Ah, the ’80s, big hair, neon outfits, and home decor choices that still make today’s designers break into a cold sweat. This was the era of MTV, Rubik’s Cubes, and some seriously wild interior design choices that had us all wondering, What were we thinking?
As much as I love a good nostalgic trip, let’s be real, those living rooms were full of cringe-worthy trends.
I’m about to take you on a fun (and slightly horrifying) trip down memory lane to revisit these design disasters, and yes, I’ll even throw in five other trends that somehow made their way into people’s homes!
1. Ducks, Ducks Everywhere
Country-style wooden ducks invaded 80s homes faster than actual waterfowl during migration season. From bathroom wallpaper borders to kitchen canisters and living room walls, these flat wooden birds were unavoidable.
If your mom displayed a row of decreasing-sized ducks marching across the wall, you lived through peak 80s decor madness.
Some households took it further with duck-shaped soap dispensers and toilet paper holders. The duck obsession remains one of history’s great decorating mysteries.
2. Carpet In The Bathroom
Nothing says ‘bacterial playground’ quite like wall-to-wall carpet in the bathroom. This puzzling trend somehow convinced homeowners that stepping out of the shower onto plush carpet was luxurious rather than unsanitary.
Usually in pastel colors that matched the toilet seat cover and tank cozy, these carpets absorbed every splash and spill. Sometimes they even extended around the toilet base!
Mold, mildew, and mysterious stains were just bonus features of this questionable design choice that thankfully disappeared.
3. Mauve And Dusty Blue Everything
The 80s color palette haunts interior designers’ nightmares to this day. Mauve and dusty blue reigned supreme, covering everything from sofas to window treatments.
Combined with forest green accents, these muted pastel tones created the ultimate 80s trifecta of drabness. Entire rooms were consumed by these colors – floral mauve sofas with dusty blue walls and green carpet wasn’t just common, it was aspirational!
Department stores couldn’t stock enough mauve towels, sheets, and bathroom accessories to satisfy the public’s inexplicable craving.
4. Wallpaper Borders With Fussy Patterns
For some reason, people in the 80s believed rooms weren’t complete without a strip of busy wallpaper running along the ceiling line. These borders featured everything from country geese to Victorian roses to nautical themes.
Often paired with coordinating wallpaper, these borders framed rooms like overly decorated picture frames. Kitchen borders typically showcased fruit motifs or chef characters, while bathrooms featured seashells or more of those inexplicable ducks.
The installation process required special glue and infinite patience, making their eventual removal in the 1990s a homeowner’s nightmare.
5. Fake Brass Everything
The 80s loved metallic surfaces that looked expensive but weren’t. Fake brass dominated home decor, appearing on everything from bathroom fixtures to fireplace screens.
Those glass-and-brass coffee tables with smoked glass tops became the centerpiece in millions of living rooms. Remember those brass swan faucets and cabinet pulls? Or perhaps the giant brass headboards that reflected your bedside lamp directly into your eyes?
The shiny finish inevitably wore off in high-touch areas, leaving behind a spotted, worn look that screamed ‘budget decor.’
6. Wicker Peacock Chairs
Nothing screamed ‘I’m fashionable in 1985!’ quite like a giant wicker peacock chair dominating the corner of your living room. These throne-like seats with their massive fan-shaped backs became must-have statement pieces despite being wildly impractical.
Usually left empty except when guests came over, these chairs collected dust and took up enormous amounts of space. Some homeowners went all-in with matching wicker side tables and plant stands.
The peacock chair’s primary function seemed to be serving as an elaborate backdrop for awkward family photos before eventually migrating to the basement.
7. Glass Block Walls
Architects in the 80s never met a glass block they didn’t love. These translucent bricks showed up in bathrooms, entryways, and even as room dividers in open-concept homes.
While they let light through, they also screamed ‘Miami Vice set design’ and collected dust in those impossible-to-clean seams. Homeowners thought they were getting a modern, light-filled space.
Instead, they got a maintenance nightmare that dated their homes instantly. Bonus points if your glass block wall was curved or featured colored blocks interspersed with the clear ones!
8. Peach And Green Floral Sofas
Furniture stores in the 80s apparently had only one upholstery fabric in stock: peach background with large green floral patterns. These sofas and matching loveseats dominated living rooms with their overwhelming patterns and questionable color combinations.
Usually paired with oak coffee tables and brass lamps, these floral monstrosities were often protected by plastic covers that stuck to your legs in summer.
The matching curtains and throw pillows created a disorienting floral explosion that made visitors feel like they’d fallen into a Georgia O’Keeffe painting after taking cold medicine. Somehow these sofas always felt slightly damp.
9. Southwestern Everything
For a brief, terrible moment in 80s decor history, everyone pretended they lived in Santa Fe. Turquoise, terra cotta, and sand colors covered walls while kokopelli figures danced across every available surface.
Geometric patterns in these colors adorned sofas, chairs, and those ubiquitous wall hangings. Cactus and cow skull motifs appeared on everything from shower curtains to dinner plates.
People in rainy Seattle and snowy Boston decorated like they were expecting tumbleweeds to roll through their living rooms at any moment. The more coyote silhouettes howling at moons, the better!
10. Vertical Blinds
The clicking, clacking sound of vertical blinds still triggers flashbacks for children of the 80s. These plastic strips hung from sliding glass doors and picture windows in almost every home, usually in off-white or almond colors.
They never closed properly, with individual slats always hanging at odd angles or falling off entirely. Cats viewed them as personal challenge courses. The plastic chains at the bottom broke almost immediately, leaving blinds permanently askew.
Despite being universally hated, they remained the default window covering for nearly a decade, collecting dust in their impossible-to-clean tracks.
