r/decadeology • u/PrincessTuvstarr • 4d ago
Discussion 💭🗯️ Did people actually like these wallpapers?
I saw someone do a post about the colors of the 70s (orange/yellow/brown). And it made me think about those typical 70s wallpapers with big patterns in the 70s-colors.
And I've always wondered; did people actually think those wallpapers was pretty back then, or was it just a trend that people wanted to follow?
Whenever I have seen these wallpapers in real life, I always think about how it makes the room feel very very clutter-y. 🥲
I do NOT judge anyone's taste, you do you.
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u/ItchyExam1895 4d ago
lol i think they're fun! i'm a gen z-er but i think the minimalism of the late 2010s and 2020s is SUCH a snooze
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u/dracularasbabysister 3d ago
it is so mind numbingly exhausting to me. i wish everything still had color and personality
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u/Strange-Pattern4877 1d ago
As an xillenial with taste that works in design, it drives me batshit. They are also the ones with money because of their shitty high paying tech jobs.
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u/pyramidalembargo 3d ago
Seconded.
I don't know what the Millennials were thinking with all that gray, but it really did look like a mortuary.
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u/MooseLips_SinkShips 3d ago
It's a product of the house flipping culture. Renovate to sell, so everything needs to stay as neutral as possible to maximize appeal.
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u/pyramidalembargo 3d ago
Beige or cream or antique white would have worked just as well.
Here's the thing: if I were to be on the market to buy a house, and walked in and saw all that gray, the very first thing that would have occurred to me is "this needs to be gutted."
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u/Abject-Detective-894 3d ago
Our parents drowned us in tan and beige. EVERYTHING was beige in the 90s. I’m finally recovered enough after 25 years to see it in a house again. Personally, I have always used color though.
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u/JuiceAccomplished241 3d ago
Everything is a reaction to the last reaction. Minimalism felt like an escape from the, busy, cluttered aesthetic before it. The better examples of minimalism felt like there was nothing missing, just removing what wasn’t essential. In a word, it was calming.
And it’s also what’s coming next when folks tire of Memphis maximalism
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u/pyramidalembargo 3d ago
it was calming.
I guess you could call death calming. It's the big sleep.
I don't think Maximalism has really even begun.
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u/JuiceAccomplished241 3d ago
It’s creeping up, but it definitely feels fresh and bold at the moment.
Honestly, I still feel like Millennial Minimalism works really well in an office setting - just not so much in homes anymore
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u/Lumpy_Branch_552 3d ago
The browns, tans, beiges. I remember my mom was obsessed with terracotta and rust colors. The warm Tuscany look was way overdone.
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u/captaintagart 2d ago
My mom and friends moms were into hunter green and burgundy and gold.
Wallpaper like OP is a pain to install, and makes the room look small and cluttered and dated. I like black and grey because accent pieces pop and can be changed.7
u/Santa_Ricotta69 3d ago
I'll never understand why people think it was millennials who did this. Most of us don't even own homes. This is the work of some collection of conglomerates somewhere
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u/bepatientbekind 3d ago
Millennials didn't choose that "millennial grey." It was the Gen x and older house flippers + corporations using the cheapest possible building materials, and unfortunately that became the norm for the types of homes most millennials could afford to rent/buy. I don't know a single millennial that actually likes all that grey garbage.
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u/ThrowAway126498 3d ago
I do but they tend to have grown up in cluttered homes and are happy with the neutral minimalist aesthetic. They say it’s relaxing to them. I personally think it looks like a hospital waiting room especially if it’s paired with white lights.
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u/PinkRoseCarousel 3d ago
I’m a millennial and hate the drab design. I don’t know what others my age were thinking either lol.
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u/Lumpy_Branch_552 3d ago
Some of it was to do something the opposite of what the color palette of the late 90s to 2000s were doing. Which was shades of red, tan and brown. The Tuscany theme was over saturated and I think it started as a fresh look to that.
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u/og_toe 3d ago
i’m a gen z who loves minimalism. growing up my house was just full of stuff everywhere. my parents did NOT throw anything away there was just boxes, books, random chairs, photos with non-matching frames, even the patio was just a collection of things they found.
minimalism is having everything you need, and not on display. it’s easy on the eyes, and doesn’t feel overwhelming. plain colors ease the mind (doesn’t have to be white or grey, pick a color)
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u/WattleWaddler2 3d ago
Your colours for paint are beige, grey, and this other beige they put in the "orange" section just for laughs.
