Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
August 3, 2016 8:38 PM   Subscribe

A Jezebel Pictorial of 70's Model Rooms
We cannot move on until you have fully processed the presence of a random loom on a random credenza.
Bonus: A 70's penthouse!
posted by hilaryjade (83 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 


It's funny, but having been born in the 70's, this kind of really gaudy awful interior causes in me a sort of comfortable, cozy, childhood nostalgia. This is the kind of hideous carpet I grew up on, this is the wallpaper I played under with my little friends. I know it looks awful, but it gives me a feeling like a long-lost teddy bear, back when everything was simple and safe and good.
posted by The otter lady at 8:45 PM on August 3, 2016 [27 favorites]


Ahhhh; this instantly made me feel comfy.
posted by soakimbo at 8:52 PM on August 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


The decor is, well, what it is, but what really blows my mind is that tiny unit kitchen that has an electric stovetop right next to the sink. That seems like a really bad idea.
posted by adamrice at 8:56 PM on August 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


Call me crazy, but after a decade and a half of marble countertops, stainless steel appliances, track lighting, and tastefully muted backsplashes... give me the avocado plaid.
posted by codacorolla at 8:58 PM on August 3, 2016 [27 favorites]


It's funny, but having been born in the 70's, this kind of really gaudy awful interior causes in me a sort of comfortable, cozy, childhood nostalgia.

Agreed - I had a great-aunt and uncle and a grandmother that decorated their houses in high early 70s chic, and then left them unchanged (except for a gathering sheen of nicotine) for the next 25+ years. God help me, but an avocado green, burnt orange, and shag-carpeted space gives me the warm fuzzies.
posted by ryanshepard at 8:59 PM on August 3, 2016 [11 favorites]


These are far from the gaudiest examples I have seen, but I also have a fondness for this era. I don't think I will ever be nostalgic for sunken living rooms but the colors and patterns are great.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:09 PM on August 3, 2016


Call me crazy, but after a decade and a half of marble countertops, stainless steel appliances, track lighting, and tastefully muted backsplashes... give me the avocado plaid.

Agreed. I'll wait for polished rock for my headstone, thanks, and as someone who worked in huge restaurants for years, y'all can go ahead and keep your 'industrial' style stainless steel appliances. Blech.
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 9:18 PM on August 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


I don't think I will ever be nostalgic for sunken living rooms but the colors and patterns are great.

I would put good money on the conversation pit getting a renaissance sometime between now and the time that sea level rise finally puts an end to design trends. I got to sit in one in a semi-timecapsule beachhouse about a decade ago after being conversation pit-less for 30+ years, and it stirred up some long-forgotten memories*. It was cozy. We got drunk and a little giddy and the conversation did, indeed, flow.

*My elementary school had one. In the library.
posted by ryanshepard at 9:21 PM on August 3, 2016 [10 favorites]


...left them unchanged (except for a gathering sheen of nicotine) for the next 25+ years. God help me, but an avocado green, burnt orange, and shag-carpeted space gives me the warm fuzzies.

Just thinking about it gives me fuzzies, too. Itchy, rashy, creeping fuzzies that might need antibiotics.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:23 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


God help me, but an avocado green, burnt orange, and shag-carpeted space gives me the warm fuzzies.

Oh yeah! My grandparents kitchen had avacado green appliances and green linoleum flooring; the family room had orange shag carpeting (which was worn down except underneath the furniture that hadn't been moved in 30 years) with dark wood-paneled walls and a heavy brown curtain over the sliding back door. Memories...
posted by littlesq at 9:25 PM on August 3, 2016


This spring a storm really damaged our house and property. We just finally got a roof on last week.

Anyway, I have to replace the drywall and ceilings and floors. And I have been in utter shutdown about what colors to pick, and what materials to use, and how, if I ever get to unpack my stuff, I'm going to redecorate all the things...and I know the second I pick something, it will be horribly out of date, or the colors will be hideous once they're on the wall, and frankly I'm getting used to bare concrete floors and the dull drab cardboard brown that surrounds me...

