Retro style: Between nostalgia and new beginnings
The retro style is pure nostalgia. For the older ones, it takes them back to their younger years; for the younger ones, it transports them to a time they only know from films. In any case, it is fascinating.
Although by now even the 80s are long enough to pass for "retro", retro furnishing style generally refers to the era of the 50s, 60s and 70s. This turbulent time covers everything from the economic miracle to the hippie movement to the race to the moon and brought forth many innovations, both in industry and in the home: televisions, kitchen machines, hoovers, record players, washing machines, refrigerators and many more defined the image of the then modern household - much of it designed with rounded edges.
What was considered cutting-edge back then reminds us today of years when life was still supposedly "simpler", but in any case slower. Many of the objects from that time are therefore smiled at nostalgically today and are also very sought-after for that very reason.
Today, retro style does not mean faithfully recreating a flat from the 50s to 70s. Rather, it is about skilfully staging pieces from this period in a modern setting and creating a nostalgic ambience without living in a museum. Such elements can be: seating furniture with thin legs and wooden backrests or seating groups made of rattan, a chest of drawers with just such legs and brass knobs, record players, a kidney-shaped table with a rubber base or a radio with a wooden cabinet. At that time, this was still the rather "classic" furnishing. Very modern households already dared to have egg-style club chairs or even pod chairs, mixers in a rounded retro look in a gaudy colour - or eggshell-coloured and lava lamps. The modern kitchen scored with a free-standing refrigerator with a chrome handle - today the epitome of "retro" in the kitchen.
Griffwerk products for the retro look
While new furniture, appliances and accessories gradually entered households in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the houses themselves, and with them the doors and fittings, remained the same for some time. Even in new buildings after the war, the builders and family founders of the time often relied on the tried and tested. That's why you can still use door fittings reminiscent of the "good old days" in retro homes today, for example:
AMADEUS, the "classic" among the Griffwerk lever handles, brings a piece of 50s look into every home with its brass look, the beautifully shaped long backplate and the curved door handle.
FABIO also retains a touch of the "old days" with the long plate, the round handle shape and the decorative applications, while the chrome plating already points clearly in the direction of "Race to the Moon" and the 70s.
CAROLA is the perfect blend of the two: Classic-looking shape, modern chrome-plated and with rosette, this door handle brings retro back into the home without standing out too much.
Over the years, modern design, straight lines and ergonomic shapes with clear lines found their way into flats and houses in parallel with the technical innovations. You can revive this feeling with:
ULMER GRIFF: It combines soft, round shapes with sleek modernity. The licensed Griffwerk reedition of the original by Max Bill is an ergonomic hand-flatterer and visually fits in well with the spirit of optimism that prevailed in the "retro decades".
VERONICA combines classic panache with a simple shape. This door handle perfectly supports the effect of skilfully placed retro elements in a modern home.
MARISA catches the eye thanks to its brass look and therefore immediately draws attention to other brass accessories. This door handle is perfect for combining with retro elements such as chests of drawers with brass knobs or furniture with legs in wood-brass combination.
Remote and Sieger Leaf Light are two lever handles that, with their slender shape and rose, express the essence of the spirit of departure and the unconditional will for modernity and progress that defined the image in the "retro decades".
Frame catches the eye with its wide, rectangular shape. Add to this the glossy black or white surface: back then the pinnacle of modern and very daring design, today such accessories spread a real retro feeling without falling into the "good old days" mood.
Lucía Select in brass finish is a compromise between retro and modern, straightforward and round as well as eye-catching and adapted and therefore the ideal companion for doors of a flat with discreet retro elements.
There are also some with a retro design among the Griffwerk glass doors: Deco 585 and R8, for example, go well with Egg Chairs and lava lamps, Deco 655 with the first record player on the retro chest of drawers and Deco 608 with a kitchen with appliances in a retro look.