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Sunday 5 June 2022, World Environment Day, is the biggest international awareness day for the environment. It is led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and held annually since 1974. The event has grown to be the largest global platform for environmental outreach, with millions of people from across the world engaging to protect the planet.

Protecting the environment and understanding our short roles as trustees of the natural world is important to us here at Lorfords. We are on our own journey to become as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible. Antiques, by their very nature, are reusable and eco-friendly. They are pre-loved items, regularly passed from generation to generation and often made from natural materials.

We work closely with like-minded brands, with a mission to create products that are for both people and planet. And none more so than our friends at Edward Bulmer Natural Paint who create beautiful paints backed up by ecological principles.

Edward Bulmer, founder of Edward Bulmer Natural Paint, has put 30 years’ experience into creating his paint brand. He is a self-confessed ‘eco-worrier’ (yes, worrier) with a drive to create paints that drastically reduce plastic pollution, carbon emissions and poor air quality. His mission is to change the paint industry with a solution for regenerative manufacturing based on ecology. The protection of nature’s biodiversity is at the core of all their product development.

As it is World Environment Day this week, we asked Edward and his team to take over our blog and tell us all about the natural paint world. We wanted to know what we should be looking out for and how we can help make our homes as sustainable as possible. So, over to them!

Edward Bulmer Natural Paint

Edward Bulmer | L-Shaped | Lorfords Antiques

Eco-friendly paint?

When choosing paint, it’s becoming evident that the contents might not always be exactly what it says on the tin! Many claim to be ‘eco-friendly’ or contain low levels of VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds) but when you look further, there is more to it than meets the eye.

Greenwashing is a big issue in the design and paint industry and at this present time it’s so important to get the facts right. We have noticed a rise in the practice of greenwashing which is extremely misleading for consumers. Like whitewashing, it is a device used to deflect ‘heat’, in this case to give the impression that something embodies an intent to be ecologically or environmentally responsible – the term many use is ‘eco-friendly’.

Basically, paint is called eco-friendly when it is water-based, despite almost all paints containing resin binders that are forms of acrylic, vinyl or alkyd – all polymers that are derived from petro-chemicals. Also, all paint is water based, that is how paint is made! So, while the world’s governments now accept that using fossil fuels, fossil sources and petro-chemicals must be reduced to be eco-friendly and address the climate emergency, the paint and coatings industry is not keeping up.

We have always strived to give our customers as much information as possible for them to make an informed decision. We are the only paint brand on the market that uses plant-based binders. The alternative is a polymer derived binder, which is full of micro-plastics and other nasties. We use our plant-based binder to bring all our natural ingredients together and then inject this base white paint with a combination of our mineral and earth pigments.

Antiques

Using antiques in your home is the ultimate upcycling and celebrates vintage pieces that are unique and beautiful. Antiques are often made from natural materials which then change and evolve over time. Edward often thinks about antiques and paint in the same view. For example if you think about a wonderful piece of antique furniture, most people will enquire about how it should be looked after. If you have bought a lovely old house, isn’t it the same thing? Therefore, using natural and carefully created paints should be an easy decision!

To find out more, please read our interview with Edward Bulmer here.

Visit: www.edwardbulmerpaint.co.uk

Follow: https://www.instagram.com/edwardbulmerpaint/

Meet us at our NEW Showroom: 194 Ebury Street, London, SW1W 8UP

Does the 1970s deserve to be remembered as the decade taste forgot? Absolutely not, says antiques expert Chris Yeo. It was a time of bold experiments and high glamour.

There is, they say, nothing new in fashion. Is there anything new in design? Whatever your thoughts it can’t be denied that the lure of the past has always been a potent source of inspiration. The Romans took their style tips for everything from togas to temples from the Ancient Greeks, the Elizabethans got dewy eyed over the Middle Ages and the Victorians were besotted by anything Medieval (apart from Chaucer, who was far too dirty for them). Not much has changed except that, latterly, we have tended to take a leaf from the more recent pages of style’s back catalogue. Anyone who was around in the 1970s will remember that the 1950s held a powerful draw and now it’s the turn of the ‘70s itself to be the focus of our rose-tinted spectacles. Ah, the Seventies. They called it the decade taste forgot. Of course, “they” were the 1980s, which, if we’re talking taste, is nothing short of the pot calling the kettle black. But now the decade that brought us Abba, the hostess trolley and the three-day week is being mined by a new generation of tastemakers. Fashion has been nostalgic for the 1970s for the last few seasons, with tinted sunglasses, long floral dresses and straw handbags omnipresent on the high street and catwalks alike. However, when it comes to interior design, it’s been a different story. For years, the very mention of the word ‘Seventies’ was enough to strike fear and loathing into otherwise reasonable, aesthetically broad-minded people and it seems old prejudices die hard. Style pundits from Wallpaper magazine recently collated a shortlist of the most egregious design faux pas of the past half-a-century and guess which decade came top? But look beyond the avocado bathroom suites and macramé plant pot holders and a different picture soon emerges.

