Side order

WE all love to have beautiful things in our homes, but it really just takes one carefully chosen object, something we might call a conversation piece, to transform a room and have your friends talking, and it doesn’t have to cost the earth.

The design industry keeps churning out new products to tempt us into a spending spree, but bear in mind that it’s also nice just to muse on what’s new and give ourselves something to aspire to, or to inspire us.

Think about the sideboard, so beloved by 1960s and ‘70s designers who chased after the Danish design look. Nowadays the sideboard is back, big-time, and it’s not just new versions reflecting contemporary design trends. Authentic sideboards from the 1950’s, ‘60s and 70’s are hugely in demand. Next time you call to your auntie’s house, check out her G-Plan version which made her the envy of her friends and neighbours in the ‘70s, but by the time you sat up and took notice of furniture as anything other than a spot to sit and slob upon, these little retro treasures were decidedly out of fashion. Thankfully, the parsimony of an earlier generation meant most people hung on to theirs, not least because the quality of these sideboards is very good. Mass-produced on a small scale, of sorts, the materials used tended to be teak and mahogany, both of which are darn hard to come by these days.