Category: Design and Interiors

Looking every bit the big and bold 60s pop art design piece is the Dada chair by Enzo Berti.

It’s actually a fairly recent piece from the award-winning Italian designer, but taking influence from the dadaist movement, which stood as the negation of all rational and received ideas. And you get any less rational than a hand-shaped polyethylene chair for your garden (with most people probably preferring something cheap from the local DIY store).

It’s sized at 70cm (h), 65cm (w) and 80cm (d) and retails for £295.

Find out more at the Panik Design website

Maybe it is because it is cold, and I keep fancying a nice cup of tea, but there seem to be a lot nice mugs around at the moment. These Maxwell and Williams Gigi mugs are very cool and great value.

We have featured here the black version, but there are eight designs available, each with a different retro girl featured on them.

At only £3.50 each they are a great gift idea, or if you want a bargain you can get all eight and pay for only six, for only £21 at Verynice2.com.

Find out more at Verynice2.com

If you look at some vintage design books from the 60s and 70s (including early versions of Conran’s House Book), you’ll see not see the gas and electric fires that were probably in your parents’ homes, you’ll see some weird and wonderful real fireplaces as a focal point of a room. And you can still buy similar designs.

Diligence in Devon do some fantastic wood burners, including the Bathyscafocus space age wood burner. Suspended from the ceiling, it’s designed for the centre of a room rather than on a wall. That’s because it spins round, allowing you to enjoy the heat wherever you are.

A stunning piece of retro design, you can pick one up for your space age pad for £4,215. And check out the website for more design, images and clips of the fireplaces in action.

Find out more at the Diligence website

We’ve featured a few smart-looking magazine racks in the past, including the Giotto Stoppino Magazine Rack and the Isokon Penguin Donkey. Well, here’s another interesting design to consider – the Mela Magazine Rack by Umbra.

It’s very much in keeping with the 70s space age look, especially with its tulip-style base. There’s plenty of room inside to dump your magazines and newspapers. The only downside is a lack of colour choice – just the black for now.

Available online, you can pick one up for £55.

Find out more at the Amaroni website

Another potential item for your space age pad, this time the Hirohito Saito Space Clock.

It’s a modern piece, available in red or blue, with a 47cm diameter and made of fibreglass and metal. The clock has a gel coating that allows light to pass through it, creating a glowing finish when it catches the sun or light.

A great item for a 70s-inspired home, it’s available from the Conran Shop for £58.

Find out more at the Conran Shop website

There’s rarely anything excited or interesting to say about the pull cord for a light, but there’s got to be one exception – and that exception is the Edison Light Cord Pull.

As the name suggests, this is all about lightbulbs. If you want to turn on the one on your ceiling, you simply pull the blue or white traditional screw-in bulb at the end of the cord and you’ll get some light. Even better – the bulbs glow in the dark, so the cord should be easy to find late at night (so might be well-suited to your bathroom).

Available online, they retail for £13.50.

Find out more at the Panik Design website