I desperately need a magic pixie dust bohemian to come make it all make sense. Or ya know, bring quaaludes and ill just go with pink and teal stripes. (I secretly hope I'll get vandalised by a troop of drive by decorators.)
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 9:51 PM on August 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


I actually love the linoleum floor in that kitchen. The pattern is rather William Morris meets Brady Bunch. The baby blue pegboard by the stove, alas, is only useful, not beautiful, and we shall not even discuss that beige folding door.
posted by maudlin at 10:04 PM on August 3, 2016


I dunno, it just doesn'tseem like a 70's living room without the Scandinavian Cone Fireplace. And the odd wire wall hanging.
posted by happyroach at 10:18 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


I've actually bought a few of these books at sales, and we've had that conversation. These were not just your relatives houses, these pictures were super hip places at the time.

Call me crazy, but after a decade and a half of marble countertops, stainless steel appliances, track lighting, and tastefully muted backsplashes... give me the avocado plaid.

And every time we watch one of those house shopping shows and someone starts going off about "I have to have granite counters, and stainless steel appliances" I twitch, it's so late in the game. I mean, if you're selling your house it's OK, but if you're looking for something you going to have to live with for many years...

We've been predicting the big comeback of color sink, toilet, and bathtub matching sets for the last couple of years.

And wood pattern ceramic tile is thing people will be ripping out frantically in a couple of years.
posted by bongo_x at 11:00 PM on August 3, 2016 [6 favorites]


I love that linoleum pattern, and while I don't much care for linoleum, if I could have it in wallpaper, I'd happily do an accent wall in it.

If the floor were tiled, and the tile pattern was echoed in the wall, I'd think that was awesome.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:07 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


The 70s Penthouse link concludes with a link to this NY Times story about Period Rooms in art museums, which was not a thing I was aware of and now I want to go to there and see all the things. Alas, no pictures, but that just makes me want to go there all the more to see them.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:12 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


Is that floor really linoleum, or is it vinyl?
posted by stopgap at 11:27 PM on August 3, 2016


We've been predicting the big comeback of color sink, toilet, and bathtub matching sets for the last couple of years.

So much this. Everything comes back into style if you wait long enough and I suspect the first company to start doing colored fixtures again is going to make a killing.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 11:28 PM on August 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


I would love it if I could get more large appliances to match small appliances. My Kitchenaid is actually black, since that's what was cheap, but man, I'd totes redecorate around Bay Leaf.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:51 PM on August 3, 2016 [4 favorites]


How can a 1800+ sqft condo sell for 158K? That can't be for real... that's what - less than 100 per sq foot. I'll two of those please.
posted by helmutdog at 11:54 PM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


My godparents built their mid-century modern dream house in 1978. It has been the hippest house I knew of for literally my entire life. I just visited them a few weeks ago and was marveling that their cool, stylish finishes were the same ones I loved as a kid in the 90s, and they still feel fresh and hip now. And my three year old daughter loves them too.

Of course, when I went to a furniture museum in Denmark I saw a bunch of stuff on display that I recognised from their house. I guess maybe it's a "well if you spend enough money on your things that all match beautifully, they'll actually feel timeless considered as a set" thing? So frustrating that my house that was built in 2006 already looks dated (lo, my broad expanses of hideous brown granite counter, let me show you them) but their much older place just gets cooler as it ages.
posted by town of cats at 12:13 AM on August 4, 2016 [9 favorites]


The tiny kitchen has a wok hanging on the wall, which surprised me. But not as much as the red wine glasses for eight, brandy snifters for eight, martini glasses, cocktail glasses, etc. ditto.
posted by Joe in Australia at 1:10 AM on August 4, 2016 [2 favorites]


This is from one of the volumes of the Better Homes & Gardens Decorating Book. I'm not sure which year specifically, they came out every year or every other year from the 1950s through maybe the 80s. I've got a couple volumes of this -- a mid-1950s and an early 1970s -- though not this one. The only reason why I know is because I saw these pics when flipping through this particular edition at a vintage furniture store (they were using it as a reference) a couple weeks ago.

