Only true ’90s kids can identify all of these living room items from 1996
If you lived through the ’90s, you probably wanted to spend an afternoon at Central Perk with the cast of Friends. Or you were a big fan of Will & Grace, or of Seinfeld. Beyond those memories, you can probably still identify a good many living room items from that era.
IKEA agrees about the television, as it happens. Its own look back at the 1996 catalog opens by noting that flip phones were a craze and “we’re hooked on the TV series Friends.” The show was three seasons in by the autumn of that year.
Here is what the room around that television looked like.
The KUBIST TV bench
Low, light wood, and built to disappear under the television rather than frame it. IKEA describes it as complementing a minimal industrial look, which was the 1996 alternative to the enormous wall unit. Castors were everywhere in that catalog, because the loft-style open-plan room was the aspiration and everything had to roll out of the way.
The SUFFLÖR storage unit
IKEA’s own word for it is monolithic. Cherry-stained beech veneer, tempered-glass doors and lacquered sheet steel, and a load rating that tells you everything about 1996 television: it held a 35-inch TV weighing up to 90 kilos.
That’s 198 pounds of television. In the living room. On casters.
The TORNUM CD tower
Over a meter tall, in wood and glass, with space for up to 68 CDs. IKEA called it a space-saving music library, and the point was display as much as storage. You wanted people to see the collection.
The TIMMERMAN storage system
Modular, flexible, and listed in IKEA’s own records alongside the TIMRÅ and BONDE benches. TIMRÅ came in clear-lacquered beech veneer with silver steel tubing and was sized to hold a 14-inch television, a VCR, and a full hi-fi system. One piece of furniture, three machines, four remote controls.
Rag-rolled walls and stenciled borders
This is the one people forget. The 1996 catalog is full of what IKEA calls artsy effects: rag rolling, stained wood, stenciling, prints meant to look hand-painted.
Changing Rooms arrived on BBC Two in September 1996 and poured fuel on the fire. Carol Smillie hosted, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen designed, and the show ran until 2004. When it moved to BBC One in 1998, it pulled more than 10 million viewers.
Check and plaid sofas
TULKA and TRANÅS in two-tone checks, and the plaid-like STOCKHOLM. IKEA’s archive asks the obvious question: who didn’t love a check or plaid sofa in the 1990s?
The bedrooms got the same treatment, in grunge-style flannel checks.
Removable covers with skirts and bows
Shabby chic, and a cheap way to refresh a sofa you couldn’t replace. The 1996 catalog is full of covers with pleated skirts, ties, bows, and kick pleats at the corners. Romantic, rustic, and washable.
Knotty pine, proudly knotty
Lacquered pine with the knots left visible, on cabinets, floors and beds. IKEA’s antique-inspired solid pine REJÄL kitchen was sold on a monthly payment plan at under 50 euros a month. Beech and birch were the modern alternative for anyone who found pine too rustic.
The bottom line
The SUFFLÖR unit was rated for a 35-inch television weighing up to 90 kilos, and the TORNUM tower held 68 CDs. Changing Rooms debuted on BBC Two in September 1996.
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