Those were rooms designed by low hanging fruit! LOL.

I was in my teens and twenties in the 70's -- I can remember thinking this look was so cool. Groovy. Man, I'm old.

We'll look back at some of today's decor & cringe ... that goes for home decor, fashion, hairstyles.... there's bad in every era.

the women pictured in the photo second from the top could pass for what women wear & hairstyles today. They look good, but the men ugh!

LOL, those aren’t extreme examples at all. It was what it was. A horrible time in design, but like hatetoshop says, it was “Cool”.

Remember the Nehru suit?

Burnt Orange, Avocado, Harvest Gold, "copper" toned appliances, shag carpeting and plaid. My eyes are about to bleed...SO glad that period is over.

I have a picture of me, sitting at a bar with my husband…1970. I had a blonde wig on, a mini-dress made of rubbery material, white patent leather boots, smoking a cigarette and drinking a gin martini with 3 olives (it was really the salt I wanted) and I was 8 months pregnant. If I saw my then-self today, I would slap me silly.

He never got any satisfaction ......

The 70's were a down economic time and houses were often built with skimpy cheap trim work. Often you can find a hardwood floor in a 60's home or earlier under the carpet, but no such luck with a 70's home. Cabinetry was dark and of course avocado green, harvest gold and that rusty orange were colors with limited appeal. Plastics could now be used to mimic anything, so faux plastic wood panelling, bricks, stonework, tile and flooring. It was the first decade that marketers successfully talked massive numbers of people into liking the unlikable - in clothes as well as home decor.

My home was built in the 70s and it has a couple of good points. The rooms are nice size and so are the closets - of course nothing like the room size walk-ins every one wants today for their stuff. The kitchen space is decent and after all these years the foundation and bones are holding up well. There is very little "70s" left in my home. I hate seeing older homes remuddled out of sync with their character, and I wonder if I've done the same except that I am pretty sure there was no character in my home to start with.

In the 80's and 90's - much more prosperous times - people wanted a return of the woodwork so admired in older homes. They got it - and HGTV has taught many to hate it.

Hi, sunnydrew, no he never did.

but he tried.

...and tried

and he tried

Hey Judy G- I had that suit but I thought it was pajama's-lol. I liked the 70's decor as people weren't afraid of color and pattern. And it looks like that dishwasher held a lot more dishes than my Bosch.

I predict that one day people will look back on today's home decor trends, and wonder whether the gray, gray, gray is a sign that we are suffering from depression.

Patrim - that is another example of the power of marketing - that a kitchen that looks like a black and white photo is the ultimate. Fine if that is one's style, but I am pretty sure it is not the style of lots who are doing it.

That's one of the things I was thinking of partim..... gray, gray, gray.....everywhere, boring & unimaginative.

The 1980's were pretty brutal. Oak, duck decor, with mauve carpet and wallpaper borders. UGH!

Not to mention shoulder pads .... & BIG hair (permed)

Those photos are trippy, man.

You gotta love big hair with the perms, right on up there with the buffont. Don't you miss the claw! Back to ugly decor, the 1920's and 1930's had some pretty hideous tile combos.

That woman looks really happy about her avocado kitchen!!

When we bought our current home 30 years ago in 1987, it still had a multi-toned red shag carpet in the family room, installed in 1973. It stayed for almost 10 years until we had saved up enough money to renovate. It sure was a conversation starter, but very practical for raising children. There was no way for it to show any stains. Ground-in play dough could just be snipped off with scissors.

The 70s for sure! Home decor AND fashion. Remember Huk-a-poo shirts?

Fashion wasn't all bad ... I think the clothes worn by Mary Tyler Moore & Marlo Thomas on their TV shows were great, still look good today.

they were classics.

@nngirt and kaye, you made me laugh with your add-on comments.
I met Mick in the early 90's after a Stones concert (long story). I will tell you that he was extremely handsome and has stunning blue eyes. He was also very polite and had a great smile and sense of humor. Yes, he has aged "somewhat", but so have I!
What I recall from the 70's was the colored appliances and the long skirts.
Some of my mother's decorating was from the late 60's, which included olive shag carpeting, an angled three sided linen looking sectional the entire length of our living room. She had a 6 or 8 piece sectional teak triangular table that followed the shape of the couch. Behind all that was a WALL of pleated curtains. There was a swivel club chair next to the fireplace and opposite a muted floral wing chair.
On the wall behind that chair was this print by Cosmo De Salvo. I think there were two prints with different poses. I actually found my copy in an antique store, 90 miles away, in the '90's. I got chills when I spotted it as I had not seen it since leaving home in 1975. It may have been ours... or just another copy. If anyone has the mate please let me know!

Also, the top photo looks like a scene from "The Partridge Family". Keith and Laurie Partridge scheming to get little brother Danny in trouble......

Or it could be Donny and Marie

If you substituted stainless for the green in the 4th picture, that kitchen wouldn't be that much different from today

I love your post! I have some early 1970's brochures at our architectural firm. Years ago I was paging through them and found similar photos to what you posted. I would have to say, the 70's were probably the worst.

The third photo is my parents basement, except we had paneling on the walls.

The 70s were way worse than the 80s.

Ugly decor era, but a heck of alot of fun!

our house was built in 1968 and nothing had been changed in 42 years. It had wood paneling, orange shag, avocado green appliances, saloon doors. It was all grimy too.

Lol, that was my girlfriend and me (standing) back in the mid 70s. Looking back now and think we didn't do too bad, but it was a shocking era for design in fashion and house interiors

Hmm Irene- I see platform shoes and bare midriff. Haven't we seen that look lately? What goes around, comes around.

I was a teenager in the late 60's & early 70's. I remember thinking that the only colors to use in decorating was avocado green! Everything in our house was avocado—appliances, carpet, draperies—even the outside color of the house!

Gray is the new "avocado " ... one of my neighbors ' house has gray walls ( both inside & out ), ripped out hardwood floors & replaced it with gray " wood " look floors, dark gray upholstered furniture, gray "art" ... I don't think there's any other color in the entire house (except when their 70" TV is on ) !

I second that, Bailey R! (In fact, I found this page by "Googling" "Gray is the new avocado!") Recently, I saw on Zillow the folks who bought my childhood home (classic 1960's ranch) from my brother and me. They painted the warm wood kitchen cabinets white, and the entire house walls grey! (That may have been in part because they're renting the house out, but so did we and we didn't use grey.) I thought I was gonna cry.

In a recent issue of This Old House, they show a remodeled kitchen. The article's author calls the "Before" kitchen's woodgrain sixties' cabinets "gloomy." It's offensive and ironic at the same time, because the "After" kitchen has almost-black cabinets and floor, medium-grey walls. A repurposed autopsy table would have blended in as the food-prep island!

I can't imagine this fad lasting much longer. Maybe avocado will make a comeback!