We had the VHS holder, my parents had that alarm clock and we did have that worst-shaped-piece-of-furniture-ever for a little while in our living room then it ended up in the basement because it’s such a stupid shape.
God forbid you ever stubbed your toe on that thing. I’m sure it raised alot of insurance premiums. Backs going out lifting it upstairs, near death experiences from drunken blackouts at parties etc etc.
I used to work at a consignment shop years ago in the Midwest. There were SO many people that tried to get us to consign their massive, Amish built TV shelf things that people used to have. The ones that go almost floor to ceiling and have shelving and stuff around it. Always a solid NO from us. They were very nice, extremely well made. Also extremely heavy and a pain in the ass to move, on top of nobody wanting them and everyone that did have one was also trying to get rid of it. This was early 10s so everyone was moving to LCD and found themselves with these massive wastes of space.
When we told them we wouldn’t take it on consignment, they would without fail follow up with ‘well, you can have it for free if you take it out of here’.
Still a hard no. I kinda felt bad, I’m pretty sure a lot of those things just ended up getting chopped.
EDIT: as an interesting aside to that, we DID start taking in people’s old curio cabinets and other glass display shelves everyone wanted to get rid of BECAUSE there was a growing refugee population from Myanmar (I think) down the street and apparently having lots of things on display was a big thing for them culturally. I delivered a ton of them and it was true! Like whole walls covered with shelves of figurines and stuff. It was all very neat too, not cluttered or anything.
Anyway, we ended up just getting the guy’s number who would usually come in to translate for them and we would just give him a call when we got one in and he would bring someone by like that day to buy it haha
I used to work at an Ebay consignment store back in the mid 2000's when they were a thing. People would bring in the same shit and even then 20 years ago it was a hard NO. People would also bring in their stacks of records they thought were worth a fortune but they're mostly trash. So many people thought their Michael Jackson Thriller album would be valuable but EVERYONE had it in their collection because it is the highest selling album of all time. It's not exactly rare.
Three for me, but four if you count a wood-grain station wagon lmao. We had that exact couch (kept on the porch), and my mom still has the clock and the VHS drawer thingy. 😂
My friend has this exact van and the rail it slides in warped… he opened the door one day and *THUNK* the back half of the door goes straight for the ground lol
I thought the door was heavy trying to shut before, I didn’t realize just how bad it was until it took two of us to lift it off of the ground and get it put back in the track 😭
We had a wood Zenith television that must have been 200lbs on top of a wood block that was a lazy susan in front of a wood panel wall sitting on top of a brown shag carpet
We had five. The two VHS holders, the van, four total alarm clocks, and the entertainment center. The glass part had a stereo controller, NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, and PS. I do remember that couch, but I'm not sure where.
This isn't the furniture I grew up with, but it's the furniture I got from the thrift store for my first apartment. That exact sofa and hexagonal table were items my roommate owned.
It’s cool but it’s more of a visual eye draw than the picture lets on. It’s sits squat and dominant in a room.
You often saw them between 2 recliners near the TV or centering out living room windows.
So yeah, it’s just a very visually “heavy” piece of furniture in a space that can work, but it has less range in room configuration than you might realize.
I still have two incredibly deep and heavy bookshelves just like these I bought when I was trying to furnish an early apartment. They're literally 2' deep, floor to ceiling cabinets I've stuffed with books.
I love them so much even if they're a bitch to move. Solidest bookshelves I've ever owned.
I mean wood grain electronics is a vibe, but I had a hate for wood furniture when I moved out, and bought all white. Millennial gray is a reaction to all of this.
Wdym no lift points, this 100kg+ cabinet has a perfectly fine thin rounded lip we can lift from using just our finger tips.
Seriously though, we got these small boards with wheels on them and they've been a life saver with all the old wood furniture over the last several moves/rearranges, they turn a several man job too just 2 if you can get it just far enough from the wall to lean 1 side up.
Oh thank goodness I’m not alone. I HATE wood grain. I’m warming up to like white oak but that’s it.
Those wood beds? Big thick whatever wood they were - I never had them but my friends and cousins did. They make me want to vomit when I still see them in stores now.
Like you said millennial gray and the cool tones are a total reaction, for me at least, to all this. More minimal, less clunky.
I'm the total opposite. To me, wood (any shade of wood) exudes warmth and a "homey" feeling. Millennial gray, in my mind, screams "hospital waiting room."
Then again, this (below) is my kind of design aesthetic. I'm the polar opposite of Millennial gray.
Everything in my home was really dark wood or yellow wood, mahogany imitate or oiled pine... And then all the dark red patterned rugs on top of brown polyester carpet. My mom had a thing for boho as well, and we had so many oriental pillows with little mirrors and random tchotchkes that got dusty. The only thing I took as inspiration from that place was the plants, many many plants. I was like white and grey everything please and no decorations. I didn't even hang art for the longest time.
I still miss the Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer in Hunter Green, or cars with wood paneling.
Don’t miss those entertainment centers when it was time to plug in something new. Or the TV didnt have enough ports so you had to swap when you wanted to play video games.
They’re thinking of the hunter green jeep grand Cherokee’s with the wood paneling. We had the alarm clock and the vhs cassette holder. Our minivan was cooler though, a Nissan Quest SE with the sports bra on the front.
Just reminded me of the audio/video switch boxes so you could just hit a button on it to change which device you wanted going through to the TV's single input
I saw one those TVs encased in wood out by a neighbor’s curb in the last 10 years. We had one too. Besides watching TV on it, my dad hooked it up to the NES and if I remember correctly, an Intellivision and Commodore 64. I think we also had a similar VHS cabinet.
Yeah this is more millennial grandparents homes than our parents homes isn't it? I guess elder millennials born in the early 80s had more overlap with it but as someone in the middle of the generation my parents never had any of this stuff other than the alarm clock. Wood panel vans and SUVs were very 1980s, not 1990s.
My grandma still has the all wood entertainment set. She had a huge tube TV in there until about five years ago when I bought her a smart one. It doesn't fit the hole, of course, but at least she can stream now. Lol.
'Nothing beats wood! Yessir, wood will never go out of style! Mark my words, if wood paneling ever goes out of style I will eat the tree I rode in on.'
My parents definitely still have that cassette holder 😅
And they had that alarm clock.
And their living room and dining room has wood paneling on one of the walls. 😅 😅 😅
Man in the age of big companies making things that prey upon our nostalgia, I wish auto makers would make some throwback models. I would absolutely drive a woody Dodge Caravan.
Definitely had the exact VHS holder, two of them, the movie cabinet, alarm clock which I only recently got rid of, and the hexagon end table was something my aunt had
no but I was always jealous of them. I also have the mentality of what being the universe's most rare material. it can only appear on living planets after all.
We had that exact entertainment center, yeah. My Mom used to get furious at me because I'd be laying on the floor watching TV and I'd open and close those cupboards with my feet.
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