The otherworldly quality to most of the photos is because many of them were shot in studios. There's a weird avoidance of open windows in some the photos -- often there aren't photos where you'd expect them, and when there are, they're almost always covered in heavy blinds and heavier curtains and sometimes both. Some shots of rooms with bare windows in my 1956 volume have the "glass" showing only a flat shade of blue. You also tend to notice things like awkward L- and S-shape floor plans in the studio shots, or awkward croppings leaving out the ceilings, so that they can hide the lighting equipment behind walls or hang them overhead.

Aside from trying to meet the demands of their advertisers to include as much merch as possible (which is true even of the Eisenhower-era edition), I feel like the weird overloaded clutter and high-contrast decorations whenever possible are because the designers and set dressers got bored doing spare, modernist spaces. It would be funny if somebody could establish a line of influence from this decades-long series of lower-middle-class and middle-class interior design featuring surrealistically overloaded rooms to the American compulsion to clutter up spaces with knicknacks. But I think that we've always had that compulsion for accumulating stuff and the books didn't change things much.
posted by ardgedee at 2:46 AM on August 4, 2016 [9 favorites]


BTW, what's offensive about the green and yellow tablesetting? Besides a too-big flower arrangement it seems rather subdued and nice.
posted by Harald74 at 3:13 AM on August 4, 2016 [4 favorites]


That particular mix of green and yellow makes me think of puke. Or snot.
posted by needled at 3:36 AM on August 4, 2016


Call me crazy, but after a decade and a half of marble countertops, stainless steel appliances, track lighting, and tastefully muted backsplashes... give me the avocado plaid.


I feel the same way, but am inclined in more of an '80s direction.


Memphis-Milano, baby!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:18 AM on August 4, 2016 [4 favorites]


Sunken living rooms are like having a missing stair in the middle of your house. Sooner or later you're going to forget it's there and take a header. Heed my warning, for lo, I have lived through that dark era and taken many a tumble.
posted by emjaybee at 5:25 AM on August 4, 2016 [11 favorites]


I m now doubting emjaybee's commitment to living a groovy lifestyle
posted by thelonius at 6:06 AM on August 4, 2016 [10 favorites]


I can't believe they're mocking that loom. It's a radical design - do you know what you'd have to pay for a 2-harness countermarche 24" tabletop loom nowadays?!? And the texel heddles would indeed make it quiet enough to use in the living room - none of that annoying rattley-tinkley you get with steel heddles. God I'm lusting so hard for that thing right now.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 6:20 AM on August 4, 2016 [15 favorites]


You people who approve of these looks are wrong, aesthetically and morally, and should be ashamed of yourselves. A fondness for avocado wallpaper and shag carpeting should be understood as an indication of sickness of soul. WOE UNTO YOU WHO APPROVE OF RON BURGUNDY'S INTERIOR DECORATION! WOOOOOOOOOOOOE!
posted by Harvey Jerkwater at 6:32 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


My two favorite couples in my world growing up, my next door neighbors and my great aunt and uncle both had sunken living rooms. When we were looking for a house, I almost bought one, despite the many negatives, based on the fact that it had a sunken living room. They just feel like goodness to me. Hell, if Palm Springs wasn't so gotdamn hot, I'd buy an untouched midcentury there in a steaming second.
posted by Sophie1 at 6:58 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


I also was like YOU LEAVE THAT LOOM ALONE, SIR.
posted by corb at 7:09 AM on August 4, 2016 [3 favorites]


Re countertops, my contractor about fell over when I said I wanted to see Formica samples for the kitchen counter. I have a slab of marble for tempering chocolate, but I sure as fuck don't need anything that impractical for an entire kitchen. I cook, I do crafts, I bake bread, I make soap, I need a countertop impervious to use, and granite and marble are stupid expensive for something that doesn't really work as a work surface. Don't even get me started on the horror that is corian.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 7:30 AM on August 4, 2016 [3 favorites]


I envy you, SecretAgentSockpuppet. I've got horror-show countertops that need to be replaced (cheap builder's laminate, PALE! BLUE!, on two L-shaped counters). I'd gladly go for good laminate this time around if it weren't for the damn joins that separate so easily from damp, so it's probably going to be some kind of quartz composite like Silestone.
posted by maudlin at 7:37 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


