Thursday, January 14, 2010

Fancy a Shag?

Those of you who are too young to have experienced the 1970s can never fully comprehend them. The cultural débris it left behind like a retreating glacier–Qiana, est, "Three's Company," the BeeGees, The Poseidon Adventure, Watergate–is easy to sneer at. From a distance, through eyes jaded by experience, it appears hopelessly naïve, tacky, excessive, ridiculous.

Yet it was an exciting time. A time of experimentation, free thought and gleeful rule-breaking. Take the matter of carpet, for example.

Yes, carpet.

For centuries, carpet had been something you mostly put on the floor. Sure, the odd Renaissance muckity-muck might use a nice bit of Turkish in lieu of a tablecloth,

Holbein, The Ambassadors

but for the most part, carpet = floor covering.

In the 1970s, this practice was called into question. I know it was, for though I was a mere child (having arrived in January of 1971) I recall distinctly the happy excesses of the Cult of Shag Carpeting.

Shag?

Devotees of the cult, who included (or so it seemed) all persons responsible for decorating airports, airplanes, public schools, upscale homes, fashionable hotels, retail showrooms, and cocktail lounges, felt that shag carpeting–though hardly a new invention–was the wave of the future. It was a magic wand, a panacea, a sure cure for all aesthetic and architectural ills.

According to some estimates, between 1970 and 1979 as much as 62% of the surface area of the United States of America may have been covered in shag carpet.

In many rooms, shag spread across the floor and then, like a moss that fed on patchouli and disco music, jumped the skirting board and ran right up the wall. It obliterated the boundaries between floors and walls, even between floors and furniture. My kindergarten classroom, in what was then a brand-new and forward-looking Arizona elementary school, had almost no chairs. We sat on tiny cubes upholstered with red shag carpet, arranged in a circle upon a floor covered by red shag carpet, surrounded by walls swathed in red shag carpet. Indoctrination at an early age was of paramount importance.

The stuff was so popular that fashionistas even carried it as an accessory. Sound incredible? Take a look at this striking image from a booklet published in 1973 by Coats and Clark.

Shag!

In 1973, nothing said "comfort" and "style" like a handmade shag carpet muff. You could work it colors to match your polyester mix-and-match wardrobe, or your favorite faux-Tiffany swag lamp.

It kept your hands warm on the way to the singles bar; and once there, it allowed you to flirt shamelessly, yet coyly, with the leisure-suited airline pilot two seats down. The next morning, after you'd had a "meaningful connection" on his Broyhill waterbed, the 100% acrylic muff could be hosed down and drip-dried before your next outing.

What's that, youngster? You're sorry you missed it?

You should be.

109 comments:

Anonymous said...

You had me at "hosed down and drip-dried."

I grew up in the early 80's (having arrived in '78 myself) in a house with a different color of hideous shag carpet in every room. My room as a child was rust, the living room was teal, family room was RED, the bathroom was gold, and the parent's room was navy. Needless to say, the rooms were referred to by their floor colors. ::shudder::

Diana said...

You forgot the plastic rake that you had to use instead of a vacuum cleaner.

S.Kate said...

OMG. I just had flashbacks from childhood of tying unknown lengths of red, green and white acrylic yarn to wire hangers to make shaggy dusters and "padded" hanger Christmas presents. *shudders*

Laurie in Mpls. said...

Fortunately my darling husband's family got rid of the orange shag carpeting in the family room before he and I bought the house.

Unfortunately, they left behind the matching, orange-brown-harvest gold PLAID window shades. *shudder*

Generally, I like earth tones. But there are some places they really shouldn't go....

knithound brooklyn said...

Ours was burnt orange and it dominated the family room.

roxie said...

I remember going into a wildly sophisticated bar when I turned 21 and being blown away by the wall to wall to ceiling, moss green shag carpet in the "Conversation Pit" Grey corduroy bean bag chairs made snuggling almost mandatory, and the low lighting induced an almost pre-natal relaxation. It must have been ghastly to clean.

And I DO remember the rya coats we made which were warm enough for arctic exploration, weighed about thirty pounds, and made you look like a young Yeti. SOOO stylish!

JelliDonut said...

