Decorating your home is expensive so it can be good to get ahead of the curve rather than to buy into a style at the crest of the wave. Steal a march on everyone else by taking inspiration from sources outside the world of interiors

Film

Opening the London Film Festival, Suffragette has been the must-see film of the autumn. While the feminist message cannot be overlooked, the film’s sets can also be trawled for interiors inspiration. Perhaps the most contemporary backdrop is the industrial laundry where Carey Mulligan’s character Maud is employed at the start of the film, with its pared back east London warehouse look. Stripped wood, neutral linens, whitewashed brick, heavy matte metallic industrial fittings and exposed lightbulbs set the scene.

Get the look: Labour and Wait invented this look for the 21st century and stock various utilitarian but stylish classic pieces. Vintage lightbulbs from William and Watson complete the style.

Suffragette is on general release in cinemas across the UK

Carol, directed by Todd Haynes adapted from the Patricia Highsmith novel is set during a cold New York winter in the 1950s and has the colour palette to match. Bright accent colours dominate but it’s as if they’ve been run through a vintage filter – Instagram colouring pervades. Think dusty coral, mint, pinks and orange with black accents and a lot of gold (hair, furs, jewellery and trinkets). Also pattern, on wallpaper and textiles and lots of 1950s shapes and motifs on furniture.

Get the look: Colour is paramount here so a fresh lick of paint can work wonders. Farrow & Ball’s Feathergrass BP 5107 wallpaper (£110 per roll) is the perfect muted minty green.

Carol is in cinemas from November 27

Design

The Barbican’s autumn blockbuster exhibition may seem like a mere reaction to the current obsession with midcentury style but there are new discoveries to be made and ideas to ferret out – namely the beauty of plywood – at this comprehensive retrospective of furniture designing/film making/computing philosophising couple, Charles and Ray Eames. Long a staple of stylish offices, Eames chairs also have a huge following among design conscious home owners and several models remain in production decades after they were first designed.

Get the look: Eames plastic side chairs are now made by American company Vitra and are available for £225 from nest.co.uk

The World of Charles and Ray Eames is at the Barbican until February 14, 2016

Art

The highlight of London’s art year, the Frieze art fair hits Regent’s Park each October in a flurry of big money. The show is a marker of wider art market trends as collectors go with their art advisers to spend spend spend. Pop Art was a huge theme amongst galleries showing work at the fair, with colourful works by 1960s greats alongside Pop-inspired contemporary artists echoing Tate Modern’s big autumn exhibition, The World Goes Pop. Shiny, transparent materials including glass and Perspex were also popular, while many stands featured rusted wrought iron pieces – perhaps a logical deconstruction of the current trend for metallics. Unsurprisingly, no-one’s selling rusty furniture – yet – but scour reclamation yards, ebay and etsy for vintage wrought iron, or leave it out in the rain!

Get the look: Use bright colours with black accents for Pop art inspired interiors. Habitat have a good range of brights at the moment

See The World Goes Pop at Tate Modern until January 24 2016

Fashion

If the recent spate of fashion week shows are anything to go by (and let’s face it, they are) a return to pretty is on the cards for women’s fashion in Spring/Summer 2016. Embellishment, soft colours and cosy or delicate fabrics are all part of the picture, along with deconstructed shapes and frayed edges. Consultant footwear designer Lucette Holland, who has worked with Celine, Proenza Schouler, Kanye West, Louboutin and Balenciaga says: ”The overwhelming vibe from the shows was a return to embellishment and femininity. For a few seasons now fashion brands have been moving away from the androgynous minimal style that was so popular into something more colourful.

“Whether it’s at Celine, which has evolved from stark minimal sharp tailoring into a more flowing silhouette, or at YSL, which celebrated the vamp, the overriding theme was effortlessness – a soft feminine silhouette with few accessories.”

Get the look: Pretty yet restrained embroidered linen cushions from Baker & Gray are both soft and decorative