Memories of mid 80's for my short story?

[onesmalldog]

What can you remember of the mid 80s living in the UK as regards house decor, colours, house style, furniture, knick knacks, wallpaper, doors, flooring, light fittings etc?

Also what did you eat and drink?

I'm writing a story need this sort of detail to make it realistic.

Would be so grateful to hear your suggestions - and fun!

@iklboo sorry ,bloody autocorrect🙄

I was born in the early 80s so was young, but remember brown painted walls with those 3 flying duck ornaments you saw everywhere, and the carpet was all brown and orange swirls.

I was very young, but I remember:

Findus crispy pancakes
Angel delight
Rola cola

Going out to eat was very rare and was usually a Bernie inn for steak 😁
Or occasionally a ploughmans lunch at the pub, with a treat glass of coke with a slice of lemon in for us kids.

Thursday night Totp and possible Dallas a bit later on. Magnum also on tv and Going live on a Saturday morning, why don’t you and Wacaday (sp?) wide awake club.

Little shirts with leggings under and bright colours, perms, lots of bangles everywhere.

My bedroom decor was peach everywhere (whether I liked it or not!) carpets in every room. The downstairs carpet was red and brown swirls 😂

My parents drank Blue nun and adored Black Forest gateaux.

I'd forgotten all about those frozen mousse tubs IGottaGetOuttaThisPlace, they were amazing. My mum bought them in tubes of about 8 tubs.

So.....

80s me being all cool wearing an oversize Frankie vest, no brassiere. I was in the video shop and someone shouted me. I turned round quickly and my not small at all boob shot out of the side of the vest in full view of everyone.

My mum drank cinzano and matteus rose.

I had a west London Victorian terrace house in the 80s. We spent lots of time and money putting back original features like fireplaces, ceiling roses, dado rails, 4 panel doors and hallway floor tiles. We sanded down the floors and put down rugs from Ikea. I remember our bedroom was full on Laura Ashley with matching wallpaper, curtains and bedding. Our bathroom was a white suite with repro Edwardian tiling on the walls.
I remember buying our first microwave and trying to cook a whole meal from scratch in it.

the house phone had a lock on it. we had to pay 20p to use it

soda streams,findus crispy pancakes

wine was blue nun or black tower. satzenbrau, pernod & black currant, malibu & coke

perms, big hair. sun in , toners & shaders

purple eyeshadow

Bought our first house in 87 and did it up. Avocado suites were definitely out. We had a primrose yellow one which we replaced with white.

I bought a lot of Eternal Beau China as wedding presents around then - we had some from M&S with autumn leaves on.

All our furniture was dark wood and our carpets and sofa were grey with pale blue walls. Soft furnishings were bright Provençal cotton chintz - lots of olives and grapes.

Patterned carpet, coal fires, duvet covers and curtains with clowns on, Walkmans. Madonna.

Ski pants, ankle boots, jumpers with shoulder pads except they didn't stay straight so you looked like a fucked up American footballer, crimped hair, pink eyeshadow, black clothes and neon accessories, jumpsuits briefly, asymmetric hairstyles/clothes, blusher in stripes, perms, big hair, carrier bags from fashionable shops as status symbols for your school books, trying to look like Madonna with ripped up bits of lace, showing off your midriff, scuffing your boot heels when you walked, exclamat!on perfume, Anaïs Anaïs, Brookside siege, there are people called yuppies in London, CND symbols on your schoolbooks, wallpaper on your schoolbooks, smash hits blacktype, just 17 had patsy kensit in the first issue she's a teenager and she's famous like we all can be, there's enough nuclear bombs to blow the world up 50 times over, Ronald Reagan's made a speech where he told an anecdote about his life except it was actually the plot of a film he was in 30 years ago, Nancy Reagan doesn't eat enough I think she's nervous, daytime tv viewing figures are the same as unemployment figures, get on your bike and get a job, will Threads come true, George Michael is different now he's not in Wham, just what is in that relax video and are they really all gay, can you get Aids from a toilet seat, this girl at my friend's school got fingered and now she's pregnant swear to God, my friend's dad listens to really old music like Blondie it's so sweet.

