For the past 10 years, I have been absolutely immersed in researching homes built from 1945 through 1963 — the classic, post-World-War-II baby boom years. And over the past decade — and the past two-to-three years in particular — there is no question that I’ve seen a major transformation in how mainstream media, real estate agents and — yes, prospective home buyers — view these homes. The original, high quality features… the architecture… and the wisdom of restoring, rather than gutting — yup, folks are starting to ‘get it’. To be sure, there is still serious work to do to showcase how smart appreciating and preserving these homes can be, but, we are well on our way, I am convinced. So, that gets me to thinking: What is “the next big thing”. The answer, of course: 1970s houses. And buckle your seatbelts, peoples, because I predict that the love train for 1970s architecture and interior design will be even bigger than for 1950s and 1960s homes. Why? (1) Sheer numbers. And, yes, (2) the sheer amazing style, too.
1. The Numbers: Long story short: There were more houses built in the 1970s — overall and as a percentage of population — than during any other decade in American history.
I am afraid this might bore a lot of readers, so I’ll keep this brief-ish. I have been doing research on housing growth, and this government report from 1994, is pretty informative. In one of the paragraphs above, it says:
The housing stock grew by more than 20 percent in the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1970’s. Growth rates less than 20 percent occurred in the 1960’s and 1980’s.
The largest increase, 19.7 million housing units, occurred in the 1970’s, despite three economic recessions within the calendar years from 1970 to 1980s. The net gain in that decade represented an average increase of about 2 million housing units per year. Demand for housing was high in the 1970s as the leading edge of the baby boom population entered household forming years, wellin the 24-to-34 years age groups.
It. Always. Happens. About 20 years after a housing style, with its attendant interior design style — booms — we Hate it. This goes on for a while. About 50 years after, a shift starts to occur. There is a new generation — the grandkids, typically — who have fond recollections of their grandparents’ homes, and embrace they style. They also can afford these “stylistically discounted” — “dated” — houses. In addition, the larger population — including designers — has the perspective to look back and appreciate the best of a style, and let go of the rest. The 70s housing re-boom is on a trajectory to start in earnest in about eight years… and leading edge design savants are already heading there.
The housing boom of the 1970s was even greater — numerically and as a percentage of population — than in the now-infamous bubble of 2000-2010. Note: I am creating my own Excel spread sheet (shown above)(I already see how I need to fix where the 1990s tally up, but I am fed up looking at this and need to take a break). There are reports and reports, with a variety of government agencies (BLS pre-1945, and Census 1945-on), and technical slicing and dicing, to puzzle through. My numbers may not match other numbers. Unless I find someone who has done just the kind of timeline-report I am looking for, I have a bit of a journey ahead of me. Nonetheless, I believe my spreadsheet so far is directionally correct. You get the point.
(2) 1970s style rocks. Of course, 1970s style is infamous, too. The more I research and write about retro design — the more I love it. I want it. I am collecting it. And I will be writing more and more about it leading toward the big boom to come.
Jordanna says
I must say, despite my early grumptastic post about how I don’t consider six shades of brown a palette – I do like some aspects of ’70s decor and some styles of house from that period, though I often favour them with a more anachronistic ’50s colour scheme.
The massive stone chimneys and the shallowly angled windows rising right up to the same-angled roofs (I’ll see if I can get a picture from my old neighbourhood) can be pretty cool.
For extreme authenticity, in front of the window, hang a macrame plant pot holder with a spider plant. 😉
gavin hastings says
Don’t forget the ficus tree or the Jane Avril poster!
BungalowBILL says
A ficus is nearly timeless. A schefflera screams 70’s, along with Hawaiian Ti plants and dracaenas. (in chrome or matte white cylinder planters)
Peter says
Now I’m having flashbacks: How about the “Spider Plants” hanging from macrame slings?
Heather says
Love this post! We bought a home built in 1973 about three years ago and have been remodeling it since. We lovingly dubbed it our Brady Bunch House. We have updated a lot of the features (hideous kitchen, popcorn ceilings) and kept a lot of the 70’s era features that we made us fall in love with the house (sunken living room, sunken master bath shower, 70’s wet bar, floating staircase).
