A short Blog-o-rama: thoughts about colors you remember but luckily have (mostly) disappeared from the décor lexicon of the New Century. At least the names have disappeared for the most part. This was the Age of Earth-Tones, the 1970’s. Or maybe it should be called the Brown Age. Nothing wrong with brown though.
The browns used in interiors now seem better, more interesting. Less orange.

Harvest Gold, Avocado, Ecru, Burnt Orange …there are more of course. Who could forget Powder Blue? Or that light yellow with a tinge of green that was usually paired with Harvest Gold. And then there was that weird rust-brown shade that was used on appliances. Often it was two-toned, with a gradation effect around the edges. Rusty-orange in the center, turning more brown on the edges. Lots of ceramic tiles done in the same way.

I had a stove in that color in an apartment and later, a refrigerator in a house I rented. The inside of the fridge was baby blue. Seems like fridges back then had snowflake decorations on them somewhere, sometimes on the handles, sometimes inside. The blue interior made the fridge slightly more hip, but it was still orangey-brown on the outside.

And besides the colors…the furniture, carpet, etc. was just as weird. Most of the iconic ‘70’s interior décor stuff was hideous. The worst of it was the shag and sculpted wall-to-wall carpet; shiny vinyl beanbag chairs, (I’m truly and deeply sorry if you still like beanbag chairs. I still think they suck even though they’ve managed to become trendy again) crushed velvet bedspreads, gigantic stereo speakers, dark brown wood-grain kitchen cabinets, smoked glass tables, scrolled wrought-iron everything, including bulky iron faux Spanish-style chandeliers. Or and don’t forget cute kitchen stuff such as the mushroom and owl tchotchkes, the macramé crap, and the chaotic floral or daisy wallpaper. And who could forget decoupage, wood-burning, and sand candles! Fun for the whole family!

More color stuff soon…. maybe a little preview of the NEW consumer product colors forecasted from the CMG conference I just attended in Toronto!