If you thought that you should have access to every room in your own home, think again. If you’re of a certain age, then there’s a good chance that your parents probably didn’t allow you to play in the “fancy” living room.
Used solely for entertaining guests, this room typically featured an ornately decorated sofa (most likely covered in plastic protective gear) and a glass display cabinet full of equally unnecessary decorations. Today, thankfully, most homeowners try to make use of every inch of their homes and these rooms are a thing of the past.
Candy-Colored Bathtubs
Bathing can be a relaxing way to unwind after a long day. But anyone with good taste may find it hard to find tranquility while soaking in the garishly colored bathtub of yesteryear. Like the avocado refrigerators of decades before, bathrooms were also the victim of some very tragic colors.
Many homeowners painted their bathtubs in blues or pinks or some sort of faux marble finish. The result? A tacky and dated bathroom that never quite looked clean no matter how much bleach or elbow grease you applied. Thankfully, most homeowners are sticking to white bathtubs.
Quirky Side Tables
Blame it on catalogs like SkyMall or the novelty shops of the ‘90s, but there was a time when many homeowners thought to add some character to their living rooms by adding a unique side table.
These side tables usually came in the form of a frog, dog, or some other animal dressed as a butler holding a tray. The trend was so common that even an episode of “Modern Family” featured a prized dog butler. Thankfully, in recent years we’ve let animals go back to being animals and side tables are now sleek and discreet.
Awful Oil
Looking back, you probably can remember walking into a kitchen and seeing a collection of various uniquely-shaped glass bottles of herb-infused oil on a shelf. While infused oil can be a great way to add flavor to your food, these oils were solely for decorative purposes.
In fact, we’re convinced that they probably weren’t safe to consume from the get-go, let alone decades after sitting on your shelf. These bottles typically became dusty from years of sitting unused, or worse, discolored if they were placed on a windowsill in direct sunlight.
Medieval-Castle Chic
Keeping in line with the “I want to live in a castle” home decor trends of the early 2000s, many homeowners lined their walls with bulky wrought-iron sconces and candle holders.
Considering that we now use electricity for most of our lighting needs, these antique-inspired wall fixtures seemed to be a bit strange. Also, what would you do if you actually did light one of these using a candle, wouldn't the wax drip onto the floor? It's no wonder these typically sat unoccupied until years later when you probably took the now rust-covered fixtures off the wall.