Confident shapes, and a very specific set of colours.

Where it comes from

Roughly 1945 to 1965, driven by post-war optimism, new materials and cheap colour printing. The furniture names are the famous part — Eames, Saarinen, Wegner — but the graphic language came from elsewhere: Scandinavian textile design, Alexander Girard's work for Herman Miller, and the abstract poster art of the period. Flat colour, hard edges, no gradients, because that is what the printing technology of the day could do well.

What makes it that style

• Flat colour, no blending. Every shape is one solid tone with a crisp edge.
• Geometry with a curve in it. Circles, arcs, tapered legs, boomerangs — geometric but never rigid.
• Warm and cool held in tension. Mustard against teal, orange against navy. The clash is deliberate and it is the whole effect.
• Asymmetric balance. Weight distributed unevenly but resolved — never centred.

Which rooms it suits

Living and dining rooms, where the furniture can answer it. It is the strongest style for a large blank wall because the shapes read from across a room.

Framing

Walnut or teak frames if you have the wood elsewhere; thin black if you don't. Avoid ornate or gilt frames entirely — the style is a reaction against exactly that.

The mistake worth avoiding

Matching it too literally. If the print, the sideboard, the lamp and the cushions are all mid-century, the room stops looking designed and starts looking staged. The style was never meant to be total. Use it as one strong element in a room that is otherwise contemporary and it looks deliberate; use it everywhere and it looks like a showroom.