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Home / Decorating Resources / knotty pine

“Bicentennial Chic” — heck to the yeah

pam kueber - July 7, 2014, Updated: February 1, 2019

bicentennial chic vintage ethan allenUpon the most recent celebration of our American Independence, I learned that there is now a design trend called “Bicentennial Chic.” This amuses me to no end. Bicentennial Chic seems to me to be a lovely bit of wordsmithing meant to upmarket “1970s Early American” decor and fashion. Not that I am opposed, whatsoever. If it’s design done well, it’s design done well, an American Eagle by any other name would look so grand, and all that, you know. So how to define “Bicentennial Chic”? I could not find an official definition online, so, calling upon my own experience including the fact that I LIVED THROUGH IT THE FIRST TIME, let’s take a look at this what’s-old-always-comes-back-again trend. Above: Vintage Ethan Allen catalog edition 70 from the 1970s, from my personal collection.

patriotic wallpaper
From Hannah’s Treasures
vintage ethan allen bicentennial chic
Mid-70s Ethan Allen
vintage ethan allen bicentennial chic
Mid-70s Ethan Allen

What is Bicentennial Chic?

Seems like first and foremost, Bicentennial Chic would most precisely refer to any circa-mid-1970s decor or fashion that includes patriotic American iconography. Yes: Put an Eagle on it, to start. That said, I’ll further broaden “Bicentennial Chic” to include any combination of mid-1970s furniture and decor that gets the colors, scale, patterns, furniture and accessories “right” in evoking a Granny Ranch — circa-mid-70s, of course!

Motifs appropriated into Bicentennial Chic decor celebrating this era would include Early American / Colonial American:

  • Soldiers and horses…
  • Emblems, flags, the Liberty Bell…
  • Spice racks, weathervanes, maize…
  • Butter churns and crocks and the like turned into table lamps…
  • Spinning wheels plopped into your living room as art…
  • Oxen yokes turned into mirrors…
  • Braided rugs…
  • … Lotsa anything you could imagine the original Patriots having in their homes and lives, but served up as Art.
bicentennial chic vintage ethan allen
Mid-70s Ethan Allen
bicentennial chic vintage ethan allen
Mid-70s Ethan Allen
bicentennial chic ethan allen
Mid-70s Ethan Allen
bicentennial-chic-ethan-allen-10
Mid-70s Ethan Allen — those cabinets and shelves are from the awesome EA Custom Room Plan series. Fantastic stuff!

The colors of Bicentennial Chic: Red, white and blue color schemes — but not just….

patriotic wallpaper
From Hannah’s Treasures
bicentennial chic vintage ethan allen
Mid-70s Ethan Allen
bicentennial chic vintage ethan allen
Mid-70s Ethan Allen

… I’d also include the prevalent decorating colors of the day — the lovely avocado greens, harvest golds, rusty reds and oranges and rich browns and coppertones. These colors would have been even more popular among accessories and fabrics to decorate the home.

Metal finishes: Antique brass, pewter, copper and wrought iron.

american pie needlepoint pillow
I made this pillow when I was a teenager in the 1970s.

Crewel: Erica Wilson was going strong in the mid-70s.

Wallpaper: Heck to the yeah, here’s where you see Bicentennial Chic at its very finest.

Architectural forebear: Royal Barry Wills. I repeat: The most influential residential architect of the 20th century — and unless you are a longtime reader of this blog (and why aren’t you, pray tell?) you probably never heard of him. His influence was immense, and is still apparent today.

bicentennial chic vintage ethan allen
This room — Ethan Allen Edition 70 catalog — is my personal favorite of the bunch. Such pleasing color harmony! But then, burnt orange is my favorite color.

Furniture: Ethan Allen absolutely epitomizes this look! I own several vintage Ethan Allen catalogs. They are marvels. For this story, I went through Edition #70 to find some telling examples. I am not sure of the year of this issue.  But I know it’s pre-1979, because I have a later edition that includes that date.

I found plenty of examples in the wonderful Ethan Allen catalog that show us how to pull together a Bicentennial Chic interior. Beautiful rooms!

pine interior
No, this is not a 1970s interior. It’s from 1960. Early American style was popular for a longgggg time in America.

