As a progressive culture, one of our favorite things to do is to look back at past fashions and laugh – but hindsight is surely twenty-twenty. In our home décor we’ve gone from the brightly colorful 70s to the geometric 80s; from the clean-cut, white-walled 90s into the retro-revisited 2000s … and everywhere in between. These days we think we’ve got it all figured out but who knows what future decades will think of the 2010s?
Until then, let’s revisit the history of tile and vinyl flooring and wallpaper – the design elements that have arguably undergone the most changes across the years. From humble wood-grains to gaudy designs, enjoy this blast from the past.
Think you have flooring that’s even more shocking, tackier, or wilder that the stuff here? Feel free to let us know and maybe we can add it to the list!
1. Sandy Tetris
2. Textured Dots
3. Brown Boxes
4. Oh So 80s
5. 70s Prints
6. 80s Uber Modern
7. Walking Headache
8. Christmas Wrapping Paper
9. More Christmas Wrapping Paper
10. Mosaic Dirt
11. Blue Box Bathroom
12. Shout Out to Dammasch
13. Clovers
14. Boring Boxes
15. Lime
16. Vinyl Tile Variety Pack
17. Room for Squares
18. Vintage Kitchen Floor
19. 60s flooring
20. White Wash
21. The Boomerang
22. Grandma’s Floral
23. Tacky Sampler A
24. Tacky Sampler B
25. Tacky Sampler C
26. Tacky Sampler D
27. Tacky Sampler E
28. Tacky Sampler F
Update:
Ok folks the masses have spoken. Apparently no ugly flooring collection is complete without some shag carpets. Here are some doozies. Enjoy!
29. Green Shag
30. Blast from the Past – Burnt Orange Shag Rug
31. Throw up. Who’d Notice? – Red Shag Rug
32. Early 90s Mistake – Teal Green Shag Carpet
33. Shaggin’ Wagon – Golden Brown Shag Carpet
34. Not Exactly Amber Waves of Grain – Harvest Gold Shag Carpet
35. I‘m Getting Seasick – Blue Shag Carpet
Think you have one that’s uglier? Send it to us at media@builddirect.com and leave a comment below. We’ll send the ten ugliest floors some BuildDirect swag!
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Well I am kind of partial to #18 Vintage Kitchen with the Harvest Gold Fridge!! ohh the memories!!!
Thanks for the comment. And yes, vintage 70s, early 80s action in number #18.
You know, the more I look at it, I’m sure that the bathroom in #15 is the one from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. You know the one.
I agree, some of those are hideous. However some are rad! #6 is too cool. #12 is a legend.
When we first moved in, my parents’ house in Ontario had #1 (Sandy Tetris) on the kitchen floor (they replaced it with white tile). We also had the Harvest Gold refrigerator!
I object strenuously to the implication that #21 (Boomerang) is ugly! Vintage 1950s formica tables are fantastic collector’s items, and I would love to have one just like that.
@MrDiggles. I look at #6 and I see Jeff Bridges in Tron racing a light bike along it. That has an appeal. But, then I’m a geek, so it would. As for #12, I can’t see it. It looks like a papyrus scroll – the Pharaoh’s linoleum.
@Leslie The harvest gold is only rivalled by the equally ubiquitous avocado green, which is what I had growing up – fridge, stove, and matching rotary dial wall phone. Kids today wouldn’t last 5 minutes in 1979.
The thing about #21 is that you’d have to have a malt shop around it, I think, for it to make sense. And Fats Domino would have to be in constant rotation. Actually, I guess that is kind of appealing …
@RobJones you mention avocado green and harvest gold…don’t forget the third in that trinity, burnt orange. My house had wall-to-wall burnt orange shag when I moved in. The carpet came out before even a single piece of furniture went in.
Numbers 1, 11, and 13 I like and wouldn’t mind having them in my home.
Hey Mz.Jones
I’ll agree with you, tentatively, on the clovers. There’s something kinda quirky about them, which has some charm. The others, not so much. For the blue bathroom tile pattern, I can see what the effect is meant to be, a French pattern mosiac tile. Nothing wrong with that. But, I’d take a travertine surface instead, personally.
Thanks for comments!
Hi!
Can you tell me of any of this vinyl flooring is still in sale; no. 3, 7, 8, 18, 19??
Or do you know of any other sites where you can buy similar vintage vinyl?
Thank you so much for answering (I am living in Denmark and searching the world for these kinds of vinyl:-))
Regards, Marie