HIPPIE HEAVEN HOME DECOR CAPTURES HAPPENING VIBE OF THE '70S.

Byline: Barbara De Witt Fashion Editor

Picture it. Shag carpeting, harvest gold refrigerators, terrarium lamps and flocked wallpaper.

It was the decorating style of the early '70s, the years when Nixon was prez, young women wore hot pants and gypsy 'dos, men wore cuffed bell bottoms and leisure suits, and everybody gathered 'round the tube to watch ``All in the Family.''

A decade that remains an embarrassment in decorating circles, provided fodder for the ``Roseanne'' TV show in the late '80s, and is ever-so-slyly resurfacing into the homes of the young and hip. You know the crowd. Those 20-something kids and celebs who live in Silver Lake and Los Feliz and hunt flea markets for hefty dark oak tables to be paired with gold or olive green velvet-covered chairs, hopefully with the original tacky braid or fringe in place.

Older young moderns of Hollywood, such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Claire Danes and Winona Ryder are focusing on the '50s, and the result is a melting pot of retro ideas that's spilling out into decorating showrooms around town with a lot of funk and fun.

At Civilization, a Los Angeles furniture store that caters to the retro-trendy crowd, manager Steve Melendrez saw the decorating change on the horizon and quickly changed gears. Of the store once known for all things Shabby Chic, Melendrez says, ``Now it's one-of-a-kind furnishings with a '50s and '60s vibe, plus '70s sectionals. Yeah, they're back, and that shag carpeting we once laughed about is coming back, too ... but I think it'll be a little too trendy for us, especially in olive green.''

Says Melendrez, ``Most people recall the '70s as the era of green and gold appliances, but there were also a lot of ethnic designs, and our best sellers right now are multicultural pieces such as heavy black lacquered opium tables with rattan in the middle, Chinese wedding chests and sea grass chairs and baskets.''

Accents such as Marimekko prints, Pucci's zig-zag lines and geometric prints are showing up on the hippest new rugs, according to Donna Warner, editor in chief of Metropolitan Home magazine.

While she's talking about the past prints of the Peacock Revolution, Studio City designer Elisabeth Fry of Crazie Daisie has focused on the hippie generation that reveled in handcrafted looks with a new collection of '70s-inspired rugs.

Her favorite is a leopard print-on-leather rug shaped like a traditional bear skin to throw over a big leather chair or rattan trunk. ``I love leopard print, and it coincided with the current decorating trend. And then, when I saw a similar rug in a magazine layout on Kevin Costner, I decided to make my own, adding red beads,'' Fry explained.

IKEA is loaded with funky '70s inspirations, from chrome stools in the kitchen to lacquered steel lamps with plastic shades in whimsical shapes reminiscent of that favorite '70s icon - the Lava lamp.

Pottery Barn carries beanbag chairs and polka dot pillows, but it's Target that has the retro market covered. The store has focused on younger customers shopping for dorm rooms and first digs, offering striped butterfly chairs, mosaic glass accent lamps, swinging swag lamps (sorry, no terrarium styles), and fluffy feather lamps on chrome pedestals that look like fashion accessories from an ``Austin Powers'' movie.

Retailers haven't reported any interest in bentwood rockers, those cane- seated uncomfy rockers that fans of ``The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' went running out for, but if shag carpeting can come back, anything can.

Even doorways filled with strings of crystal beads.

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(1 -- 3 -- cover -- color) Shag-a-delic baby!

Home decor flashes back to the groovy '70s

(4 -- color) Sectional sofas such as this design from Plummers, $2,795, are making a groovy comeback. For extra style points, add a boomerang coffee table.

(5 -- color) To create your own '70s haven, you'll need at least one butterfly chair in stripes or geometric prints. Chair frame is $19.99; reversible velvet cover is $24.99, both from Target.

(6 -- color) To brighten up your retro room, you'll need a funky lamp or two. The mosaic-patterned tower lamp, left, is from Target; the paper tower is from IKEA. Also consider a swag lamp or terrarium-style globe light.