(Apologies for the delayed answer this time around - this post got bumped out a day due to the busy contest posting schedule.)
So, y'all think this is the Seventies (well the large majority of you anyway)...
(Click here to guess first - then jump below for the answer)
...and you are 100% right on the money.
From a 1970's Roche Bobois catalog, this photo has clues to the era (the fern, the electronics) but enough timeless pieces to make it "just possible" that it could be a later decade.
The Seventies won the vote with 166, followed by the sixties with 74 and the eighties with 54. NOW got a pretty decent number of votes, 38, with the nineties (10 votes), fifties (7) and forties (1) trailing far behind.
Here is what some of the commenters had to say:
I vote 70's aka the era of the giant boston fern. - Peacelily
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!!-Kristineve
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.-Elizabeth II
1976. Europe. Maybe germany?
The phono-equipment is from Braun.
The Couch could be quatrokonzept...?
The white furniture could be hülsta...? - Andreas I.
If this room is anything other than "Now", I would say it has aged pretty well. - Deepa
As always, thanks to all who played along!
More Guess the Decade:
Photo: Interior Design of the Damned Forum at Xmere.com
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Wow, does anyone make couches like that these days? I love that.
view marlo's profile
Thanks! Now I can get back to work! :)
view PlanItGirl's profile
If ferns mark it 70s, will succulent collections mark a very NOW photo in the future? Perhaps...
view woodleyparkzoo's profile
My wife looked at the photo and ruined it for me by telling me her family had almost the same look at their place in Cannes in the 1970's.
view TheoJ's profile
What is that large white circular object on the left table? At first I thought it was a Weltron 8 track player, but I own one and I can see that it doesn't look the same (missing speaker holes on the side and a handle at the top) I'm wondering what it is.
view suzy8track's profile
WHY are ferns 70s??? Lots of people have ferns in and outside their homes around here...there's one in my bathroom!
view aladywhoknows's profile
Like I said, my parents had several friends in Quebec in the '70s who had homes just like this... they would go diving on Caribbean vacations and haul back coral, displaying it in such wall units. In Quebec, Roche Bobois and Ligne Roset were particularly popular (still are), and so we saw a lot of this exact furniture.
(to those of you who thought this might be early 'eighties, sorry, but this is circa 1973-1976; by 1979-1981 it was a whole different world...)
view mschatelaine's profile
oh well, i guessed early 80's... but i was between one and three years old with the dates monika1 listed. i was more interested in sesame street than french furniture design.
still, these are really fun.
view eightdouble's profile
The sofa looks like Roche Bobois' Mah Jong:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/seating-sofas-armchairs/design-classic-mah-jong-sofa-by-hans-hopfer-043221
And the cheaper version also blogged on AT:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/seating-sofas-armchairs/pb-teen-cushy-lounge-seating-030359
view randomname's profile
I guessed right! Isn't that white, round thing a TV? That, along with the reel-to-reel was a tip-off. Also the coral, etc. that I clearly remember being big in the late 70's - early 80's, when I was a kid. I notice that the sea motif is back in a big way now...
view Benjy's profile
marlo: those are the infamous (?) pit sofas of yesteryear, and yes; they still make them.
view loislane's profile
Hi Aladywhoknows,
Sure ferns can be happy in any decade, but I believe that during the 70's having a VERY large Boston fern, almost like a piece of furniture, was a trend. Very swinger.
I believe the Snake plant is a current trend (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sansevieria_trifasciata) and woodleyparkzoo above is suggesting that succulents are a current trend. During the 90's it was popular to have tropicals growing up mossy sticks and I remember a regretable Hairy cactus trend. Terrariums were also a 70's trend I think.
Ah, my life through plants.
view peacelily's profile
and pet rocks....
view dn's profile