11. Lacquered Furniture
High-gloss lacquered furniture in white or black turned 80s bedrooms into slippery, fingerprint-showcasing nightmares. These ultra-shiny dressers, nightstands, and headboards reflected light like mirrors and showed every speck of dust.
Often featuring gold accents and glass tops, these furniture sets aimed for glamour but landed somewhere between ‘Miami cocaine dealer’ and ‘discount cruise ship cabin.’
The surfaces scratched easily and were impossible to repair. Matching lacquered ceiling fans often completed the look, spinning precariously above beds with their glossy blades threatening to detach at any moment.
12. Teal And Pink Bathroom Fixtures
At some point in the ’80s, someone decided white bathroom fixtures were too dull. That marked the start of the colorful bathroom craze, with toilets, tubs, and sinks showing up in bold shades like teal, pink, and seafoam green.
These vibrant bathrooms often came complete with matching tiles and those infamous bathroom carpets.
Some homeowners went all in, adding quirky touches like shell-shaped soaps and tissue box covers, creating strange underwater-themed spaces that were unforgettable, for better or worse, to anyone who visited.
13. Mirrored Walls
Nothing says ‘welcome to my home’ quite like seeing infinite reflections of yourself from unflattering angles. Mirrored walls were all the rage in 80s homes, especially in dining rooms and entryways.
The theory was they made spaces look bigger. In reality, they made dinner parties awkward as guests watched themselves chew from every direction. Some homeowners went further with mirrored ceiling tiles, creating disorienting fun-house effects.
The smudges, fingerprints, and inevitable cracks made maintenance a nightmare, not to mention the challenge of hanging anything on these reflective surfaces.
14. Faux Marble Everything
Real marble was expensive, so 80s decorators embraced faux marble on every possible surface. Plastic laminates with unconvincing marble patterns covered countertops, table surfaces, and even walls.
The patterns repeated noticeably every few inches, immediately giving away their fake status. Contact paper versions allowed DIY enthusiasts to marble-ize everything from bathroom counters to flower pots.
The worst offenders were those marble-look columns installed in perfectly ordinary suburban homes, attempting Mediterranean grandeur but achieving something closer to pizza parlor chic.
15. Seashells In EVERYTHING
Coastal decor went off the deep end in the 80s when seashells became embedded in seemingly every household item. Clear resin toilet seats with real shells suspended inside them were actually things people bought on purpose.
Bathroom countertops featuring embedded shells created bumpy surfaces that collected toothpaste residue in every crevice. Shell-shaped soap dishes held shell-shaped soaps next to shell-framed mirrors. Even inland homes hundreds of miles from any coast embraced this maritime madness.
The more ambitious DIYers made their own shell art, hot-gluing beach treasures to picture frames and lamps with reckless abandon.
16. Fuzzy Toilet Seat Covers
Why anyone thought fuzzy fabric belonged on toilet seats remains one of history’s great mysteries. These plush covers wrapped around toilet seats like sweaters, collecting bathroom moisture and germs with enthusiastic efficiency.
Usually matched with tank covers and those infamous bathroom rugs, they completed the ‘soft bathroom’ look that defined 80s suburban homes. Available in every color imaginable, they were especially popular in pink, blue, and that unavoidable mauve.
The elastic eventually stretched out, leaving the covers to slip sideways at inopportune moments. Washing them was an experience best left undescribed.
17. Sponge-Painted Walls
When regular paint seemed too boring, 80s homeowners turned to sponge painting techniques that left walls looking diseased. Using sea sponges dipped in contrasting colors, DIY decorators created mottled textures across entire rooms.
Teal over pink was inexplicably popular, as was mauve over blue. Some adventurous types used multiple colors, creating walls that resembled moldy bread.
Home improvement shows convinced viewers this was an easy weekend project, leading to countless half-finished rooms when homeowners realized it was actually quite difficult to do well. The textured surface collected dust in every tiny crevice.
18. Inspirational Word Art
Before there was ‘Live, Laugh, Love,’ there were wooden cutouts declaring ‘Home Is Where The Heart Is’ and ‘Bless This Mess.’ The 80s pioneered the tradition of spelling out obvious sentiments on walls.
Usually crafted from unfinished wood with country-style lettering, these phrases graced kitchens and entryways nationwide. Craft fairs sold them by the thousands. The more elaborate versions featured decorative geese or hearts integrated into the design.
Some enterprising homeowners created their own using woodworking patterns from magazines, resulting in slightly wonky letters spelling out ‘Family’ above sofas across America.
19. Dusty Fake Plants In Massive Quantities
Artificial silk plants reached their zenith in 80s decor, with dusty ficus trees and silk ferns lurking in every corner. Unlike today’s more realistic faux greenery, these plastic and fabric monstrosities fooled absolutely no one.
Large arrangements of silk flowers in mauve, blue, and peach tones topped entertainment centers and coffee tables. The dust they collected was legendary – some homes had fake plants that hadn’t been cleaned since the Reagan administration.
The most committed homes featured those ceiling-to-floor fake trees in giant wicker baskets, their dusty leaves brushing against unwary visitors’ heads.
20. Balloon Valances And Swag Curtains
Windows in the 80s weren’t just covered – they were suffocated under layers of fabric. Balloon valances puffed out like pastry tops while swag curtains draped dramatically across window frames, often with tassels dangling at precarious heights.
These fabric monstrosities blocked natural light and collected dust with remarkable efficiency. Usually made in floral patterns or heavy jewel tones, they frequently featured matching tiebacks with tassels.
The most elaborate window treatments included multiple layers of different fabrics, creating a textile wedding cake effect that required professional installation and made opening windows nearly impossible.