From the day Estelle Bilson moved into the three-bedroom house in south Manchester that she shares with her husband, Steve, their seven-year-old son and their black cat, Elvis, there was little doubt about the direction the interiors would take. Estelle is a dealer in decorative items, homewares and furniture from the 1970s, and has spent her adult life tracking down the gems of design from that decade. By 2015, when she moved in to live with Steve in his “slightly studenty” Edwardian end-of-terrace that had once been a corner shop, she had amassed enough chrome, smoked glass and teak to fill a house. Fortunately, Steve, a sound and lighting engineer who already owned a G-Plan sideboard, also liked vintage and was totally on board with her vision.
Today Estelle and Steve’s home, which they also rent out as a location house, is a colourful imagining of glamorous 1970s living. Here giant monstera plants sit on heavily patterned shag-pile rugs and the mass-printed artwork of Vladimir Tretchikoff graces the walls. Displays of chunky West German pottery and bubbled blue Empoli glass adorn Ladderax shelving, while walls are painted orange or brown, or zhuzhed up with psychedelic wallpaper or giant groovy stickers. In the bathroom, bronze mosaic mirror tiles, glitter balls, an ombré suite and gold dolphin fixtures create an ambience that brings to mind a louche disco. Much of what they have accumulated has been had for a song, sourced from eBay, Facebook Marketplace or car boot sales, while back in the late-90s and early noughties Estelle would often find things for free, discarded in skips or left out on the street, as people purged their homes of what was no longer fashionable.