Looking forward to the continued 70’s revival!!
http://Www.bradybunchremodel.com
Jeannie says
I recently was lucky enough to come across and purchase my dream home, a custom built ranch home from 1966. The couple that built it, lived in it for the rest of their lives and left it to their daughter when they passed away. She did not live in the house but, held onto it for a couple of years prior to my purchase.
This home was lovingly cared for but, not necessarily updated other than clear evidence of some 70s and 80s appliances. I have been hard at work, bringing it up to current standards, pulling old carpeting up from bathrooms, etc. and am tempted to do something with the custom, built on site, kitchen cabinets, basically just refinishing them and changing the pulls.
In the process, I am sensing an attraction on my part to some 70s pieces, furnishings and colors. My aesthetic has usually leaned toward Danish modern so, I don’t understand this new attraction. I wonder, should I bring some of this into the decor? I want to maintain the 60s vibe but, wonder if I should just go with what I like. I don’t want to get too eclectic.
How can I post photos of my home? I’d love to share some of it’s unique features.
Stacey says
Pam, it occured to me today (after I commented yesterday) that one reason that 70s-style houses doesn’t sell well in this area is the extreme height of many of the ceilings. Those houses are really tough to cool (a must here in the South) and to keep warm (and it does get cold down here). I can see how the style shift back to 70s stuff would help sales, but what would help heating and cooling with those high ceilings and 2-story open floor plans? Just wondering… it would be good to see a comeback.
pam kueber says
Seems to me that every house built in the 90s and 00’s, including in the south, had two-story foyers — ?
flyingethan says
I gotta say that probably no one loves 70’s decor more than my wife and I. I am 40 and yes a grandchild of the era. I don’t have words to describe my grandfathers house from when I was growing up. It was built in 1969 and was everything that everbody nowadays seems to hate about the 70’s. I loved it and remember it fondly. Back then it was just another house. Nothing unusual about it. Made “That 70’s Show” house look tame.
My wife and I bought a 1973 time capsul house a year and a half ago. The original owners daughter (owner was deceased but was very “groovy” by all neighbors accounts) was going to gut it, remodel it and sell it. I found it before it went on the market (sheer luck) so it was untouched. My condition for buying the house was that the daughter wasn’t allowed to touch a thing on the house. All I asked, in a nice way, was to “just get out and don’t touch a thing”. The yard is huge, the pool is in good shape, it was built well and is in a nice 70’s neighborhood (I know – duh!).
We have since gone through the house and kept what we consider the “good stuff”. The built in bar, avocado tile, wrought iron, dark paneling, avocado countertops, etc.. My kitchen is all avocado appliances, including washer and dryer, we have the big spoon and fork, 70’s wall colors and so on. If anybody is interested we used carpet from Lowes and I forget the brand name (maybe mohawk or shaw) but it’s called “awsome” (or awesome). Anyways, we chose green (green like on the tv show Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie) and it’s the shaggiest, most 70’s-ish carpet we could find. It fits our sunken living room decor perfectly.
We are about to add a bedroom, bathroom and a den to the house making it a 4 bedroom, 2600 sq. ft. house. The den will be wall to wall wood paneling. We will use the same carpet and vinyl flooring we have elsewhere in the house so we will be all matchy-matchy.
I could go on and on but I won’t bore everybody anymore than I already have.
The point is; there are more people like me out there than you might think. So this could gain traction. We’ll see. I hope not because I like that 70’s stuff is still inexpensive, for the most part.
I truly think that avocado, golden harvest, orange and brown are the prettiest and warmest colors for a home. I love avocado greenish color for a car too. I love 50’s/ 60’s decor too, but not as much.
I keep meaning to send pics to Pam but I always feel like I need to wait until I get the next thing done before I do that. Will it ever end? One of these days I swear that I will share my avocado love with this site. If nothing else it will serve as a funny “oh my gosh I can’t beleive someone would do that to a house” laugh.
btw, my favorite all time house is the house from the tv show Bewitched. I know it’s not 70’s but it’s rad.
clampers says
I would love to see pics, personally! Sounds amazing.
