15 Interior Design Trends From the '90s That You'll Never See Again

Looking back, there was little good about inflatable furniture. It wasn't comfortable, it didn't last long, and it made you look like a college student or trailer trash. Still, there was something irresistible about sitting on a big shiny balloon. At least until it popped.

In a decade trying to distance themselves from the loud aesthetic of the '80s, the '90s toned it down with a new era of minimalism. This didn't mean the high design architecture of Le Corbusier but instead low key tones like beige and white. Minimalism was an early trait of the '90s, which seemed to veer in the opposite direction with floral and damask later in the decade. We're not sure which was worse—the drab look of the early years or the schizophrenic interiors of the late '90s.

The emphasis on minimalism in the '90s led to a trend in all-white kitchens. Once again, the whitewash was an attempt to move away from ostentatious kitchen designs in the '80s. While the white kitchens certainly weren't the worst thing to come out of the '90s, they must've been impossible to keep clean—just about as impractical as inflatable furniture.

Some people just couldn't resist a little decorating flourish despite the move towards minimalism in the '90s, and a white kitchen wasn't complete without vines of ivy wrapping around its walls in the form of decals or stencils. The cliché ivy design may have been a precursor to the decade's later floral explosion, and it wasn't much better.

For some reason, people were really into pastels in the '90s. We don't think men were at the forefront of this trend (or most interior design trends of the '90s for that matter), and rooms occupied by every gender opted for soft colors. Maybe it was just an attempt to switch up the white and beige.

People must have had enough with the decade's early minimalism, and in response dove headfirst into a floral pattern craze in the '90s, choosing clashing flowery patterns for their couches, rugs, wallpaper, and curtains. Such homes looked like a gardener threw up in your living room. While floral has made a comeback in the fashion world since the '90s, we hope it never invades homes like this again.

It's true that real flowers are hard to take care of, but it's not like fake flowers ever fooled anyone for long. Sometimes the silk petals looked real, but the tacky plastic stems always gave them away. Even though fake flowers were supposed to add some color to your home, they tended to just be a place to gather dust.

Everyone started getting crafty in the '90s, and one way to spice up a boring wall was to create a textured effect with sponge painting. While it was a huge step up from floral wallpaper, this method didn't make your home look high class at all. At least it was much easier (and cheaper) than trying to do a perfect paint job yourself.

In the '90s, we all wanted to live like Hollywood stars. In order to feel like the rich and famous, people installed Hollywood lighting, mirrors framed in bright yellow light bulbs, in their bathrooms. While this may not have been the most flattering of design trends, it still serves as a kind of wishful vanity that we could imagine coming back in style.

There is something gross about bathroom carpeting. While it's better than stepping onto cold tiles after you shower, it seems like it would be impossible to clean and constantly moldy. Also, why did so many people choose to install brown shag?

Admit it, you had a poster of the cast of Melrose Place or Beverly Hills 90210 in your bedroom. Whether it was the heartthrob stars or the cheesy plotlines, people got hooked on sappy '90s TV. In an era when the only reality show was The Real World you had plenty of time to watch classic '90s dramas. Also, the '90s was the era of framing posters instead of art, which unfortunately made adult homes look like college dorm rooms.

It was the pine tree's time to shine in the '90s, and everyone went wild over pine furniture. Chairs, tables, dressers, cabinets—everything was made of the unpainted wood. While most pine furniture looks almost antique to us now, in terms of quality, it sure beats Ikea's junk.

Besides crazy flower patterns, people went wild over damask wallpaper in the late '90s. Damask comes from Islamic and Byzantine cultures during the Middle Ages where weavers would make patterned reversible textiles. The modern rendition is typically a two-toned printed wallpaper design (often featuring gold), and it is enough to give you a headache.

These plastic stars turned a boring room into the endless space of the night sky. Most kids stuck the stars in a random pattern, but some really creative children tried to mimic the constellations. It was inevitable that adhering stars to your celling would ruin a paint job, but this is one trend that was so worth it.

In the middle of flowers, pastels, and damask, the dudes of the '90s needed to find some way to assert their manliness on their homes. Enter, the light-up beer sign. From old school Budweiser ads to neon lettering that belongs in a bar, a lot of people latched onto light-up beer paraphernalia. While these signs are some of the frattiest decor we can imagine, at least they infused a little masculinity into '90s homes.