Bean Bags
When the Bean Bag emerged in the late 60s and 70s it was heralded as the furniture of tomorrow for the well-heeled of today.
It...
Black Lights
In the late 60s and early 70s, the Black Light brought a new dimension to our world.
White T-shirts and teeth suddenly would glow in...
Dansette
The Dansette record player became an iconic artefact of the youth culture of the 1950s and 1960s, and the name became a generic term...
Executive Toys
Newton's Balls (pictured at right) were the first widespread executive toys.
These were a series of chrome ball-bearings suspended from a metal frame, which...
Hawaiian Mania
An abundance of disposable income combined with Hawaii's entrance into the Union in 1959 manifested itself in the US as a mania for all...
Interior Design in the 1950s
The suburban spread in the 1950s predictably led to fads in home decorating and design.
Interior white woodwork was in and out again by 1950,...
Interior Design in the 1960s
Plastic chairs, blow-up furniture . . . If it's meant to be 'space age', how come it looks so old-fashioned?
The majority of homes in...
Interior Design in the 1970s
Until the 70s, interior design was simply a DIY pursuit. Once the seventies hit, it was a lifestyle statement.
The dominant colours were Puce, Red,...
Interior Design in the 1980s
Walls and fabrics in grey, neon hot pink and teal with accessories made of fashionable black plastic. mmm... nice.
K-Tel
K-Tel were famous for their TV commercials pitching their mass-market compilation LPs and tapes and their household 'gadgets'.
Everything they sold was labelled "As advertised...
Lava Lamps
The Lava Lamp was created in the early 60s by a British engineer by the name of Craven Walker in an experiment gone awry....
Lawn Flamingos
In 1957, Don Featherstone designed the first plastic lawn flamingo for Union Products of Leominster, Massachusetts.
A trained sculptor with a background in classical art,...
Macramé
Even in the 1970's most of the cool set thought macramé was only for hippies or bored convicts. But you could make loads of...
Peace Sign
The ubiquitous icon of the Aquarian age and one of the most widely known symbols in the world.
In Britain it is recognised as standing...
Pop Art
The first large-scale exhibition of Pop Art was held at New York's Guggenheim Museum in 1963, featuring works by Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and...
Waterbeds
In 1968, Charles Prior Hall, a furniture designer in California decided to create the world's most comfortable chair.
Taking his cue from the very popular...
