When it comes to home decor trends, every decade has its favorite color palette. From the avocado greens and harvest yellow of the ‘70s to the pastel overload of the ‘80s, there are some colors we just automatically associate with certain decades.
Years from now, we’ll probably look at the gray obsession of the 2010s with the same disdain. While gray can be relaxing and easy to match, it can look a bit depressing and drab. Between gray floors and walls, this gray overload makes us look forward to watching this rainy-day-colored trend go away.
Etch-A-Sketch
Glass etching is a classic art form dating back centuries ago. During the ‘80s and most of the ‘90s, etched glass seemed to have a moment. From etched glass statues to etched glass doors, we couldn't get enough of this trend.
Most of the designs ranged from geometric shapes to scenes featuring wildlife like birds. While this trend is certainly not the worst of the decade (remember these are the decades that brought us the mullet), most of us are happy that this trend is no longer in style.
Mirror Mirror on the Wall — Literally
In addition to letting us know if we have spinach in our teeth, mirrors can transform the look of a room by making it look bigger or more glamorous. Perhaps those benefits made us want to cover our entire walls with mirrors.
A common feature in many of the expensive homes of the ‘80s, mirrored walls may have seemed elegant, but they also had the side effect of making us feel like we were in one giant funhouse in the worst way possible. Just imagine how hard it was to clean these massive mirrors...
Distressing to Look At
Blame it on trends like “shabby chic” or the latest “farmhouse chic” look, but for years now, home decor shops have been filled with intentionally “distressed” wood furniture. The trend, quite frankly, is a bit distressing.
While it can be great for the environment to reuse or repurpose old pieces of furniture, purposely buying a scuffed-up and chipped-painted piece of furniture is a bit silly. Distressed wood furniture is also hard to match if you decide you no longer want to rock the shabby farmhouse look.
Busy Busy Busy
We get it. A bare wall can look cold and sterile. In fact, one of the best ways to add some character or pizazz to your home is by adding carefully curated artwork.
One of the most recent home decor trends is to take a bare wall and cover it in a variety of differently shaped frames and artwork. Known as a gallery wall, this trend can sometimes be executed in an elegant way, it often looks cluttered and too busy, especially if you're using artwork in a variety of colors or different frames.