That 70s house.

September 15, 2005 9:04 PM

We just bought a rambler built in 1968. The interior feels like a Mormon chapel from the 70s--pale blue carpet, paneling, hanging globe lights, clean but very dated formica counters, floor length gauzy white curtains on gold rods. Brown internal doors with gold knobs.

Although I am an admittedly boring middle-aged person, I'm not this boring. What are some inexpensive, tasteful ways to funk this place up? We are definitely going to paint the dark paneling in the basement. I'd like to paint some of the walls different colors but the pale blue carpet rules out a lot of options. I'll take book tips too. Many thanks.

posted by craniac to home & garden (23 comments total)

dwell magazine back issues would be a great place to start - they seem to thrive in renovations of post 1945 dwellings.
posted by specialk420 at 9:13 PM on September 15, 2005

Can I suggest your price out replacing the carpet? For higher budgets, wood floors, but even if that's not in the cards, we recarpeted our basement with Home Depot's generic carpet, and it wasn't that much. Totally worth it. Even if you only can do one room now, one later.
posted by GaelFC at 9:42 PM on September 15, 2005

I would also take pictures and send it to the guys at Apartment Therapy. They'd be able to post the layout and some pictures (maybe one main room) and have suggestions from readers. They do a good job on stuff like this.
posted by fionab at 9:48 PM on September 15, 2005

What's under the carpet? Pull up an unobtrusive corner and have a look! A wood floor would open up a lot of possibilities.
posted by LarryC at 9:56 PM on September 15, 2005

I'm not sure what you mean by inexpensive (remodeling is always pricey), but replacing carpet isn't that much (be sure to splurge on a nice pad -- it makes a huge difference). Wood floors are a great upgrade (bamboo is relatively cheap and apparently easy to install yourself - I've had 2 friends do it so far) and make it far easier to continue decorating.
In my house, I painted the cabinets a nice light cream color & replaced my cabinet hardware for very little. That made a HUGE difference in the kitchen and bathroom both. (warning -- the paint does chip sometimes if someone hits it too hard.. I kept the leftover paint and occasionally touched it up).
Some friends did a really nice makeover to their kitchen by gluing that thin wood veneer material on their cabinets (a nice maple color) and replacing their formica countertop with llarge granite tiles (way, way cheaper than solid slab granite and looks great!).
Whatever you decide to do, remember to take lots of before, during and after pictures (and post them here!)
posted by j at 9:58 PM on September 15, 2005

Carpet is basic - having it in "the wrong color" is a serious drawback. A quick fix for pale blue carpet in the living and dining rooms: sell the house to a Tar Heel or put area rugs over it. If it is all over the house, sorry.
"Gauzy curtains" is not much to go on. If you can stand them, perhaps you could neutralize them with swags or valances in colors to complement the area rugs.
The rugs and valance material can always go into bedrooms or your downstairs family room until you get around to replacing the blue.
Have you remodeled before? Do you want to update the look of the kitchen or change the cabinets and the layout? If you want to have the least upheaval, a finish carpenter should be able to replace your kitchen countertops, and face the cabinets - with Formica if you have children who have fingerprints. Good luck.
posted by Cranberry at 10:30 PM on September 15, 2005

I updated a condo that was in a deep 80s funk. New formica countertops can freshen up a place, even if they aren't as high-end as granite. I recommend hiring someone to do this, since it is hard to plane the counter to fit the walls of an older home.

Update all the light plates and outlet covers to white "designer" ones. Brushed nickel light fixtures, door knobs and closet door knobs everywhere. Paint all the doors and closets white. Looks fresh.

Reface cabinets, if you can afford it. (My father did a fab job by buying maple veneer, cutting to size, and then applying 8 coats of varnish. We stripped the cabinet backs first.) Strip them or paint them, if you need to. Change the hardware. Brushed nickel looks pretty good.

If the carpet looks okay, maybe try greys and whites on the walls. When you can afford it, maybe you can change the carpet in the main living areas -- you can probably do 800 sq ft with wood laminate flooring for about $1-$2 a square foot, if you do it yourself.

Painting the basement panelling will open up the room. We recently painted my grandparents' living room panelling and it's like the room is twice as big! (Big change after 55 years.)

Do the curtains look okay? If you change the rods, maybe that will be enough. Wispy, gauzy white curtains are in -- or maybe I have the wrong picture in my head?

You can probably do all of the above for $2000, if you shop around and use your own labour. YMMV, of course.
posted by acoutu at 11:28 PM on September 15, 2005

Cape Cods and Ramblers: A Remodeling Planbook for Post WWII Houses (pdf file). More ideas for updating the layout here.
posted by klarck at 4:05 AM on September 16, 2005

Sorry, the above links won't really help with redecorating, but soon, you'll weaken, take out a home equity loan, and start calling contractors.
posted by klarck at 4:11 AM on September 16, 2005

These are great tips, and I hadn't heard of "apartment therapy" which looks promising.

The one thing I'm hearing is that replacing the carpet is going to make the most difference, along with painting cabinets and paneling, and upgrading hardware.

