The King's Speech Effect

Maybe it's something to do with everyone raving about The Kings Speech (which I still haven't seen), or maybe it's an addiction to Country House Rescue, either way I'm finding myself drawn to interiors with a sense of history and a touch of grungy faded grandeur at the moment.

Eve Stewart the production designer behind The King's Speech says "It would have been tempting to make everything look lush, but it was the Depression and no one did things up". I think that's essentially the resonance of these type of interiors at the moment and also, aside from the fact that most of us can't afford the absurdly expensive statement furniture that design magazines fed us images of during the party decade, there's something very solid and reassuring about a house that's stood the test of time. In uncertain times we're drawn to the familiar and even the tradtional.

Despite the fact that I am at heart, a modernist and love the the clean uniterrupted lines and surfaces of our 1960s style house, there are times when I just crave a decorative architrave, some solid time worn timber or a glimpse of long forgotten colour revealing itself through the peeling paintwork of an old door. 

This recession constrained colour palette of ochre and grey appeals to me.  So too does the sense of atmosphere and theatricality. The damp and and draughts associated with older houses - less so.  I think I'll be sticking with our central heating and clean(ish) white space for the most part and just adding a few aged touches - a scruffy old desk and an original 1930s anglepoise lamp (on which the enamel paint has started to wear off) for starters.  As for the country house style fantasy... well there are always hotels if you feel the need to indulge yourself in that kind of thing.

If you loved the interiors on The King's Speech you may find this article in The Guardian interesting.  You may also enjoy this interview with Eve Stewart where I came across these fascinating production design sketches of Logue's consulting rooms.

What do you think?  Did you like The King's Speech?  Have your design influences changed at all over the past few years in response to the economic climate? 

Images: 1. The Kings Speech, 2. Tine K, 3. 6. & 9. Bloom Magazine, 4. 5. & 8.Honeywell Farm via Design Tripper 7. Factory 20 10. The home of Danish designer Henrik Busk and his wife Stine featured in Skona Hem via Poppytalk. 11. & 12. Production design sketches for The King's Speech by Eve Stewart via ICG Magazine.

Comments

[Lotte and Bloom]

fabulous, these images are a wonderful accompaniment too...