This book shows how interior design and decoration emerged in twentieth century Britain, responding to changes in popular taste, music and fashion. It focuses on the autonomous interior, conceived independently of the shell that contains it. It argues for the importance of intimate scale and curious detail rather than grand gesture in making interiors and the impossibility of one style fulfilling the needs of diverse functions and users. It emphasizes the importance of decoration and speculates about the appropriate nature of ornament in poly-stylistic interiors. It contextualises interiors in relation to the fashions and music that have exercised and shaped British creative imaginations.

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