> Right now, our house is being remodelled. Carpet is being peeled back in order to install a hardwood floor. Should be nice.
>
> But in the meantime, we have discovered how our house looked back the 60's when it was built.
>
> The living room was carpeted in olive green

..designers called it "avocado green"

shag carpet.

Fun to vacuum a shag carpet. You could get interesting designs (not unlike crop circles) because the vacuum matted the pile so badly. To counteract that, they sold plastic rakes to "fluff" the carpet after vacuuming. It's high in maintenece, low in durability but was cutting edge chic in late 60's/early 70's.

(One of the rooms downstairs still retained this, along with pink walls, when we moved in.) The walls were... brown. The bricks on the fireplace were... brown. The thingbobber that hides the curtain rod was... brown. The ceiling was... beige. This we have discovered already.

Brown? It was probably "driftwood" or "chocolate"
>
> However, it has now become apparent that the hallway, and probably once the kitchen and dining room, were covered with the ugliest linoleum ever to grace the earth. Our hallway is now full of it; it was never taken out and the carpet was right over top of it. It is brown and a colour that can only be described as "urine yellow."

..the proper name is "harvest gold".

The walls in the hallway (if not the kitchen as well) were orange.

That's (probably) "burnt orange" although just plain "orange" was popular too.
>
> Okay. Visualize this. Keep in mind changing trends in interior design... but... still! Who designs a house like this? UGH.

The theme they had going then was "earth tones", in keeping with the whole "back to the earth" environmental movement. (Remember "earth day" was created in 1970?) Household appliances (big & small) were "earth tones", softscape (carpet, drapes, & upholstery fabric) were "earth tones", & architectural elements in the home featured lots of natural components like wood and stone. Every bride who registered her gift-wishes in a department store wanted "earth tones"; a good thing because that's about all she'd probably get anyway.

I understand there is actually some sort of committee comprised of interior designers and household goods manufacturers that meet together every so often to decide what the color palate is going to be for the next few years. The idea being not only so consumers can buy color-coordinated goods from a variety of mfgs., but also to stimulate more sales by making the old colors seem "dated" and suddenly unfashionable.

>
> Sun"still shuddering"dragyn.

koala"next year's colors: french lilac, mud grey and apple green"mom