Also, I tried looking up the Awesome carpet you mentioned but had no luck…do you have a link or anything? No worries if you don’t.
flyingethan says
No I don’t have a link. I tried looking it up on-line as well and also had no luck. I was just in the Lowes by my house last week and they still offer it. I’ll find the brand name and get back with you.
flyingethan says
The carpet is made by Mohawk. It is called Awesome and the model # is: LW160-12-510. I bought it at Lowes. It’s not as shaggy as the carpet from the 70’s but it looks good in a 70’s home. It’s a frieze pile type.
clampers says
Thanks very much!
Mike says
Man, I hope the 70’s style comes back. I would love to be able to find some cool shag carpet for the basement of my split level.
Chris says
Pam,
One thought about your stats: try to see if you can separate multiple housing starts for singles. The stats from pre-60s are mostly single family buildings, with the 70s in particular we see a lot of tallish concrete apartment towers constructed in smaller cities in America that previously had never seen things over 5 stories. This usually boasts the number of ‘households or housing ‘unit’s’ in the stats but doesn’t translate into more ‘buildings’. Notwithstanding that comment, there were certainly vast tracts of suburbia created all over the place during the era.
pam kueber says
I have these for some years but not for others. For the 60s: 9.2 million single-family; for the 70s: 11.4; for the 80s: 9.8. Again: Still more in the 70s. I am pretty sure I’ve seen the 50s – and still not more than the 70s. I’ll get these all together at some point…
clampers says
I had better stock up on all the ’70s decor that I love so much if prices are going to skyrocket soon!
I just bought a 1968 rambler and the original elements, you can tell, definitely lean towards the ’70s. There is Moroccan-style tile on the bathroom floors, beams in the living room, quality wood paneling, and also some cheaper dark, faux wood paneling. The kitchen was gutted and redone two years ago (with granite and stainless steel, which I actually like) but I am working hard at salvaging the bathrooms (especially that tile) and playing up the ’70s style with decor from thrift stores and garage sales. People are giving this stuff away right now.
I love the ’70s colors. I have rust, orange, and avocado in my living room. Orange and yellow mushroom theme in the kitchen (it actually compliments the granite nicely), “sculpted” towels in the bathrooms…lamps…those big fork and spoon wall hangings…the list goes on. I slowly am acquiring lots of ’70s decor items and was even looking for a modernized shag area rug! Yes! It’s true! I am the one who wants a shag rug.
clampers says
Also forgot to add—while we don’t have a by-the-book “conversation pit,” we do have a sunken living room…so fabulous! Seriously! How can you say a sunken living room is not fabulous. This is, of course, where we have our liquor cabinet, and where I want to place the shag rug. 😉
gavin hastings says
The biggest “embracer” of good, sleek interior design in the 1970’s- available to the general public- was your neighborhood Bank. They were right on target at every branch…..Beautiful professional designs.
clampers says
Totally agree with you on the bank thing…I also feel like public libraries did this well too.
jeanne says
Wow, love reading all this stuff! Just to add a few more tidbits of info. 1957 had the highest per capita birthrate (me!) and those babies graduated from high school in 1975 (me again!). The 70s was also the beginning of needing two income families to support a household. No longer were people able to have a stay-at-home mom.
I got married in 1977. My first house (rented) had gold shag carpeting, brown/orange/gold striped paneling in the kitchen and gold appliances. I hung white w/brown LARGE cane patterned wallpaper. I had registered for brown towels for the bathroom and Franciscan dishes (yellow/orange/green). I still have my franciscan goblets/wines/dessert glasses in green and yellow and orange. Fun times and fond memories!
A great movie to see some 70s style is The Ice Storm. Some very cool (no pun intended!) interiors and fashions.
denise says
You just reminded me of the shag carpet that was in a room in a duplex that my friend had to move into with her mom due to divorce in 1977. It was the orange with red strands intermingled. Very cool.