I hated all that stuff when it was new. Looking at it now imbues me with a feeling of temporal claustrophobia. But at least they were trying something. I feel like interior design has almost achieved entropy, everything's taupe and minimal now. Design seems to have embraced "Don't stand out and never risk looking dated" as its driving criteria.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 8:00 AM on August 4, 2016 [3 favorites]


i still vividly recall my mother telling me, with tremendous excitement, that the new house we were moving into had white appliances. As I was 3 years old, I had no idea what the hell was so great about white appliances. Little did I know it was 1984, and every other house in our subdivision had "harvest gold" or "avocado green" and these were terrible things now.

Of course the rest of the house was a complete 1976 nightmare--the living room had a full wall of mirrors under dark wooden arch frames, and my bedroom had sunflower-yellow shag carpeting, and my god the lighting fixtures my god.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:13 AM on August 4, 2016 [5 favorites]


38 posts and nobody's tapped the main line.
posted by lagomorphius at 8:49 AM on August 4, 2016 [8 favorites]


This is from one of the volumes of the Better Homes & Gardens Decorating Book.

That's what I thought, but I can't get to them right now. Thanks!
posted by bongo_x at 9:00 AM on August 4, 2016


Supreme Interiors: one of my fav tumblrs. Also, try insideinside and thebrickhouse, and look up Handcrafted Modern by Leslie Williamson for some slightly more modern modernism, with a thin slice of minimalism. May be your thing, may not.
posted by eclectist at 9:17 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


My grandparents' house was filled with '70s colors, patterns and textures, but their style was less . . . hip? I guess?

They owned an old brick house near downtown Salt Lake. It looked like a fairy-tale cottage: arched front door and front windows, peaked roof. it was covered in ivy, surrounded by flowers, and shaded by the branches of a huge old oak tree. I loved that house and all of the people in it. Because of this, I get the same teddy-bear feeling from certain elements of '70 décor.

Let's take a walk . . .

The front porch is carpeted because why not? It has a built-in bench that overlooks one of the flower-beds out front. The door is huge, heavy and old-looking. Set into it is a little peep-hole just big enough to stick a hand through. There's a screen door too, with its handle set at the perfect height for tiny grandchildren to reach.

The living room and dining room are carpeted in gold shag. Dark baseboards, a wicker pendant lamp hanging on a chain, ceramic table lamps with huge shades. There's a comfortable gold recliner, and a long wooden credenza on which a huge old TV sits.

The dining room has dark wood paneling. The kitchen is a riot of yellows and creams, its counters made of wood-grained Formica. The microwave oven has an actual dial that you actually turn. My grandma calls it "the RADAR range".

The front bedroom has striped shag carpeting, and a wallpapered ceiling. The room smells of books and wooden furniture. Heavy, dark, wooden shutters make the room feel cave-like when they're closed.

There is a jack-and-jill bathroom with red shag carpeting and pink wallpaper. The fixtures, by some miracle, are white. Except for the toilet seat and lid, which are red because you have to match the carpeting.

The basement is the best part. It's been divided into a family room, two bedrooms, a bathroom and a sewing room. There's a fireplace of rough brick, simple industrial grey carpeting, and floor-to-ceiling shelves full of record albums. There's also a huge upright piano and an electric organ. You could hear that thing from the backyard. Musical skill was not a prerequisite for being allowed to play it. You could be as loud as the heck you wanted at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

The best room in the house, by far, was one of the downstairs guest bedrooms. My thrifty grandparents had carpeted the room entirely in carpet samples in every possible texture and color: black, beige, white, sky-blue, brilliant red, yellow and pink. That bedroom shared a wall with the downstairs bathroom. The bathroom had no windows, and no ventilation fan. Instead, it had a "steam door"--a little door in the wall above the toilet. The door opened onto the room the carpet squares--right next to a window. Climbing through the steam door was a tradition among the grandkids. One summer, I broke the little shelf that we stood on to reach the door. Down went the box of tissues and Grandma's little box of bobby pins. I wasn't a big kid, and it wasn't a strong shelf, but it felt like something had changed.

