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“And the brown and the beige and the brown and the beige and the brown!”
In this example image, those be some “earth” colors. Used to be a big thing. Lots of dark green, dark yellows, oranges and browns.
And they liked that.
It’s a whole vibe. I don’t know who vibes with that, but it definitely has a vibe.
I remember the wood paneling from when I was a wee lad.
My grandma had that same couch.
It’s more than that. Those colors were chosen to hide the ever-present, persistent glaze of nicotine stain over everything. There were no white walls back then, only shades of “cream”, “ecru”, and “off-white” because no shade of true white could exist in that persistent haze of cigarette smoke.
If you ever took over a house from the 70s you’d note the amber brown drips down the kitchen wall after making spaghetti or heating a tradition tea kettle on the stove. Or after a shower in the bathroom. Scrubbing, priming, and painting would help, and then you’d make another pot of spaghetti and see another amber sludge nicotine drip from somewhere on that wall.
To this day I cannot abide beige, any rendition of off-white, or pale yellow. They’re all shades on the nicotine glaze color palette.
These colours were chosen specifically so we wouldn’t notice the nicotine coating everything.
I can smell this picture. Mildew, thousands of cigarettes, and whatever gas-soaked disaster grandpa has on his basement workbench around the corner. It’s the same era that brought us matching ceramic ash-trays for the coffee table, and bi-centennial themed kitsch like pewter minutemen that are actually cigarette lighters in disguise.
Of note. The paneling from this era is actually wood, not Masonite. You can flip it over and use it as 1/8” smooth ply, depending, for those of you into recycling materials.
If it was used in a smokers house, it will always reek unless heavily treated. At which point you’ve probably spent more than just buying new wood.
I recently bought a house that had used that ‘70s paneling as a sort of wainscoting in the kitchen; the panels had been cut to 4’ and applied in various ways (everything except just fucking nails) around the base of the walls. It had been painted white so it wasn’t quite as hideous as its original state and I didn’t feel like replacing it all, but I did have to repair one section of it that had been badly water-damaged. I was surprised to find that Lowe’s still has that shit in stock so I bought a piece of it and brought it home … and discovered that it wasn’t really like the original stuff. It looked the same but the grooves between the alleged “boards” were not recessed, they were just printed on the surface, so once it was painted it would have just looked like flat board. So I ended up having to rip that shit into fake planks and nail them up separately with small grooves between them. All that work just to simulate '70s hideousness.
Thank god there was no shag carpet in that house.
are you talking about bead board? I’m surprised that the blue store doesn’t have that. the orange store does.
No, I’m talking about the '70s faux-wood paneling, like what’s in the picture on this post. Nobody makes it any more.
They used brown everywhere because all the smoking would have eventually made it brown anyway. If they start there they could pretend nothing was wrong.
I was told that the brown and puke green of the 70s were the result of backlash the bright hippie colors of the 60s. Dirty, earthly colors were more “natural” and “organic”. There’s probably truth to both
I recently bought a house that had been previously occupied by smokers. During renovation I had something happen that I’ve never seen before or even heard of. I tried repainting one of the walls without any prep and it seemed like the paint went on fine even a couple of hours later, but when I came back the next morning the paint had all flowed down off the walls onto the floor. As best I can tell, the nicotine and tar on the walls penetrated the partially-dried paint like a solvent and re-liquified it. Fortunately, just wiping the walls down with mineral spirits before painting fixed the problem.
When my aunt was alive and chain smoking her life away, we hesitantly visited wearing our oldest clothes that could be disposed of. There was no opening windows or anything like that, you just sat with your eyes watering and endured for an hour, during which she’d have smoked 7 cigarettes. Finally my eye started to swell from the smoke because I’m so sensitive to it, and my aunt noticed and got mad I hadn’t told her.
In the meantime my ex wandered through to use the bathroom, but he touched one wall and it was dripping nicotine and tar. What an awful habit. I lived through the 70s and 80s, where everyone smoked everywhere all of the time, and there’s nothing like riding with your parents in the car with the windows rolled up and them lighting a fresh one every ten minutes or so.
