As the leaves fall, investment banks topple and fuel bills soar, our taste in interiors is undergoing a shift. Boutique hotel opulence - glossy, lacquered surfaces polished metals and exotic inlay – is giving way to more austere designs that match our make-do-and-mend mood. Such pieces are defined by simplicity, utility of form and modest materials. Accessories are colourful thrift-store-style finds, anything from a pressed glass cake stand to a patchwork quilt. It’s a fresh, enticing look, and the change feels as welcome as homemade soup after a period of overstretching the budget on Michelin-star meals.

The modesty of Shaker furniture always strikes a chord during periods of belt-tightening. Its original makers, the celibate members of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, worked cherrywood and maple into ladderback chairs, trestle tables, dressers, hanging cupboards and peg rails. Though ornament was frowned on, oval boxes featured swallowtail joints cut with a virtuosity that almost amounted to ostentation.

Modern descendants of these simple, handmade designs can easily cost four figures. Bespokeshaker makes a three-legged table and an elongated seven-drawer chest (£299 and £2,399; www.bespokeshaker.com); Shaker Maker specialises in traditional designs (tables from £1,000; www.shakermaker.com). The cabinetmaker Derek Smith, who has been working almost exclusively in the Shaker style for the past four years, keeps prices low by selling mainly small-scale furniture through the web-site www.shakerhome.co.uk . Most of his stock costs less than £400 – unadorned tripod tables cost £279, low tables (based on Shaker benches) go for £375, five-peg rails start at £35 and boxes start at £22. “The designs have been around so long, they won’t date, and furniture of that quality will go on and on,” Smith says.

The abstemious furnishings of 1950s Britain are also influencing designers and retailers. Original G-Plan pieces in teak have been popping up in the Metro Retro concession at Selfridges, including vintage coffee tables (£375). The fashion designer Margaret Howell has been selling 1950s Ercol classics in some of her stores, and has persuaded the company to reissue its seminal Butterfly chairs (£395; www.ercol.com). These functional, slimline pieces, set on slender splayed legs, are the last word in understatement. The same postwar aesthetic informs Graham & Green’s new oval dining table and chairs in blond oak (£595 and £162; 0845 130 6622, www.grahamandgreen.co.uk).

A third strand of the austerity trend, charity-shop chic, offers a perfect way to add decoration to these rather sober pieces. Indeed, Oxfam (www.oxfam.org.uk/shops/content/furniture) has eight stores across the country dedicated to furnishings and accessories. Inspired by a car-boot-sale find, the stylish salvage dealer Re has just brought out a range of tableware in “depression glass”: an inexpensive milky-green moulded glass that was popular in the 1930s. Graham & Green offers a similar moulded-glass cake stand (£12; details as above), while The Pier has pressed glass tumblers and goblets (from £3; 0845 609 1234, www.pier.co.uk).

The London-based Cabbages & Roses has been working the “granny’s attic” look for seven years. Its homewares, including cushions, tablecloths and napkins, are decorated with vintage rose motifs in washed-out pinks and lilacs (£10.10 per napkin; 020 7352 7333, www.cabbagesandroses.com).

Other designers are celebrating the delicious randomness of the thrift store with products that mix nostalgia and eccentricity. The sculptor and painter Lisa Whatmough is also a collector of vintage fabrics. Squint, her shop in east London, has patchwork sofas, chairs, mirrors and lighting, all covered in vivid fabrics. Light shades start at £150, monumental chesterfields in silks, velvets and ticking at £4,400 (020 7739 9275, www.squintlimited.com ).

Stephen Johnson, another young artist, produces table decorations that register a 10 on the quirk-o-meter.

Imagine Jeff Koons spending a rainy afternoon with some superglue and a Wade Whimsies collection, and you will get the flavour of Jones’s Now Isn’t That Lovely series, which was launched this month at the 100% Design show. Number 7, which is 40cm tall, features a west highland terrier with a teddy, a hedgehog and a magpie balanced on its nose (bespoke, from about £900; 07984 419588, www.stephenjohnson.biz ).

Both Jones and Whatmough bring a welcome sense of fun to design – a reminder that the traditional British response to austerity is humour.

Desk job £4,599 This chest is based on an original believed to have been made by a Shaker in Harvard, Massachusetts. Though its simple silhouette is characteristic, it is unusual because of its visual “deception”: one drawer opens to reveal a writing surface, turning the unit from storage into desk. There is no inlay or fancy carving, but the quality and detail are exceptional. Available in solid maple and solid cherry. H116cm x W110cm x D53cm; www.bespokeshaker.com

Store and order£2,499 The neatness and order that were the prime precepts of the Shaker way of life called for plenty of storage, including large chests of drawers. This is a fine example of a freestanding unit, with perfectly fitting drawers; it also incorporates the typical Shaker device of graduating the drawer heights, thereby creating a beautifully proportioned and elegant cabinet. Available in solid maple (pictured) and solid cherry. H142cm x W56cm x D50cm; www.bespokeshaker.com

A glass apartfrom £9 Re stocks both salvaged homewares and its own lines. New this month is milky-green glass tableware, with glasses (£9), pitchers (£25), mixing bowls (£36) and cake stands (pictured, from £25). It is dubbed “depression glass” because its cheapness made it popular in 1930s America. 01434 634567, www.refoundobjects.com

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