Vintage radio, the full-circle dress, period wallpaper – there are many ways to express an interest in a bygone era, and some people like to bring a retro vibe into every corner of life

‘I’ve tried to make sure all the items in the house are originals rather than replicas,’ says Aaron Whiteside, a stained-glass restorer living in Blackpool, in the north-west of England. That’s no mean feat given the task accomplished – renovating a three-bedroomed, semi-detached 1930s house and kitting it out from top to bottom in authentic fixtures, fittings and fashion of the era. But Aaron had been dreaming of living in a 1930s property since the age of five and there was no way he was going to let standards slide when his ideal house came on the market in 2007. Today, he still smiles whenever he crosses the threshold of his original-but-modest suburban home.

Living history It seems Aaron, who’s in his early 40s, isn’t alone in wanting to live at least part of his life in yesteryear, either. The popularity of vintage fashion, retro home decor and antique furniture demonstrates a nostalgia for a bygone age. Some, like Aaron, go the whole hog – house, clothes, car (an understandable deviation from the theme, it’s a 1950s Morris), music, films, even hearty home cooking using beef dripping – truly living their favourite period in real time. Others are drawn to one aspect, be that the bold colours and geometric motifs of 1920s architecture or the sharp tailoring of the 1960s mods subculture. Either way, the living-history scene is real.

Aaron believes that his five-year-old self ’s interest was influenced by his family. As a boy, he’d visit his aunt and uncle’s house to play old dance-band records, and his grandmother’s sister took him to second-hand shops: ‘They used to tell me stories about the era and I listened to the music, so I think that’s what inspired my interest. Since then, I’ve been collecting 1930s memorabilia and decor, such as gramophones, art deco pictures, period carpets and even rare vintage wallpaper. I’ve tried to make sure all the items in the house are originals, rather than replicas.’