The Decade That Taste Forgot Lavish And Luxe Interiors Of The 1970S

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1 of 30Actor Curt Jurgens with his wife and two female companions lathering up in a hot tub he had built in his den. 1972.Carlo Bavagnoli/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 2 of 30Welsh singer Tom Jones stands by his swimming pool. Circa 1970. Terry O’Neill/Getty Images 3 of 30Models pose with a transparent bathtub on display at London’s International Building Exhibition. 1971.Central Press/Getty Images 4 of 30American basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain eats a meal by himself at a table under a massive chandelier in his specially-commissioned Los Angeles home known as Ursa Major. 1972.Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 5 of 30Interior view of a mirrored room, covered in fitted floor cushions, inside Wilt Chamberlain’s Ursa Major home in Los Angeles. 1972.Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 6 of 30Dining room in the Long Island home of fashion designer and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt and author Wyatt Cooper (parents of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper). 1971.Horst P. Horst/Conde Nast via Getty Images 7 of 30English pop singer Engelbert Humperdinck. Circa 1970.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images 8 of 30Elton John reclines on an elaborately decorated bed. 1972. Terry O’Neill/Getty Images 9 of 30Dining room interior, with white table and four molded plastic pedestal chairs. Date unspecified.H. Armstrong Roberts/Retrofile/Getty Image 10 of 30American musician Frank Zappa poses with his parents in his home in Los Angeles. 1970.John Olson/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 11 of 30Le Palais Bulles (“The Bubble Palace”), designed by French fashion designer Pierre Cardin and architect Antti Lovag, located on the French Riviera, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Date unspecified.Eric Robert/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images 12 of 30Barbra Streisand at her home in Los Angeles. 1977.Terry O’Neill/Getty Images 13 of 30Op-art style bedroom in the home of French interior designer Francois Catroux. 1970.Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast via Getty Images 14 of 30Priscilla Presley (ex-wife of Elvis) poses at her home in Beverly Hills. 1975.Ron Galella/WireImage/Getty Images 15 of 30The television room in the weekend house of French Baron Guy de Rothschild, just outside of Paris. 1978.Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast via Getty Images 16 of 30Hugh Hefner with girlfriend Barbi Benton in his luxury DC-9 aircraft “The Big Bunny” at Heathrow Airport in London. 1970.Keystone/Getty Images 17 of 30Home of art director John Holmes, designed by William Kirsch and made entirely from used parts. 1972.John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 18 of 30American businesswoman and Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown poses on her bed in her apartment on New York’s Central Park West. 1979.Susan Wood/Getty Images 19 of 30British aristocrat and politician Henry Frederick Thynne at his home in Wiltshire. 1970.Keystone/Getty Images 20 of 30Plush carpet-covered furniture on display at the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition in London. 1971.Jackson/Central Press/Getty Images 21 of 30American socialite Lee Radziwill (sister of Jacqueline Kennedy) stands in her dining room. 1976.Susan Wood/Getty Images 22 of 30A waiter lights a woman’s cigarette at Club Tekki, a health club in Paris. 1972.Paul Almasy/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images 23 of 30A woman wrapped in a towel sits on the edge of the tub in a luxurious bathroom and tests the water temperature with her hand. Circa 1975. Tom Kelley/Getty Images 24 of 30The guest room in the Rome apartment of fashion designer Valentino. 1970.Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast via Getty Images 25 of 30Honeymoon Hotel in the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania. 1971.SSPL/Getty Images 26 of 30A chandelier hangs over a blue, Roman-sized tub surrounded by pillars. 1977.Ernie Leyba/The Denver Post via Getty Images 27 of 30A couple pose in a sitting room in London. 1976.Hulton Archive/Getty Images 28 of 30Living room of summer home constructed with redwood panels. 1970.John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 29 of 30Designer and model Katarina Noever in her design shop, “Section N,” in Vienna. 1972.Imagno/Getty Images 30 of 30Like this gallery?Share it:

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To neo-bohemian Millennials hooked on “the Brooklyn look”, the matchy-matchy maximalism and unhinged hedonism of 1970s luxury interior design must look as fussy in its forethought and dusty in its formalism as the century-old trappings of Downton Abbey or other binge-worthy period pablum.

