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I just keep thinking about how all that moisture would ruin books!

Yep, horrible place for books :-(

I'd guess mid-1990's, based on the presence of the Tolomeo lamps and that nearly useless little table by the cheap, hospitality-trade-looking chair. The really thick black top on that table seems like a 90's kind of embellishment. The magnifying mirror on the edge of the tub is something I've more than once in 1990's issues of Elle Decor. If I felt like digging, I could probably name the designer/manufacturer

I know the Tolomeo lamps debuted in the 1980's, but it was in the 90's that they became more omnipresent than even the Tizio.

The tile seems more 90's to me too.

If not for those specific details, I would have been certain that this setting was late 1980's--precisely the kind of thing one would have found featured in House & Garden during its Anna Wintour incarnation as "HG."

...and yeah, I always shower/bathe in HOT water, so I'm totally cringing about how awful that setting is for those poor books.

Plus, how in the hell does one retrieve a volume from the upper shelves without either breaking one's neck or sending the ammonite fossil clattering into the (acrylic) bathtub?

80s. This would have been the chic-est thing around circa 1987.

Its pretentious, over-the-top "opulence" says 80s, but something about the tile, the brushed stainless lamps and the chair says 90s to me.

This is a perfect example of MORE not always being better. Ick!

I guessed 80s by the stuff you can see in the mirror. A lot of stuff Hoyt pointed out seems more 90s to me, the tile for one. What's the art obscuring part of the mirror, and what's that thing propped up in the bathtub tray thingie? Has anyone placed the faucet? I think the wood is too dark for 90s. I'm not sure but I don't think I see any early faux painting techniques. 80s were so opulent, but this may be an example of "nesting" or "cocooning," whatever it was everyone else but me did in the 90s.

If this picture is from a magazine, the way the cushion is placed on the chair, i.e. kind of "on top" in a weird way reminds me of the ruckus caused some years ago when (I think it was) Elle Decor got all the letters from people who noticed a cover showing all the dining room chair upholstery wasn't finished, it was just stapled down with raw edges. It's funny when stuff like that gets through. The cushion of this chair ought to lie a little flatter. I'm not sure why that little table is next to it, one of the few merest emphases that this room is "now" not a hundred years ago or whatever the architecture suggests. I wonder what the books are, and I don't think I could take enough baths to read that much. I'd rather magazines for the tub except for the ruining of them.

I think this screams 80s....but then again I could be wrong. Haven't had much luck with guessing the decade so far.

I said '90s. And thanks to Hoyt for typing out all the reasons, so I don't have to.

I'm going to guess either late 80's or early 90's. Probably early 90's: The colorblock art, the orchid, the geometric as opposed to floral upholstery and oodles of earth tones with earth-toned accents.

I just *feel* 1980's. Has to be 1980's.

By the way, this old hippie book about DIY dental care has a great section in the last chapter about reading in the tub without ruining your books:

Tooth Trip: An Oral Experience by Thomas McGuire.

1990s based on the chair fabric.

I think of the 80's too, it reminds me of a documentary by Peter Greenaway for the BBC in 1986 called "26 bathrooms".

I don't care what decade it is, it is a STUPID idea. I love books and hate bathtubs. They do not belong in the same room. Whoever owns this should pack the books up and send them to me. They can keep the tub; don't want it.

The trick with Guess the Decade is that (unless it's from right now) the room is always a little earlier than when the style became popular. These images are from design magazines that were showing cutting edge design, not the mass-marketed version of the trend, which came later.

Mmm, mildewed books!

Actually I'm less worried about the books than about the painting or lithograph : it looks like a cubist work from around 1910-1920 by Braque or Gleizes, and I'm not sure humidity is advised for works under glass....

It's a little less sad if this room were born into the versace/circuslike opulence of the 80s, but I went with 90s for the lighting and fossil-on-a-stick. If the style did survive that long, woe to the designer.

Kind of a Trump wanna be-bad taste. I guessed Now.

That is truly horrid. Who cares what decade it is? Bad taste is timeless.

80's.
MIL had the same tub and tile

The fact that people hate it so much means to me that it's close to now. We tend to despise recent eras and admire those farther away (I reckon anyway)...

I guessed NOW. That little table with the very sharp edges feels very much a characteristic of this decade. So do the large(r) tiles... the size and design. Everything else looks 80s and 90s to me.

...and I think it's humorous... it'd be particularly funny if the bath was in the main living area... that was a lovely dinner, now let's retire to the bath...

90's.. Hoyt nailed it. Late 80's is also possible.
I hope those Tolomeo lamps are plugged into GFI outlets.

This reminds me of the movie "When Harry Met Sally" and/or "Pretty Woman."

Torn between very late 80's and early 90's. I think it has elements of both.

Didn't AT recently post about a similar design that Candace Olsen did? It looks 80's but that little table by the chair looks like something from West Elm so it may be current.

If you look in the mirror you can see a ficus tree in the adjoining room, which, I feel, places it at around 1990. Also, the bath tray and plumbing fixtures are polished brass. However, I could swear I just saw that little table at the Crate and Barrel outlet. Rather amused to read of everyone's concern for the books. They are undoubtedly "stunt" books, purchased for the look, and never meant to be read.

Yeah... I'm loving the concern for books... but my thinking is.. no one ever really uses those huge tubs so no worries!

I'm saying NOW because that particular shade of beige tile is ubiquitous right now. You just cannot escape it.

I'm going with '80s, based on the chair, the picture lighting & general feel..oh, and that fossil. Plus, the whole things feels like it is wearing huge shoulder pads.

That would be the 90's in all it's tacky tile bordering glory.

It's very Trump except I don't imagine him sitting back and curling up with a good book.

the setting looks very bonfire of the vanities 1980's, the billy baldwin slipper chair looks 1970's, and the tolomeo lamps look 1990's.but that small table looks current.

90's or now!

fo sho!