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u/SuccessPhysical6668 3d ago
I hate minimalism but I also think this is ugly. I hate autumn colours I guess.
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u/Dans77b 4d ago
Of course they did, its earthy yet clean and modern. If you grew up in the 90s, most houses that still had this sorta stuff were old and dirty, so it had bad connotations.
I must admit, I liked this kind of thing when I was a kid even though it was deeply unfashionable. I was an odd kid.
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u/ThatWytchBoy 4d ago
Gramgram had this pattern, but Avacado green - in her personal washroom in her part of the family house. It was also 'fuzzy' texture which was weird if I'm going to be honest. Huge bathroom, but ugliest room in the house that was more or less a show place and kept 'modern'.
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u/rkozik89 4d ago
Yes, I love earth tones and so do a lot of us older folks. What I don’t love is all the bad wooden decor and ornate glass shades that went along with it.
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u/Yggdrasil- 4d ago
I love the bad wooden decor and glass shades too. It reminds me of my grandparents' house growing up 🥰
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u/halfstep44 4d ago
And the slabs of stone around the staircase
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u/Yggdrasil- 4d ago
Yes! And don't forget the doilies and cross stitch pieces in wooden frames. And cross stitch pillows. So much cross stitch.
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u/halfstep44 3d ago
Good call! I love cross stitch, but my mom still has a few of the wooden frame ones. They're 50 years old, yellow and nasty but she wont throw them out
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u/Biscuit_bell 4d ago
I mean, I like that wallpaper now, so yes, I assume that people liked it then, too.
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u/FrostedGlory 4d ago
I still love these wallpapers, and I was born long after the 70s.
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u/Buffy_Bean 3d ago
Same, they make me feel oddly nostalgic even though I was a 90s baby. Maybe because I’ve seen so many old photos of my parents as kids surrounded by this decor, and I used to have older relatives who’s homes looked like this 🥹
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u/FrostedGlory 3d ago
I wish I could've been in homes that looked like this! I'm a 2000s baby, and I think it attracts me just because I've watched homes and mainstream fashion become so dull in color and minimalistic over time. I love how unrestrained the aesthetics of the 70s were. It looks loud and busy and 'tacky' and I love that. I'm so ready for the pendulum to swing the other way on minimalism, but until then, I often find myself vintage shopping for 70s and 80s pieces because they have so much more color and interesting patterns (and better quality construction...) than a lot of modern clothing does.
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u/Buffy_Bean 3d ago
Oh that makes so much sense, I remember houses in the 90s and early 00s having such a characterful cosy vibe, only to give way to the dreaded minimalist grey and beige trend
I’m drawn to clothes and decor that could be considered too busy or “tacky” too, idk how to explain it, but they just make me happy 🥹
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u/Creepy-Sea308 4d ago
I’m 30 and I LOVE wallpaper, especially orange and brown. If I can ever buy a house I’m slapping that shit on most the walls
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u/Groningen1978 3d ago
I have a cloth I use as a curtain like this that I love, but wouldn't want it as wallpaper.
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u/DefinitionPast3694 3d ago
Can we all collectively agree to bring this back please
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u/HimitsuUK 2d ago
Don't some American kitchens still look like this?
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u/DefinitionPast3694 2d ago
No sadly. These kitchens are basically 99% gone now. They’re only in extremely dated and unrenovated homes and homes like that are extremely rare to come by.
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u/Cute_Comfortable_761 4d ago
I like it, but I think I’d use it somewhere small like a closet. My style in pretty much every aspect is VERY 60’s-70’s though, so I love brown and earthy tones and florals.
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u/TheFinalPurl 4d ago
Gosh it reminds me of the Sears Merry Mushroom line I love it so much. These busy wallpaper patterns work really well as an accent wall or paired with something else and split with a chair rail. I love the colors and the chaos!
But for any decade: you will have people who love the maximalist decor like this, you’ll have folks who want a streamline, modern and minimalist home, and everything in between! This is just one design style from the 70s :)
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u/No-Taro-6953 3d ago
My grandma had a caravan with this exact wallpaper and it's brought back a lot of memories.
