Why revive when you can thrive

The noughties kicked off with a 1980s electropop renaissance – and the looks that went with it have lasted.

 If you’re feeling a little nostalgic, why not build a throwback palette, spun in a way that feels more contemporary than retro?

Soft pastels featured heavily in the kitchens of the 80s, with pale pinks and yellows often being combined together in a single scheme. By picking the right shades, the look can feel just as fresh today as it did then. The popular pastels of yesteryear have been updated with slightly muddier tones, making them a great match for today’s fashionable warm greys.

In this dining area, walls in Resene Despacito, a barely-there blush, have been offset with a rosier Resene Soulful accent wall and a Resene Yuma floor – an olive yellow with less of the buttery quality than the sunshine shades of the 80s – which make for a warm and inviting revival scheme. Warm gold-toned woods, which were also popular back then, are a natural fit for a palette like this one yet their modern shapes and simplistic style make this dining set more covetable for a contemporary setting. Set with grey dinnerware and rose-gold toned cutlery, the full look plays perfect homage to the best parts of a decade that was admittedly filled with some questionable design choices.

Crisp white, like the Resene Alabaster painted pendant lamp, the small vase and the background of the artwork, finishes off the look by making those elements really pop – but it’s the 80s-style collage, created with little more than a few Resene testpots that adds a level of interest that makes the space really shine. Two coats of Resene Cleopatra, Resene Smoulder, Resene Love Me Do, Resene BFF and Resene Soulful were painted onto sections of heavy white cardstock and allowed to dry fully before being doodled on with a series of black polka dots and squiggles using a permanent marker, or you could use a testpot of Resene Black. Wavy, freeform shapes were then cut out at random and glued on to a stiff cardboard background, which was given an oh-so-80s grid treatment with a fine-lined black pen. The effect is one of a kind, yet it’s entirely easy to replicate yourself at home.

And what could be a more perfect way to add the finish touch to a bright and sunny 80s-revival room like this than with fresh lemons, presented in a wooden bowl painted in Resene Just Dance, and a bouquet of daisies, propped up in a Resene Ethereal vase? We can’t think of a single thing.

Styling by Laura Lynn Johnston. Photography by Bryce Carleton. 2019