Whether through watching reruns of The Brady Bunch, or actually having lived through them, you’re aware that the 1960s and 70s had some…different…fashion and design styles. Bell-bottom jeans, the leisure suit, wild carpeting and flocked wallpaper.

It all came together to make a colorful; some would say garish, statement. In fact, many of us look back and wonder “what were we thinking?!” Let’s reminisce about what we put on our floors in those bygone days.

The shaggy look

No, not the haircut. This is one of the things people would use a few hundred Square feet of in their living rooms and dens. The look was characterized by a deep pile you could really sink your toes into. Sometimes it would have a braided look and at other times it would be freestanding bits of yarn. You could get it in just about any color of the rainbow that appealed to your fashion sense.

Occasionally, you’d find someone chose all the colors of the rainbow. Why would someone do that? The answer is almost cliche: it was the 70s, you had to be there.

The vertigo look

Some of the more eye-catching elements of interior design in the era were the patterns people chose for their flooring. Some were subtle like an etching throughout the pile; others were…a little bit more mindbending.

Imagine a room where the floor had the appearance of a pattern of 4″ x 4″ squares. One square might look like an orange slice, the next might have a stylized floral shape. These were done in a certain color palette, maybe orange-rust-brown or green-yellow-cream that would stretch out across the area.

Geometric shapes and abstract designs were often popular choices as well. Some of those included:

• A repeating pattern of a diamond, within a circle, within a square
• Wavy lines in an alternating color scheme
• Jeweltone swirls reminiscent of peacock feathers

Choosing to carpet a room, with some of these certainly gave a visitor an insight into the resident’s sense of style. Whether that was common sense or nonsense is best Left to the individual observer, and in many cases, an opinion left unsaid.

Every era has things that become fashionable or trendy, be it clothing like the zoot suit, accessories like mood rings or home decor like carpeting. Sometimes, nostalgia brings them back again and sometimes; they are (thankfully) left in the dustbin of history. But they are always fun while they last.