That house, and those memories, became my place-to-come-back to. The colors, textures and smells of wove themselves into my childhood and on into my grown-up heart.

Sometimes, when I'm feeling sad or lost, I picture myself in that house--just for a moment, and I feel a little bit better.

Someday, other people will look at old Instagram photos of perfect suburban living rooms and big, gleaming kitchens, and have similar twinges. They'll remember decorating cookies on those hideous brown countertops, and how their grandmas and grandpas never minded them getting handprints on the stainless-steel appliances because they made special cleaner for that. They'll remember vast seas of gentle neutral colors, and oversized, practical furniture that you could sink right down into.

It's not about the colors or textures or styles. It's about what they mean to us. Don't hate your Corian; see through the eyes of your toddlers, and imagine it through the mind's-eyes of those same little people when they're many decades older. It doesn't really matter what your home looks like. It only matters that it's yours.
posted by Flipping_Hades_Terwilliger at 9:22 AM on August 4, 2016 [23 favorites]


Now that it's so far away in time, it looks quaint rather than hideous. A vanished avocado world.
posted by betweenthebars at 9:25 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


I must be of the right age that a lot of these pictures set off waves of nostalgia. My family moved into a house that was decorated in the late 80's so lots of avocado green, marbled mirrors, and flocked wallpaper. A kitchen full of red appliances, and a finished basement with a bar and lots of dark wood paneling.

I am also old enough to have some memories of the 70's. If I didn't live in a house with some of these touches, I certainly had friends who did. The thing that kicks off my nostalgia more than most is almost anything that The Eames had a hand in. Even though their heyday was really earlier than the 70's, their influence still reverberated for decades. I think everyone who went to school in the 60's-80's sat in a fiberglass chair that had some Eames influence.

One day, I want an Eames chair for my office. Thankfully, they are still being manufactured 50+ years later.
posted by Badgermann at 10:34 AM on August 4, 2016


oh maudlin, I feel your pain. My current counters are builder grade laminate, that meet at the corners, so there's like a seam at the edge of the flat part, and the 2" drop . Not only that, the laminate is white with blue and red crosshatching type checks....oh my lord, it can cause flashbacks. The kitchen was the one room I had not renovated before the April disaster, and of course, it was the one room left untouched by the storm outside of minor water staining. I've decided that as long as everything is in pods, I'm just going to suck up the cost and just replace the counters, but not get crazy and do a full renovation....mostly because I would really like to unpack sometime this year.

As long as it's a decorating thread, does anyone have opinions on whether one should paint all the rooms one color, or just go nuts and paint each room differently? Assuming rooms which are open to, or visible from, each other. I'm not kidding when in say I should probably hire a decorator, but I've looked at scores of portfolios, and haven't found anyone who specializes is working around massive piles of books, dozens of framed Bristol boards, and a lifetime of geekery collections. (Why, of course I want the Animaniacs toys to have a spot light, next to the original sketch of Pinky and the Brain. Who wouldn't want that?) I have a feeling that any decorator of good taste would throw up their hands and run crying into the night, faced with my true aesthetic.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 11:01 AM on August 4, 2016


My parents flipped houses in the 80s. I would frequently move into a home with decor like this (that pink and green kitchen? I had a bedroom like that with Kelly-green shag carpet to boot. And it was HOT pink, not pale), and then we would start ripping all that stuff out and putting in mid-80s style; sometimes pale blue/white (often accented with ducks and geese wallpaper borders, alas, a popular style), sometimes, white/beige with purple and green accents (Mom took a dare and put in deep purple carpet in one living room and it looked awesome. She had a gift) which were also popular then. We made the houses look staged before there were any shows about doing that--like I said, Mom had a gift, and our houses sold except for the one we had in 88 when the market was crashing. But that house sold too, eventually.

It's no wonder I'm addicted to home renovation shows like Fixer Upper. My mom was a Joanna Gaines ahead of her time.
posted by emjaybee at 11:10 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


38 posts and nobody's tapped the main line.