OMG. Once rented a townhouse with rotting burnt orange shag carpet. So afraid my kid would eat it. God that sh*t was ugly. Remember vans lined with shag carpet? Make-out city!

Dora Sislian Themelis said...

I had that plastic rake to keep the shag all tidy! My mom insisted on it! Orange shag=heaven!
Why did everyone have orange? lol

Abbeysmum said...

"Only in America !"

No actually.....there is a bathroom in sunny Queensland Australia that still has part floor and a wall covered in the stuff.
I got out of there so fast I can't remember the colour, but it did sell the next month !

Mary Peed said...

Oh my god! The HORROR! I had blocked that thing out of my mind and you've brought it back.

I had one of those. It was a latch hook kit. I MADE IT ON PURPOSE.

I'll be sending you my bill for therapy.

Jeanne said...

I was born in the 60's, so I well remember the shag. For those too young, maybe they'll be as lucky as I was when they purchase their first home and discover that all of the one dozen previous owners of the 1976 two-story graciously left the "vintage" shags intact.

One room reminded me of Orange Julius (walls included). One had blue shag, and one had shag that was probably white when it was first installed.

Though they forgot to leave me a plastic rake or any mention thereof. No wonder my vacuum gagged violently before it croaked.

AuntieAnn said...

Someone pass the eye bleach, please.

Mari said...

Hey, we have rugs like those crazy Ren peeps on the table.

And we had Orange shag carpet, in the Netherlands.

Mari said...

I remember shag very very distinctly....awful shades of orange and brown, greens and unfortunately in my room lemon and white. I was singing hosanas at the concept of hardwood floors throughout the house when I started living on my own. Clean, distinctive, streamlined, gorgeous when shined.

Sean said...

LOL we had a shag carpet AND a rake that was used to fluff it up!

Melissa Morgan-Oakes said...

I am eternally grateful that my parents, who produced a final spawn (moi) in 1967 were too broke feeding 4 kids to afford shag. We had Primary Paisley Wallpaper in the kitchen with white (thank you God) appliances, and red indoor/outdoor carpet throughout the house. We won't discuss the wall colors that went with. I want to sleep tonight.

janna said...

My teenage years were entirely in the 70s, and I have many fond memories from those years - but not really of the decorating. One of my college apartments, a townhouse shared with two other girls, had dirt-brown shag carpeting that covered the floors and the staircase bannister. Luckily, it didn't go up the walls!

Anonymous said...

1976
Green shag carpet in rented town house.
6 construction workers renting said town house.

The carpet needed mowing some hangover mornings.

Leah

Leigh Witchel said...

We need to discuss her coy glance from behind her muff. Clearly she is auditioning for the updated, psychedelic, musical version of Dr. Zhivago, entitled, "Da, Doctor, Da!"

The rest of the ensemble includes a multi-hued, hand crocheted acrylic balalaika.

Some . . . WHERE . . . my loooooove . . .

Diane said...

My friend Sally lived in a house whose basement was covered in shag carpeting, all of it in 2' squares, each a different color. I was so jealous. AND she sported the 1st mini skirt I ever saw, worn with white go-go boots.

Where in AZ?? This was in Prescott...

Anonymous said...

Harvest Gold everywhere, raking required. Teen years in the '70's! David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman, and Michael Jackson on the pine paneled bedroom walls....

Mary

subliminalrabbit said...

LOL!

i work with a lot of costume designers on contemporary television series and... the shag vest is IN. now.

go to it, fashionistas!

SallyT said...

If you want to relive the 70's, see the movie "Dick" about the Watergate break in and the Nixon White House. Totally hysterical.

chellebelle said...

I, like Melissa, am very happy that my parents could not afford the shag.. My aunt could though, I just remember the wonderful cushy feeling on my bare feet. We had "normal" carpet and it was not nearly as comfortable... Aunt Marl's carpet was dark chocolate brown..

Diane said...

Teenager in the 70's...we had orange/brown shag in the living room and it was my job to rake it after vacuuming. Kind of zen garden like...you could rake patterns in it.

Knittingand said...

You must see this post (and the couple before it) on Cathy of California's blog :)

http://cathyofcalifornia.typepad.com/cathy_of_california/2010/01/1967-rya-catalogue.html

Beth Vincelette (knitkick) said...