I’m a school bus driver now and about half of my coworkers smoke. It’s just fucking revolting because they always stink of that shit.
I know of someone who has seizures, and recently gave themselves a stay in the burn unit because they lit a cigarette after a seizure when they were postictal (meaning they are recovering from the seizure but still have no awareness). That was bad news bears as my friend likes to say. Just the risk of falling asleep with a lit cigarette would be enough to keep me from it, not to mention the way you stink, the cost, the way people avoid you, and the inevitable damage to your health. You can have quit cigarettes decades beforehand, and still end up with emphysema.
But just plain stinking would be enough for me! Ugh that’s awful for you.
I’ve had that happen with trying to paint oil-stained (as a finish, not like motor oil or something) wood with interior latex. It really doesn’t like this and will let the oil bleed through, cure improperly, anything but go on and look like fresh paint. My guess is the cigarette tars/oils on the walls did the same thing. I read up on this (was years ago) and I think there’s products designed for this (maybe a oil/latex interface primer of some kind). Or you just clean really hard, or use oil-based paint.
use oil-based paint
Oh dear god no. I’d rather have a root canal without anesthetic.
I don’t blame you. Stuff is terrible.
Yep my grandmother, and parents had all that shit. And everyone smoked. It was no surprise of 15 years of second hand smoke if I didn’t become a smoker too. Now 2025 we are all non smokers. Except for my mother she refuses to give it up.
This was my family room.
90% of my furniture comes from them, at least it’s repairable and high quality.
A million times better than what the average person buys nowadays
The furniture is great. If not wood, it’s still paint worthy. The hexagon end table is a great item in any color. If it’s paint grade, you can slap a little bondo in any dings, paint, poly, and it will likely last another 30yrs.
I kinda like it, feels cozy :)
Same! Its comfy, natural and “worn in” much better than empty gray or beige
Meanwhile millennial having everything greyscale, definitely not going to be a sign of the times lol
Don’t you talk shit about my grayscale. I got a gray cat to match and he blends perfectly into the couch, thank you.
It was a reaction to the artificial colors that got popular in the 60s.
Then we flipped the script in the 80s, continued in the 90s. Then The Matrix came out and we reinvented black and white clothes, went froggy again.
Ugh, the second link. These goddamn windbreakers… T-T
This was an attempt to emulate the rich, wood-paneled, dark, rich luxury of old money.
I visited Konopiste castle in the Czech Republic that had a moat with a bear living in it. Inside, most of the place was covered in beautiful walnut. Hand carved patterning, and filigree. It was actually beautiful. And the ceilings were like 20 feet tall. A bunch of animal busts, linens, and furs. They even had the real white and blue fine China that Boomers are so obsessed with.
I remember thinking as I walked through there: “Wow, this is what it’s supposed to look like”
Oh wow. Thank you for sharing these with everyone.
To be completely fair, great grandma’s pattern china set probably did not include multiple 24" serving platters. Those pieces on the wall are a different class of china completely, and are probably way older and more valuable.
Did the bear still live in the moat or was the bear only in the moat historically. Regardless I am disappointed that there are no pictures of the moat.
Bear was sleeping, it was at night. Only pic I have is this, it was not very impressive but it smelled like a bear lived there.
Thank you I am now contented. Also bears are fucking great I don’t care if it was asleep or not.
Was it a panda bear or a polar bear?
Internet says: “The area’s most famous resident is Medvěd Jiří (George the Bear). He is a black and brown Himalayan bear that lives in the enclosures at the castle’s base. His appearances are rare, but his entrances are always sure to cause a stir among visitors.”
Exactly!
I think it also somewhat closely matched a lot of the clothing being worn at the time too.
Reading Vonnegut’s Dead Eye Dick and the top photo is how I pictured his dad’s attic. :)
