1983: The Wonder Of Stone Cladding...

Stone cladding was so much better than pebble dashing.

So much more elegant.

So much more modern.

So much more aesthetically pleasing.

Well, at least some people thought it was.

1983 - and having your house stone-cladded is becoming desirable. With the dosh floating around and the credit boom of the mid-to-late 1980s, "doin' up the 'ouse" in all sorts of ways became more and more popular. Of course, some people thought it was dead common. And when Jack and Vera Duckworth had it in Coronation Street in 1989 it was the death knell for any trendiness the trend had ever had - well, at least for tiny terraced houses.

But back in 1983, when it was all exciting and new, this particular company offered:

NEW Unique 'Country Cottage' one-piece corner stones with traditional sawn stone finish. A revolutionary building development that eliminates unsightly vulnerable edges, to give you an unbelievably perfect finish - everytime...

So, whether you're a homeowner or in the process of buying your Council house, your home will take on a charming and unique character. If you ever decide to sell, you will probably find that you have added considerably to the value of your property...

Every stone is an object of natural beauty. Mellow Cotswold golds, ruggedly handsome greys, browns and delicate pastel shades are all available...

All that and improved sound proofing, thermal insulation and a thirty year guarantee! I'm just as impressed as Jack and Vera! But then the Coronation Street district was always a bit snobby - and having Emily, Ken and Alec looking down their noses was an everyday hazard in 1989.

Living Life '80s Style... Part 2

Returning to the theme of living life in the style of The Glorious 1980s, how about buying some lovely knitwear or sweatshirts from the decade? I mean, just look at the two examples above. What more encouragement do you need?

 Perhaps a look at this might just tip you over the edge? Mmmm, lovely, is it not?

 And I bet these 1980s beauties leave you speechless.

To help create your ... er... beautiful '80s ambiance, scatter some genuine "of-the-decade" magazines about. Here, Nik Kershaw and Paul Young serve as an authentic reminder of how wonderful hairstyles were in the mid-1980s. All together now: "Near a tree by a river there's a hole in the ground..."

Lovely Pye "Red Box" TV here - dating from 1984. It won't do HD, but you can hook it up to your DVD player and watch '80s classic telly anyway.

"You make it Neet Weet, mate!" The Weetabix skinheads debuted in March 1982 and were created by Trevor Beattie, now of fcuck fame. They were called Bixie, Brains, Crunch, Dunk and Brian (he who said "OK!") and trundled on through the rest of the 1980s, last appearing in November 1989. During that time they dropped the skinhead chic (shame!) and went for more of a hip hop look, amongst other things.

Anyway, here's a lovely Weetabix kiddies' lunchbox from the mid-1980s. Great for carrying your '80s-style lunch to work in. What will it be? Packet of hobnobs? Makings of an exotic baked potato to pop in the works microwave? Spot of nouvelle cuisine? Pot Noodle? A Birds Eye Menu Master (Birds Eye's the bird of freedom, spread your wings and fly away...").

If you must have crisps, don't go for "common as muck" cheese and onion or smoky bacon. Make sure they're sour cream and chive or ham and mustard or something. Fancy crisps are a crucial style detail if you really want to create the mid-to-late 1980s time warp effect.

Something for the wall here - download a copy of Tim Berners-Lee's original diagram of the World Wide Web from 1989, its invention year, frame it, and display it prominently. Then, when some snobby, 80s-demeaning "friend" pops in and says: "Really! I don't understand your fixation with the 1980s! Nothing at all happened!" you can gesticulate grandly at your picture and  reply: "Pah! I beg to differ, mateyboots!"

And then waggle your Gordon The Gopher puppet at said "friend" until they go home. By bringing Gordon into play, you'll have convinced your "friend" that you're a very sad case indeed, and they probably won't bother you again.

Gilbert the snotty alien was an absolute wow in 1987 on kids' TV show Get Fresh, and graduated to his own series, Gilbert's Fridge, in 1988. This pic would look splendid over the fireplace in your '80s homage home, don't you think?