I am laughing sooo very hard right now!! Being a baby of 1966, I can remember the supreme envy I felt when visiting a friend's house to see their so stylish shag carpeting. And my Dad sold vacuum cleaners, and they made a special attachment just to clean it. Flash forward to house shopping 15 years ago and seeing all those late 1950's capes that had last been "updated" in the '70's to have red shag rug in more than one bedroom and kitchens that matched the color scheme of the Brady (Bunch) household. Dorothy Hamill haircut, anyone??

Anonymous said...

Another reason it's good to be old!
When orange shag arrived on the scene, I'd been around a few decades so I knew it would pass. My poor ofspring born in '68 & '70 must have thought the world would always be that way.

obscure

Anonymous said...

I had not thought of Qiana in decades. My wedding dress in 1974 was made of it, and I loved it with the fierceness of a thousand suns.

Shag carpet, not so much.

Sara in WI said...

Just so you know:
I just went carpet shopping yesterday and shag was a very big option in many colors....not the orange that I remember so vividly or I may have run out of the store screaming! It didn't work for me back then and won't have a chance now...

MaryB said...

Hey, what's wrong with the BeeGees?

You are spot on with everything else, but the BeeGees.....I was soooo in love with them....

Sigh.

Kathryn said...

You are hysterical! But you probably already know that. I am a child of the eighties, and I have memories of reddish-orange shag carpeting in the basement of my childhood home.

Riin said...

I had managed to forget. But no. You had to remind me.

We had green shag carpeting in our living room. My bedroom had pink shag carpeting. And then there was the kitchen/dining room carpeting...so ugly I don't even know how to describe it. It wasn't shag, but it was multi-colored, in a pattern that must have been designed by someone using psychedelic drugs. My mom had decided that my dad should have more say in how the house was decorated, so she let him pick out the carpet. She never made that mistake again.

Virginia G said...

"handmade shag carpet muff"

I think this is going to become the "bawdy faced apple john" of the 21st century.

I am so going to start using this as an insult. Hell, my 4-year-old already thinks that "ringtone" and "bookend" are bad words...

Donna Lee said...

I had a hand crocheted loopy jacket which looked very much like uncut shag. My mother made it for me and I wore it Paris (!) and am probably responsible for the notion that American's have no style (it was 1975, what can I say?)

Twilight said...

I'm a 70s child and remember The Poseidon Adventure. It had a big effect on me.

I remember shag carpeting and still love it.

Teresa in Virginia said...

Hoo boy, did your comments bring back some memories! I was a teenager back in the 1970's and I remember all too well the shag carpet, polyester clothes and the avacado green (or burnt orange) used to decorate homes. Not to mention the wood paneling!

martha said...

when I saw the title of this post, my first thought was "what? Austin Powers?" and quickly realized my mistake. And I graduated from high school in the early 70s!

oh, I remember shag carpet more from the horrid college rentals I lived in- and by the way, in 1973 I was doing the backpack thing in Italy, when someone asked me what I was doing (I was picking at some split ends on my long hair). I replied I was "giving myself a shag", of course referring to the hair style you fondly mentioned- and turned red with 18 year old embarrassment when an Australian told me that on his turf "shag" meant masturbation! Do you need to amend your post?

anne marie in philly said...

1971 - I was a junior in high school (I HATED high school - all girl catholic)...never had shag carpeting anywhere...you could boink anything that moved without fear (mostly)...and vietnam was still dragging on...richard nixon...

nope, would not wanna relive the 70s.

TK said...

There's a bar in Northern Nevada that still has shag carpeting on the walls. I'm always careful to avoid the walls, even though I used to love to run my fingers through the carpet as a kid.

TK said...

Sorry. Not the bar's carpet, but the carpet in the houses of people I knew.

Mel said...

We somehow managed to avoid the serious deep pile shag, but oh how I remember the 70's. I attended my first concert in 1978, when my parents took my brother and me to see the Bee Gees. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, I used to sing along ad nauseum with my mom's Abba albums.

FiberQat said...

How many bathroom mats were sacrificed for the making of that muff? Oh the horror!

I had a Qiana shirt. So shiny, so slick, so snaggable, so flammable. Our shag carpet was a muted melange of sage greems. I had a braided rug in browns though in my room.

