30 Home Trends Kids of the ’90s Remember
Updated: Feb. 01, 2024
Grab your favorite CD mix and reminisce about the good ol' days. These were the most popular home trends of the 90's.
CD and Cassette Cabinets
A CD cabinet played a pivotal role in the home and had to be near that six CD stereo. It’s certainly anachronistic to see one in a home now but kids from the ’90s will certainly remember trying to depress the magnetic locking mechanism just right so the glass would open to provide access to that killer Hootie and the Blowfish album.
Forget a CD cabinet and check out 33 of the most gorgeous bookshelves you can build.
Thick Carpet
Thick carpet might be thought to provide a more durable flooring option and maybe that was part of the appeal in the 1990s. Colorful carpet did hold a certain appeal in the decade, too. Pet owners need to know these tips to remove stains from carpet.
Patterns
Points for the determination to carry out a project completely with this tile job. This project from 1997 looks gorgeous for its time, but it might be a little too lively right now. See how to make over a bathroom on a budget.
Patterns on Patterns
The internet was just emerging, we could talk to anyone over a computer and we couldn’t completely trust they were telling the truth … we needed order and patterns on top of patterns emerged.
Primary Colors
Bright color tend to indicate the strength of the economy. When colors turn brighter in clothing and decor, it’s generally because the economy is performing well. That’s what happened in the mid ’90s and it often took the form of primary colors in home decor. Follow these tips on choosing paint colors next time you’ve got a painting task.
Light Oak
Oak cabinets are still pervasive so it’s solely a ’90s trend necessarily. But they were especially ubiquitous in the ’90s. You might want to paint kitchen cabinets to update the look of your kitchen, though, to stay up to date with the latest kitchen color trends.
Frilly
Décor in the ’90s tended to include a lot of plants whether real or fake and plants on the wallpaper to create a frilly look. See what trends are in style this year.
Purple
Purple was a big color trend across several platforms. Purple was especially hot for vehicles beginning in 1994. Trends tend to be cyclical and you might not be surprised by what Pantone picked as its color of the year for 2018.
Floral Patterns
Floral patterns made an impact on walls too, as our 1996 December/January issue shows. A block painting pad helped dress up a kitchen wall painted purple. Floral patterns are still considered cool but the ’90s might’ve overdid the whole thing.
Wallpaper
Wallpaper is making a comeback, just not this wallpaper. Floral anything was huge in the decade that brought us The Rosie O’Donnell Show and her Koosh Ball Slingshot. If you’ve been staring at wallpaper that has to go, here’s the best way to remove wallpaper.
Chandeliers
Chandeliers maybe don’t qualify as a trend because people still have them in a lot of houses but the type shown here held a certain popularity in the ’90s. It’s another example of a decade that tried to create classy looks cheaply.
Faux Plants
Floral prints and patterns weren’t enough for everyone in the ’90s. So people cranked it to 11 with fake potted plants like these. Faux plants are one of the things that can make a room look cluttered. Follow these 15 tips to make a small room seem bigger.
Rag-Rolled Walls
Textured painted walls were all the rage as Clarissa explained it all and we all wondered if Ross and Rachel would ever get together. Our publication featured a story on how to create the look in a 1998 issue right around the time Ross started dating Emily.
Arched Windows
Arched windows are a staple of the McMansion, which we all know is never to be followed for design inspiration. Check out ridiculous real estate listing photos that include some McMansions.
Hunter Green
This color is a little lighter than hunter green but it’s close enough that it’ll trigger the memories of seeing hunter green everywhere you went. Hunter green is one of the 12 signs your home is dated, find out the other 11 things and how to avoid them.
Above Cabinet Decorating
This perfectly ’90s kitchen decorated above the cabinets with some fake plants, which was acceptable then. It’s not any more and neither is the arched window, though it does provide a gorgeous fall view. These home improvement projects are affordable and easy.
Faux Granite
Many people still have and want granite countertops though it seems to have started falling out of favor in the last few years. The paneling above the countertop here is faux granite and people liked the look in the 1990s. Of course people liked that The Rolling Stones released Voodoo Lounge in 1994.
Check out this guide to buying countertops if it’s time for an upgrade.
Off-Color Shower Tiles
If you look closely there is more floral patterns with this shower tile from a 1997 project. It’s a far cry from what’s playing now like wood planks, neutral colors and subway tile. Make your shower look better with these 13 tile tips.
Brown and Brass
Clothing went through the grunge period and for a while the drab browns and brass light fixtures had a similar effect. That coffee table looks like something that later found its way into a college dorm.
Faux Columns
Columns should connote class but they look better on the exterior of a home. It didn’t stop people in the 90s from trying to bring them inside though, especially that McMansion crowd.
Striped Awnings
This awning works perfectly well with the home which was part of a 1998 story in The Family Handyman. It’ll bring back those moments of sipping lemonade on the porch.
Sponge Painting
We covered rag-rolled painting, which really is just a variant of the uber-popular sponge painting of the ’90s. Sponge painting was so easy it spread across the country throughout the 1990s. Bring back sponge painting, if you want, after reading these tips.
Rope Lights
Rope lights came around later in the decade but boy were they cool in your room or at the prom.
Iron Railings
Whoever thought these were a good idea must not have had kids. In a 1999 issue we replaced the dated guard rail with a really cool class and wood rail that has aged considerably better.
If you have a busted spindle, you’ll need to know this tip to fix it without having to call someone.
Dark Oak
Everyone had this in their home at some point it seemed. It was so common that you could forget whose home you were in sometimes, especially if the cabinets were organized the same way. If you have old cabinets like this or are looking at buying a place with old cabinets, updating them is easier than you think.
Huge Entertainment Centers
The advent of flat-screen TVs made the old entertainment center somewhat obsolete. But the entertainment center in the ’90s was exactly that. The place to rummage through the VHS copies of ET, Hook or anyone of those bootleg recordings of movies played on HBO your rich neighbor recorded for you.
Save on installation costs by mounting a TV yourself.
Glass Tables
Glass tables were probably a little more prevalent in the homes of older folks in the ’90s but they were there and so where those great looking chairs for the dinette set.
Pastels
Pastels probably move in and out of cycles more than any other colors but in the ’90s they had a place, just like in this kitchen. Dusty pink and mint greens are showing up in bedroom paint jobs, check out the other 11 hot color trends in bedrooms.
Huge Window Treatments
It’s as though people attended a few too many Renaissance fairs in the 1990s because the McMansions sometimes had turrets like castles and other homes decided to have bulky window treatments like royal palaces. What a pain it would be to clean them. Look at these 10 awesome ideas for window treatments for an updated look.
Ornate Cabinet Handles
Fancy handles on kitchen cabinets appeared in houses in the 1990s before more practical knobs came into popularity. Discover these easy kitchen cabinet repairs you can DIY.
