apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

someone usually points something out in these things tat i fail to see. the reel to reel player feels pretty 70's to me... however, this just feels like august 21st, 1981 to me.

so 80's, but very early 80's is my guess. feel free to ridicule me after the answer is given.

Wait - is that an image of Hitler on the wall?! If so, I guess 1940s.

the elements I see make me think of the late 60s - the art and the egg shaped thing whatever it is - so I am going to guess the 70s for interior design. The late 60s /early 70s.

ha, i think the AT photo editors are on to us. lots of us could spot the decades due to the quality of the photos. my intuition tells me that they've 'aged' the look of this photo to throw us off! so far, i'm the only one to have voted "Now".

anyone can have a retro reel-to-reel player but something about those thin storage drawers and wide glass panels over the sea life displays is tugging at my "Now" senses...

70's

The wall unit and shape of that table look very 70's to me.
They wouldn't try to trick us, would they?

I vote 70's aka the era of the giant boston fern.

i'm guessing late 70's because of the shape of the table and the floor pillows. but i gotta say, i kind of LIKE those floor pillows.... hmmmm...

I voted 70s, also based on the fern. But these are always trick questions aren't they, Janel?

Tough one. I'm torn between 70s and 80s, but my vote ultimately went to the 80s. The fern made me hesitate, but this room makes me think of the various apartments in the movie Manhattan. Assuming that the movie (which came out in '79) influenced design, and not the other way around, I'm guessing 1980-81, as eightdouble speculated in the first comment.

Hmm. The shelving and the vibrant lime green (as opposed to old school pea green) popping against the B&W are screaming now. However, that fern does not! Ultimately, I voted "Now," although I think that fern's gonna come back to bite me.

My first thought was 90's, since I remember a lot of ferns in the mid-90's, and the color scheme could have fallen in that decade too, but the shelving still said now to me.

Sigh, I never get these right.

Isn't that IKEA stuff? Like, current IKEA stuff? I'm going with now.

eh - the pillows look odd to me - I guessed 80s...

I say the 70s. Platform seating is tipping me off

I say early 80s. Because the stereo is black. The 70s was all about silver stereo components.

I voted 70's, but after I realized you can choose Now, I think thats a good possibility too. So many styles are coming back that its so hard to tell!!

Oh I remember all of this... when people used to collect and display coral (often from their own vacations)... when furniture like this was popular -- both the sectional and the wall unit... when it was fashionable to have ferns displayed like this... oh, I feel so old...

the bowl with apples gave it away. this feb. 6th, 1972.

I bet there's a flat screen tv in that unit. I say Now.

I can't tell if those are reel-cassette boxes, 8-tracks or DVDs along with the books in the wall unit. I'm sticking to '70s just because those pod-shapes scream SLEEPERS.

I too, never get these right.
But, anyway, here goes... "80's"

1976. Europe. Maybe germany?
The phono-equipment is from Braun.
The Couch could be quatrokonzept...?
The white furniture could be hülsta...?

Am I missing something? Why is a fern 70s? There's a fern in my house right now.

Oh yeah - That screams 70's European...

...70s European? well, several friends of my parents had homes almost exactly like this...in Quebec.

Wow this is a tough one! I'm torn between "Now" and the "70s". The photo does look aged though so I'm thinking of going with 70s....but then I see those magazine holders and the glass shelving which are more Now looking...this is too hard!

That looks like a reel to reel tape recorder or projector on the shelf. I think we're looking into the '50s.

That item on the shelf is a BRAUN "Tonband" not a projector: http://www2.tonbandmuseum.info/braun-asc.0.html
The item below that is a BRAUN amplifier/receiver.
Have a closer look at this BRAUN amplifier: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Braun_regie_510.jpg
Award-winning design! BRAUN was once very famous for its phono equipment. I heard the MOMA has some of them in its design-collection. But i couldnt find it when i visited NY and MOMA some years ago. Braun today produces electric shavers, electric toothbrushes etc. No more phono.

I guessed 60s. A lot of elements remind me of the 70s, but since this is (I'm assuming) from an interior design magazine or piece, I think this room was ahead of the trends, i.e. late 60s.

But after I voted, someone pointed out the electronics - now I'm thinking 80s.

The washed out photo, fern and Jetson's items made me think 70's... however upon reflection, I'm changing my vote from 70's to the 80's.

