“If I could go back in time, I’d live in Italy in the 1960s. I’d be zooming up and down cobbled streets on a Vespa, surrounded by colour and art, hanging out with all the other crazy cats.” It’s fair to say that Rocco Catalano works, lives and breathes retro. The house he shares with his partner, Peter Daniels, zings with the colours and shapes of midcentury design.
The key to Catalano’s successful take on 60s style is his unpretentious approach. There’s no “oh-it’s-all-so-wonderfully-kitsch” attitude, just a genuine appreciation of an era that buzzed with creativity. This semi in the village of Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, was, appropriately, built in the 1960s. “It was Peter’s home, but I moved in a year ago – along with an awful lot of stuff,’ says Catalano. Peter, director of a neurological charity, knew what he was in for. “We’ve been together for four years so he ‘gets’ my style,” says Catalano.
Some rooms were given a quick, cheap makeover with colour. In the kitchen, wooden panelling painted a brilliant blue conceals the previously bland, beige tiling. A deep green in the bathroom and an even deeper marine blue in the bedroom, both echoed in artworks and fabrics, add to the authentic 60s vibe.
Catalano says his style owes a lot to his upbringing: “I grew up in a typical Italian household: loud and vivid, with plastic covers on chairs to keep them pristine,” he says. “My parents came to the UK from Calabria in the 60s and the grey of the Midlands must have been quite a shock for them. I think that’s why they immersed themselves in pattern and colour.”
His family’s front door stood out from the neighbours’, painted a hot red with a contrasting green trim. The kitchen was a tangerine dream and his favourite wallpaper was giant white and green snowflakes on a black background. “The wall next to it was done in a completely different pattern. Every square inch zinged with colour,” he remembers.
Catalano moved back to the area after living in London and then Glasgow, where he had studied jewellery design at Glasgow School of Art. But his first love had always been furniture. “The clue was in my final dissertation, where I managed to write more about Charles Eames and Eileen Grey than jewellery design. It got me marked down – but it was a wake-up call to follow what I was really interested in.”
When a vacant shop premises came up, Catalano and his brother Franco borrowed £5,000 from their mother and set up a vintage design shop called 15 Collingwood.
As is the case with many furniture dealers, there is a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing of items between home and work. “I get first dibs on everything we buy for the shop, which is fatal,” says Catalano. Art and ceramics are his particular weaknesses. “The trouble is, pictures are too easy to store. I like to rotate the ones we have, but there’s always a big stack waiting to be framed. Of course, I tidied up before your photographer came…”
Catalano’s collection started with two Tretchikoffs he picked up at his local dump. “I loved the tropical colours,” he says. In fact, he has plans for the remaining bedroom in their home. “I want to paint it in orange and coral – very Tretchikoff.”
At home and in the shop, Catalano mixes vintage with contemporary designs. “I visit the degree shows at Northampton University to spot new talent,” he says. Work by printmakers and textile artists sits easily alongside his Danish and British midcentury furniture. “There’s only one bare wall in our house,’ says Catalano, “and that’s facing the bed, where we wanted a clear, calm view. Every other wall is an opportunity for pictures.’
