According to EyeonHousing.com, half of owner-occupied homes were built before 1980. That could be just one of many reasons why many homebuyers and homeowners are going more “retro” in their decorating styles. Retro pieces of furniture, art, and accessories, whether antique, reproduction or derivative, can bring unique personality to any home.

TheSpruce.com explains that home décor has always mixed the old with the new. Retro is widely thought to mean Mid-century design, but it can also include nods from other eras, including Art Deco and Modernism from the 1920s to the 1940s. Both post-war, these modernistic motifs reflect large lifestyle changes, and are based in the joys of progress and optimism for the future.

Art Deco décor: The 1920s was a time of wealth, optimism, and confidence, concepts reflected by geometric shapes, opulent details, shiny surfaces, luxurious fabrics and vertical lines. Art Deco décor pays homage to the technical achievements that produced skyscrapers, planes, trains and automobiles. Machine-made objects such as toasters, blenders, refrigerators and vacuum cleaners revolutionized housekeeping. Bring Art Deco influences into your home with brass, chrome, statuary, luxe fabrics like brocade, velvet and suede, rounded seating and bold colors like emerald green, black and gold.  

Mid-century décor: Mid-century design takes inspiration from suburbia, highway travel, the invention of jet airplanes and easier international travel, and the Space Race of the 1950s to the 1960s. It’s practical, sleek, uncluttered, and features light cheerful colors, low furniture with exposed legs, and new materials like plastic, rayon, acrylic and Formica.