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Trendy 1970s Crafts to Inspire Your Interior Design
A recent survey revealed that tie-dye is the most popular 1970s craft, with over 5.9 billion hashtag views on TikTok, as well as an average of 971,000 Google searches each month. This craft is one of the easiest 1970s vintage-inspired crafts to try at home to liven up the interior design of your rooms. But there are also lots of other great options if you are looking for a 1970s inspired interior design style!
Crafting experts Design Bundles analysed a number of crafts that were popular in the 1970s to see whether they had a large presence on social media and Google. They collated the number of views that the top two relevant hashtags had on TikTok, as well as the number of hashtags that the craft had on Instagram. In addition, they also calculated the average number of Google searches that each craft had every month.
Tie-Dye to Macramé
Based on the analysis, tie-dye was found to have 7.1 million hashtags on Instagram, which was close to the number that macramé, the second most popular 1970s craft, has. However, whereas tie-dye has over five billion hashtag views on TikTok, macramé only has around 623 million. In addition, macramé has a fraction of the online searches that tie-dye receives, with an average of 84,000 every month.
Tie-dye was part of a popular movement in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly by those involved in hippy communities. The craft usually involves dying clothing in bright colours, but you can use the technique on any fabric. You could give your old bedding a new lease of life by dying it in vibrant patterns. Other items that you could dye include curtains, pillow covers, and rugs for splashes for colour elsewhere in your house.
Macramé is a slightly more complicated craft than tie-dye, as it involves tying a series of knots to create intricate designs, such as plant holders, wall hangings, and jewellery. Tiktok features videos of artists making designs with macramé, which can both inspire and help other users to start the craft.
Beyond tie-dye and macramé, the 1970s offered lots of crafts perfect to inspire your interior design if this look is your vibe!
Top Ten 1970s Inspired Crafts for Your 2020s Interior Design
There are various textile crafts that have seen a resurgence in popularity over the past few years. Patchwork, granny squares, and needlepoint have also seen a high number of hashtags on TikTok and Instagram, which has helped to increase the number of younger people who have picked up the crafts.
Patchwork
As with tie-dye, you can patchwork using old fabric that you have around the house. There are so many things that you can make using the patchwork technique, such as quilts, bags, and cushion covers. This craft has 3.8 million hashtags on Instagram, as well as over 111 million hashtag views on TikTok.
Both patchwork and weaving are Googled an average of 73,000 times each month. However, weaving has over 80 million more hashtag views on TikTok than patchwork and 1.3 million fewer hashtags on Instagram.
Weaving
As with some of the other crafts featured on this list, weaving has been practised for many centuries. Historians often consider it to be one of the oldest surviving craft forms in the world. It involves entwining materials such as yarn together to form a single piece of fabric. Some variations of weaving include knitting and crochet, which use needles and hooks to weave the yarn together.
You can weave lots of different things to decorate your house in whatever colour scheme you like. An easy project to start off with is woven placemats, as this only involves square or rectangular shapes.
Needlepoint
Needlepoint has an average of 33,000 Google searches every month, along with over 14.9 million hashtag views on TikTok and 564,000 hashtags on Instagram. Combined, these figures make needlepoint the ninth most popular 1970s craft that you can use to decorate your home.
Traditionally, needlepoint is used to decorate soft furnishings and upholstery. The craft requires a canvas base and the sewn design usually covers the whole piece of fabric.
The table below shows the ten most popular 1970s inspired crafts that are popular on TikTok and Instagram and feature a high volume of online searches each month.
| Rank | Craft | Average no. Google searches per month | TikTok Hashtag Views | Instagram hashtag count |
| 1 | tie-dye | 971,000 | 5,941,000,000 | 7,100,000 |
| 2 | macramé | 84,000 | 623,300,000 | 7,400,000 |
| 3 | patchwork | 73,000 | 111,900,000 | 3,800,000 |
| 4 | weaving | 73,000 | 195,500,000 | 2,500,000 |
| 5 | string art | 80,000 | 272,100,000 | 893,000 |
| 6 | decoupage | 159,000 | 33,100,000 | 1,800,000 |
| 7 | granny squares | 15,000 | 33,100,000 | 917,000 |
| 8 | shrinky dinks | 51,000 | 175,100,000 | 73,200 |
| 9 | needlepoint | 33,000 | 14,920,200 | 564,000 |
| 10 | hooked rugs | 10,000 | 310,300,179 | 14,700 |
A spokesperson for Design Bundles commented on the findings: “It is exciting to see these 70s crafts resurge in popularity as they not only have a sense of positive nostalgia for a lot of individuals, but they also encourage skills to be passed along and given a new lease of life. This is now even easier with social media, where tutorials are readily available for those looking to pick up new crafts at home.”
String Art
The fifth most popular 1970s inspired artform is string art. A monthly average of 80,000 online searches are related to string art, along with over 272 million hashtags views on TikTok and 893,000 hashtags on Instagram. Crafters place pins in strategic points around a board and then weave coloured thread to make a picture or pattern.
Decoupage
Decoupage has one of the highest hashtag counts on Instagram with around 1.8 million. The craft also has 33.1 million hashtag views on TikTok, which is the same number that granny squares have. However, whilst granny squares has just 15,000 Google views on average per month, decoupage has an estimated 159,000. This makes decoupage the second-most googled 1970’s inspired craft in the survey.
Unlike most of the other crafts in the survey, decoupage doesn’t involve textiles. Instead, crafters glue coloured and patterned paper onto an object. This technique can be used to decorate furniture such as chairs and stools or any other hard surface. You can recycle old wrapping paper to decorate the object, although it’s important to make sure that the paper lies smoothly against the surface.
Shrinky Dinks
Shrinky dinks stand out amongst the other craft forms featured in the survey as they were invented in the 1970s, which makes them a relatively new craft. They were originally aimed at children, although they have become popular with people of all ages thanks to their simple but effective design. The craft involves colouring in and cutting a shape out of a sheet of polystyrene and then cooking it in the oven. The shrunken shape can then be used to make jewellery, keyrings and ornaments.
On average, shrinky dinks are googled 51,000 every month. They also have over 175 million hashtag views on TikTok and 73,200 hashtags on Instagram.
Hooked Rugs
The tenth most popular craft in the survey is hooked rugs, with an average of 10,000 Google searches each month. This craft has also received a large following on social media, with over 310 million hashtag views on TikTok and 14,700 hashtags on Instagram. Hooked rugs are made by pulling loops of yarn through a base to create pictures and patterns.
Finding ways to incorporate these 1970s craft-inspired interior design trends into your home will surely up your vintage vibes!
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