Holy crap.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:11 AM on August 4, 2016


This was the bathroom in our house when we bought it. We terminated it with extreme prejudice.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:19 AM on August 4, 2016 [4 favorites]


The wallpaper is (was) shiny foil, FYI.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:20 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


When my wife and I bought our Massachusetts cape house in 1994, there were places you could stand from which you could see NINE different patterns of 70's-era wallpaper, and each room had a different color and texture of shag carpet to boot. She kept a scrapbook of samples as we took them all down.

Of course, all those carpets were covering oak hardwood.
posted by yhbc at 11:26 AM on August 4, 2016 [2 favorites]


When I was a kid, the idea of sunken living rooms and conversation pits seemed like the most awesome thing ever, but when I finally did encounter such things (in my late teens? early 20's?) they left me feeling pretty meh. I am, and have always been, more worked up about 70's appliance colors like "Avocado" and "Harvest Gold" - for whatever reason they're always associated in my mind with rooms completely covered in that awful dark-stained pine paneling. Bleah.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:27 AM on August 4, 2016


Horace, our upstairs bathroom had the same yellow sink, tub and toilet. We replaced the sink and toilet, but I opted to try painting the tub with white bathtub epoxy. That has since all flaked off and now we have a yellow tub in an otherwise nice modern bathroom.
posted by yhbc at 11:29 AM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


I guess I'm supposed to be horrified, but I like a lot of that stuff. The problem with it is that when I'm in a house with, say, purple carpet, I know that the carpet is decades old and it smells like it. But if I could get yellow kitchen appliances now -- at a reasonable price -- I'd happily trade my stainless steel for them.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:04 PM on August 4, 2016 [5 favorites]


> does anyone have opinions on whether one should paint all the rooms one color, or just go nuts and paint each room differently

I went with different colors, but the colors go together -- there's no clashing colors that you can see when you stand in one place (except the interiors of the closets, but that was deliberate).
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:05 PM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


While bits and pieces of these rooms remind me of my teens, mostly they make me think of the very recent Toddler Grandma FPP.
posted by a person of few words at 1:42 PM on August 4, 2016


go nuts and paint each room differently? [...] around massive piles of books, dozens of framed Bristol boards

Paint each wall a different color, possibly with a hidden pattern, eg from the front door all cool colors and from the sunniest window all warm. Then fill it up with your stuff.


Best 70s house memory: a bathroom with ferns on silver foil wallpaper, and green shag carpet, and everything cased in rough redwood that splintered and caught dust and lint and feathers off the duster. Aesthetically coherent, but unmaintainable.
posted by clew at 1:50 PM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


The house we live in now has granite countertops in the kitchen, but that weird pink-and-black granite pattern that I call "road rash on a skinned knee." I'm sure it was expensive, but mostly it's impossible to see if it's dirty/wet or not. I have to wipe it down by feel.

I had my druthers, I'd have something simpler, maybe polished concrete in a neutral color. White or steel appliances are fine to me, I do not care. I am not excited by backsplashes, but I would love any design that made it impossible for water to get trapped between the sink edge and the wall. Someone needs to invent that, I hate cleaning that bit.
posted by emjaybee at 2:20 PM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


Incredibly, the conversation pit remains in place at my old elementary school.

This whole thread has me a little misty, to be honest.
posted by ryanshepard at 2:28 PM on August 4, 2016 [1 favorite]




Yeah, I really like some things being done with concrete, but I think my cabinets might buckle under the weight. But man, I've seen some cool stuff done with it.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 4:18 PM on August 4, 2016


Is concrete really any heavier than materials like granite? I think your cabinets ought to be fine.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:08 PM on August 4, 2016


the conversation pit

Renew!
posted by thelonius at 6:21 PM on August 4, 2016 [2 favorites]


The basement is the best part.

OH GOD I have just been reminded of my great-Aunt's house. It was in northern Michigan, a modernist ranch with a full basement. It overlooked a heavily-wooded ravine and as such had an all-glass back wall. Just gorgeous.

