Care to help me decorate my new house? Want a retro-y mid century feel

[Gincognito]

We're in the process of buying a three bed, end of terrace Victorian house. We have nothing (currently in a furnished rental). We have been saving away and have also been given a very generous contribution towards kitting out our new house by relatives. Luckily, most white goods are included in the sale.

We need to kit out the dining room (I have my eye on the Ercol Chiltern at JL), living room, bedroom, kids bedroom (currently one ds, 13mo but hoping to add another in the next year or so), and kitchen. Also need a desk and decent futon for the spare room. Kitchen-wise, we have a fab engine-red Francis Francis but nothing else, no dinner service, cutlery set, anything.

Please inspire me! I'd love a slightly retro feel, mid-century modern slightly Scandinavian. Does that sound ridiculous in a Victorian house? Budget-wise we're looking at Habitat, JL, Dansk and a bit of ikea - all slightly confusing as we've always been strictly ikea in the past.

We have a victorian terrace and have done our living room a bit mid century. I think it looks great and not weird! Most of our furniture is from JL although my OH got a TV cabinet made but it's looks really 50's!

My parents have the original of those and I absolutely love them!

Hello, you might be interested in this site: Retro To Go

DH and I are very into 1960s style, but this covers all 'retro' eras.

Forget John Lewis, get onto Ebay. There is a feast of Ercol on there, I've recently picked up an Ercol dining table, there is stuff in all variations of condition/price. I would love one of the original day-beds as well.

The ikea Lycksele falls into the category of a decent futon, by the way, we've been sleeping on one for the last month.

There is a lot of "original" retro stuff still around to mix and match with the new things.

Don't forget sale rooms/auctions as well. Furniture is selling really cheaply at the moment, so might be worth looking there for some originals.

Thanks for all these tips. I'm definitely up for getting some stuff second hand, but it will be a battle to get dh to agree. In his culture (Japanese), second hand stuff is viewed with great suspicion and he is campaigning to get the lot new. I'm sure we will come to a compromise - although that may well be that large goods are new and then I accesorise with some authentic bits.

Mikocat, that site is great, thanks!

Have a look at www.made.com - they have quite a few mid century styles.

We got our sofas (3 and 2 seater) and chair for our livingroom from here.

They delivered from Brighton to Edinburgh, with material we chose ourselves for about the same price as nationwide companies. They are proper sprung sofas, surviving grumpy cats and twin boys so far. When the upholstery fails eventually, I expect just to re-cover them.

Possibly more info than you need, but I am so pleased to finally find somewhere to say how fabulous they were. (They do later date styles as well as the 20's + 30's stuff)

You could look at fabrics by Clarke and Clarke for a mid century feel.

Uh, what on earth would someone say that needs to be deleted on a thread like this?!

I like the Mira range at JL that has a mid-centruy vibe. I am trying to decorate my 1950s house in a mid-century way as well. I got a great sideboard (well it was a dressing table converted) for our tv off ebay. Also have some Sanderson 50s wall paper in one room. As people have said Ebay is a great place to find pieces love mustard vintage

advertising I presume Gin!

I like Mira and Chiltern too!

I was going to suggest sanderson fabrics/wall papers as there are quite a few retro ones in their range.

Oh, mustard is awesome!

Montmatre, I thought maybe someone was mortally offended at the idea of mixing a Victorian house and 50s furniture!

We've done exactly that in our house - Victorian terrace with original features etc but mid-centuryish furniture. Our stuff is all Habitat, IKEA, JL etc but we've got some nice second hand bits too. If you are in London Chase and Sorenson in Hackney are nice people and reasonably priced for second hand Danish originals - we got a lovely Danish sideboard from them. Also Swivel UK are v good for replica retro stuff if you can't run to the real thing - we got our Eames dining chairs from there.

Ooh ogre we're very near London - that site is fabulous! Thank you

Alfie's antiques in Edgware road is worth a visit, especially for lighting.

I have a 1970s decorated house; ebay, although not as good as it was, is still a great source of bargains, although not as many people are after the stuff I am

There are some nice sofas around at the moment: JL and Linea (also here)

Also, check out antiques shops well away from London for good bargains on mid-century items; nobody seems to want them up north!

There is a store in nottingham that specvialies in danish mid-century furniture too... maybe called danish store?