When I think of an '80s atmosphere, I think of flower wallpaper, indoor plants, crappy, small couches, lots of books and videotapes on shelves, an old-looking TV on the inside.  The outside is like today, except more cars and more people outside. 

The cities are about the same as now, except for the cars.

When I think of an '80s atmosphere, I think of flower wallpaper, indoor plants, crappy, small couches, lots of books and videotapes on shelves, an old-looking TV on the inside.  The outside is like today, except more cars and more people outside. 

The cities are about the same as now, except for the cars.


Flower wallpaper?  :D That's 60's and 70's! Real 80's houses had lots of pictures and posters all over "stark white" walls. Couches were plain but normal sized. I have to say there was a lot of BIG stereos and console TV's. True with the videotapes. There was a lot of "brown" carpeting in the 80's. Huge Microwaves, etc.

Flower wallpaper?  :D That's 60's and 70's! Real 80's houses had lots of pictures and posters all over "stark white" walls. Couches were plain but normal sized. I have to say there was a lot of BIG stereos and console TV's. True with the videotapes. There was a lot of "brown" carpeting in the 80's. Huge Microwaves, etc.


Hmmm.  What was a '90s house like? To me, they didn't look too much different from an '80s house.  Maybe a little cleaner, a little more tech.  A '00s house looks a lot different from an '80s or '90s house, a very clean, uncomfortable look.

Yeah, '00s houses have a very clean, uncomfortable look. Things that made the '80s atmosphere:

-Lots and lots of pastel/muted colors and bright electronic-looking colors.
-Palm trees and other plants, Miami/LA designs popular.
-Big windows that let in alot of sunlight and huge picture windows, mirrors everywhere.
-Sconces on the wall.
-Huge console TVs, stereo equipment, and microwaves.
-Multilevel-designed rooms.
-Generic "hip-looking" or hotel-room art on the wall.
-Puffy couches and other furniture.
-Bare, clean walls with posters.
-The color gold as a motif.
-Venetian blinds and slotted doors.
-Lots of throw pillows.
-Partitioned and very sculptured-looking rooms.
-Track lighting.
-The "industrial look."
-Clean white.
-The beginnings of the "early American look."
-Shopping malls everywhere.
-Not much to the center city, very suburbanized.

Yeah, '00s houses have a very clean, uncomfortable look. Things that made the '80s atmosphere:

-Lots and lots of pastel/muted colors and bright electronic-looking colors.
-Palm trees and other plants, Miami/LA designs popular.
-Big windows that let in alot of sunlight and huge picture windows, mirrors everywhere.
-Sconces on the wall.
-Huge console TVs, stereo equipment, and microwaves.
-Multilevel-designed rooms.
-Generic "hip-looking" or hotel-room art on the wall.
-Puffy couches and other furniture.
-Bare, clean walls with posters.
-The color gold as a motif.
-Venetian blinds and slotted doors.
-Lots of throw pillows.
-Partitioned and very sculptured-looking rooms.
-Track lighting.
-The "industrial look."
-Clean white.
-The beginnings of the "early American look."
-Shopping malls everywhere.
-Not much to the center city, very suburbanized.


That sounds right to me! I will add beige carpet or marble floors, corner couches, posters in the teenager's bedroom, skylights, the hot-tub in the basement, jacuzzi in the backyard, the multileveled deck, the bathtub that's leveled off, mirrored closets....

Dark colors and an industrial look with very antiseptic cabinets were in in the late '80s...our whole house was done over then but it doesn't look typical to then, it more has a classic Victorian-inspired look with lots of moldings and European touches, but more of a clean American feel. That basic look is still popular today. I also think dark woods were in then, and the art deco look.

My house is covered in '80s beige and magenta carpet. The '80s was the last decade with a really distinctive look:

'70s look, IMO:

-Modern wicker furniture.
-Huge curved woodwork (don't know the exact word) furniture and beds.
-Pine beam ceilings.
-"Farmhouse" style: light, small patterns.
-Console furniture.
-Lots of shades of salmon, olive, royal blue, flame orange, puce, teal, aqua, brown gradating, lots of colors like this. They sort of gradated over things.
-Flower patterned wallpaper.
-Linoleum with marble patterns.
-Bright, shocking colors and patterns.
-Sexy black with mirrors and tiles.
-Draw blinds.
-Gray and silver scheme.
-Raised bathtubs.
-Lots of wallpaper.
-Exposed wood beams.

Bump.

When I think of an '80s atmosphere, I think of flower wallpaper, indoor plants, crappy, small couches, lots of books and videotapes on shelves, an old-looking TV on the inside.  The outside is like today, except more cars and more people outside.   

The cities are about the same as now, except for the cars.


WHT instead of HBO
Abners instead of Jordan's
Innocence
Real real tv
Good Music
Bermuda Shorts
Astor place in the Village

I don't wanna step on anyones toes, but I think you're all right, but wrong, I mean what you're describing isn't really the 80s atmosphere, it's the backdrop to it, I mean homes looked like that because our parents wanted it too look that way, so in reality it's really the end of the 70s ideas of design that we saw, lived in.
I think the true 80s Atmosphere should be found by looking at how we decorated our home, our rooms that is; what kind of lamps did we like, did we like the fold-out beds or real ones, did we prefer having drawings or photos on our walls, what kind of storage did we use for records, magazines a.s.o.
Think about it; when you think of the 50s atmosphere you think of what young people liked and disliked, the same is true of the 60s and 70s, the atmosphere of a decade is judged on the younger generations, not their parents' generation, at least that's how it seems to me.

When I picture the '80s everything seemed more cluttered. Wall's weren't all one colour, carpet and lino had weird patterns, rooms were full of furniture, etc. Maybe most of these were originally from the 60s and 70s, but still carried through to the 80s.