Cassandra said...

A shaggy muff? A muffy shag? Please!

Luckily, my parents had the good taste to leave our hardwood floors intact in the house we moved into in 1972. Sadly, though, they left the avocado appliances -- the stove was still there when they moved away in 2004. It still worked a treat.

Cassia said...

Hahahaha!!! I arrived in February of 1972 - we had a lovely gold sculpted carpet throughout our home, with the exception of my brother's room, which had tan shag. I think some friends had a variegated olive green in their home. *sigh* Or did I mean *shudder*?

Anonymous said...

More fun as in the "What were they thinking?"

http://whatnottoknit.wordpress.com/

Charlene

=Tamar said...

Don't forget the shag haircut.
I live in a house with an avocado green stove, because it still works, has two ovens, and is too heavy to get rid of and would be too expensive to replace. Thank goodness the refrigerator broke down and was replaced.

rosesmama said...

My brother carpeted the inside (floors, walls, ceilings, built-in furnishings) of his 1961 Ford Econoline Van, that he bought from my grandfather for a dollar, with shag carpet. Many happy hours were spent riding in that van listening to his eight track tape deck (Jimi Hendrix, anyone?) after an, ahem, altering experience. Those were the days.

Cooking With Yarn said...

Grandparents' house still has the shag carpet and each room is still referred to by the carpet color: red room, green room and gold room.

Judith said...

This made me smile. I remember Shag carpet too. Not only did we have shag carpet in our house - my mother chose the ever popular green. Avocado green. My sister and I use to love to play in it - it was a forest, a jungle, and our matchbox cars (or really my brother's cars) went off road in it. Fun times.

Sweet Camden Lass said...

You say shag. I think of tobacco before carpet...

Caroline said...

Qiana. Good grief. I remember Qiana was a possible material for prom dresses when I was in high school.

Whenever I visit my mother I take a trip back to 1970 - the kitchen and bathroom were redone that year and have never changed. The bathroom has brown shag carpet, and orange and green daisy wallpaper. The dishwasher is that 70s appliance shade of cinnamon brown.

Caroline said...

i was born in 65 (in the UK) and seemed to live a life mercifully free of shag - maybe the UK didn't get quite so affected by the disease? I do remember everything being beige, cream or brown though - and my parents had an especially nauseating wallpaper in the downstairs toilet - if you didn't have a headache before you went in you certainly did went you came out!

CrazyCatMadame said...

My parents purchased their first house in 1976. Hardwood & linoleum floors. A year later the floors were covered in harvest gold shag which had previously been the floor covering in my grandmothers house. ::faints:: The floors however were nothing compared to the "decorating" of the previous owner. The kitchen had blaze orange cabinets, a black stove & a copper colored refrigerator. My brother's room was painted black & red with the thinnest silver foil on one wall. Oh yeaaaaah....it was beautiful!

Janice said...

Arrived in 1961 so I remember it well. Circular, burnt-orange, shag area rug, free-standing metal fireplace shaped like an upside-down funnel in the same lovely color, white washed wood paneling, white vinyl sofas and black plastic swivel chair that looked like an egg. Oh, and roman shades with orange pom-pom trim! Thank goodness, the rest of the house stayed firmly mired in the 50's.

Sandra said...

I think I"m related to many commenters - born in 1962, orange shag carpeting, Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy on the walls, Dorothy Hamill "wedge" haircut...
We have shag at the carpet. Not HAD, HAVE. On the walls. We did lose the floor covering after a flood, but the harvest gold shag on the walls lives on...

Judy G. said...

My friend's mother ran awful green shag up the wall, but the piano sat in front of it and it dampened the sound. Too bad the carpet was so loud.

Rebecca said...

What about the army green, faux fur, mushroom-shaped stools we had atop the orange shag carpeting? How cool were we?

Anonymous said...

I had winter white Quianna separates to wear to my Senior Winter Dance and Senior Dinner back in 1978. I remember them well. . . Karen (1961)

Seanna Lea said...

Shag is still alive and, well, I wouldn't actually call it well. When we were looking at houses, there was more than one that had that almost lime green shag carpeting on the floors and stairs (but not the walls).

Anonymous said...