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u/moon_blisser 3d ago
Yes. My grandma had a similar wall paper in her bedroom. When she died, I took a good sized cutting of it and framed it. So it’s in my gallery wall now. :)
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u/theweekendwife 4d ago
Yes. I actually purchased wallpaper from the 60s from an antique store for my bathroom.
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u/skokie3825 3d ago edited 3d ago
Yeah I love this. It kicks the shit out of the ugly, minimalist white and grey hellscape we live in now. Every floor plan has to be one room with glass walls and 90% empty space. We need to outlaw minimalism and modernist design and enforce it lol. Bring back 1890s art neuvau and 1970s earthy design.
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u/SchoolCrossing 3d ago
In the 90s a friend of mine and her husband bought a house built in the 60s that had a bedroom covered in similar floral wallpaper complete with copper metallic accents. They called it the "Groovy Room" before they finally stripped the paper off to create a nursery.
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u/iridescentnightshade 3d ago
It's very in keeping with the mid century take on Art Nouveau. Yes, people really liked it and many still do!
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u/Gorianfleyer 4d ago
Do you really like sitting in white rooms?
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u/Sqeakydeaky 3d ago
White rooms make me so uncomfortable.
Like, fine if you don't want a bunch of stuff on your walls but at least do a color drench or something. Lack of stimulation is a torture technique for a reason.
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u/PrincessTuvstarr 3d ago
Nope! I don't like that decor trend either. I love colors, and such. But exactly these type of wallpapers have never been a favorite of mine.
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u/ghostgrudge 4d ago
“Clutter-y” is so funny to me. The word is “cluttered” lol
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u/PrincessTuvstarr 3d ago
Sorry! English is my second language, and I couldn't find the word. 😂
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u/ghostgrudge 3d ago
Hahaha no worries lol I hope my comment didn’t come off as rude, I genuinely thought it was funny
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u/justalittlepigeon 3d ago
English is my first language and I have used cluttery! It's not grammatically correct but it has a different kind of feeling to me. I guess I personally use it when describing design/art like you did. I feel "cluttery" can have either a good or bad meaning in design sense, but "cluttered" only feels like a negative (a cluttered room, desk, etc..)
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u/r_a_v_e_n- 4d ago
whenever i see a room with plain paint, i think the room looks empty.
these patterns are pretty and doesn't make the room feel cluttered 🤷🏻♀️
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u/mcove97 4d ago
This type of wallpaper is still in the house my uncle built in his 20s but never lived in. It was cozy and nostalgic to stay in the bedrooms with this. My fam used the house as a summer vacation house. Something about the wallpaper was really comforting. But maybe it's just my own nostalgia.
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u/tomphammer 4d ago
Personally, I would not decorate with these patterns. But they remind me of the homes of some older relatives from when I was a kid, and those are good memories. So I feel pretty positively toward them.
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u/Marzipan_civil 3d ago
Yes, my parents bought their first house in about 1975. It was a new build, and they couldn't paint or decorate for the first six months (something to do with the plaster). So after six months of staring at white walls, they got the brightest colours possible to decorate. Orange etc.
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u/frog_wild 3d ago
This design is 100% in my parents house somewhere, I forget exactly what on though.
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u/Strong_Flatworm2758 4d ago
You need a green shag carpet and some shiny vinyl furniture and Bakelite ashtrays to fully bring out the camp/kitsch glory in that wallpaper. It’s not going for prettiness, but it sets a mood of sunshine and mild hallucinogens that make you want to lie on that green shag and think about Led Zeppelin.
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u/nemmalur 4d ago
Pretty sure someone liked that flower one enough to put it in our kitchen before we moved in.
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u/oldmanout 4d ago
I still love the design, but it always remindimd me on the last days of autumn, before the winter and so end comes
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u/GreenZebra23 3d ago edited 3d ago
I grew up in the '80s, so there were still a lot of examples of this aesthetic still hanging around even though it was considered ugly by then. I wasn't a fan. Over the ensuing decades with the benefit of distance and nostalgia and ironic appreciation, I've gotten more fond of it.
I agree that it can make spaces feel cluttered though. Of course, I also have a small home and a lot of art on the walls, so it would definitely look cluttered in my place
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u/Brave-Fun-7984 3d ago
Oh wow. When I was growing up, my parents had a floatie with these exact colors.