Going to a pub for food and having chicken and chips in a basket
Endless roller skating.
Playing out.

Avocado bathroom suite with pink mats and towels.
Sarah Kay duvet covers.
Duvets replaced flanelette sheets, woolly blankets and quilted eiderdowns.
Pierrot posters for teen girls, Ferrari posters for teen boys.
Findus crispy pancakes.
Neighbours and Brookside on TV.
Bif excitement at getting a 4th TV channel (Channel 4).
Hifi cabinets.
TVs with remote controls. In our case, a colour TV in 1980 but we were a bit behind.
Video players and recorders. Arguments between kids at school about who had the best one - VHS, Betamax or a videodisk thing.
Duran Duran v Spandau Ballet v Nik Kershaw v Haircut 100 etc. This is why I became an indie fan.

Christ, my childhood now reads like a history project.

Coloured bathroom suites (ours was beige). Peach / floral decor (think Laura Ashley). Carpet in the bathroom. Big frilly curtains. Bath cubes (weird fizzy smelly things that were wrapped in foil / paper like a oxo cube that you put in your bath).
Grey / red / white / black was quite 'in' too for wallpaper etc.
Gigantic microwaves. Toasted sandwich makers. Soda Stream.

Have a look at an Argos catalogue from thar era for inspiration:

dev.argosbookofdreams.co.uk

And yes, as a previous poster mentioned, it wasn't the norm to regularly change your decor back then like it is now. Things were built to last so only got replaced / redecorated when really necessary. A lot of the household carpets / furnishings / equipment would still be very 70s or even 60s in the mid 80s unless you were well off.

@HarrietSchulenberg it really is long time ago now. I was thinking recently that a fair few of the adults around me including teachers had been around in WWII. Now that really is ancient history.

I was trying to explain taping the top 40 to my kids a couple of years ago. They just looked at me like, ah bless poor old stick.

This pattern is what I meant. Takes me right back.
We got duvets in 1985 and we were pretty late. They came in during early 1980s. Very rare in the 70s.

@GU24Mum

I also worked for L A around that time. Wallpaper borders very popular but they were permanently on delay😁

Apricot, pale green, beige, red, grey all popular

@DrinkVeneer, I know, I know, it just makes me feel old (sob)! My kids covered 9/11 in History at school and I thought, "Hang on, that was only last week".
Technically, yesterday is history so I don't know why I was so surprised.
The 80s actually do feel quite a long time ago, though.

Sofas/carpets/curtains brown and orange
Mullet haircuts
Television rented from Radio Rentals
Stereo systems
Taping the top 40 on a Sunday evening (and sometimes writing down the songs and chart positions)
VHS videos
Boris Becker winning Wimbledon at 17

@Callimanco
I recognise that pattern that just took me back

I remember Limara body spray (like impulse)
Superdrug was a fairly new shop and seemed slightly down market compared to Boots but I loved their prices and own brand makeup.
The Wimpey bar was still around but no longer table service, more like McDonald’s.

I was a bit goth and wore long ‘hobble’ skirts and Victorian style boots and listened to bands like Bauhaus but also loved dancing to Shalimar at nightclubs which were a couple of quid to get into.

People dressed up and used a great deal of hair gel, boys as well as girls. Sports wear become popular, the ‘casual’ look which was very expensive and almost designer. We coveted Pringle sweaters and La Coste was popular. Hair was everything!

Cocktails were cheap and I loved a Tequila Sunrise. KFC send to sell a cup of soup with a small roll for 19p we used to have that on a cold day as it was cheap but delicious 😋

Easy to get served in pubs underage.

Became aware of apartheid and Nelson Mandela, there was a lot of political music and politicians were household names, much more so than now I think. I remember clearly reading about the ozone layer and have been environmentally conscious ever since.

We had a 'wild sage' bathroom fitted... everything the same colour including loo seat, tiles, bath mats.
Macdonalds were around... I had my first Macdonalds breakfast in 1985.
Pizzaland for pizzas.
Next opened for the first time... their women's range mixed cerise with turquoise.

And @Callimanco how did you get hold of my old duvet cover! I’m sure I had that and it was very fresh and pretty, not that bad now actually.