Five Decades of Design

Interior Design Trends | 24.09.2018

This year, Andrew Martin celebrates 40 years since it first flung open its doors to the interiors scene in 1978.

Please share your favourite Andrew Martin classics on Instagram with our tag @andrewmartin_int and the hashtag #5decadesofdesign for the chance to win this year's Andrew Martin Interior Design Review.

The last five decades seem to have encompassed a stratosphere of change. As Martin comments: 'The 1970s may have been the decade that taste forgot but it was also an age of exuberant expectation of a future that has only come to pass in part. Food has improved beyond recognition and communication has exploded but hover cars, lunch in a pill, England winning the World Cup are all as far away as ever. Mortgages, Mick Jagger and Star Wars are still with us, Communism, Concord and cassettes are not.'

Here we travel back and celebrate some of the Andrew Martin's highlights: from championing African kuba cloth to repaving the Silk Route; pairing battered leather trunks with flashing neon posterboards. Coining the Andrew Martin brand of Fusion Interiors, where influence is forever taken from an assortment of styles, cultures and eras, see how Martin's multilayered approach to design has become a cornerstone for today's aesthetic - the era that he names the Kaleidoscope Age.

1970s

The stylised outlines of Mid Century Modern paired with shinier, bolder colours. The cultural obsession with space and futurism seeps indoors.

1980s

The 80s saw the rise in Indian motifs as our Jehangir elephant print becomes a bestseller. A throwback to heritage crests, think rich reds interweaved with cream and yellow. Chintz and Laura Ashley style florals are in full swing.

1990s

Asian fusion sees zen-faced buddhas and the launch of our Chinese calligraphy inspired fabric, Tang, which has since migrated all over the world. Neon posterboards and model monochrome bring us into the Millennium.

2000s

Vintage one-offs, battered leather armchairs and trunks mix with tribal artefact and African safari-inspired fabric. Open plan loft style leads to the pared-back industrial trend which straddles the next decade.

2010s

Martin coins this the Kaleidoscope Era, where heightened globalisation allows for the beautiful amalgamation of styles, cultures and influences. In this decade we've seen a resurgence of the 60s and 70s, colour and geometric pattern from South America and industrial minimalism turn to ecelectic maximalism.

Forty years after its launch, this British brand still champions innovation

Elle Decoration, October 2018