1970s "model interiors" genuinely fascinating, horrible

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/08/05/1970s-model-interiors-genu.html

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how is this horrible?

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I think the title of the original piece “Wanna Know How Your Trendy Home Decor Will Age? Look to These ‘Model’ Rooms of the 1970s” shows it is a little deeper than the “Ha, ha, the 1970s had bad taste!” joke. I think it is always worth remembering that we aren’t living at the pinnacle of civilization and that future generations will find current taste, music, etc. as absurd as we find those of the past.

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I’m not sure I could cope with the wall paper but I like the color scheme and the setup of the kitchen. I wonder if the hood over the stove top was real. I’d love to have a real stove hood.

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@beschizza have you forgotten about LILEKS?

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The soup bowls remind me of how bizarrely popular French onion soup was in the US in the late 70s/early 80s.

@incarnedine_v, we have a couple of those chairs, but in white; they were yellow when my mother bought them. Thanks for the color recommendation.

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my visual nerve burnt out. does anyone know if this is temporary?

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To be fair, nobody cared about the décor. We’d walk in the door, drop our keys in the glass, and get straight to it. Then on the way out, we’d grab a set of keys, go to a home and get straight to it all over again. Malaise only started once we sobered up enough to look around.

Later, Reagan popularized cocaine, and we felt better again. Great, in fact. Fantastic! But that’s a story for another day.

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It’s real:
http://www.realtytoday.com/articles/81405/20160322/spring-home-décor-2016-fresh-trends-and-ideas-you-can-try-in-your-home-this-season.htm

I know it is real, just the question of how is it horrible? The pink… the avocado green… it hurts just to look at it.

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It’s like…these rooms were designed without care for whether people would actually use them or not. Imagine sitting at that that…kitchen island thing, with the lack of leg room and cluttered surface, and uncomfortable chairs. Now imagine someone trying to slip by with a tray of food; where would that tray go? and how would it be served?

And that first pic, with the tiny table and the horde of useless table settings.
A recipe for knocked over glasses and meal time anxiety.

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i wouldn’t do any of them for my own home, but i don’t hate any of them entirely… in fact, there’s parts of each i rather like. as for the “random loom on the random table”… haven’t they ever heard of decorative objects?

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I remember a lot of avocado colored shag carpet, and Aztec gold colored appliances, and burnt orange accents, and lamps with uselessly dim bulbs that hung from chains and were controlled by a wall switch that was located quite far from the area illuminated (for some value of the word “illuminated”) by the lamp, and Naugahyde… so much Naugahyde.

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Yeah, that lino is fantastic.

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Eating meals with live burners six inches form your moving hands? That stove hood looming over you the entire time? The clutter, the lack of room, that large stove close to the diners, blowing heat over them every time it’s opened…blergh.

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The chairs are surprisingly comfortable.

In fact, I’ll bet somewhere out there are a couple of people that bought looms at a flea market for their decor in the last five years.

I thought the kitchen with the linoleum floral was mostly tragic (although by itself, the floral on the open shelves might be an okay element if the rest of the design didn’t suck). The Easter pastel kitchen isn’t a bad palette; just ran too far with it. Even striping the blinds? Sheesh! The living/dining cozy country thing almost worked, but first thing I’d do is axe the candy apple carpet. And the wheelbarrow on the dining set just has to go - it’s too big, dominates the table and has that stupid arm that would only get knocked around constantly.

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Now, you’re more likely to get your dinner in a tiny wheelbarrow than to have one as a centrepiece. Progress!

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Yes, but I’ve got a long time to wait before my meal will come out and talk to me, recommend which steak cuts will be the best from it.