Style is not eternal. With the lingering recession, many remodeling and redecorating projects are on hold and we are living the "as-is" lifestyle, including remnants of dated decor that once looked stylish but now look like a monument to decades past.

Compare your interiors to a clothes closet that is never weeded out. From time to time, rooms need a fresh eye and a wardrobe change. Home fashion repeats itself but rarely in the exact same way. Elements come back in slightly different forms. Wall-to-wall shag was the toast of the 1970s. In the past decade, shag area rugs have become a designer showhouse staple. Avocado-green walls were pretty much banished after the 1970s, but olive green is having a revival as we speak.

Anyone who spends time dropping in on open houses in their neighborhood knows that many homes, with their puffy balloon shades and sloppy slipcovered sofas, are stuck in another decade. So remember that the orange, gourd-shaped lamp you think is so chic may have no takers on Craigslist in 2020.

In the spirit of fun, we asked a few designers to come up with a list of the seven deadly sins of dated decorating and how to fix them.

Staff writer Kim Palmer contributed to this report.