There were many decorating Colonial Revivals in American history…

But here’s the thing: I’m not sure that I can really see much of a fine line between what might be called “true” circa-1976 “Bicentennial Chic” and plain old Early American decor, which had been popular already throughout the mid-century period. In my first story on Early American decor, which I wrote in 2009, I found an academic source which discussed the first Colonial Revival in America. This first revival spanned 1890-1940, it said.

early american decor
Early American decor in a Duco paint ad, 1952.

However, from what I’ve seen in American homes and marketing material, the Revival continued pretty darn strong all the way into the 1970s. In fact, call it “Colonial*” or “Early American*” (*I know that I am throwing these terms around very cavalierly; of course, collectors of true antiquities can discern keen differences among the many years of early American design history) … change the wallpaper and the upholstery schemes…  but this American traditional style seems to have been in style throughout most of American history.

I’m thinking it really didn’t fall from favor until — ironically — after the 1976 bicentennial, when I’m thinkin’ people just topped out. And of course, the marketeers wanted to dissatisfy us with what we had and sell us something new. Seriously, by the 1979 Ethan Allen catalog, I’m not seeing a single cast iron eagle anywhere in sight. Duck decoys and ceramic chickens are creeping in, and I am just not ready for the small-flower-prints-on-pastel-fields upholstery and wallpaper yet. But no eagles.

So here we are… it took 40 years of visual recovery… and now we are ready to smile again at Bicentennial Chic.

What does Bicentennial Chic look like?

I would think that today’s “Bicentennial Chic” “should” not be subdued — it “should” be eye-popping, much like the 1970s take on the style. Well done, today’s Bicentennial Chic “should” combine lots of color, pattern, contrast, layers and line, pushing right up to that fine line between “genius” and “tacky” then backing off a wee bit to be sure to end up in “genius.” Of course, I put “should” into quotation marks because what the heck do I know, I only learned about this like four days ago. And besides, you can do whatever you like, it’s your retro flashback.

In the 1970s, Colonial Revival interiors got pretty darn bold, it seems. The portrayal of the emblems of colonial America were even heading toward “camp”, in the sense that we already had Andy Warhol showing us how to take bits of American pop culture and make them into art. That said, I’m gonna say the mass of mainstream middle-class Americans who embraced 1970s Colonial Revival styles and decorated their homes thus, did so with zero irony, no tongue-in-cheek at all. They lived through the privations of World War II and took their American iconography very seriously. So even though it’s tempting to look at these 1970s interiors and maybe giggle, at some of them, I ain’t gonna. This was just another style, and style is just fashion, and we’re susceptible to its siren song, to some degree or another. And, these rooms — in the Ethan Allen catalog, in particular — are really put together well! So they get my respect, for sure..

Early American / Colonial Revival decor: I would say it was the single longest running style trend in 20th century America. Way more popular than mid-century modern.

bicentennial chic ethan allen
Mid-70s Ethan Allen. FOR SURE my grandpa had a recliner upholstered in fabric like this!

Why is Bicentennial Chic chic again today?

Oh, those wacky youngsters. When what’s hot (mid-century modern and high style Steampunk, today) gets too hot and therefore out of their financial reach, they look for style where others aren’t. They put their own no-baggage eyes on stuff with low price tags, snap up deals at estate sales and thrift shops and grandma’s house, give their new found vintage treasures a fun new name — “Hey, let’s call it Bicentennial Chic,” tee hee —  and before you know it, newly made knock-offs begin appearing in the furniture catalogs we get in the mail.ethan allen quincy bedFor sure, you can find all the elements of Bicentennial Chic locally, vintage. But for fun, I also jumped over to Ethan Allen’s website to see whether they still had anything to fit the trend. Today, Ethan Allen is most certainly marketing to the large, mainstream market. But, I found a few things that might fit the Bicentennial Chic groove…. For example, I love their Quincy bed, above. This modern take showcases the delicious lines of Early American furniture. This bed comes in a number of colors — you can even get it in aqua!

ethan allen classic mirror

Above: Ethan Allen Deep Profile Classic Mirror.

ginger jar lamp ethan allenAnd this might be one of the most timeless table lamp designs ever — Porcelain Ginger Jar table lamp, Ethan Allen.

It always happens: What’s old becomes new again. Heck to the yeah to Bicentennial Chic! Now, I am going to look for my calico maxi dress. I’m pretty sure I saved it. Rock on.

