There was a time when a disco ball belonged in one place and meant one thing: the dance floor and a night of dancing. Today, it might mean something rather different. It can be found hanging above a cocktail bar in a London home, catching the light in a moody sitting room as as its owner lounges on a low-slung Italian sofa, martini glass in hand. Disco, it seems, has come home.
There is an innate cheekiness to this aesthetic. Never a trend that took itself too seriously, disco was born out of a world of late nights, hedonism, and a delicious spirit of escapism – with upbeat music turned up loud and the lights turned down low. Integrating the essence of the disco era within the home may not be for everyone but no one can deny it injects an element of fun.
As Lia Briamonte, founder of vintage furniture business Anemone Interiors understands, interiors can and should carry a sense of playfulness and mischief, and that's why she believes elements of disco are having a revival right now – perhaps as a reaction to the popular but restrained palette of minimalism that dominates so many homes. Disco offers more personality, and appeals not only visually but emotionally, too.
‘Disco’s not dead. It’s just found a new place in our own fun world at home,’ says Lia, whose glamorous edit of 1960s and 1970s pieces speaks to a growing appetite for interiors with decadence and character. Forget the novelty disco sign or the mass-produced plastic mirrored ball seen in high-street interiors stores: Anemone is about the real thing, pieces with provenance. Some are literally sourced directly from the original dancefloors.
For Lia, who grew up in an Italian family surrounded by colourful interiors, Murano chandeliers and glamorous, gold-loving aunties who wore stilettos to the beach, the appeal of the disco aesthetic has always been instinctive. Her business grew from a desire to bring that spirit into contemporary homes, combining a fashion-trained eye with a mischievous approach to the curation of rare European vintage and mid-century furniture. ‘I don't refer to myself as an antique dealer,’ she explains. ‘I call it vintage furniture.’
Her take on this distinction means the pieces finding their way into homes are not necessarily the kind of antiques cordoned off behind velvet ropes, even if customers are paying antique-level prices. This new wave of vintage furniture is about objects that to be used, enjoyed and lived with: a wild sofa to sink into, a drinks trolley stocked with cocktail supplies, a statement lamp that fine tunes the atmosphere of an ordinary room, turning it into the ultimate Saturday-night hosting location.
And, increasingly, people are willing to invest in these pieces. Lia has seen demand for vintage cocktail bars soar, with pieces that once cost a few thousand pounds now commanding considerably more. ‘The cocktail bars may be £20,000, but you'll have it forever,’ she says. It may seem an eye-watering sum for something which a few years ago may have been dismissed as outdated, carboot-adjacent kitsch, but certainly speaks to a wider shift in how we think about our homes. Rather than buying furniture to fill a space, we are looking for pieces that give it a feeling and reflect the things we love. As Lia also notes: ‘Instead of buying a piece of art for the wall, a beautiful cocktail bar could take that wall space. It will make you smile every time you walk past it to make your morning coffee.’
Part of the appeal of the home-disco look may a practical symptom of modern life. Going out has become an expensive business, and the home has become somewhere we want to spend more of our time. (As Lia puts it, ‘Home is our sanctuary.’) Britain's nightlife is not what it was a generation ago – the number of late-night venues in London has fallen 20% since 2020. Why queue for an £20 cocktail when you could be pouring one from your own vintage bar, with a record spinning and friends gathered around a sofa designed for conversation?
Interior designer Katie Earl, sees the disco revival as ‘joyful, storytelling and sexy’, and part of a wider rejection of interiors that look interchangeable. ‘It is an era that, for me, has never been lost and now I love to see it re-surging in the homes I design today.’
For Katie, ‘disco was all about community, gathering, people and connection. So naturally, living, hosting and entertainment spaces lend themselves perfectly to this aesthetic’. The furniture of the era lends itself particularly well to this expressive and enveloping approach. The modular sofas that sit close to the ground, generous conversation pits, squishy armchairs and cocktail cabinets that make an occasion of an everyday evening. Italian designers such as Willy Rizzo, Gabriella Crespi, Mario Bellini and Joe Colombo offer a rich starting point, their work balancing bold silhouettes with a robust sense of quality.
However, if there is one place to begin when infusing the home with this spirit, it is lighting, Lia insists. ‘Lighting is jewellery for the room,’ she says. A large sculptural lamp, mirrored surfaces, and brass can work together to add a little sparkle, while velvet, mohair and shaggy textures bring the softness that stops all that glamour feeling cold.
Furthermore, colour is intrinsic to emulating the spirit of the disco era at home. Lia favours unexpected combinations, lifting the room with colour combinations such as tobacco brown with lilac, burgundy with blush pink, or a powerful of red against a dark plum. However Katie gravitates towards rich jewel tones, chocolate browns and leopard print, which she treats as a neutral. The borrows the confidence and fun feeling of the era without superficially imitating the interior of the period.
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Not everything needs to come with a famous designer's name attached. For those beginning their disco vintage hunting journey, Lia recommends looking for a shape you love and considering whether it could be recovered in a beautiful vintage fabric. An inexpensive second-hand chair can become a powerful disco-themed statement with the right upholstery. Above all, she advises paying attention to craftsmanship and quality, rather than getting too caught up in labels.
The secret to getting the disco aesthetic right, however, is knowing when to stop – nobody in 2026 needs to turn their sitting room into a full-blown replica of Studio 54. ‘A room doesn’t have to look like a nightclub to have the soul of one,’ Lia says.