In the 1970s, interior design reached a level of exuberance that has never since been equalled. The decade centred around bold patterns and textures, strong colour schemes, and a playful approach to the adaptation of space. The austere 1950s had picked up on straight-lined 1930s modernism and run with it; the radical social changes of the 1960s threw familiar aesthetics up in the air and dropped them back to earth in a psychedelic explosion and, as the mid-century slid into the 1970s, a bold new design era settled in. The great titans of 20th century design – Mies, Marcel and Arne– hung up their pencils and went into retirement leaving the playing field clear for a new generation of designers with fresh ideas. Decorating, too, shook off its formalism, mixing patterns, time periods, materials, and colours in fresh, exciting and occasionally shocking ways. And in the decade that taste apparently forgot, certain design groups were aiming to overthrow the idea of “good taste” altogether. The so-called radical design groups such as Archizoom, formed in Italy at the turn of the new decade, were up for creating playful and provocative furniture and lighting which became the building blocks for Post-Modernism in the 1980s.

The Seventies was a study in contrasts and contradiction: austerity and decadence, muddy earth tones and eye-popping colours. Trends that began life in the hippy communes of Haight-Ashbury grew-up, got a haircut and went mainstream. Italian designers schmoozed the world with their take on high-tech, high gloss futurism and, all over the world – from Studio 54 to Abigail’s Party – a mood of defiant decadence reigned supreme. As David Netto in The New York Times memorably put it:“The 70s were sensual and decadent. People were unafraid to take risks. The furniture was made for hanging out, lounging or sex — activities infinitely more tempting than what was going on in the places where post-war design made its mark. Imagine trying to make out on a Barcelona Chair."

Decadence and glamour were the twin beats that throbbed throughout a decade that was bookmarked by Bowie at its beginning and Grace Jones at its end – oh, be still my beating heart! They were the torch bearers of the new mood that thrived in a world filled with the harsh realities of economic uncertainties and political strife. In a decade that saw two miners’ strikes, countless I.R.A. bombing campaigns, runaway inflation and powdered orange juice, what to do but loose yourself in a whirlwind of hedonism? A mood of defiant decadence was abroad, whether it was glam rockers “gender bending” – as contemporary parlance had it – on Top of the Pops or Bianca Jagger riding into studio 54 on the back of a white stallion (because, let’s face it, how else do you let people know it’s your birthday?) In London the mood was encapsulated, branded and retailed to perfection at Big Biba, opened on Kensington High Street in 1973. Biba had started life as mail order fashion outfit but over just a few years had come to dominate the UK fashion scene. Big Biba was the firms last great shout before bankruptcy in 1975 brought an end to its reign of fabulousness. Housed in Art Deco splendour at the former Barker’s department store, complete with live flamingos on the roof garden, Big Biba offered an interior vision that took elements of Hollywood’s Golden Age and mixed it louche colours, peacock feathers and peacock chairs, crushed velvets and Art Nouveau prints. It was bold, daring and worked perfectly a world jointly ruled by Marc Bolan and Pan’s People (ask your parents).

At the same time as Biba was refashioning homes in the UK, Willy Rizzo (1928-2013) was introducing a chic – not to say disco – sensibility into furniture design. Rizzo had started his career as a fashion photographer but, at the suggestion of his friends and clients – the great and the good of fashion and film, he took a sideways step into furniture design. He was soon swamped with orders and requests. Rizzo designed and produced more than thirty pieces of furniture: sofas, consoles, hi-fi furniture, coffee tables and lighting, all of which were handmade. Rizzo’s world is one where coffee tables rotate like a vinyl disc on a turntable and then open up to reveal an integrated ice bucket – perfect for those pre or post-club Campari. He opened boutiques across France and Europe and had points of sale in New York City, Miami and Los Angeles. However, in 1978, Rizzo gave it all up to return to photography, his first love. Rizzo’s furniture design channelled the sophistication of Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, his pieces combining clean, simple lines with bold geometric forms and a delicate handling of materials. The result is classic modernism and very chic.

Willy Rizzo operated at the glamourous end of the sleek International style, a movement which took basic Form Follows Function Modernism and added a sheen of Jet Set sophistication. Luxury was the watchword and materials like rosewood, bronze and chrome were in. The interior design world’s new face could, in a way, be summed up in a single word: plastics. Technological advances had begun to create more flexible varieties that could be moulded into striking, sensual forms—strong but weightless, often without any hard edges. Designers revelled in the creative possibilities offered by new materials, especially plastics, which could be coloured boldly, mass-produced and, therefore, enjoyed by a wide audience. Lucite was the brand name for a clear acrylic plastic resembling glass or rock crystal, which really took off in the ‘70s. This lightweight material was easy to mould and carve and was an instant hit for everything from costume jewellery to furniture and, of course, lighting. Lucite gives an instant hit of space age glamour, as intoxicating now as it ever was.And it seems you can’t keep a good decade down. These days the once maligned ‘70s are bang on-trend, with designers, architects and style savvy buyers all eagerly embracing the decade’s bold and brash personality, from Tom Dixon’s gloriously retro copper globe pendants to a renewed love for houseplants, via bold, clashing patterns and old-school gold accessories. That the decade should be ripe for plundering for inspiration should come as no surprise the question is how could it take so long to happen?

We’ve included a few iconic items within this blog but please browse our website for many more incredibly cool 1970’s pieces.

Images: Lorfords own & Willy Rizzo