  • Also see my story: Renovating 1970s houses — the next big thing

Readers, what interior design features do you remember
from the mid-1970s ala Bicentennial Chic? Let’s make a list!

CATEGORIES:
Decorating Resources knotty pine

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  1. Rebecca says

    August 23, 2018 at 12:57 pm

    What about exterior design ideas for bicentennial chic? I just had my brick home painted that shade of blue–just the siding accents, not the brick– in the duco paint ad (and my back door is that yellow).. A colonial blue was peeking through the worn paint on my thresholds, and that coupled with the scenic wallpaper we long ago uncovered in the kitchen led me to believe our home was intended to be a coolonial from the beginning. I’m just struggling now with the front door color, which we have done in black, with plans to add bright brass accents. Would love to see some inspiration photos!

    In my neighborhood full of mid century homes, most are choosing to emphasize the “modern” and look askance at my choices.

  2. Sarah B. says

    May 16, 2018 at 12:40 pm

    The room you say is your favorite…the one with the burnt orange color scheme…My husband and I have that exact hutch/cabinet that is in the background. We also have the table that I am guessing went with it. It has an eagle painted on the captains chair. We only have 4 chairs. I’m guessing it probably came with 6. We have 1 captains chair and 3 regular chairs. I absolutely love the whole set and the 70’s vibe it has. I’m glad to know a little more about it! Thanks!

  3. Steven says

    February 1, 2018 at 10:20 pm

    At one point my Mom had every room in our C. 1890 front end working class house, wallpapered with some kind of eagle on it! In fact, not being a math genius, she over ordered the living room paper to the point that she had enough for that room, the huge front hall way. With plenty left over for my grandmother to use on a wall, and 10 years later when I got married we used it in our kitchen!

  4. joan says

    March 24, 2017 at 2:41 pm

    I was on to this years ago nobody wanted it at goodwill I found wonderful tables and sturdy captains chairs for almost nothing

  5. History Underfoot says

    July 5, 2016 at 5:00 pm

    I’m thinking the musical Hamilton is influencing the popularity of this look now.

  6. Colleen says

    July 5, 2016 at 8:37 am

    Born in ’65, grew up in the 70s, my Mom was all-in for the “Early American” style and some friends of ours were all about the Bicentennial chic. They even had a Dodge truck that was white with Red and Blue stripes.decals. It was THE thing back then. Mom had shelves all around the dining room covered in pewter everything and Armitale pewter is something to look up, still hot on ebay and in resale shops. The historic homes in VA, DC, Baltimore are still decorated this way in many cases. She also had the eagles on everything. We had the oil lamp looking light fixtures, crazy print furniture, those same “pub” style table/chairs, the works. ALL OF IT! I ***** IT!!! LOL! But fun to see the old photos of this. If kids today bring this back… not sure what I’ll do. UGH!

  7. Laura's Last Ditch Vintage Kitchenwares says

    July 5, 2016 at 12:41 am

    I happened upon a very, very lovely time capsule estate sale, done by the family. They had JUST started to tear off the wallpaper to get it ready to sell. I gasped in horror, and said the house was so wonderful, someone might just want that fantastic wallpaper. They seemed receptive to the idea that a time capsule might be a selling point. Probably it’s been destroyed by now, but these catalog pages remind me of it.

    When this style started to go, that’s when “country” started to come in. Still that same down-home feel, just with geese instead of eagles.

  8. Linda says

    July 4, 2016 at 2:01 pm

    I’m remembering that the bicentennial was more of a dark stained walnut affair, with the maple furniture being earlier than that. I have a bed very like the one you show above, only with a representative rolling pin, that was manufactured by Conant Ball in around 1920, I think. Those are the same folks who did such nice mid modern stuff later on.

  9. Robert S says

    July 4, 2016 at 1:49 pm

    I grew up with all of that. I remember in the 60’s and 70’s Ethan Allen was highly-revered by my parents and their friends. Like it was the end-all be-all. They bought my brother and I that “room plan” furniture which we always called “stack furniture” because the way you stacked the pieces together to fit a room. At this point though, I just can’t quite feel the love for it yet.

  10. Rachel Duke says

    June 17, 2016 at 11:07 pm

    My husband and I are in the process of purchasing a 1977 two-story house that has all the original light fixtures and they are that early american look – down to the eagle on the doorbell!

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