Every room had a theme color, and every item in each room was the theme color. Pink. Green. Blue. Orange. Red. Every. Item. But best of all was the basement; divided up into 6 or 7 rooms, workshops and rec rooms and so forth. And in all of the connecting walls, those yellow-glass, diamond-paned windows you might see on a dingy pizza parlor from the 70s. And flower boxes in each window, with fake geraniums.

I've never seen anything like it again. My aunt died when I was quite young, and I wish now that I knew what had happened to that house!
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 6:21 PM on August 4, 2016 [3 favorites]


Maybe it's because I grew up with these colourful homes (even though I never remember living anywhere quite so trendy) but I just love them. Pale or Robin's Egg Blue appliances especially.

adamrice: "The decor is, well, what it is, but what really blows my mind is that tiny unit kitchen that has an electric stovetop right next to the sink. That seems like a really bad idea."

I reconditioned, sold and installed dozens of those things. Know what's behind the large door under the sink? In a lot of cases it's the fridge though this particular unit looks to have it to the right. Very popular with people converting basements to secondary suites.

Electric ranges are mostly designed to shed water away from the electrical bits because boil overs and other kitchen accidents are so common. I never thought about it before but even today there isn't any limit to how close the stove with it's non GFCI protected supply and outlet can be to the sink (Canadian code anyways) which is pretty weird considering the rules for GFCIs but essential in most smaller kitchens.
posted by Mitheral at 6:40 PM on August 4, 2016


-What kind of people are you?! The bath is not white.
-No it’s a sort of green, isn’t it?


It's funny because it's true. Seriously, that was amazing.
My wife will attest that I often say "fuck you" to the television when someone starts ranting about popcorn ceilings and spends $3k to take them down.
posted by bongo_x at 7:17 PM on August 4, 2016


This 1960s time capsule of a house is for sale near Minneapolis. The Star Tribune calls it the Wallpaper House. Here's an article about the woman who lived in it & decorated it.
posted by Nosey Mrs. Rat at 7:41 PM on August 4, 2016 [5 favorites]


Nosey Mrs. Rat, that house is pretty fabulous!
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:59 PM on August 4, 2016


Joe--it is that. Definitely one-of-a-kind. Someone will buy it & update it--rather sad, really.
posted by Nosey Mrs. Rat at 9:21 PM on August 4, 2016


Everything comes back into style if you wait long enough and I suspect the first company to start doing colored fixtures again is going to make a killing.

There is a mid-century single-screen cinema not far from my place that I go to now and again. It closed initially in 1985 or so but then then the building was taken over by a golf pro shop and the former auditorium converted into an indoor driving range. The place then reopened as a movie theatre in 2004 with some, er, distinctive choices. Instead of seats, the auditorium now held cushioned pews. The house lights had been replaced by those fake fires (you know – an upward-facing orange light, a fan, and a slightly ragged square of fabric to flicker as it waves about) and the washroom entirely renovated with glossy black fixtures. I am not sure why it is, but whenever I am there, when I visit the washroom and pee into a black urinal, I feel like I am Logan's Run.

Anyway, the seventies was my childhood so these images evoke the same mixture of hominess and vertigo that other gen X types must feel. My aunt was born in 1950 and thus the seventies bracketed her twenties perfectly. Of course, being a young successful boomer her place was always decorated according to the dictates of the latest swinging fashion. For some reason I kept being reminded of her when looking at these, more than any other members of my family; I suspect this is because when I was about four, I was absolutely enchanted by the bead curtain she had in the doorway between living room and kitchen. That was groovy.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:19 AM on August 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


Oh man, those plastic multicolor bead curtains. I am fairly certain people got rid of them because of the constant noise of children playing with (and breaking) them. Also if they get swinging in a clump, they can smack you in the face pretty hard. Cats would also attack them I'm sure.

