Photograph, 'Living room looking towards the dining table', John R. J. Taylor, 1985

Photograph of a living room, looking towards the dining table - with a sofa at left foreground, edge of mantlepiece with statuette at right foreground, an arched alcove and armchair at right. Dining table and chairs in front of window in background.

This room is shown exactly as it was set out and lived in by the newly-married sister of the photographer, and was not re-arranged or tidied up for the shot. It is a true (and intimate) record of what was created when an ordinary person of the mid-1980s was able to choose for herself what to put into her home. Most of the furnishings are new, although there is a distinct preference for traditional designs, combined with the ideal of comfort. The old-fashioned arm-chairs were a wedding present from her husband's mother, and not really the taste of the young bride when she set up home. The pebble effect on the wall was in place when the young couple moved in. They decided to keep it, following the British tradition in interior design of mingling the old and the new.

E.32-1990