On every British TV show, the flats are all decorated with hideous Cold War-era wallpaper. On my trips to London, the B&Bs I stayed in had it as well. Why is this stuff still around? I’m sure the new yuppie homes must come with bare walls, but why are there still so many places where they refuse to tear down these eyesores? Surely it can’t be appealing to modern sensibilities.
It was popular in the 70s for some reason. I guess some people are lazy and never changed it. I don’t know anyone personally with 70s wallpaper, but I guess there must be some.
I think “every” may be overstating things. But wallpaper has come back into fashion in recent years, has it not? At least, having wallpaper on some walls seems to be the thing to do these days.
Moving to IMHO from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
There’s a lot more wallpaper in TV shows than in real life; for some reason the set designers think anyone who’s not rich lives in the 70s. But that’s not true for reality shows or property shows, with houses where real people live.
B&Bs are often old-fashioned - that’s meant to be part of their charm. But throughout the 90s and early noughts, wallpaper was extremely passe. In the last 4 years or so, it’s come back, but it’ll be nice wallpaper, often flocked or with a bold design, and usually just on a feature wall.
It would be extremely unusual to enter a house (or see a real house on TV) that had old wallpaper on every wall, esp. if the inhabitant is under 70. If there is wallpaper on every wall, it’s probably because the house is old, the walls are crumbling and wallpaper was cheaper than replastering.
So basically your impression is wrong, though I understand how you came by it.
Good to know.
You are right about our fascination with wallpaper, and yellow teeth.
At least we build our houses of brick and cement, solid and reliable
Check out the idiots in a tornado area who build houses out of plywood !!!
You should learn from your mistakes no ?Brits have been complaining about their wallpaper for a long time.
And the hotel reception was empty and cold
With horrid red wallpaper forty years old
It stank like a rhino house
- Bonzo Dog Band (“The Bride Stripped Bare By Bachelors”)
A friend of mine once stayed in a fleabag hotel in London with five different checkered wallpaper patterns on the four walls.
I can beat that! I stayed in a youth hostel in France during a school trip back in the 80s. The dorms were decorated using wallpaper sample books. Dozens if not hundreds of 18" squares of wallpaper with no 2 squares matching in any room. It was ‘different’.