Top 10 — ugly — home décor trends
Linoleum floors: eighth on the list of top ten ugly trends. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
Need a good laugh? See below for butterflylister.com's list of the “Top 10 Worst Home Decorating Trends of All Time” and tell me what you think. (Not that I ever did anything on this list.)
Is that foil on your walls?
First on the list is popcorn ceilings, which were pretty popular 40 years ago. They were used to help eliminate echoes and reflective sounds, but according to the site, often contained asbestos and were prone to dirt, grime, and smoke stains. Some even had gold glitter! Second: Shag carpets (also trendy in the 1970s), which came in pale yellow, red, lime-green, and even orange. Coming in third is foil wallpaper, often used in bathrooms, again in the ‘70s. Makes you wonder what home decorators were thinking that decade, doesn't it?
All-pink bathrooms were the rage
Pink bathrooms (either pink tiles, pink countertops, pink walls, pink décor, or, better yet, an all-pink combo) are fourth on this list. Now if we could just figure out how and why that trend came to be. Fifth place goes to orange formica, a design disaster of the 1970s often seen in kitchens, bathrooms and bar countertops all over the place. Any shade of orange (hamburger, burnt, bright) was cool (NOT!). No one (not even me, thanks to my mom) got away from this ugly trend: wood paneling, sixth on the list. It originated in the ‘50s, but somehow survived though the ‘80s, and could be seen on living-room, bedroom and bathroom walls and later in cars, station wagons, vans and even boats. Wait, I think wood paneling is still around, isn't it?
It gets better: animal print and vinyl floors
Seventh place goes to bean bag chairs, which are actually making a comeback in alternative fabrics, fillings and colors. Don't these remind you of your college years? The next spot is occupied by patterned linoleum and vinyl flooring, a cheap flooring trend of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Patterns were usually busy and either brown, pale yellow, orange, green or all of the above. Removing linoleum, by the way, was almost impossible. The velour animal print fad of the ‘80s and ‘90s comes in ninth. Animal print was everywhere, from couches to carpets and throw pillows to gym shorts! The cheetah, leopard and zebra prints were popular in velvet and velour fabrics. Closing the list is bathroom carpeting. Now this is just gross. Just think of how often the bathroom floor gets wet. Then it attracts mold and mildew, and the carpet absorbs it all. Need I say more?