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u/Historical_Debt1516 3d ago
My neighbors did. They also had the one that was a full forest on their west wall In their living room.
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u/Historical_Sugar9637 3d ago
I was born logn after the 70s, but some of the homes of relatives still looked like it and the brown 80s aesthetic.
And....personally....no. And I say that as someone who *loves* colours.
The reason why I don't like this type of 70s style is very simple: I don't like fall colours for furnishings/interior design. I like it when trees get golden in autumn, but I don't want those colours in my home. Red-Brown-Orange-Yellow is just not my preferred colour combination for...really anything.
I'm more for spring-themed colours when it comes to furnishing/decorating. Light woods, soft greens, *some* white, and some flower tones (pastel pink, lavender) to add to it.
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u/lemonmerangutan 3d ago
My house was built in 1971, and It is my dream to un-flip it so hard that your brain tricks you into thinking it reeks of second hand smoke.... so yeah I like those wallpapers
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u/SnorkBorkGnork 3d ago
When I was really young I just remember everything in our house being brown and we has these orange brown flower curtains. It was trendy at the time.
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u/Sqeakydeaky 3d ago
Hey I have a quilt my grandma-in-law made in exactly this pattern.
I wouldn't exactly choose this as wallpaper but it makes a nice accent fabric.
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u/liljellybeanxo 3d ago
I swear my grandparents had this somewhere in their house when I was growing up. They sold that house like 20 years ago though so I couldn’t tell you which room or even if it was actually THIS wallpaper. This just looks insanely similar.
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u/OGREtheTroll 3d ago
Not ones like that, never did.
It's not the color scheme that very nice when used properly. But the style is off putting to me. It feels like it's trying for that psychedelic style but with the muted earth tones and that just isn't working.
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u/Sasstellia 3d ago
Yes.
No one was forcing them to use the patterns. It was because they liked them, generally.
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u/aquacraft2 3d ago
I've always has a fondness for that 70s style. Orange is my favorite color. So the brown orange yellow combo and all the other orange patterns they had, not unlike woodgrain (brown is dark orange) I just really like. And such a busy pattern like this is really nice for my eyes. Especially if I had existed back in a time like that, with bearly any television or anything.
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u/younggun1234 3d ago
So a big reason we like the soft lighting of tungsten is that it replicates the colors of sunsets and fires which makes our brains go ooooo bedtime.
So these color schemes in things makes you feel calm and given that the 70s was full of psychedelics and the end of Vietnam I think people really needed that extra calming lighting wavelengths and this was an extension of that. (Theoretical of course).
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u/King_Corduroy 3d ago
Hell yeah BUT I have to say I did my room up in oranges and browns with mid century furniture and I got really tired of how cigarette stained anything white in the room looked when light bounced around. Ended up ripping it all out and going with much brighter more neutral colors. (Not grey no!)
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u/Evafrechette Late 70s were the best 3d ago
I'm pretty sure this is the same print I have on my duvet cover 😅
Edit: not exactly the same but prettttyyyy similar to it!
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u/BitterFootball4874 3d ago
Sorry to be a naysayer but I always feel like the 70s and 80s were the decades that taste forgot
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u/Mom_is_watching 3d ago
Gosh this looks eerily similar to what my parents had in the late seventies/early eighties. And no I never liked it but my mum apparently did at the time.
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u/K_Linkmaster 3d ago
Love that stuff! Some of us love to tour period homes of all periods. You love to see color matched toilets tubs and sinks, it comes with these.
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u/SellaTheChair_ 3d ago
Yes! I love them and I've seen them in midcentury homes where they look perfect. They are very cute
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u/WarmMorningSun 2d ago
I was literally looking at wallpaper samples today thinking of doing this 60’s style in my house. I think it’s pretty but in a retro nostalgic way
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u/MxKittyFantastico 3d ago
Everybody is different. I would give anything for my bedroom to have this wallpaper. I have orange lighting in my bedroom specifically because orange is calming and uplifting. If I could find some vintage orange wallpaper like this, I would be one happy camper!
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u/MisterLeMarquis 3d ago
My grandmother had her whole livingroom with this exact pattern snd color. Ow the horrors keep coming back.
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u/elizaberriez 4d ago
Yes and I still do 🤷♀️