Chuck out your Chintz

[kraysee]

For some reason I was thinking about the IKEA campaign in the late nineties that encouraged everyone to chuck out their chintz.

I remember my home in the late eighties and early nineties being a mix of Laura Ashley prints, striped wallpapers, elaborate swagged curtains and regency style furniture. Then suddenly we were all encouraged to go to IKEA (which was a new concept to me), to buy brightly coloured modern stuff. And my friends and I did exactly that.

Does anyone else remember this?

Yes, but I didn’t get sucked into the campaign to part me from my money.

Alright @DustyLee123 ? Need another coffee?

I do OP and IKEA was a breath of fresh air - I was just leaving home / setting up my own place and had grown up in the Land of Laura Ashley on the back of the hippy 70’s.

I remember it too. I've never been a fan of IKEA stuff, but it was a real change. Wasn't there an advert where they threw loads of stuff in a skip?

Yes, but the chintz thing had bypassed us, my parents bought a new house in the late 1970s and went straight for plain, neutral walls, carpets and curtains and modern (not Ikea) - their house is barely changed and still looks pretty contemporary. I remember all the swags and bows, paint effects etc from magazines and friends houses.

I bought my first house in the mid 90s and nearly all the furniture was Ikea. Then we went away from it for our next house but have started buying there again now as they have great furniture for smaller houses like ours.

I do! I preferred Ikea. To be fair, I like chintz, too. But it was so overdone. Chintz needs to be a feature, not everything.

Yeah, the campaign was massive and very successful. 80's and 90's chintz, fake Victoriana, orange pine and 2 types of busy wallpaper divided by a busy border with a border at the ceiling too, swags and tails on curtains made way for cleaner lines and plainer finishes.

Yes. It was a great campaign.

although a little while ago IkEA had a sofa in a fabric that was so big and flowery and vile it looked like it had come straight of that advert.

You’re describing my 80s house. Apart from the hideous orange pine. 😂😂😂

I missed this phenomenon entirely, i didn't notice this kind of thing in my youth, but it explains a lot! The last house we bought was full on chintz and the decorating bills were all 80s and 90s including new kitchen and bathrooms.

For me during that time of my life IKEA was the place to go when i moved out on my own, and for top ups for a few subsequent moves. My friends use IKEA to set their uni kids up. I still have a few things from that time in my life but haven't been for years.

The wallpaper divider! 🤣

Yes! This was just at the time we had our first house-Ikea was a great way to completely transform a room on the cheap. It was about the same time as Changing Rooms was on as well.

Funny that they had a whole range of Cath Kidston Rosali bedding a while later-that’s as very chintzy!

I still quite like Ikea and I always loathed anything chintzy tbh. I'm in my early 50s and my parents' house and even my grandparents' house weren't chintzy.

When I was a child in the 80s many lamps, sofas, cushions, curtain ties had tassels. I used to eat them. I was a strange child.

I was a teenager when it came out and I thought it was awesome - this was the time of Hammerite metallic paint, inflatable sofas and lava lamps!
But I really clearly remember a very sniffy guardian article pointing out that as @Shinyandnew1 says, it landed at exactly the time when Cath Kidston was having her stratospheric rise so the chintz wasn't chucked very far..!

But Laura Ashley et al were only re-creating early C20 design. Just like IKEA et al were re-creating mid-century design. The wheel will turn and your DC will embrace something else (my bet is Victorian dark wood) and be appalled by your lack of taste.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

My parents' house growing up was a sea of Laura Ashley florals - on the walls, borders, table cloths and curtains. Now their home is unrecognisable, very white and clean. I think IKEA had a lot to do with changing that trend. Personally I love orange pine, I'd pay to have it put in my house if it wouldn't devalue it so much.

I even had chintzy crockery. There was a range called Summer Chintz and I still have some of the pieces today.

I never liked the OTT chintzy look, but at least curtains and soft furnishings were good quality back then. That advert was quite shocking and offensive in its "We know good taste better than you provincial dimwits" tone and its celebration of waste and overconsumption, throwing out perfectly sturdy and serviceable things in favour of tawdry disposable plastic and MDF crap.

I remember it. My mom was horrified. I was amazed there was a world away from chintz. ☺️
Didn't Victoria Wood do a "chuck out yoir chimps" sketch?

I remember the ad and did buy a lot IKEA when starting out. But I think the big IKEA attractions for us was that you go in, buy a sofa and take it home without waiting 3-6 months for someone to make the damn thing. If you had no furniture It was a revelation to get some that day. I’ve always loved secondhand shopping but it takes time and waiting the same as buying new used to be.

I loved a bit of chintz as a teenager in the 80s. My parents never really got into it, much preferring a cleaner, more “modern” style although I do remember a “Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady” (??) roller blind in the kitchen and a couple of tasseled tie-backs for curtains.
My friend’s mum really went for it, though, lots of dark wood, floral wallpaper, dado rails, pelmets, borders, you name it…with a burgundy bathroom suite as the piece de resistance.

I remember it! My parents moved in the late 80s to a town where one of only two Ikea's in the UK had just opened. So they furnished that entire house out with ikea. Their house still looks like an ikea catalogue now TBH and that is the kind of look I prefer.

When I met my now ex-husband, I remember being horrified by ex- PIL house. They still have net curtains up and those horrible ceramic dog ornaments. Thick with dust.

I will not have a bad word said against Ikea. I'd say about 80% of my furniture is from Ikea. I think people who are snobby about it have clearly never bought anything from their. The furniture is cheap but it is virtually indestructible. My parents still have stuff they bought in the late 80s that has withstood four kids and now three grandkids. I bought fancy (expensive) wardrobes from somewhere else in 2020 that are already falling apart. I should've saved my money and bought a £200 one from Ikea!

I like dark wood. Light wood always seems bland and impersonal to me. Like a hotel room or office or a hospital waiting room.

Yes, for some reason I say the phrase in my head quite a lot

Dont know why

And then of course shabby chic came along and chintz has never really gone away and Ikea also had to get in on the chintz act

I will not have a bad word said against Ikea. I'd say about 80% of my furniture is from Ikea. I think people who are snobby about it have clearly never bought anything from their

Perhaps some people just don't like the 'look'. Nothing snobby about it, just different tastes.