This is mine - a very '80s representation of a penny farthing bicycle which I bought from quite a posh gift shop when, in August 1986, I moved from a grotty bedsit into a house which I was allowed to rent at a knock-down price. It looked great on the black ash shelving unit. Happy days! Until April 1987 when my absentee landlord decided to sell his house and I moved into another grotty bedsit.

We're not finished living life '80s style... we'll return very soon with lorry loads of pendant lights, buckets of black ash, urban hordes of up-lighters, billions of red beds, dozens of director's chairs, mountains of Miami Vice chic and a monsoon  of hair gel and mousse...

Remember that, when it comes to the 1980s, more is more...

Home Decor: Living Rooms To Die For - 1980s Style!

Black was the colour... highly popular for furniture in the mid-to-late 1980s. Argos catalogue, spring/summer 1989.

In the 1980s, there was something of a revolution in home decor. Rather than follow mass trends, many more people wanted to be individualistic and felt it was important that their homes said something about them and, most importantly, their lifestyle. The '60s, despite its reputation for being thoroughly modern, had a passion for Victoriana and the 1920s. The '70s had continued many of the '50s and '60s trends whilst exhibiting a strong hankering for retro of all sorts.

In the mid-1980s, with credit booming, we asked ourselves would our home be ultra modern? Or antique effect? Black became hugely popular (remember black ash and those black tables, corner units and so on?). TV casings joined the black trend in the late 1980s as the old wood effect finally said farewell. Other coloured TV casings were available in the mid-1980s. Cloth bottomed and backed directors' chairs (very Hollywood!) in black or bright colours became household furnishings (it was all so stylish!), and futons became mega. In the decade of yuppies, it was appropriate that vertical boardroom blinds appeared at house windows.

Black ash effect lounge unit and a sofa bed - Argos, 1989. The black, grey and red patterning is incredibly 1980s!

Some people were overly grandiose. A friend of mine, living in an ex-council house, had a huge chandelier suspended from the ceiling in her miniscule lounge. Window blinds became narrower and were highly popular in black or red. Standing up-lighters - particularly with black supports - became a wow, and wall up-lighters swept back late in the decade, in antique or modern stylings. Once again, the watch word was style, darling!

In the 1980s, we stripped out the darned awful wallpaper which had blighted the '70s (those designs dated back to the late 1960s anyway) and went for pastel colours or strange slanting striped wallpaper which made your eyes go funny. My mother bought some particularly awesome wallpaper for the lounge circa 1984: it showed part of the interior of what appeared to be some sort of castle, with an archway, some stairs and a window repeating all over it. It was grey and white. LOVELY!

Index catalogue, 1989.

Does anybody else remember the mid-to-late '80s trend for having a light suspended from the ceiling low over the dining table? It gave things a faintly "gamblers' den" appearance and I'm sure many decor buffs thought it the height of style. Well, I remember going to dinner at a friend's house circa 1987. There were three of us there and we had been having a political discussion between courses. I recall that the topic of conversation was Ronald Reagan. I got up to go to the loo, conversing quite passionately (politics provoked passionate feelings in many of us back then!) and, waving my arms about as I'm apt to do whilst conversing passionately, I became entangled with the light shade, denting it, causing the bulb to fall out, and setting the shade swinging furiously.

Stylish the "gamblers' den" lighting might have been, but practical it was not - particularly if you wanted to encourage spirited conversation at your dinner party! 

The 1980s House - Part 2

Nice, trendy Triton showers from Argos, 1989. This is a sign of the times - a gratuitous glimpse of botty. Believe it or not, I never saw any such thing in mail order catalogues before the 1980s. Were we trying to be more broad minded? More European? There were many grumbles as this kind of thing began. Gratuitous botty? Whatever next?!! Showers were yet another thing that the vast majority of working class people didn't have at home until the 1980s.

Of course, what you really needed was a power shower, to go with your power breakfast, power dressing, power napping, power walking, etc, etc. The black tiles with red grouting are an '80s style wow, too!

Oooh dear! 1983 Brian Mills catalogue. I favour the old rose, myself.

In the 1980s, microwave ovens swept in, as did jug kettles. Such a sensible design! My Brian Mills spring/summer 1983 catalogue has only one jug on offer...

