Color Recall: The 1980's

The following is number four in the series called color recall written by my mother...

COLOR RECALL

As usual, our family spent most of the 1980s abroad.  

Image via Picasa

I do recall mauve and a grayed blue (what we still thought of as Williamsburg blue) were extremely popular at the time.  

Image via Architectural Digest by Angelo Donghia

With deep regret I recall an interior decorating project with my sister during the early 80’s.  She had recently moved back into the house we grew up in.  A pre-civil war dwelling, it was one of the oldest houses in our small northern town.  Because of the previously mentioned design trend, we got into our heads that the wainscoting in what had been our family dining room should be updated.  What we failed to take into consideration was that our plan involved tampering with an original (historic) cherry finish.  This is a task only the seriously deranged would undertake.   With scrapers and paint remover in hand, we painstakingly removed all the original finish and then painted the wainscoting off-white.  This color, coordinated (in our minds) much better with the new highly sought after mauve-blue decorating scheme of the rest of the house.  Our mother, who had passed away many years before, would have never forgiven us—and adding insult to injury she HATED blue…and I wonder why so many years later we even considered doing such a thing as we  both value “old things”.  My house is full of vintage furniture and hers is bursting at the seams with country memorabilia .    But none the less, we bowed to a theme that never really appealed to me -- I am not much for pastel colors and neither is she—but one that seemed feminine and ultra modern.   

Image via William Miller Design

My sister and I have grown older and wiser, but we will never forget growing up in a home, reputed to be a rest home for soldiers returning from the Civil War,  and both of us still make our living space part of ourselves.  The comparison between the city mouse (me) and country mouse (her) is the subject of a separate posting.  I’ll also tell you more about our old house--that is if Fresh Quince will give her mother another opportunity to revisit the past.

                             -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks once again mom! What do you all recall about the 80's? As for myself I have a distaste for light grey, pale blue and pink together but I've found a few images that make the color combinations a little more palatable to my modern aesthetic...

Bremmerman Image via Little Green Notebook

Image via Bijou et Boheme

Image via unknown source

Hal Williamson via House Beautiful

Hillary Thomas via Lonny

Gil Shafer

Have a wonderful Monday! xx Danielle