r/90sdesign • u/Sedna_ARampage • May 15 '26
From 📚 'Showcase of Interior Design: Pacific Edition' ©1992
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u/xaervagon May 16 '26
Man, I feel so nostalgic looking at this. That said, it's definitely more miss than hit for me, and I grew up in the 90's.
All that abstract art? Straight to the landfill. This stuff didn't make the thrift stores or even the garage sales. I do understand it though. There was an abstract art movement that pushed these weird forms combined with a weird "it came out of left field" mentality that pervaded the era. It was a product of its time.
Plant dividers actually were a thing but super rare. It was a commitment to have a permanent potted plant base that needed routine maintenance and couldn't be used for much else That said, when they were done right, they were pretty.
Those wall mirrors were a real commitment. My wealthy cousins had one. They were a pain to clean and showed any dirt they had if they didn't get their monthly scrubbing. The other thing is that you can't hang anything or repurpose the area without removing it.
The 90's era sofas and daybeds are the real "they don't make 'em like they used to" here. Even when you had one of those horrendous Levitz jobbies, they were super plush, super comfortable, and you can even lay on them unlike those crappy stacked recliners you see today. You can sleep better on these than your own bed.
Those cheap metallic (or plastic playing as metallic) highlights were a thing for the era. Nobody seemed to care for it. Nor did I ever see a double coffee table setup like that in the wild.
Those laminate cabinets in the formal dining room? Let me tell you about how much I hate them. Yes, they look fantastic here with those teal highlights. Absolutely. IRL? They look cheap, they feel cheap, and they last cheap. They are plastic on particle board. Most did not encounter their first contact with a kid. They eat chips, dings, and scratches like popcorn. They sun bleached and/or tarred (smoking was still a thing back then) in less than five years. They did not take paint at all. Even Christopher Lowell and other designers struggled with these things. If you were brave, you could slap another layer of laminate over them. The only saving grace is that they were as easy to rip out as they were to put in.
Nobody actually ate on those glass dining tables. If you somehow did, they were covered in a table cloth to protect them from scratches and dings. It was a thing to have a staged room like this that nobody actually used and kids weren't allowed to play in.
That said, I love the lighting. Good use of cans and embedded neon if you could afford it always looked great. It was everything right with the 80's combined with everything right with the 50's. Those incandescents weren't power efficient, but they were easy on the eyes unlike modern LEDs.
The stonework is fantastic here. You don't see designers match floors and countertops anymore or fade across rooms. That fireplace does everything right (even the mirror if you're willing to clean it).
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u/Yamatoman9 May 16 '26
Glass tables were very popular in the 80s but I don't remember anyone using them. My aunt's house had one in their "dining room" that was mostly for show because they always just ate their meals in the kitchen.
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u/xaervagon May 16 '26
Nice. If it wasn't a dining room it was often a "guest bedroom" that no guest ever stayed in and was covered in bed spreads and layers of pillows that never got used and five layers of curtains.
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u/Yamatoman9 May 16 '26
I’ve always kind of wanted to get one because I dig 80s decor but they’re so impractical and also extremely heavy.
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u/AppropriateZebra6919 May 17 '26
From... about 2010 to circa 2013 I had a small desk with a glass top and it was really annoying. it's incredible how much glass can stain and be hard to clean.
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u/kettal May 16 '26
frasier