look with linen fabrics and pale creamy hues.

Just have a look at these stunning photos below, taken from their website;

I really like the colour explosion in this pretty kitchen, and below you can see all the different products you’ll need to create this look yourself. That table runner has got a really lovely pattern with hues of purple, orange and pink.

This is what I meant by French countryside style. Old fashioned prints and pale creamy colours creates such a homey feeling – it kind of reminds me of a picturesque summer cottage.

H&M also stores more classic decorations, such as bedroom accents like duvet covers and throws. What style do you prefer?

Different dining set styles

I know we only just redecorated both our bathrooms (something that was far from cheap), but we’re already thinking of other projects for our 2 floor house. My boyfriend wants to do a loft conversion, but I’m not sure if I’m up for that suggestion. We really don’t need that extra space, but this might be something we’ll do in the future if we’re thinking of selling – just to increase the value of the house. The second thing we’re thinking of is turning the garage into a dining room. The garage is connected to the house and is placed wall to wall with the living room, so it would be perfect to turn into a dining room since we’re not using it for our car anyway. We would in that case replace the big garage door with a massive floor to ceiling window, which would make it a really nice and light room.

I’ve been dreaming away for a bit, looking at a few dining sets – I really don’t know what style I would go for…

We could either go for something classic such as this oak dining table with padded leather chairs from G Plan Heritage – it’s a set that would go with most styles, and it would certainly add a stylish feel to a dining room. I really love the fact that the table is oval rather than rectangular, and the chairs look really classy.

 Another style to opt for is the contemporary style, which is completely opposite to the aforementioned one. This set is made of chrome and black glass, with accompanying chairs of faux leather – a very modern and stylish option called Tempo dining set.

We would still have a table and chairs in our kitchen, but we would probably go for something small and simple, such as this super cute summer cottage like set in buttermilk finish. This would give us more space as well, and we would even be able to fit some sort of display cabinet in there – something I’ve been wanting for ages. I’ve got a lot of designer glassware that I would love to display, but at the moment they’re just spread out over the whole house. I would love a place to have them all collected.

Anyway… enough dreaming for now! :)

Shabby Chic vs Belgravia furniture

A bit of a follow up post from the last one I wrote... except, instead of writing about creating your own Shabby Chic furniture I'm gonna tell you where to buy brand new furniture with an old fashioned style. As a Swede, it's quite obvious that I have a love for IKEA, but... (yes, there is a but) even though basic furniture can be great and easy to match with, it can get a bit plain and boring looking in the end. 

I recently discovered the online furniture store Hunters at Home who specialises in Shabby Chic furniture as well as Belgravia furniture. Belgravia furniture is quite similar to the Shabby Chic style, but they're a bit cleaner and more posh. Belgravia furniture also have more swirly patterns in them. I read somewhere that Belgravia furniture originally came from the posh parts of old London, which I'm sure is right. I can just imagine an old wealthy Victorian family living in a London apartment full of fancy Belgravia white furniture.

Just look at these gorgeous pieces of Belgravia furniture in the collage I created below. I really love this classic vintage feel, and the great thing about this style is that even though it's quite a simple style, just like the Shabby Chic style, it looks super elegant with the swirly patterns carved out of the wood. I actually have a couple of pieces very similar to some of these in my guest bedroom - an antique bureau and a painted white bookcase. If I could, I would fill the whole room with Belgravia bedroom furniture from Hunters at Home, but unfortunately it's quite a small room, so for now the two pieces I have are going to have to be enough.

 The bookcase I have is actually quite similar to the one here below, except it hasn't got any swirls. I would really love to swap the one I've got for this one instead - it's such a beautiful piece of furniture. For you who are on the lookout for some new furniture for your home I'd really recommend you to go and have a look at Hunters at Home. Their prices are actually really reasonable - something I was quite surprised about since they offer a range of speciality furniture.

Bring new life to old furniture

In many homes you’ll find a heritage of antique furniture – I for myself have a couple of old pieces that I was given when my grandparents passed away.

Although you might like the thought of antique furniture, they might not suit your style. Most antique furniture come in dark wooden materials, and with such dark colours a room can sometimes look a bit too dark and gloomy.

It might be a gorgeous piece of furniture you’ve got, but it just doesn’t fit the rest of your interiors. For sentimental reasons you might not want to get rid of it – so what can you do?

The Shabby Chic style has grown extremely popular during the last few years, and this is a great modern style that is easy to achieve with just some paint and some sandpaper. The most common colour to use when creating a Shabby Chic style is white, but why follow the stream when you can create something fantastically creative. Get that old bookcase, kitchen table or cabinet out and go crazy with colours! Dare to be differnet – believe me – you’ll thank yourself when you see the result. Read the old post of mine called How to paint Shabby Chic furniture for more info and tricks on how to best achieve the Shabby Chic look.