Style & Decor Blog

Remember The Golden Girls?

The set for the Miami home shared by everyone’s favourite silver-haired sirens is surely one of the iconic interiors of the ’80s – blond, cane-framed furniture, an abundance of creamy pastel pinks and turquoises, that dreamy lanai (a word that only seems to exist south of the border) and, the clincher for me, that huge-repeat banana leaf wallpaper that wrapped Blanche’s bedroom in over-the-top tropical splendour…

Turns out the wallpaper – a pattern called Martinique – was originally commissioned for use in the Beverly Hills Hotel in the 1940s, and continues to pop up in select rooms there to this day.

I was really pleased to see Brian Atwood and superstar designer Nate Berkus use this classic pattern in the dining room of Atwood’s Milan apartment in a recent issue of Elle Decor. I admire their guts in mounting this fantastic foliage in such a large-scale application. This is an 80s throwback I could definitely live with!

From Elle Decor, April 2009 (Photography by Simon Upton)

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…And now, for the third and final instalment of my journey through the hallowed halls of the IKEA Through the Ages Museum, I’ll take you from the 80s – the decade of Dynasty, excess and primary brights – through to present day.

Yes, even IKEA designs lived large in the 80s, as witnessed by this poor Klippan sofa (released in 1980, and still available in stores!), which is being strangled by a puffy, sleeping-bag-like quilted red slipcover, circa 1984. 

And here’s the tuxedo-style Klippan, 29 years on – mercifully sans sleeping bag.

Klippan loveseat in Frasig black leather, $599

1987 saw the release of IKEA’s first Stockholm Collection – furnishings at a slightly higher price-point, and having undergone a curious change of design direction. Certainly not something you’d ever immediately associate with IKEA, this must have shocked a few shoppers back in the day. (A second Stockholm Collection came out in 2006-2007, as you may recall, and it was gorge!)

…But it’s back to form in the 1990s with that iconic, Swedish simplicity that continues to inform IKEA’s contemporary designs. Light, bright and airy, the Tomelilla sofa and armchair (1993) in loose fitting white slipcovers are so relaxed and inviting, and the Egeby carpet (1998) has since become a decorating staple. 

A great experiment began in 1993, with the sale of 18th Century Swedish furniture at IKEA. Based on genuine Gustavian antiques, these were truly works of art. The line was discontinued about five years later… The curator of the museum explained that it was because the line just wasn’t selling enough units (the furnishings tended to be more costly than standard IKEA releases)…

And that, ladies and gents, brings us back to the 21st century, and the IKEA that we know and love today. And, of course, the reason I was in Almhult, Sweden, to begin with. Which I still can’t divulge. lol