It's all a bit crazy at the moment and I want a bit of distraction Don't you? One of my all-time guilty pleasures is home decor. I mean it is just so fun to look at and imagine what you could do to a boring room. There is nothing quite like the joy of your imagination and home reinvention. I have a bit of a confession. I love to watch old TV shows and look at the decor and the fixtures and fittings. This is completely normal, right?
I was reading Quintessentially British: Classic TV Homes Reimagined and this gave me so much food for thought. Here they compare the homes in the tv shows against a 1940s home. I thought it would be fun for you to go through their suggestion and let you know what I think about them. To see the images click the link above and follow along with me. I am going to choose my two favourites and talk about them. I would love to know what you think about the differences.
First up we have Gavin and Stacey livingroom.
Ok, confession time. I have never watched Gavin and Stacey. I am so sorry if this offends you but I haven't. My husband tells me I am very strange and that every British person has seen it. I have not. So I have had to go search for it and watch some YouTubes to get in the right headspace.
Gavin and Stacey living room which was modern when filming looks terribly dated now. OH my gosh, the curtain is terrible in a very 90's/00 prints. It's all very geared to relaxing and it has a gas fireplace. basically, it would have looked like most of our homes in this period. Or like granny might still look, to be honest.
The 40's living room
It has a huge contract to what we are used to. It looks very art deco and more function over fashion. This was a time when money was scarce for most households and family heirlooms where commonplace. There was no such thing as IKEA or online shopping for the best deal it was all about big expensive items. There would have been a coal fire in the living rooms. Let's not forget this was the era of the wireless and you might even have a wind-up gramophone.
The mannequin in the corner is a sign of the times. People had to make or mend there own clothing. Again these were hard to come by and very expensive. This was the war period after all. The big heavy-duty curtains are the biggest sign of this. There were used to blackout any light from the room deterring the german bombers. My great granny had her blackout curtain until she passed away. To be completely honest her house looked very like this one.
Next up we have The bake-off kitchen
Oh, how I love the great British bake-off. I have only recently got into it and I am a bit obsessed. I was trying to stay away but I got sucked right into the wonderfulness of the cakes and sweet treats. Is it me or are you starving after watching this and also have a case of the I could do that? When in fact I definitely could not and shouldn't even attempt to make an 8 tier cake.
The bake off the kitchen is very on-trend with its pastel colours and It has all the mod-cons with the huge fridge and all the gadgets you could ever want and then some. Kitchen islands are all the rage at the moment. We are in the modern world all about quick and convenient. We want to make homemade but we want every gadget to help us. I mean hand whisking what is that? Heating milk for a coffee in a pan are you insane.
The 40's kitchen
Please tell me your granny or great-granny had the sideboard filled with plates? It is a classic! In the 40's it was all about function and less about style. There was no time-saving gadgets and shock horror normally unless you were very wealthy no fridge and no freezers. I could explain Scottish ice houses to you but why not go google it. Most foods were stored in wooden boxes or in cupboards if you were very posh you might have had a larder for your items.
If you think all this sounds exhausting well let me tell you about the washing machine. Well, the lack of one. My great granny still had her "washing machine" she called it. It was a big bucket with a big iron grid with grates on it, where she would wash all her households clothing. She had to rub soap shards on to clean the clothing. Then rub them in and scrub them on the grat. This must have taken ages as she was part of a crofting household with quite a few children.
Don't worry she did have a washing machine eventually these things just took a lot longer to get up here in the highlands. I could probably do a full post on my great granny house. It was like a time capsule of the '40s with added modern touches as the years went on. Lots of old highland crofters house used to look like this.
I hope you have enjoyed this post.
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