35 Things Every ’80s Kitchen Had (and You Forgot About)

We already dug through the amazing things found in a 1970s kitchen — all that macrame and earth tones — but the 1980s kitchen? That's a whole different animal.

The harvest golds and avocado greens were no longer a part of the new 1980s kitchen color scheme (although if your parents thought what you had was perfectly fine, then you probably had that clear into the '90s). The modern 1980s kitchen was all about white-on-white cabinetry, lots of brass, and mauve/forest green/dusty rose everywhere.

Homework, MTV, and a Phone With a Very Long Cord all in One Room

This was the decade when the kitchen became command central for the modern American family. Homework was done at the island, MTV played from a portable TV on the counter, and every surface quickly filled up with collectible stuff that felt essential and baffling to us clutterphobes now.

MORE '80s: These 27 Frozen Treats Perfectly Defined 1980s Summers

Collectible 1980s Drinking Glasses - Smurfs and The Chipmunks

A Typical '80s Kitchen Had an Entire Cupboard of Collectible Glasses

Mom did her best to keep matching sets of dinnerware, but she was no match for your obsession with collecting glasses from every fast-food restaurant, gas station, and anywhere else you could find one. Smurfs? Check! The Chipmunks? Check! You had them all. There's been talk that these glasses contained lead, but that wouldn't have mattered back then because you ate pencils for fun. You were untouchable in the '80s.

Pizzaria-Style Lamp Hanging by Chain Over Kitchen Table in the 1980s

A Pizzaria-Style Lamp Hanging From Chain Over the Kitchen Table Was Peak '80s

Nothing was as fancy to an average American family as eating out (yes, you ate there) at Pizza Hut. So why not bring the decor home, specifically, hanging faux-Tiffany stained glass lamps over the kitchen table? It immediately makes me think of the scene in E.T. when the boys are playing poker at the kitchen table.

We have even more '80s kitchen essentials below.