Hidden retro treasure trove in Bendigo throws back to the '70s

Growing up in a Victorian era house in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, a lot of the design she bought into inspires what surrounds Mr Ford today.

"My mother was buying a lot of the things that you'll see in here when I was a kid, so I remember them," Mr Ford said.

Mr Ford, with his partner Danielle Duval, now call a 1970s paradiso home in one of the more unassuming of places - Long Gully in Bendigo, Victoria.

The home decor throws back to a time where architecture was underpinned by how many people you could fit into a lounge room without knocking an ashtray onto the shag rug.

Mr Ford takes inspiration from the period under the guise that design distinguishable to a specific era lived and died in the '70s.

"Modern furniture is so generic and bland. I couldn't tell something made yesterday from something made in the '90s," he said.

"The '70s were probably the last era where you can look at something and instantly say 'that is from the 1970s'.

"It's just got a particular look - the colours, the shapes were so definitive to that period."

Step inside Long Gully's '70s paradise (story continues after gallery):

Mr Ford and Ms Duval have lived in the 1973 house for five years. It's a change in tempo from their previous home fitted in top-to-toe Art Deco style, a period he fell in love with when he attended art school at 18-years-old.

"While studying the Bauhaus art movement, I discovered the Art Deco era and streamlined modern style," Mr Ford said.

In the '80s, frequenting stores like the Chapel Street Bazaar (formerly Greville Street Bazaar) in Melbourne, Mr Ford would search the shelves for vintage pieces.

"So I collected (Art Deco) for probably 30 years. Until we bought this house, and then everything changed," he said.

Mr Ford gets a lot of inspiration by design where "form follows function", a concept encapsulated in advanced manufacturing that became available in the '70s.

"From the late '60s to early '70s there was a big jump in manufacturing techniques," Mr Ford said.

"So you could make furniture that was cylindrical, like some of those Kartell pieces in the lounge, and suddenly you weren't falling into the box of wooden construction of the past.

"That's a pretty good example of technology influencing design, and I like that."

In terms of prized possessions, apart from the Kartell pieces that mean the lounge room resemble a '70s Italian furniture showroom, Mr Ford is enamoured by a few pieces of rare plastic sitting on his shelf.

"I went from collecting Bakelite (containers), to these which are ABS plastic," he said.

"It's really hard, it's really glossy, it's vivid, bright colours and no matter how badly it's been treated, you can polish it back to its original gloss."

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Among other gems, Mr Ford displays a set of glass vases poured with uranium oxide, which glow under UV light as if they are nuclear powered.

Even after decades of collecting, Mr Ford still enjoys the hunt.

"I like the challenge of going out finding a new piece, particularly if it's something inexpensive or in an op-shop, and then bringing it home, polishing it up, and putting it with its siblings," he said.

"I like that process."