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It’s Coming Back… 1980s Interior ‘Cocaine’ Design

With interior design trends being pretty wholesome like clean Silestone countertops of late, it’s only a matter of time before things get a little less G-rated. It seems 1980s cocaine decor must be the next big thing… excessive mirrors, glass surfaces, white ceramic statues, and neon lights.

Think Scarface, Art Deco revival, Lucite furniture, and Sharon Stone in Casino or Basic Instinct. It is a design aesthetic rooted in dramatic, slippery furniture, and possessing the sex appeal of an unbothered, mustached horndog in a Versace bathrobe… all with the freaky lighting from the OG Ghostbusters. Cocaine Decor is all about showing off and turning up the volume on form, color, and energy… perhaps simply with darker Silestone colors?

For decades, the garish tastes of the late 1970s and early 1980s have been lampooned for producing some of the ugliest design in the history of mankind: overstuffed couches, dark wood paneling, shag carpets, lacquered surfaces, and overuse of gold accents. They have been universally panned ever since. Like many people today, everyone back then seemed to think they were a hot-shot executive and decorated their homes like the equivalent of one big shoulder pad. Waterbeds… hilarious. Conversation pits… just terrible.

But most people thought the same about mullets and even the abstract pastel flourishes of Memphis Design, yet here we are again these days. We are all really due for a swing in this direction. After years cooped up thanks to Covid, fluffing our nests and spending perhaps a little too much time with our families, we are tired of Netflix… People are aching to party like it’s 1979! The aesthetics of excess will naturally follow.

Shift Away from Clean Silestone?

1980s Cocaine Design Interiors - Silestone

Forecasters predict a shift in line with early-2000s ‘indie sleaze.’ Think American Apparel, flash photography at parties, messy hair, and messy makeup.

So how, exactly, do these trends translate to interior decor and impact on Silestone trends? Retailers like CB2 are already starting to move in this direction with things like clear lucite furniture, barrel chairs, tropical touches befitting a Miami drug lord, and gilded lamps. Right now you won’t find a hashtag relating to 80s cocaine decor, but it has to be right around the corner.

What do you think?

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