OMG the GERMS! Gives me the creeps and I saw lots of shag.... even in some guys cars. I had white go go boots and false eyelashes as dressup when i was in 2nd grade courtesy of my wild Grandma who lived in Palm Springs and sported the biggest blond wigs I ever did see. Cindy

Kim said...

Oh lordy, I was probably wearing a Qiana shirt at the drive-in when my grandparents took me to see Poseiden Adventure. Had to leave because the movie freaked me out! I still enjoy shag carpeting so long as it's contained (iie., area rug).

Laura Sue said...

You ARRIVED in 1971? I graduated from high school in 1971.

Michelle said...

I was born in '61, and thought the 70s were AWFUL! The whole color scheme jarred my senses - those shades still do.

Sarah said...

As someone from the UK, I don't think it's fair to put the words 'shag' and 'muff' into a post (particularly while exposing me to such lurid colours) and expect me not to gigglesnort my cup of tea all over my laptop keyboard. Despite being 10 years older than you, I am plainly not beyond school girl snickering at these moments!

Elissa said...

When my parents divorced in 1980 my mother bought a house that had been formerly owned by a member of the legislature. She spent too much on the house and with the interest rates in 1980 we barely held on to it. Therefore no renovations could begin for YEARS. My bedroom was likely the nicest. Weird black and white wallpaper and white shag, a little stark for a 4 year old but it was fine. The rest of the house had that scrolled mirror tile EVERYWHERE and gold lame wallpaper with felted scrollwork. And the bathroom...

I wasn't allowed to use the Throne as I might fall in it was that big. It was flushed by pulling a macrame plant holder hanging from the ceiling and there was a jacuzzi. Sunken in the floor with wooden benches to sit 4-6 with mirrors up the walls and across the ceiling. Across from the toilet.... I am still scarred. Mom let us fill it up for bday parties and have friends over. Thank god no one called the authorities.

I won't even go into the green shag....or the closet filled with costumes left by the former owner....

Kate (KnitsInClass) said...

Oh my. I remember my parents efforts to purge their newly-purchased house of god-awful shades of shag carpeting (blaze orange and electric blue). I was barely 3 at the time, but the image is strong - I am convinced the hideousness of it all is why it got burned into my brain.

Shan said...

I want to go to a bathroom party at Elissa's.

Eileen said...

Personally, I think shag (carpeting, not the dance, or, um...) is a result of some grandma knitting a looped pattern out of her saved pattern booklets and making the loops uneven.

How to make it even? Why, cut the loops open and trim!

I refuse to entertain any other explanation.

We didn't have any. Thank God. I have, however, seen enough "harvest colors" and plasticized washable wallpaper to keep me crazy for years.

Harriet said...

The phrase like a moss that fed on patchouli and disco music epitomizes the '70s. You captured my high school/college years in a nutshell. And yes, that included shag. Orange and brown high.low shag in an orange room with a flowered bedspread. ::shudder::

Liz said...

When I moved into my first apartment, I had the coolest orange/brown/yellow shag carpeting anyone could ever wish to have. Not to mention I had the neatest bell bottom pants made with U.S. flag logo. I was really hip.

RobinH said...

I dunno, I have a book of knitting patterns from the 70s, and that muff is the perfect accessory to wear with the shag poncho!

Anne O'Nymous said...

"We sat on tiny cubes upholstered with red shag carpet, arranged in a circle upon a floor covered by red shag carpet, surrounded by walls swathed in red shag carpet. Indoctrination at an early age was of paramount importance."

Was this an attempt to make you love communism by loving the color red first? Was this a "Welcome Back to the Uterus" school?

I still sigh when I see David Cassidy, and I'm fine with that.

Verification word: cultlea. Lea= pasture lea= abbrev. for "leather." "Ahem," said the vegetarian.

Christy D. said...

That shaggy muff looks like something you knit (Crochet? Latch-hook? Macrame?) while sitting on an overstuffed couch with little scenery of grist-mills and trees printed all over it. Oh, and while you bury your toes in the shag carpet...

nosenabook said...

I knew those books would be fun.

Laia said...

My mom likes to tell me stories of the Volkswagon Van my parents had with rainbow shag carpet all throughout. That van was very much pre-me.

Anonymous said...