... but my catalogues from 1985 and 1989 have whole armies of the things. The page above is from Argos, 1989. I particularly favour the red and white ones.

Dining in style in 1983... my cousin had something very like the table and benches on the right in 1984. Very lovely, of course.

How about these red, narrow slatted blinds for the kitchen - Index, 1989? I always lusted after some for my own kitchen, but never got round to buying any. Black was another option. I don't recommend white - boring and shows up the greasy marks carried through the air from your deep fat fryer - an essential for getting your Crispy Pancakes just right!

Red and black... Bella magazine, 1988. Adore this!

Bella 1988 again with another powerful '80s style statement. Pure beauty.

Index 1989 - with all that talk of power in the 1980s, it was only natural that boardroom blinds should start to come out of the boardroom and into the home. There's been a recent revival in this trend, so you may have them now. Lucky you! The colour of the blinds featured here was called "champagne"... mmm... more is more...

These 1980s curtains are beautifully colourful and would tell the neighbours so much about your glorious sense of style!

Meanwhile, these particular 1980s curtains can still be seen hanging in my house. Viewings by prior appointment only.

The 1980s House - Part 1

1989 living room from Argos catalogue. Blue pastel walls and black, black, black! Black was hugely popular in the mid-to-late 1980s, even TV casings went that colour - a trend which lasted throughout the 1990s. The director's chair on the far right was a must-have - so very, very stylish!

You've looked around your house, grown sick of your "funky" late-1960s inspired wallpaper (it makes your eyes go funny) and realise you want style. You want a 1980s style home.

Do you? Do you really? There were so many styles of homes in that decade, each one designed to say something about the occupant and their lifestyle.

But you are not to be diverted. You want your home to give a screamingly 1980s effect, and you are determined. OK then. We'll take a look at popular decors of the 1980s including furniture, knick knacks, clocks, kitchens, kitchen ware, and bathrooms. See what you think afterwards. This is the first of four articles designed to bring the 1980s house back to life.

1989: Black blinds... Mmmm... lovely. Red blinds for the kitchen, of course. An uplighter. Glorious. But a black stand for it might be nicer... And look at that music centre - yuppie heaven...

1989: A very beautiful black ash shelving unit and bed settee. The mixing of black, grey and red in the design of the settee material is so 1980s. Don't you just love it?

As well as black, toy box colours were incredibly in, and this kitchen from 1983 simply shrieks "1980s!

If you were poor in the 1980s, you might have painted the wood chip wallpaper in your hall pink and hung up your Adam Ant mirror. In the modern day, this is only recommended for people who remember the 1980s, liked them, and have fond memories of Adam (I do and so the mirror still hangs). It's not terribly evocative of the stylish 1980s house you are trying to create though, so if you don't have a nostalgic attachment to the decade, avoid.

A wonderful 1980s bed (1989) and, of course, a director's chair beside it. Sleep had never been so stylish! In the 1980s, duvets (known in the early-to-mid decade as "continental quilts" but increasingly as the decade wore on duvets) took over from blankets and candlewick bedspreads.

This late 1980s wall clock is called "The Boss" and features a yuppie gorilla on a lovely red '80s phone, chomping on a banana. I don't recommend it, but remember that the 1980s were actually rather brash and whilst they craved style, their taste was not exactly impeccable. You might like it, however, and it's certainly very much of the decade.

This 1980s Ferrari clock is of a similar style to old monkey chops, but rather more tasteful. I want it all. I want it all. I want it all. And I want it now!

Here's my trusty old wall clock from circa 1987. Still going strong.

More 1980s home design tips coming soon!

Power Showers....

Power, darling - don't you just love the idea? And Power Dressing, didn't you just love that, too?

20th Century Words by John Ayto - published in 1999 - defines Power Dressing thus:

noun (1980) a style of dressing for work and business intended to convey an impression of efficiency and confidence. Applied particularly to clothing adopted by some women to fit in with the ruthless business ethic of the 1980s, characterised by the use of shoulder-pads to create a more masculine-looking outline.

Of course, looking back at the 1980s from our current vantage point, we can see that the shoulder-padded look was also part of lots of 1980s fun fashion - and that many men employed it, too.