We'll probably put recessed lighting in the living room, as there are no hardwired fixtures in that space. And large area rugs are very, very tempting, even if we just get something at home despot.

I am also going to take a picture of the carpet, upload it, sample the color(s) with photoshop, and use a web color scheme generator for ideas. Don't laugh.
posted by craniac at 7:09 AM on September 16, 2005

Not that long ago, I painted a house --- a very very big and expensive house --- according to a decorator's plans. I didn't think it would work but it looked great. The carpet was light dusty blue, and we painted the walls and ceiling a milk-chocolate brown. The trim was off-white creamy eggshell.

Black works well for ceilings -- really, don't listen to naysayers. It makes the ceiling visually disappear. Try it. Also funky is to use automotive trunk paint for a ceiling. It's the dark grey color, with some flecks in it of blue and red.

Paneling can be painted. Make sure to wash the walls first, with a no-rinse powder detergent (like Perfex), then use a good primer. Filling in the grooves is optional.

Where possible, go bold with colors. Go to a billiards store, and look at their palate of pool table fabrics - that's what you want to work with. They're deep, bold, rich, but not cheap-looking or crayola-like.

And if you hate the carpet anyway, and it's no loss to you, you might want to try dyeing it. You could at least experiment in one room.

Throw away the curtains and get vertical blinds. Use the valance that comes with the blind, and have no fabric at all on or around the windows. Trust me.

Get rid of the hanging globe lights. Replace them with cheap, basic, tastefully simple ceiling fixtures - about $20-30 each. No ornamentation on these at all, with either a white base, or a paintable base -- definitely not a metallic finish.

For one room, try this: get lots of photographs enlarged, both color and black and white. Don't do all the same size. Do frameless mounting of them, and hang them on the walls. There should be no artwork on the walls besides the photos.

Also, never anywhere in the house should you have any dried flowers kind of crap, or any wall "art" involving ribbons.
posted by yesster at 7:11 AM on September 16, 2005

ugh! "pallette"
posted by yesster at 7:12 AM on September 16, 2005

yesster, your suggestions are interesting. I'm wondering if you have any links to photos (or if you can email me photos) of some of the things you're talking about (black ceilings, trunk paint, billiard colors) as I'm having difficulty imagining them.
posted by dobbs at 8:08 AM on September 16, 2005

I'd seriously consider removing that carpet. 30 year old carpet collects a wide variety of nasty. You'll find that at that age when pulling it up you can tear it in strips as easy as a few pages of newsprint. And when you see what falls loose from it you'll be glad you did.
posted by phearlez at 8:12 AM on September 16, 2005

The carpet looks like it's about three years old, so we'll probably keep it for now, unless there is a teak floor beneath it:)
posted by mecran01 at 8:46 AM on September 16, 2005

If the carpet is more than 10 years old, definitely replace it. Or, hope that are nice hardwood floors underneath. If it's relatively new and stain-free, and you don't want to spend the money to get new, neutral-colored carpeting, you've got an array of tans, taupes, greys, and creams that will do ok with the blue carpet. I wouldn't go too far towards white, which will be too stark. You could also try a creamy, pale yellow in a kid's room or family room.

If you do keep the carpet and want to go the area-rug route, try bamboo or sisal mats. Nice color and texture contrast, and it will avoid the 80s carpet-on-carpet look.

But I'd still just try to change out the carpet.
posted by CiaoMela at 8:50 AM on September 16, 2005

From this page, wine for the walls, powder blue for the ceiling. We did it in a basement room, painted over panelling, and it looks wonderful.

A black ceiling. Hard to find images of this. Try it in a small room.

BTW - to paint with bold, rich colors, it works best to use a very dark primer. Have the paint store add lots of lamp black colorant to the primer. Black primer would be best (but that much pigment might mess with the paint's other properties). Still, expect to do up to 3 coats of your intended color.

Trunk paint, a.k.a. "spatter paint" is made in a couple of different colors, and is just in aerosol cans, unless you know someone in the autobody field. To see what it looks like, find a 70's/80's era detroit landyacht and look at the paint in the trunk.

By simple light fixtures, I mean stuff like this or this.
(the second is my favorite). But this one is truly groovy.

For carpet dyeing, you must see the halfbakery, then look at this.
posted by yesster at 9:39 AM on September 16, 2005

Man, I just want to see pictures!
posted by agregoli at 10:05 AM on September 16, 2005

1. We need pictures.
2. Excellent use of tags.
posted by theora55 at 10:52 AM on September 16, 2005

We need pictures

I can put up some "before" pictures in a day or so."
posted by craniac at 12:29 PM on September 16, 2005

In addition to apartment therapy, what are some of your favorite "home design" sites on the web?
posted by craniac at 12:30 PM on September 16, 2005

Wow, when I read the question, I thought, "What a cool old car...", until I got to the basement part.
posted by 445supermag at 3:52 PM on September 16, 2005

Thanks to all for the awesome advice. With our new mortgage we can't afford to do anything at this point, and the way the house looks is growing on me.
posted by craniac at 11:32 AM on December 12, 2005