Fifties style works best in an open floor plan with simple, clean lines, a minimum of woodwork, and an abundance of natural light. Blond wood floors or low-pile wall-to-wall carpet and a neutral, pale paint palette (except in the kitchen, where vivid color reigns supreme), provide a fine backdrop for fifties furniture and accessories.

The kitchen is one of the most fun -- and cheapest -- fifties rooms to reproduce. All you need is black and white checkerboard flooring in tile or linoleum, a chrome and formica table with a sparkly-swirly pattern, and simple fitted cabinets. Bright period colors -- red, lemon yellow, chartreuse -- can (and should) appear on the table and countertops, cabinets, or appliances.

In the living room, look for sleek leather, plastic, and chrome furniture by Charles and Ray Eames; Heywood Wakefield pieces in streamlined blond wood; or anything by the influential Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who pioneered the process of molding wood into curvilinear shapes.

For a high-modernist look, invest in Arne Jacobsen egg, swan, or ant chairs. The sculptor Isamu Noguchi’s beautifully simple glass coffee table is another haute-fifties design icon.

If you’re more interested in Ozzie and Harriet than Eero Saarinen, pair a boxy sofa, upholstered in chartreuse and balanced on slender legs, with low-slung bent-wood armchairs and a glass or molded plywood coffee table. Add accents like space-age clocks, coat racks that resemble molecular models, spun resin table or floor lamps, wire sculptures, and fabulous fifties ceramic ashtrays in burnt orange or avocado green.

Then shake yourself up a pitcher of martinis!