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Nostalgia-Inducing ’70s Pictures That Show What Real Life Was Like In The Decade Of Disco

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1 of 30Actor Curt Jurgens with his wife and two female companions lathering up in a hot tub he had built in his den. 1972.Carlo Bavagnoli/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

2 of 30Welsh singer Tom Jones stands by his swimming pool. Circa 1970. Terry O’Neill/Getty Images

3 of 30Models pose with a transparent bathtub on display at London’s International Building Exhibition. 1971.Central Press/Getty Images

4 of 30American basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain eats a meal by himself at a table under a massive chandelier in his specially-commissioned Los Angeles home known as Ursa Major. 1972.Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

5 of 30Interior view of a mirrored room, covered in fitted floor cushions, inside Wilt Chamberlain’s Ursa Major home in Los Angeles. 1972.Ralph Crane/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

6 of 30Dining room in the Long Island home of fashion designer and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt and author Wyatt Cooper (parents of CNN anchor Anderson Cooper). 1971.Horst P. Horst/Conde Nast via Getty Images

7 of 30English pop singer Engelbert Humperdinck. Circa 1970.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

8 of 30Elton John reclines on an elaborately decorated bed. 1972. Terry O’Neill/Getty Images

9 of 30Dining room interior, with white table and four molded plastic pedestal chairs. Date unspecified.H. Armstrong Roberts/Retrofile/Getty Image

10 of 30American musician Frank Zappa poses with his parents in his home in Los Angeles. 1970.John Olson/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

11 of 30Le Palais Bulles (“The Bubble Palace”), designed by French fashion designer Pierre Cardin and architect Antti Lovag, located on the French Riviera, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Date unspecified.Eric Robert/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images

12 of 30Barbra Streisand at her home in Los Angeles. 1977.Terry O’Neill/Getty Images

13 of 30Op-art style bedroom in the home of French interior designer Francois Catroux. 1970.Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast via Getty Images

14 of 30Priscilla Presley (ex-wife of Elvis) poses at her home in Beverly Hills. 1975.Ron Galella/WireImage/Getty Images

15 of 30The television room in the weekend house of French Baron Guy de Rothschild, just outside of Paris. 1978.Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast via Getty Images

16 of 30Hugh Hefner with girlfriend Barbi Benton in his luxury DC-9 aircraft “The Big Bunny” at Heathrow Airport in London. 1970.Keystone/Getty Images

17 of 30Home of art director John Holmes, designed by William Kirsch and made entirely from used parts. 1972.John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

18 of 30American businesswoman and Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown poses on her bed in her apartment on New York’s Central Park West. 1979.Susan Wood/Getty Images

19 of 30British aristocrat and politician Henry Frederick Thynne at his home in Wiltshire. 1970.Keystone/Getty Images

20 of 30Plush carpet-covered furniture on display at the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition in London. 1971.Jackson/Central Press/Getty Images

21 of 30American socialite Lee Radziwill (sister of Jacqueline Kennedy) stands in her dining room. 1976.Susan Wood/Getty Images

22 of 30A waiter lights a woman’s cigarette at Club Tekki, a health club in Paris. 1972.Paul Almasy/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

23 of 30A woman wrapped in a towel sits on the edge of the tub in a luxurious bathroom and tests the water temperature with her hand. Circa 1975. Tom Kelley/Getty Images

24 of 30The guest room in the Rome apartment of fashion designer Valentino. 1970.Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast via Getty Images

25 of 30Honeymoon Hotel in the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania. 1971.SSPL/Getty Images

26 of 30A chandelier hangs over a blue, Roman-sized tub surrounded by pillars. 1977.Ernie Leyba/The Denver Post via Getty Images

27 of 30A couple pose in a sitting room in London. 1976.Hulton Archive/Getty Images

28 of 30Living room of summer home constructed with redwood panels. 1970.John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

29 of 30Designer and model Katarina Noever in her design shop, “Section N,” in Vienna. 1972.Imagno/Getty Images

30 of 30Like this gallery?Share it:

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The Decade That Taste Forgot: Lavish And Luxe Interiors Of The 1970s View Gallery

The Decade That Taste Forgot: Lavish And Luxe Interiors Of The 1970s

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These hypothetical hipsters aren’t wrong: The 1970s was an age of bold-but-earthy patterns, inspired by the nascent environmental movement; cartoonishly decadent and overwrought entertaining areas of marble, brass, fur, and shag; and impossibly busy “op-art” textiles and wallpaper.

But the era’s high- and low-end interiors, as Minneapolis Star Tribune humorist and author of Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes From the Horrible ’70s James Lileks argues, were just a product of the time:

And in order to experience the best that the so-called “decade that taste forgot” has to offer, it helps to see what the fabulously wealthy tastemakers of the time were doing with their interiors.

The gallery above aims to gather a collection of high-end 1970s interiors emblematic of an era of absurdly bold choices soon tempered by the garish iciness of the 1980s. Like that decade’s cool remedy to what came before, the brash aesthetic of the 1970s wasn’t created in a vacuum, as David Netto and Tom Delavan write in The New York Times Style Magazine:

For more from the 1970s, check out the decade’s most absurd menswear ads as well as some of the era’s most unbelievable cocaine ads.