It’s 1990. What does your living room look like?

[JandamiHash]

Mine was:

• China plates on the wall sitting on little hooks
• a burgeoning amount of creepy Royal Doulton ornaments lining every available surface
• Maroon corduroy sofas that you had to perch on otherwise you’d fall down the back never to return
• Scalloped net curtains at the window that were black with dust at the hem
• This gas fire

I can't remember the exact year, but around that time my mum had a penchant for dusky pink and silver. So that. In velour.

And we had a huge MDF unit with various display/drinks/storage cabinets which she had painted from fake wood coloured to black at around the same time.

Black ash furniture from MFI.
Walls that were sponge 'textured' painted terracotta at the top, border in the middle and then striped wallpaper at the bottom.
24" TV with VCR underneath in the black ash cabinet.
Curtains with pencil pleats in terracotta with net curtains behind.

lilac walls,lots of black ash furniture we got secondhand but we thought was really cool. laminate flooring we laid ourselves. A hand me down orangy-yellow draylon sofa (gifted after painting the walls and yes it did clash) and a wall full of videos on shelves we made ourselves.I think wooden venetian blinds on the window but we might have had curtains on a black ash curtain rail.

Remote TVs were fairly common by 1990 I think. And a stupidly oversized seperates stereo system.

Newly married.

Grey walks and carpet.

Black ash furniture

Grey three piece suite

That fire.

Was living with parents so it was very very clean and tidy, not a thing out of place :)

Pink rag rolled walls
Cork tiles
Violently floral curtains

My parents hadn't redecorated since they'd bought the house in the 70s. So we had a dark green carpet with swirls of orange. A gas fire with fake logs. And two large bookshelves. They still have the above.

In the 90s they also had brown floral curtains, and 4 chairs, two rocking, two flat with sort of beige/cream embroidery patterns of flowers and animals, but not very busy iyswim. They've been replaced or reupholstered.

To dm's frustration we also had df's exercise stuff. So one multigym, one step-up machine, a rowing machine, an exercise bike and a table tennis table that in order to play everything else had to be moved out. They've all gone now.

We were midway through our time at the little flat we bought late 80s. Magnolia walls, beige carpet, green Cintique armchair and nearly matching sofa bed (both parents in law castoffs), small square colour telly, stereo system plus vynl, tapes possibly CDs, fold up dining room gateleg table and non matching fold up chairs, computer desk that looked like a little metal trolley, coffee table with fake wood look plastic and fake brass legs that screwed on and off (my parents cast off), paintings, watercolours and posters.

Desk was probably empty because DH had changed jobs and given back the Apple Mac and continuous microperf printer and acquired a new word processor in his office at work.

We still have the armchair, it's been twice reupholstered since then. We still have the gateleg table and the non matching chairs but the chairs are now spares and we have 4 (DHs great auntie's castoffs) more closely matching chairs on their second upholstery.

The kitchen in our old flat was more my style. It was narrow and we put up shelves and got nice storage jars to go on them. I still have some and use them for rice. Our cottage kitchen has a big shelf with larger Le Creuset type stuff and a rail of dangling utensils on the chimney breast wall. The paintings were the biggest hint that we would eventually embrace colour. I can't think that I'd truly discovered how much I like retro stuff and second hand finds then but I did get into it before living in an old house.

Parent's house. Artex ceilings, sanderson fabric curtains, beige walls and carpet, stone open fireplace with lots of log fires. Lots of mahogany tapley furniture. Brown courdroy 3 piece suite. Video recorder, HiFi system with CD player and big speakers.

I was living in my childhood home with my parents.

The room is still almost completely unchanged (they bought a new sofa set a decade ago but the rest is the same).

Anaglypta wallpaper painted pale green. Northern carpet in shades of brown and green.
Gas fire like the one in your picture with a 1970s wooden surround with my mum's Norwegian gnome that she got a cruise in the 1960s on.

Two chairs and a sofa.

Masses of books and magazines lying around in piles.

Hifi bought in 1984 on a dedicated HiFi table.

I bought my first flat in 1990. It was a new build with magnolia walls everywhere and I immediately ruined it.

I put in a grey carpet with a pink flower pattern. I painted a stencil border in light blue and pink all around at dado rail height even though there was no dado rail. ( it looked terrible) I was only 20 years old and had a lot more enthusiasm than talent for home decorating!

I had a grey suede sofa and a mahogany and glass display cabinet.

Dusky pink curtains made by my mum.

Dried flower displays everywhere.

My favourite thing I bought was a Tiffany lamp in shades of pink blue and grey.

I’m not sure about 1990 itself but at some point my mum painted the whole room a light pink and rag rolled (is that the right thing? It was sort of stippled sponge marks!) the bottom half of the wall in blue chunky stripes and the top half a darker pink. She has these heavy swagged Austrian blinds also in pink from memory. All the furnishings (coffee table, units etc) were black.
changing rooms has a lot to answer for 😂

In 1990 I bought my first house and I went full-on chintz in the living room. Wallpaper, sofas, curtains, all slight variations on the same theme of giant pink flowers and green leaves. Friends would come in, wince, and say, "Er, I don't think I'd ever have thought of doing that," but I loved it. So much so that 35 years later I have a bedroom in my house decorated in the same style. I don't remember much about anything else in the room (my two 6ft tall black ash bookcases and my then husband's huge classical music collection must have been there) but I do remember my parents and in-laws treating my new house as an opportunity to offload hideous furniture and trinkets with "sentimental value". Much offence was given and taken.

In 1990 we were still in the house my parents bought in the early 80s. Dark green patterned carpet, needlework beige 3 piece suite, teak drop leaf dining table that was against the wall with the four chairs in each corner. Teak unit, teak tv unit with video player in it and the TV had a fake wooden look covering. Teak nest of tables. A hifi somewhere in a corner. There were some chintzy ornaments around and a coal effect gas fire with a very brown fireguard. I think the walls were cream woodchip.

Oatmeal carpet, magnolia walls, William Morris curtains, a lovely loose-cover sofa with cream or red covers (for summer or winter). A big fireplace, and some antique tables.

I'd be happy with the same again now.

Our house too! Think my parents bought everything from Laura Ashley, including my clothes

My parents had an Axminster pattered carpet and the ceiling was stained brown from cigs.

Think a lot of these must have been decorated well before 1990😳
Mine was one of the many dulux whites, I think barley white, with stripped floorboards, stripped skirting boards and doors, black lead fireplace with living flame gas coals, an off white pure wool rug ( bought second hand pre three kids for £30) and brown leather chesterfield suite.

Full on dolphin and celestial art absolutely everywhere apart from my room which was covered in posters of Kurt Cobain.

I have aphantasia. Absolutely no idea!

That sounds very much like what I’m currently sat in!

I loved the stripes plus flowery look. I chose ours and was so proud how it worked out

Haha my room went sun moon and stars themed in the 90’s 😂 hard theming too, my mum had the paint brush and stencils out!

Piles of dried flowers on top of kitchen units and stencils everywhere

I think ours was 24", and they were square not widescreen, but we did have a Video Plus remote control for recording, we had to put codes in for different programmes each one had its own code and leave it near the telly iirc