The sofa tufting pattern looks 80's. The wall unit drawers and doors also look 80's. There were a slew of Ikea wall units from the 80's that had a very similar look.
The black stereo look pure 80's, as pointed out by a few others. Finally, the black and white polka dot pillow says 80's.

early 80s or maybe late 70s

Vanessa in NY, I'm pretty sure that's Charlie Chaplin, not Hitler.

It's totally 70's. My ex-husband had that same "egg shaped" 8-track player in 1977. Other clues - the fern, & the brown (earthtone - BIG in the 70's) "pit" sofa.

If this isn't a late 7Os room, it's really well-done, and it must have taken a long time to get right. What makes me think it's now, though--or, at least, no earlier than the (late) 90's--is that leaning picture. I never saw a leaning picture until about a decade ago.

Well done AT:Chicago!
This one is really tough. Something about the dark ceiling, the pillows and the bowl for the apples place this in "now" but everything is so "classic"--nothing over done, that it's difficult.

I haven't a clue what all that stuff on the table in the left foreground is--but perhaps they're just decoys anyway!

I'm stumped. But, I'm going to say now. That whole "coral" thing over the past few years, the built ins and the pillows. My second guess is 70's!

I just found another thing that says 70s. The Speakers. The speakers are builtin into that white wall furniture. Look at the upper left and upper right of that furniture. That slotted areas up there are the speakers.
That kind of speakers were already outdated in the 80s.

I guessed 70's because it ought to be 70's, but it's probably now. The one thing that looks more 70's than now is the way the shelves are styled. Let's face it none of these are amateur rooms so there was a designer or decorator involved. The shelves are a little two un-styled for now I think??

That being said it looks like a page out of the IKEA catalog. Let's hope no one pays a designer for what they can get on the buffet at the big blue box.

hmmm. late 60s.

Egg-shaped thing, op art pillows.

If this room is anything other than "Now", I would say it has aged pretty well.

Late 60's, Germany - a very german look - the dark ceiling screams that to me.

Europe somewhere in the late 1960s or very early 1970s. The curves of that plastic table and all those egg shapes are very much of the 1960s design sensibility, and the 1960s are when a reel to reel tape recorder would have been the cutting edge of audio tech, but design can lag a bit so maybe very early 1970s. For whoever said it had to be now because of the IKEA look -- bad news, IKEA has been around for decades, and much of what they do now is just a retro-rehash of what they were doing in the mid-1960s.

it's 9:09pm on monday already, where's the answer!!?!?!??? :-)

I second that motion (11:07 pm cst)

I think if they're going to play the guessing game on Friday, they should have it up first thing on Monday... For cripes sake, it's Monday... Give us something to look forward to!

Are we ever going to know, it's 12:37 pm (CST) and still no answer. Maybe it's buried in one of the Small Cool slideshows like DVD eastereggs.

they obviously FORGOT about this post! >:-0

Sooo...are we getting too good at guessing that they've stopped posting the actual answer?

Man... still nothing?! I want to know the answer!!! lol

Janel! We want to know!

"Now...It's about that time, to bring back the rhythm and the rhyme.."

Sorry, just heard that song in an airport Chili's.

It's "right here right now..."

If you were to ask me, I would have to say the picture is "Right Now! Hey! There's no tomorrow..."

Although, that fern is throwing me off.

Sorry, "bring FORTH the rhythm and the rhyme..."

I agree with the green pillows they seem now - the cabinets look now especially that middle drop section. But that fern and the bubble thing - could be 70s. But then wouldn't the carpet be shaggier?? Went with now.

Some details (coffee table, tape deck, the strange hemispheric thing on the left) scream early 70's to me. Let's say sometime between 1969 and 1973.

This is very tricky!! It looks a little like my living room in 1976, but different colors! The reel to reel tape deck could be a collectable, it's a little awkward up high for everyday use. I just put mine in the garage for goodwill, maybe I should rethink, because it looks good in this room! We donated our modular furniture to daughter's basement a couple of years ago, I'm getting nostalgic for it!

I keep seeing tufted pieces out there today, but this looks suede, or could it be micro-fiber. The wall unit also could be a European product of today - these are coming back. The speakers make me vote for the 70's (1974), but I also want to say today.
The round globe thing looks like an old tv!

I just thought of something. There isn't one piece of glass or chrome in this room. My living room of the 1970's had touches of chrome and glass! Maybe it's today after all!