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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by FreddiesLantern@leminal.space to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world

There’s this meme from a while ago that observes the fact that the 80’s and early 90’s weren’t as colourful and flashy as most media make them out to be. In fact almost everything ranging from clothing to furniture to advertising was a drab shade ranging between dark brown to orange.

Every once in a while you’d get a toy or a household appliance that would be a bright neon colour and it would be considered hi tech advanced fancy stuff (until it broke the next day).

Nowadays you’d have to look hard for dark brown/orange drab stuff. They make dark brown/orange stuff but it usually is made of a veneer of fancy wood and it’ll cost you an arm and a leg. (And then it breaks the very next day)

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[-] ech@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 week ago

Easier to ignore the nicotine stains.

[-] affenlehrer@feddit.org 10 points 1 week ago

And the burn holes...

[-] Zahille7@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Personally I feel like it was 50/50. All the interior at-home stuff was drab and gross, but a lot of the outerwear and clothing (not what your grandma would wear) was fairly vibrant.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

And hangin with mr cooper had squiggly neon lines that were never explained and never referenced.

It's literally all I remember about that show

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Pressure wash the smoke/nicotine stains, sun dry it for a few days, and replace the indoor Incandescent lights with white LED lights..

Its probably not nearly as dark and drab if cleaned up and placed under good modern white lighting..

[-] mholiv@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Do - do you like the 5000k bulbs? Do people consider cool white lighting to be modern?

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Oh to hell with 5000k bulbs, that's just too damn blindingly bright white! I just mean sensibly whiter and brighter than the inherently yellow color of incandescent bulbs.

[-] twistypencil@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

This does not track with my reality

[-] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

In the 90s we had..

Blue couch, black chairs, gray carpet, etc

I dont recall anything brown, except a couple of wooden furniture pieces like my bed, which was from like .. 1930ish (with a new mattress)

[-] SGforce@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

My dad had bright pink inflatable furniture from the 70's. Grandma's house looked like OP's pic.

[-] foodandart@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

My grandparents had that sofa - same print pattern but in a blue-gray. Holee shit.

[-] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 week ago

The biggest point a relative of mine made when building a house in the mid 90s, at which point people were getting colorful with home decor again, was that there was NOT going to be anything brown in it, haha.

[-] kahjtheundedicated@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

In the not-so-distant future we’ll look back and say everything the 2020s really was just grey, wasn’t it?

this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
36 points (100.0% liked)

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