20 Ways You Can Add 1980s Style to Your Decor

The wild, whimsical and sometimes just plain weird decade is sashaying back into the spotlight. Here’s how to time travel in style.

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January 08, 2021

By: Lauren Oster

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Lean Into Curves

This vintage sofa’s silhouette is surprisingly user friendly. The wide upholstered arms are perfect for lounging, and the negative space beneath them gives the piece a light footprint. Treasures like this one can be tricky to find, but secondhand chairs and occasional tables with similar bones turn up (and are worth snapping up) on sites like 1stDibs.

Get Into Shapes

Test drive ‘80s geometry with a bold, patterned wallpaper like the one in this chic condo’s entryway. Want extra credit? Use paint to pull tones from that paper into the room, as with the pale pink molding and teal door.

From: Zoe Feldman Design

Select an Icon

Why accent your space with a single evocative piece (i.e. an actual boombox) when you can repeat it from floor to ceiling (i.e. this playful wallpaper)?

From: THELIFESTYLEDCO

Hang a Major Mirror

A piece like the octagonal beauty in this foyer is the perfect way to dip your toe in the ‘80s trend without going full throwback. When you are ready to go Full Throwback, might we suggest a fabulous credenza, like the one here?

Employ an Architectural Chair

This unusual diminutive seat is especially striking, because of its sunny yellow hue. Look for a vintage piece with quirky lines, like these, then emphasize its personality with a technicolor makeover.

Shoot for Marbles

Variegated pieces like this pair of black table lamps call back to the look-at-me veined stone that felt ubiquitous four decades ago. Deploy mineral patterns in smaller doses, like these, to put a modern twist on the trend.

Play Around

Evocative tchotchkes, like this old-school digital clock and Rubik’s cube, are perfect picks for kids’ (and playful adults’) bedroom vignettes. The cherry-red vintage dresser, in turn, sizzles against the room’s moody walls.

Immerse Yourself in Patterns

Cultivate this townhouse’s impeccable sense of cool — even the hallway is a major design moment — by taking a street-art-inspired approach to your walls (and ceiling). These abstract lines are meant to evoke both natural patterns and Keith Haring’s work.

Indulge in Excess

We’re not suggesting giving your home the head over heels Studio 54 treatment, but borrowing a bit of nightclub glam is a fine way to pay tribute to the urban glitterati of yore. This disco ball’s unexpected color and placement are the perfect finishing touches for a neutral nook.

From: Caitlin Murray

Drop a Few Tints

This stylish space references a few of the 1980s characteristic color treatments. The peachy portrait on the left wall recalls Patrick Nagel’s pale, pastel beauties, while the supersaturated photograph above the sofa is a neon landscape Andy Warhol would have loved.

From: Caitlin Murray

Use Over-the-Top Accessories

This showy, nostalgic faux throw fur throw, faceted mirror and all-black, lamps are home furnishing avatars of classic soap opera villainesses. Reach for similarly plush and reflective pieces to follow in their clicking-stiletto footsteps.

From: Caitlin Murray

Display (and Create) Splashy Graphics

This bronze framed trio of birds in flight (against red polka dots, no less) is bold enough to hold its own in a gloriously DIY’ed black-and-white hallway. If you’re feeling crafty, re-create the look by hand stamping a pattern of your own. The imperfect look of this high-contrast treatment brings added charm to the hallway.

Tour the Tropics

Use a large-scale, leafy print, like the fabric on this armchair, to bring a bit of classic Palm Beach panache to your space.

From: Abbe Fenimore

Say It With Flowers

Advance the Laura Ashley look a few decades by combining delicate, feminine florals with intricate patterns, like the abstract wallpaper and ikat throw at the foot of the bed in this romantic room. Want to dabble in shabby chic and top that with a crystal chandelier? We’re all for it.

From: Kendall Simmons

Line Up for Upholstery

Shop for a channel-tufted piece like the headboard in this boho-inflected bedroom — or get the look by creating your own bench. It’s a classic and fresh alternative to button-tufting.

Go Bold With Gold

Gleaming accessories are lots of fun, but there’s something undeniably satisfying about a luxe piece like this canopy bed. (Bonus points for the iridescent side table perched beside it.)

From: Natalie Myers

Introduce Grids

Set against Kelly Wearstler’s iconic Graffito wallpaper, the patterns on this curvaceous sofa and its throw pillows feel both timeless and deliciously new.

Incorporate Neon

Could your bedroom double as an MTV stage set circa 1985? If the answer is no, make things right by acquiring a piece like these lips. If the answer still feels like no, add a see-through phone. (No land line? No problem: It’s equally excellent as an object).

Do You

Speaking of lips, could we convince you to float a sculptural pair above your headboard? This marvelous bedroom exemplifies the appeal of ‘80s decor: for better or for worse, it committed. Go big when you go home.

From: Kendall Simmons

Look Into Glass

Transparent pieces like this barely-there dining table double down on their predecessors’ weightlessness. In lieu of a bulky, high-concept base, this table sports equally understated support.