The nineties were my childhood years and our family home was a three bed semi in Colchester. I remember we used a lot of yellows and terracottas around the house. We also had a corner bath and my mum was a huge fan of those austrian curtains which to me just look like frilly giant knickers! Oh and we also used to have those strip or beaded curtains on the kitchen door which my mum said were for keeping the flies out but if that was true it didn't really work! And while wallpaper and carpet were still pretty big in the nineties, the patterns were a lot simpler than the previous decades which was definitely a good thing. My current home has hard wood floors and I would never have carpet again.
What are your memories of the style and décor of your childhood home? Do any of those trends still exist today? What would you keep/get rid of?
Browns, greens and orange - those were the colours you were likely to see if you popped by into the house I grew up in. Not a colour scheme many would choose today! And we had a lot of natural type materials - lots of wood and wicker furniture, although all that changed by the time the mid-eighties arrived. Then it was all greys, lemons and other pastles.
Oh and we had a yellow bath suite! You don't see so many coloured bath tubs today as everyone seems to prefer pristine white!
Being from an Irish family, there was unsurprisingly a lot of green in our house. But my mum wasn't one for heavily patterned things so although our living room was wallpapered in quite a bold design, the rest of the house was kept quite simple in light colours. Also being a Catholic family there were quite a few religious bits and pieces around the house.
Looking back the one thing I really hate was the carpetted bathroom! I can't remember if it was like that when we moved in or if my parents did that (I hope it's not the latter!) but I've been told that it was fairly common in seventies houses. I can see why people might have thought it was a great idea in the cold winter months, but I think we can all agree that overall carpet in a bathroom is a bad idea! I'm so glad that this is a trend that's long gone and won't come back!
We lived in a flat in a tower block which was a lot nicer than it sounds! People actually took pride in where they lived back then. There were five of us kids so it was a bit cramped but my mum was very strict about mess and clutter so we had to be very tidy and organized which I still am. Growing up in the seventies and eighties, as you can imagine, there was a lot of beige and brown with a bit of orange thrown in. But I'd say mid eighties my mum got all chintzy on us! Haha! I don't think she felt you could ever have enough chintz. Today I do like patterns but I balance them out against a simpler background - no clashing patterns for me. I like florals and team them up with a bit of gingham and I like paler, more restful colours.
Thanks for your post! 😀Well I grew up in eighties and that decade was all about the pattern. The bigger, bolder and more clashing the better. We had brown flock wallpaper in the living room. If you've ever watched Just Good Friends, it was a lot like Penny's living room. We also had heavily patterned carpet all throughout the house. I remember our narrow hallway had apple green walls with sunset orange patterned carpet! Hey it was the eighties!
I actually liked those Austrian blinds and despite my parents having a soft furnishings business, we never had them in our own home. I'm not really into frills now so I wouldn't have them. And my parents used to sell those door blinds that you mentioned - but again we didn't have them in our own home. I was also told that they were meant to be hung on the back door to keep out flies. Whether that actually worked or not I don't know. But in my mum's family home, they used those plastic beaded curtains as a means of separating the lounge from the dining room. To be honest I think a lot of those blinds had more of a decorative use than an actual function one but if I'm wrong, someone can let me know.