I did. I thought it so stylish. And the choice of colours for jackets back then, together with the patterned material inside that you could roll up your sleeves to reveal and contrast, was a wow.

Power dressing was followed by a range of "power" prefixes - you could have a power walk, power nap, power breakfast, power washes and, of course, a power shower...

There's nothing like a Power Shower - to pamper, to soothe, to invigorate, to leave you tingling-fresh.

And now they start at an even better price.

For less than £300 inc. VAT, you can have, installed - a shower with an adjustable head that puts you in control, to choose the spray that suits your mood.

A shower with a powerful pump which, when added to your gas central heating, keeps the luxurious water flow constant, and maintains the temperature you choose.

And a shower that can still cost less to take than a bath. Even more of a bargain when you remember that heating your water by gas is your cheapest option - 24 hrs a day.

The Power Shower. Saving you money all-round.

See them and other energy saving gas appliances at British Gas showrooms now.

British Gas - ENERGY IS OUR BUSINESS

I do love the black tiles with red grouting effect featured in the ad photograph. Very '80s indeed!

Searching For A 1980s Wall Clock...

Simon has written:

I remember back in the late 1980s having a very excellent wall clock: It was plastic, shaped like an alarm clock, and in very 80s colours. There was an 80s motif on the face. Do you know anything about these? I threw mine out years ago, and I'd like another now but I haven't seen any on eBay at all.

I think the photograph above shows one of the clocks you are referring to, Simon. I've had it since about 1987/1988 and it hangs in my hall - together with my Adam Ant mirror!

It still keeps good time (the clock, not the mirror!).

Keep an eye on eBay - I'm sure one will turn up. They were terrific novelty clocks - cheap and cheerful. You could have mine, but we've been through a lot together and I'm very fond of it!

Boardroom Blinds At Home...

Snippets from an article on window blinds, Bella magazine, January 1988.

I remember a lot of very attractive window blinds in the mid-to-late 1980s. I favoured some really snazzy red ones for the kitchen of the flat I shared with some friends, but never got round to buying them.

I like this look!

The most famous vertical louvres of the 1980s were those featured on the opening titles of the revamped ITV soap opera Crossroads in 1985.

I recall a rather posh friend of mine replacing her old horizontal blinds with vertical ones c. 1987. If my neighbourhood is anything to go by, there has been a revival of this fashion in recent years.

Some Actual 1980s Sticky-Back Vinyl

Bought this Storeys self adhesive contact vinyl c. 1983. Just used a bit to edge the bathroom cabinet and a battered old cupboard at my flat. In 2009, my wife came across the remaining roll at the back of the in-built wardrobe at our house.

I was really excited and greeted it like a long-lost friend - "It'll look great on the blog!"

Said she: "You're barmy, do you know that?"

Another found relic from the 1980s: "Ooh to be ah jet setter, be ah head start..." Limahl and the Kajagoogoo lads appearing on a lovely sew-on patch. At the time, I thought Limahl's rather unique hairdo was great.

Some Snazzy 1980s Bedding!

Very '80s indeed - Index Catalogue, Spring Summer 1989.

A cutting edge mid-1980s duvet cover.

Three '80s slumbersome lovelies - Argos, 1987 - the two duvet cover and pillow slip sets on the left have that particular 1980s something!

A peek in a 1983 mail order catalogue for some more stylish '80s bedding.

The sad-faced clown, Pierrot, was remarkably popular and was available to buy in a number of different guises...

There were Pierrot dolls, pictures, wall masks, ornaments and, as seen here, lamps, curtains and bedding. Have I missed anything?!

Were you a Pierrot person?

Must admit, these was more my cup of tea!

Snazzy Curtains, A Stylish Radio and a Trendy Bedspread...

These 1980s curtains are... er... very colourful, aren't they?!

Meanwhile, these particular 1980s curtains can still be seen hanging in my house. Viewings by prior appointment only.

This stylish pink and green mid-80s radio cassette was, or so it says on the box, "SELECTED FASHION FOR YOU". It still works, too.

A lovely mid-1980s bedspread.