Back in the Day… We Had Cool Decorating Trends

I write a lot about how different life was in the 1970s and 80s. How we decorated our homes was yet another aspect of how things have changed through the years. The following are some of the most prominent decorating trends we had… back in the day.

Shag Carpeting

Shag carpeting is the ultimate in 70s decorating chic. Some shags were relatively short and normal looking. Other people had those 2 or 3-inch-long monstrosities Austin Powers would be proud of. They came in blinding rainbow colors, and some people would even use a rake to keep those long, lush carpet strands looking fresh and clean.

The great thing about shag carpeting is if you spilled drinks on it, you could cut out sections of carpeting, brush it over, and hope your parents wouldn’t notice. You could make artistic designs on the carpet by sweeping certain sections in different directions. If it was long enough, you could even braid the strands.

Waterbeds

Back in the day, waterbeds were the ultimate symbol of cool. There was a sexy, Hollywood chic about owning and sleeping on a waterbed. If you had a waterbed on shag carpeting, you were extra cool. When you closed your eyes, laying on a waterbed was like gently careening across a lake on a big floaty. When the person lying next to you moved, you didn’t need a flotation device because it felt like a tsunami was gushing under your body.

Maintaining a waterbed was a major pain. And forget about trying to move them. Draining them, filling them, and burping them (yes, we burped waterbeds, look it up) was a major ordeal that had to be done in a specific way.

Sunken Living Rooms

This strange trend was all the rage in the 1970s. It was also sometimes called “a conversation pit,” although this didn’t sound as chic as a “sunken living room.” This was such a cool trend that the Mary Tyler-Moore television show featured a sunken living room.

There were a wide variety of sunken designs. Some were large, with steps leading down to classically decorated rooms. Others were more like fast-food ball pits, with just large pillows tossed everywhere.

Orange and Green Paneling

Wood paneling on the walls was a big decorating fad when I was a kid. We all wanted that rustic cabin look. The look was particularly popular in basements and rec rooms across America. This meant that musty basement smells and water heater sounds are part of wood panel memories for millions of people.

But it wasn’t enough to have wood paneling in your family room. It had to be avocado green or tangerine orange. My parents decorated our small den by putting green paneling on two walls and orange paneling on the other two. It must have been their psychedelic stage.

Hanging Chairs

There are two kinds of hanging chairs. The first was what I consider a “real” hanging chair because it connected to the ceiling. For the less brave, some were connected to a floor stand. The chairs were often egg-shaped or looked like hanging bubbles.

You could really start swinging on some of those chairs. There was always the fear that a swinging chair would come crashing out of the ceiling. Especially when you had ten of your friends all swinging with you at the same time.

Velvet… Anything

Everything from chairs and bedspreads to pillows and wall hangings came out in the 70s in luxurious crushed velvet. People wore crushed velvet cocktail dresses, leisure suits, and the classic velvet black blazer.

Who could forget the velvet Elvis Paintings from back in the day? I remembered crushed velvet paintings, especially the ones with bell-bottomed Elvis, on sale at carnivals and street fairs in the 70s. When it comes to most velvet paintings, cocktail dresses, and leisure suits, Elvis has definitely left the building.

Macrame

My mother was the queen of macrame. She created a wide range of plant hangers and wall hangings. She would often stay up late into the evening wrapping various shades of string around a broom handle to weave together her exotic creations.

Macrame wasn’t just about hanging plants or creating hats, purses, and pot holders. You could create an entire zoo with macrame. One of my mother’s masterpieces was a massive giraffe wall hanging with large beaded brown eyes.

Why did these trends fall out of fashion? Some, like the waterbed, were a pain in the butt. Others were just plain ridiculous. Perhaps the better question is why were most of these trends ever fashionable in the first place. We may never know. Whatever the reason, those were some of the cool, and not so cool, decorating trends we had, back in the day.