Via a page devoted to Swedish dance bands of the 1970s, I happened upon “Eurobad 74”:http://www.omodern.com/Eurobad/euro.html “an exhibition of Europe’s worst interiors of 1974”. I have no idea what the horse is doing in #4, nor why the child is lifting the woman’s mini-skirt in #11, but it is indeed hard to imagine interiors much worse than these, even in 1974.
{ 25 comments }
Michael 12.08.05 at 12:40 pm
Other than (perhaps) number 10, all of these are better than The Gobbler Motel.
Shelby 12.08.05 at 12:52 pm
Well, trust Lileks to find a contender. But what is it with all that hideous-busy tile through so many of the European pictures?
I think the horse is supposed to clarify that the kitchen in #4 is actually part of a semi-refurbished stables.
Cryptic Ned 12.08.05 at 12:59 pm
I must have that sofa in #14. I must have it.
M. Gordon 12.08.05 at 1:09 pm
Mark my words: That gallium indium nitride LED blue color that you see plastered all over everything these days from cellphones to ties to wall papers will be the avocado of the aughties. Ten or twenty years from now we’re going to be looking back at this decade and wondering what the hell we could have been thinking.
Barry 12.08.05 at 1:31 pm
The first few looked O.K.; considering my current living circumstances, some of the ‘yuck’ ones would be acceptable.
josh 12.08.05 at 1:32 pm
Umm, Chris, why were you looking at a page devoted to Swedish dance bands of the ’70s? …
The second interior (not counting the one on the ‘front page’) reminds me vaguely of some of the rooms in the Merton graduate centre, though rather worse …
garymar 12.08.05 at 1:50 pm
Well, I didn’t find the interiors all that bad. The intense green was a bit off-putting, I admit.
On Crooked Timber, of all places, I would expect to find some historical context. It took decades for many parts of Europe to recover from the war’s devastation, and maybe these garish interiors spoke a hopeful message to their proud owners. In Japan, in the first flush of affluence in the 60’s, some people put their first refrigerators in the main room of their apartment so that their guests could marvel at their new status.
Mary Kay 12.08.05 at 2:19 pm
Well some of it wasn’t too bad, apart from the sterility which is endemic in this type of picture, I’ve certainly seen worse. Except for the Moorish Christmas bathroom. What were they thinking?
MKK
Roy 12.08.05 at 2:27 pm
You have to give us the url for those Swedish dance bands.
Roy 12.08.05 at 2:29 pm
Oh, my mistake you already gave i, thanks!
jacob 12.08.05 at 2:31 pm
That Gobbler Motel seems to me an American version of one my favorite places in the world, the Hotel Thermal in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. In the middle of fin de siecle Carlsbad is this Russian monstrosity. The lobby is like something out of a 1960s spy movie: red vinyl seats, low ceilings, signs in Russian, a black and white movie running in the corner showing the brave Czechoslovak workers and peasants. The pictures on the website http://www.thermal.cz, alas, don’t really do it justice; I imagine it’s been renovated since I was there seven or eight years ago. One of my lasting regrets is not having a camera with me that day.
blah 12.08.05 at 2:47 pm
Man, I went crazy thinking of all the hot Euro chicks I could have picked up in those sweet pads.
Brock 12.08.05 at 3:01 pm
it is indeed hard to imagine interiors much worse than these, even in 1974.
You’ve obviously never been to Graceland.
eweininger 12.08.05 at 3:10 pm
You heard it here first: a lot of that furniture and a lot of those fixtures would command top dollar in the East Village. TOP dollar.
FMguru 12.08.05 at 3:59 pm
It took decades for many parts of Europe to recover from the war’s devastation, and maybe these garish interiors spoke a hopeful message to their proud owners.
Except that Sweden was neutral in the war, and suffered very little damage to its cities or population. You’ll have to look elsewhere for an explanation.
Anderson 12.08.05 at 6:05 pm
“Man, I went crazy thinking of all the hot Euro chicks I could have picked up in those sweet pads.”
One of them was pictured as having taken her clothes off in anticipation, I believe.
Great site. No historicization needed (pace Jameson). Some things are Just Wrong.
Ginger Yellow 12.08.05 at 6:45 pm
The second and third ones are quite good, especially for the time. Although the phone on the floor in the second one is a bizarre touch.
“The second interior (not counting the one on the ‘front page’) reminds me vaguely of some of the rooms in the Merton graduate centre, though rather worse …”
It’s the undergraduate interiors you’ve got to watch out for at Merton, particularly in Muir.
Ginger Yellow 12.08.05 at 6:48 pm
Oh, and should I be worried that I think the Gobbler looks pretty cool in a really, really kitsch way? It’s a bit absurd for Lileks to accuse it of “jaw dropping banality” when you consider how boring 99% of motels are. Sure it misses its goal spectacularly. But it’s still spectacular.
garymar 12.08.05 at 7:43 pm
Yes, but are all these interiors in Sweden? I saw some Swedish printed on them, but also some German as well. (Leben Sie Transparent.) I thought these were Euro interiors.
But in any case, I take back part of my original statement. I only looked at the first 6-7 pictures before posting my original comments (slow connection), and those interiors were pretty bland; some were even bearable. But the second half of the exhibit was much wilder — a combination of Austin Powers and the Brady Bunch. The sofa in #14 made my eyes water.
clew 12.08.05 at 8:05 pm
“hülstad Arkansas” – the immortal and universal name of style.
I thought some of the all-shiny modernism held up. I personally don’t like it, but I don’t think it’s stupid.
Matt 12.08.05 at 8:19 pm
Man, what sort of dancing were those bands playing music for? Not the kind the burns calories from the looks of some of them, or the kind that might attract girls. But, I suppose ABBA makes more sense now.
Jacqui 12.08.05 at 8:22 pm
Ah! My eyes! Good find :D
Jeremy Osner 12.09.05 at 8:51 am
I have no idea … why the child is lifting the woman’s mini-skirt in #11
Wouldn’t you?
joe heath 12.09.05 at 10:46 am
I remember when that stuff looked cool. The challenge is to remember that most of what you see now is going to look equally bad 30 years from now.
david tiley 12.10.05 at 1:43 am
It’s the totality. I can imagine the individual bits being worth money, but the complete cocoon explains why the woman in no 13 is leaning forwards screaming in disbelief.
Either that or the doll in a couple of them has just walked in the door and vomited ectoplasm.
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