I lived in a house that did not have shag or any carpeting. But every time I went into a friends' house with the stuff the dust made me sneeze.

Either that, or I was overly sensitive to the shade of the seventies.

gartlande said...

My parents covered both my room and my sister's in the same lime green variagated shag carpeting. After my sister puked spagetti sauce on hers, I begged for new carpeting!

Anonymous said...

I remember living in an apt. that had gold shag carpeting. I also remember trying to vacuum up all the pine needles the Christmas trees left behind. I bet that carpet is still there, along with the pine needles.

Benita said...

I was 6 when the 70's arrived and, Lord-o-Lord, did you bring back memories. I remember carpet covering everything - cars, walls, furniture, as lamp shades (with the lava lamp sitting nearby), just everything.

Thank you, God, for those days being far behind us, and I hope to Heaven you haven't retarted them from those feeling nostalgia. :)

revl said...

ah franklin...you are younger than my little sister (who could have seen you in NC, but she knits not)...the ultimate in shagalicious was olive and lime green in a narrow bathroom with purple fixtures and a tangerine (I mean embossed pictures of halved tangerines, not just the color) metallic wallpaper.
The bell bottoms and hip-huggers are back...all y'all who missed the 70's, find yourselves a beanbag (also fashionable again), lay back and let go! everything old is new again (heaven help the bathrooms)

Steph VW said...

My husband still talks about the rake his parents had for "raking the carpet".

I still remember the orange shag that crept up the walls at my friend's father's furniture store. It was a thing of beauty.

Su1282 said...

Crate & Barrel (that arbiter of taste) has shag pillows in their display window here in the DC suburbs. It's baaaack!

Jen in KS said...

I also arrived in January of '71. My Barbie Winnebago was lined (by my mother) with pink fun fur in lieu of shag.

Dawn said...

I use the whole shag carpet thing now when my kids act like vacuuming is so HARD! I have to remind them I had to RAKE ours first! LOL! Thanks for the funny memories Franklin! ;O) The 70's were fun.

Lisa/knitnzu said...

As a bryologist (albeit an amateur these days), I take absolute umbrage at that comment about mosses climbing the walls based on patchouli substrate. (not really...)

Last week I realized that I was either being a very good student (which I was, but through no effort) or a very bad girl (which I also was), because I have no memory of watching Arnold Horseshack or that show he was in or his laugh. And I left HS in 1979...

Susan said...

Mom put shag carpet into our entire house, all except for my room. I did not let her into the door with that stuff. I had the only room with a wooden floor.

Unknown said...

Having spent my formative years partying the 70's away, shag was everywhere. A friend had a shag "room", floors, walls and ceiling! One night, as we sat around doing I can't remember what, he had a plumbing problem. Ah, the wonders of wet shag. We left early.

marijka said...

Thank goodness for allergies -- we had hardwood floors! To me, carpet in general reeks of dust mites and pet fur. Ick. :-)

Sahara said...

Wow Franklin, this post was on time. I've been having 70's moments lately, including a renewed fondness for shag and––latch hooking (I know; please don't give up on me).

I'm working on a doormat. But don't worry, it's out of mat black rubber strips.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I remember shag. I spent a goodly amount of after school time at a friend's place who had a finished attic. The attic room was roughly triangular in shape, as attics tend to be, and all 3 walls were covered in stripes (yes, gold, rust and avocado stripes) of shag carpeting. Yikes.

la takahashi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Leslie said...

I SOOO needed a good laugh. The memories, owe the memories. A neighbor had lime green carpet and matching table mats. I shudder to think where the kitchen floor mat is. Homemade shag carpet, multiple colors.

Carol said...

This just in from the Jan 18 2010 New Yorker in an article on Rodarte designer garments (which are getting rave reviews in the fashion world): "The arts-and-crafts theme was carried through knit skirts, dresses, and sweaters, which evoked shag carpets or latch-hook wall hangings." These outfits cost thousands of dollars.

Anonymous said...

Are those earrings, or is her hat bolted onto her head?

Anonymous said...

Mom still has a dark blue shag rug in her living room for the Chicago house & I think it looks gorgeous. Maybe I'd think differently if it was in orange!!! LOL ...

Knitterchick said...

