259
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by FreddiesLantern@leminal.space to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world

There’s this meme from a while ago that observes the fact that the 80’s and early 90’s weren’t as colourful and flashy as most media make them out to be. In fact almost everything ranging from clothing to furniture to advertising was a drab shade ranging between dark brown to orange.

Every once in a while you’d get a toy or a household appliance that would be a bright neon colour and it would be considered hi tech advanced fancy stuff (until it broke the next day).

Nowadays you’d have to look hard for dark brown/orange drab stuff. They make dark brown/orange stuff but it usually is made of a veneer of fancy wood and it’ll cost you an arm and a leg. (And then it breaks the very next day)

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] ech@lemmy.ca 63 points 3 days ago

Easier to ignore the nicotine stains.

[-] affenlehrer@feddit.org 36 points 3 days ago
[-] RelativeArea1@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago

and covert shit stains

[-] borkborkbork@piefed.social 32 points 3 days ago

You always knew houses with smokers and without. Hit you walking in the door and put a sepia tint on reality - walls, popcorn ceiling, all kinds of shit. But what kids today will never know:

Plastic covered furniture. People covered their couches and easy chairs with plastic. it was wild.

Google it, people had fitted plastic covers made for all their furniture. I don't know if anyone ever took the covers off "oh the pope is coming over let's go all out" attitude but it was a distinct thing.

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

yeah that makes sense, my grandma only ever uses the good china for christmas and that's it. the only reason she'd whip it out twice in a year would indeed be if the pope came to visit her

[-] borkborkbork@piefed.social 2 points 2 days ago

at least with the china she's already getting out the dishes. with the plastic, I have no idea how long it would take to strip the furniture, but it's not a quick process lol. it was so strange.

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 28 points 3 days ago

I wore shit like this out of the house, because of how amazingly fucking cool I was

[-] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 11 points 3 days ago

Holy shit, don’t tell me, you had a powerglove?

[-] Thorry@feddit.org 23 points 3 days ago

You often see the super colorful 80s in pop culture. But at the time there was also another movement going on where everything was black, white, metal and glass. I remember white rugs, a black leather couch with stainless metal, glass and black metal coffee table. Walls painted black or made entirely out of glass bricks. People wearing black and white clothes with sunglasses on. A lot of it was super classy and I wouldn't mind having that in my home again. It was one of the first times in my life I remember home decoration being aligned with fashion, and people doing interior design.

[-] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Sounds like the last holdover of modernism before the nineties kicked in. And also expensive.

[-] Thorry@feddit.org 6 points 3 days ago

Yes! I definitely had the huge ass tower of stereo equipment. It was a Philips branded stack and the main volume knob had a little red light on it, when you used the remote to put the volume up or down, it actually rotated the knob! It blew my mind when I saw that, so I just had to have it. It had a dual cassette deck, with fast rewind and fast copy options. A very good CD player, AM/FM radio and an amp with EQ. I think there was an option for records, but I didn't have that, this was the 80s we needed high tech! The CD player had stuff like random order, lead-in, lead-out, etc. Mine was all black with little silver metal trims. Big ass speakers that weren't optimized for volume or bass like these days, but for excellent sound quality and clarity.

I also had the glass shelves with a whole bunch of CDs and one of those towers where you put in the CDs at a 45 degree angle.

Man those were the days.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] starlinguk@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

I was a teenager in the eighties. I remember a "jungle" trend (khaki), purple paisley, bottle green, grey with abstract prints, light pink and grey t-shirts with the sleeves cut off and lapis blue. I have NO idea where the idea of "it was all neon" comes from.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] RustySharp@programming.dev 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Not to mention the 2000s video game aesthetics, where everything is "gritty" and is a shade of brown & grey. The drabness never went away, they just changed media.

[-] daannii@lemmy.world 17 points 3 days ago

Wood paneling. Everywhere.
Brown carpet. Everywhere.

