The Keep Calm Craze

Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic

Yvestown

Happy Loves Rosie

moline

Livingetc

revolutionarygirl / saidos da concha

Rachel Ashwell's own dinning room

Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic

My friend Aina's living room in Oslo

I want to dedicate this post to the infamous Keep Calm and Carry on Poster. We have seen it everywhere and in every possible color. In the words of Holly Becker from decor8 "you know that if someone has a Keep Calm and Carry On poster that they must have read about them on the myriads of blogs out there. When I look back on this period I’ll forever remember the KC&CO poster".
The poster was made in 1939 in Britain, it was third in a series propaganda posters intended to comfort and inspire the people should, heaven forbid, the massed armies of Nazi Germany ever cross the Channel. Most of them never got to be seen by the British public.
For 60 years, the poster had been forgotten. Then, one day in 2000, Stuart Manley, from Barter Books in the UK, was sifting through a box of books he had bought at auction when he saw one of these at the bottom, they framed it and put it up on the bookshop wall. And that's where it all started.
Victoria smith from sfgirlbybay, an interior design blog from San Francisco, blogged about it in 2006. Since then, it has become a staple for bloggers all over the world. Rachel Ashwell from Shabby chic sells them at her stores and website, now you can buy it too at Neenä in Mexico City.
The words are particularly so positive and reassuring, that in a period of uncertainty and anxiety, they seem to speak to everyone of us.
The rights for the design expired 50 years after it was made so now everyone can reproduce it, and this is why one can find it for sale everywhere from Etsy shops to little indie shops.
If you haven't got one yet and are planning to buy one, be aware thatsome of them aren't made with the right font. The original typeface was hand drawn, but the type that comes closest and adds to the British memorabilia value of it is the P22 Undergrownd, designed by Edward Johnston in 1916 for the London Underground.