(thanks for that sudden madeleine of memory, richochet biscuit)

I guess I should have realized the 70s had become cute and nostalgic when owls came back into fashion. I do wonder if this means we'll see the return of wallpaper, which I do not miss at all, personally. Maybe if they could invent some that is temporary, like those wall decorations, because however much you like wallpaper, it's a bitch to install/remove.
posted by emjaybee at 8:58 AM on August 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Or you could mount some rolls of whiteboard material and stock up on dry-erase pens. Then you could "redecorate" whenever and however you wanted!
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:06 AM on August 5, 2016


A guy I used to work with had a home office with three large white panels painted on the walls. His three daughters each had an assigned panel and were allowed to paint/draw/scribble whatever they wanted on the panel. Periodically, he'd snap a photo of each panel and repaint them white so the girls could start from scratch. It was just about the sweetest thing I'd ever seen.

His kids must be teenagers/young adults by now. I'd be curious to know how long he kept that up, and if any of them developed into a really good artist along the way.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:10 AM on August 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


The last house I rented had a giant blackboard, 10 or 12 feet long and about 4 feet high, installed on the wall of the "breakfast nook"/back hallway. My housemate and I, as well as friends during parties (all technically "adults") had great fun drawing all manner of silliness on it. I miss that blackboard...
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:19 AM on August 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


I have whiteboards in a couple of rooms, and leave dry erase markers, but mostly they get ignored by juvenile members of the species, so I use them for lists. And beaded curtains, I just last week bought this, and it's wonderful for hiding an unfortunate door. Re concrete counters being too heavy, I don't have stone there currently, it's builder grade laminate from a previous century.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 2:36 PM on August 5, 2016


My (mid '60's) house has a conversation pit! I love it, but the built in couches and fireplace have many sharp corners. There have been stitches...
posted by rebeccabeagle at 7:24 PM on August 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


SecretAgentSockpuppet: " I think my cabinets might buckle under the weight. But man, I've seen some cool stuff done with it."

Unless you have seriously weedy cabinets you'd be fine with concrete.
posted by Mitheral at 10:32 PM on August 5, 2016


I had a 40's house with stainless counters and they were concrete underneath. Solid wood though.

Sunken living rooms will always be the height of sophistication for me. People lounging around with cocktails and a bitchin stereo system. That's what I'm going to have when I grow up.
posted by bongo_x at 11:41 PM on August 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


colored appliances are totally back, and I'm sure the company that started doing them again is making a killing.

there's also removable wallpaper now, though I haven't tried it myself.
posted by alycoop at 9:24 AM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


colored appliances are totally back, and I'm sure the company that started doing them again is making a killing.

.... Seriously? This company is called... "SMEG"?
posted by The otter lady at 8:15 PM on August 6, 2016


Oh yes. It's quite well known for a private concern. They don't have great market penetration but I'm sure that will come with more exposure.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:57 PM on August 6, 2016


I bought a 1980's time capsule house, done in the country blue/folk art polka dot flowers/ducks and geese wallpaper style mentioned above. All the light fixtures are brass in the style of kerosene lamps with faux smoky glass.

Basically it is exactly the style my mother aspired to in the 80s and as such I have had to wrestle with my conscience every time I strip a room of its wallpaper. I've been keeping samples of each room's paper as I remove it.
posted by annathea at 6:34 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


You know what is missing from these photos? Metal foiled wallpaper. So popular in the 70s.
My friends, you have not lived until you try to remove metal foiled wallpaper.
The look was dated the moment it was applied.
posted by Gadgetenvy at 6:25 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]


We would get a SMEG fridge in an instant if they had sizes more in line with what we need. I have a suspicion we may end up buying a SMEG toaster as some kind of consolation prize.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:23 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


Hah! I finally found my 1968 volume of the Better Homes & Gardens Decorating Book! (The copyrights page shows dates of 1956, 1961, and 1968... so they came out much less frequently than the every-other-year period I'd assumed, I guess).

It doesn't have any of the photos in this FPP, but I want to note that, in the context of popular tastes ca. 2016, it's the best of the three volumes I've seen. The Eames Lounge Chair makes frequent appearances, for example, and many of the boxy upholstered furniture pieces used to demonstrate modern designs would not look out of place in a Crate & Barrel today.
posted by ardgedee at 2:01 PM on August 21, 2016


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