Carpet? My first thought was 'Hair Cut'. I grew up with both.

Did you know that there's no way to irrevocably get rid of shags? My house had a multi-orange shag & previous owners actually buried it in the woods. I stumbled across it & it was only dirty.

Michelle said...

Thank you for making me laugh out loud on a not-so-funny day! Ooh, and my word verification word is "fargers." I like it.

Anne said...

My in-laws' old house was a monument to '70s bad taste. Red and black shag carpeting in the "rec room." Mirrored tiles on the dining room wall, painted in lime green swirls, and lime green painted walls and ceiling to match the lime green shag carpeting that would catch a heel if you weren't careful. And a glass dining table.

Now they've moved into an apartment and everything is white. Looks like freakin' Antarctica, but it's better than red and black shag carpeting!

Anonymous said...

Franklin, you make me sad to have been born in the 90s (the 90s! The 90s. I'm young.)

Susan said...

Proudly I say: the elevator in the Studio Arts Building Theater Wing at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, STILL sports royal blue shag carpet on its walls. The Art Students did so many fun things to the shag carpet in THEIR elevator, that the carpet was replaced with industrial (boring) flat carpet this past summer.

peanut said...

My great-grandmothers house had orange shag carpet in the living room and green in the bedrooms. I don't think it was pulled up until after she died (to reveal the original, beautiful hard wood floors of her very old home).

The building I work in was built in '78 and had (regular) dark brown carpet on about half the walls (as well as the floor). Four years ago the building was renovated and up grated and the carpeting was replaced ... with new, lighter carpet.

Better yet, the new addition has a carpeted wall just to tie in with the rest of the building.

Rowan said...

Ah yes, I was born in '71 myself and grew up in a house with shag carpet throughout (along with velvet wallpaper ~ remember those?). When my brother (a mid-80's baby) threw up pizza chunks into the carpet, my mother decided the shag has got to go, and replaced them with realistic low and tight loop carpets in beige and tan.

Jennie said...

Ah, the nostalgia: it's palpable.

My mom had an avocado-green mixer and I believe she had a harvest gold washer/dryer. Something was harvest gold.

And, of course, shag carpeting in the living room.

I'm so glad Sandra mentioned the Dorothy Hamill haircut--I sure remember mine! Ah, good times.

getmeoutofmymind said...

I am not a child of the 70's...I was born in the late 80's. HOWEVER, my grandparents' home, even after tearing much of the...interior decorations out...had shag carpeting from the prior owners everywhere. Including the front door.
The kitchen also had, what can only be described as, potato sack wall coverings...

Very strange, strange home.

Anonymous said...

Thank you admin
Film İzle
Dantel Dünyası
El Becerileri
Dantel

Unknown said...

Shag carpets were really the trend carpets in the 70's for its cool colors and unique design. Nowadays, these kind of rugs are coming back and how we really love it so much! But whether classic or shag rugs, we must always bring them to some shops who does carpet cleaning (Clearwater, FL) to maintain its cool and chic look. Shops who does carpet cleaning in Tampa, FL have also cool cleaning services for all types of rugs and carpets.

Jessie said...

Most firms provide investment opportunities for those interested in investing in lodging real estates that meet your specifications.

Bariloche Hostel

Unknown said...

Kondiloma akuminatum ialah vegetasi oleh Human Papiloma Virus tipe tertentu, bertangkai, dan permukaannya berjonjot. Tipe HPV tertentu mempunyai potensi onkogenik yang tinggi, yaitu tipe 16 dan 18. tipe ini merupakan jenis virus yang paling sering dijumpai pada kanker serviks. Sedangkan tipe 6 dan 11 lebih sering dijumpai pada kondiloma akuminatum dan neoplasia intraepitelial serviks derajat ringan. Kondiloma akuminatum ialah vegetasi oleh Human Papiloma Virus tipe tertentu, bertangkai, dan permukaannya berjonjot. Tipe HPV tertentu mempunyai potensi onkogenik yang tinggi, yaitu tipe 16 dan 18. tipe ini merupakan jenis virus yang paling sering dijumpai pada kanker serviks. Sedangkan tipe 6 dan 11 lebih sering dijumpai pada kondiloma akuminatum dan neoplasia intraepitelial serviks derajat ringan.