We’re not sure if it was the desire to create our own version of the famous Playboy mansion’s grotto, but the ‘70s brought one of the strangest trends in home design — an obsession with putting stones everywhere.
From home facades to the walls of basements, suddenly we all took a trip back to the stone age with this trend. What we didn’t realize back then was that this stony look often made our homes look like actual caves, and created a dark and inviting ambiance (although, maybe that was the point?).
Float Away
While there are definite examples of cringe-inducing bathroom design trends (looking at you, carpeted bathrooms!), there are some that have a place on this list less because of how they look, and more because of how they function.
Vessel sinks look great and modern on the vanity of your bathroom. The problem? As soon as you turn the faucet on and begin washing your hands or face water tends to spill everywhere. This spilled water quickly leaves your bathroom looking like a splash zone and makes the perfect environment for mold to grow around the base of your sink.
Toilets Get Cold Too
In case most people don't have enough work trying to find the perfect accessories for their everyday outfits, there was a time when toilets also required accessorizing. Suddenly, shops stocked everything from little rugs to go around the base of the toilet to carpeted covers for the lid of your toilet.
Why on earth did we feel the need to blanket our toilets in a shaggy carpet? Let’s not even get into how unhygienic it is to have an absorbent rug in an area prone to erm, let’s just say spillage. Yuck all around!
Heavy and Itchy — What More Could You Want?
When visiting a used furniture or thrift store, there's a good chance you will come across a heavy couch covered in thick jacquard fabric. Coveted for its durable and resistant construction, this fabric was once considered the height of wealth and sophistication.
Perhaps that's why it covered so many couches in the “nice” living room (you know, the one no one was allowed to sit in except for company). In reality, the jacquard fabric is itchy and heavy, not to mention is a major dust magnet.
Ye Olde Tacky Home
Call it romanticism of the old West, or maybe it was Western-themed shows and movies that fueled the desire to suddenly decorate our homes with a Southwestern theme. Suddenly it seemed like every living room had at least one pastel-colored painting of a desert landscape, not to mention cacti or terracotta-colored items.
Homeowners decided to tile their homes in Spanish terracotta floor tiles that matched perfectly against desert-colored sponge-painted walls. Thankfully, as minimalism and more contemporary design came into fashion, these desert designs slowly disappeared.