We should have known better
Ah, the 70’s. It almost seems like piling on to make fun of the home decorating horrors of that era, but this article brought it back for me. I was born in ’75, so I just caught the end of it, but I got my share. I remember being a kid in Blackfoot, Idaho, and having rainbow shag carpet in my bedroom, along with busy orange and brown wallpaper with drawings of people on it. The people on the walls used to scare me (I was, what, 5 or 6?), so we replaced that wallpaper with something much more tasteful—blue sky and clouds. It was fabulous with the rainbow shag.
I also remember, later when we moved to California, a couch and chair combo that was upholstered in fuzzy brown with orange flowers and featured heavily lacquered oak armrests. The kitchen had a wall covered in plastic bricks. I should point out that this was a rental, so we had no control over the bricks.
But back to the article, it is a review of a book called Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible 70’s by James Lileks.
My favorite quote:

Another foyer boasts a curved stairway with vertical, abstract printed paper he likens to "a close-up of one's intestinal lining. . . . You can be sure the designer chose this scheme because it 'drew the eye upward.' Of course, one could say the same thing about the Hindenburg disaster.”

Good times, good times.

Update: Mom has a correction: "brings back memories ... but the couch was brown and ivory, no orange!!! but I did hand crochet that variegated orange table cloth which didn't have a lot of use past the 70's!"

  ¶ 1:09 PM