Anything that had been white was stained by cigarette smoke.

[-] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

I can smell the potpourri.

[-] Themosthighstrange@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

I can smell stale smoke

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago

No, that's fondue.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 days ago

Including all the leaves, apparently.

I heard rumors that the sky was of a grey hue.

I heard it from someone who'd been on a walk on a winter's day.

[-] Jesus_666@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

In the 80s the sky was the color of a dead TV channel and it was overcast.

In the 00s the sky was the color of a dead TV channel and it was clear.

Today nobody knows what a dead TV channel is supposed to look like.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] bstix@feddit.dk 4 points 3 days ago

That song was written in 1963 in New York.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago

The prevailing colors of winter probably didn't change much in the 20-30 intervening years, though 🤷

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

i was going to say, this is the worst representative couch. i remember a lot of stripey couches with oranges.

[-] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 3 points 3 days ago

It’s a random picture I found.

I mostly remember brown green velvety material with lots of oak. A sort of mocka colour like the picture.

After that during the 90’s I had the luxury of growing up with fancy black leather couches. ❤️

[-] kahjtheundedicated@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

In the not-so-distant future we’ll look back and say everything the 2020s really was just grey, wasn’t it?

[-] stelelor@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago

We already do. It's all grey, greige, white, off-white. If feeling adventurous, add taupe accents and light wood. "Soothing" my ass, it all gives mental institute vibes.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

they call it millenial grey for a reason. ugh.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] foodandart@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 days ago

My grandparents had that sofa - same print pattern but in a blue-gray. Holee shit.

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

Pressure wash the smoke/nicotine stains, sun dry it for a few days, and replace the indoor Incandescent lights with white LED lights..

Its probably not nearly as dark and drab if cleaned up and placed under good modern white lighting..

[-] mholiv@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Do - do you like the 5000k bulbs? Do people consider cool white lighting to be modern?

[-] moonshadow@slrpnk.net 6 points 3 days ago

There's no way, no one likes the 5000k bulbs. They're for BMW drivers and aliens performing abductions

[-] over_clox@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Oh to hell with 5000k bulbs, that's just too damn blindingly bright white! I just mean sensibly whiter and brighter than the inherently yellow color of incandescent bulbs.

[-] Lojcs@piefed.social 6 points 3 days ago
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Zier@fedia.io 7 points 3 days ago

60's Paisley, tie dye & macrame 70's Brown, orange & golden yellow. Plus a little beige. 80's Neon, black, sparkly, & hairspray. 90's pastel colors plus burgundy and forest green.

[-] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 4 points 3 days ago

Turns out I grew up among hand down materials from the previous decade.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

they're remembering what was at the tail of the decades, so hey

[-] twistypencil@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

This does not track with my reality

[-] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 4 points 3 days ago

Thank you for your multiverse theory confirming comment. 🙏

[-] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 7 points 3 days ago

The biggest point a relative of mine made when building a house in the mid 90s, at which point people were getting colorful with home decor again, was that there was NOT going to be anything brown in it, haha.

[-] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 days ago

In the 90s we had..

Blue couch, black chairs, gray carpet, etc

I dont recall anything brown, except a couple of wooden furniture pieces like my bed, which was from like .. 1930ish (with a new mattress)

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 points 3 days ago

My grandparents had this exact couch and 2 chairs with the same pattern.

[-] fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago

New presidential couches?!

[-] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

“We’ve got the best 👌brownest couches 🛋️ you’ve ever seen 👀 I gotta say 👐,.. Epstein.”

[-] GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

That's what you think about in the shower?

[-] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 days ago

Good for Trump for when he shits himself again

[-] acme401@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

The sky was yellow and the sun was blue

[-] Battle_Masker@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago

I thought leaves were brown and the sky was gray

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] artiman@piefed.social 2 points 3 days ago

i sat on this exact couch

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
259 points (97.1% liked)

Showerthoughts

40145 readers
1550 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS