Your mom, circa 1992 because her hairdresser just did it at the salon.

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akr291@reddit

Omg no. When this fad came back in the early 2000s (I used to work at Sherwin-Williams) I wanted to die.

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malibusoul@reddit

Ok thank you for this comment bc my parents did this in their spare office / bedroom in 2001! Along with the one-red-wall in the living room, lol.

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anitabelle@reddit

1992?! Ha! I did this shit in my own house in 2005!! Different colors but same technique.

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malibusoul@reddit

Yeah my mom & step-dad did it in a room in 2001! Lol

[-]

I did it in 2010 after I got cellulose insulation blown into my walls through a zillion little holes. Sponging is excellent for concealing imperfections in drywall texture, and a whole lot easier than redoing the entire drywall surface and then doing a full paint job.

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Sad_Apple_3387@reddit

Oof, sorry to hear that

[-]

malibusoul@reddit

Wait my parents did this in 2001! Lol

[-]

CookieCuriosity@reddit

My mom did this but in vertical stripes

[-]

thoughtfractals85@reddit

This is so accurate. My mom stenciled a grapevine design on each stair riser too, and wallpapered a ceiling.

She regrets that wallpaper to this day after she gave my son a Spiderman silky string web shooter. The white textured wallpaper has had blue squiggles on it for a decade now!

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Bright_Lynx_7662@reddit

I did that for my aunt. Plus the navy blue with celestial sun bathroom.

[-]

TacoNomad@reddit

Are you my brother?

Grapevine everywhere

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RVAforthewin@reddit

Are y’all my aunt?

[-]

Own-Geologist-8978@reddit

Totally. That thing stayed up on the walls until last year! 🤯 Also my mom never looked as masculine as the first pic 😆

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Key-Acadia-824@reddit

Dado rail, half plain half sponge bobed.

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gaudrhin@reddit

Omfg my mom did this to the two kid bedrooms.

One was brown with a greyish sponged and looked food.

The other was ugly ass bright yellow with white sponging. Guess which room I was stuck in for way too long.

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DoomerChad@reddit

My mom did my room yellow sponged too!

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everlasting_addendum@reddit

My mom toooooo! I got to choose peach and my sister chose butter yellow. When the light hit them just right… those bedroom walls would sing.

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gaudrhin@reddit

I wish any of us had had a choice in colors. Ever.

Once I got a place I could paint to my own tasts, I FINALLY got the green bedroom I've always wanted. No awful beige, no unsaturated color. I'm LIVING. Check out this color!

Featuring cats.

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Key-Shift5076@reddit

I see your cats and raise you my cat on my sofa in a similar shade.

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agentmkultra666@reddit

My parents always had our house(s) be 50 shades of beige, so in my adult life I’ve only painted my walls the most saturated of colors.

Your green walls look lovely!

[-]

sheathandsword@reddit

My parents let us pick colors and paint ourselves. I had all sorts of crazy colors. Great foundation for life skills, I’m very thankful.

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I_like_flowers_@reddit

lovely green, lovely cats

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Pheeline@reddit

One of the bedrooms in our current house was already painted a similar green (a bit lighter, but not much) when we bought it and it's lovely! It's our kid's room, and as you can probably tell, she really likes cats.

[-]

epidemicsaints@reddit (OP)

Holo Taco has a nail polish almost this exact color. It's the supposed "ugliest color" that Australia uses for cigarette packaging but it's so lovely. Really nice on the wall!!!

https://www.holotaco.com/products/born-ugly

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gaudrhin@reddit

That's a much more brown/olive green than mine.

Mine's called Cilantro, which is frigigng hilarious because I have the cilantro soap gene and I hate tje actual stuff.

That said, that's actually a really nice olive green!

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Wolfwoods_Sister@reddit

I kinda love that color! I think the ugliest color would be like a white-out macaroni orange?

[-]

Khajiit_Has_Upvotes@reddit

We've let our daughter paint her room many times. Over her 16 years of life it's been a few different shades of pink, a couple different greens, 2 purples, and white.

[-]

ISeeDeadDaleks@reddit

My mom did this to our kitchen - the background was white and then she used a scrunched up plastic shopping bag to make the pattern. She used both navy blue and teal.

[-]

Batmansbutthole@reddit

That’s hilarious lol

My mom put wallpaper in my bedroom that had a cloud print and the minute she finished she realized all the cloud were upside down 🙃

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kummerspect@reddit

My mom also did this with brown on beige. My brother said it looked like one of the cats "blew ass" on the wall. He was right.

[-]

gaudrhin@reddit

Ours looked more like the dried out inside of a bad chocolate bar.

[-]

PickleFlavordPopcorn@reddit

The yellow ones always looked like nicotine stain

[-]

MKE_likes_it@reddit

My mom did this to my kid sisters bedroom around 1996. We were renovating the house at the time so it was done by professionals.

My sister literally started crying when she saw it! 😂

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chels182@reddit

My dad did this to my room in 2005.

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BeBopBarr@reddit

100% helped my mom do this in not one, but two houses using dusty rose & gold paint 😅

[-]

Key-Shift5076@reddit

Limewash is the sophisticated version of this, and so much better when done well.

[-]

Fun-Preparation-4253@reddit

My bedroom was splatter painted

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Key-Shift5076@reddit

I have a pair of leggings in this rainbow.

[-]

MegaRadCoolDad@reddit

My wife did something similar but used Walmart bags or something

[-]

dumb__fucker@reddit

This is a hill I'll die on.

Sponge painted walls will always be in style.

[-]

Few_Candle9432@reddit

My god you are so right.

[-]

Allaplgy@reddit

First time I ever took acid and stayed up all night, my girlfriend surprised me by having her rabidly Catholic Italian parents pick me up the next morning so we could sponge paint her room. it was a surprise all right. interesting day.

[-]

Exciting-Argument-67@reddit

Well I hope they at least brought you "shvoydells" or made some good Sunday gravy.

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kalitarios@reddit

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Exciting-Argument-67@reddit

Ahhh ... half of me thinks this is really funny, and half of me is really bothered by both of those apostrophes. (Apostrophes in decades go before the numbers. '80s. '90s. '00s. The apostrophe is meant to show an omitted letter or digit.)

[-]

SnooKiwis2161@reddit

This never gets old to me. That hairdo is spot on for 90s moms.

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tjdux@reddit

The cigarette posture is just on point for my mom too.

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Wolfwoods_Sister@reddit

I’m dying

[-]

Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit

and add the ceiling border of ducks

[-]

epidemicsaints@reddit (OP)

You're getting popcorn for xmas in a blue goose tin.

[-]

Rise-O-Matic@reddit

Holy shit

[-]

Josephthebear@reddit

Yo, I just said the same exact thing like I swear that 10 existed for years in my house

[-]

drtyhppi@reddit

Did you just use 10 in place of tin?

[-]

Josephthebear@reddit

Yeah I was laying in bed and rolled it out in voice text 😂

[-]

Josephthebear@reddit

This one too ^

[-]

GarminTamzarian@reddit

They do shit a lot.

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kddemer@reddit

Our whole kitchen was decorated with these damn geese!

[-]

epidemicsaints@reddit (OP)

They were even printed onto paper towels. Even without trying they slowly appeared in the house.

[-]

agentmkultra666@reddit

Country ducks and cornflower blue covering every kitchen in America between 1988-1993

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Spartan04@reddit

Bonus points if it’s one of those tins that had a divider and 3 types of popcorn.

[-]

epidemicsaints@reddit (OP)

There was also a flatter "butter cookie tin" shape that had a twist tied bag of potato chips inside.

[-]

noreasterner@reddit

You mean sewing supplies and buttons bin?

[-]

epidemicsaints@reddit (OP)

Or the subspecies filled with seed packets.

[-]

kalitarios@reddit

Or Uncle Mike’s weed hiding place I found

[-]

Spartan04@reddit

But sometimes my grandma would repurpose the cookie tins and put actual homemade butter cookies in them to send home with us. Those were the best.

[-]

CmdretteZircon@reddit

My grandma repurposed the large Folgers tins and filled them with homemade chocolate chip. Always a thrill to see a massive can of coffee come through the door.

[-]

Dat_Brunhildgen@reddit

I have one of those! Didn't even realise they were an old fad.

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TheCheshireCatCan@reddit

My mom had this. We kept change in it.

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PickleFlavordPopcorn@reddit

Iconic

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heldaway@reddit

OMG

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IchibanBlue@reddit

Oh my god

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Exciting-Argument-67@reddit

My m-i-l still has what I call "the duck bathroom."

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jambr380@reddit

My mom stenciled a border around every room of our house. Then we moved and she stenciled a border around every room of that house

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epidemicsaints@reddit (OP)

I lived in a house like that in Cincy in the 00s but with wallpaper borders in every room. Drove me insane. My bedroom had grapes and vinegar / olive oil bottles.

[-]

tealraven915@reddit

And this lady was somehow involved

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Last_Pick_2169@reddit

“Romanesque “ never misused so much lol

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Euphoric_Egg_4198@reddit

And all you can eat bread sticks?

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west-egg@reddit

When you’re here, you’re family.

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Pheeline@reddit

I had a wallpaper border in my bedroom in the 00s but at least it was kind of neat, it looked like a bookshelf.

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epidemicsaints@reddit (OP)

The kitchen's border was a shelf with knick knacks and cats! Having one in every room was too much but I have seen cute ones. Plus I was like 20 and the overall theme was wine mom.

[-]

LineImpossible3958@reddit

One our bathrooms had that trim

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Prize_Ad6430@reddit

Hahaa. I remember that motif. Gotta add the cornucopia one in there 😅

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Hntrbdnshog@reddit

Holy shit that’s a weird thing for me to suddenly remember vividly.

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LordoftheScheisse@reddit

Farm stencils full of geese, mostly. We lived in the suburbs.

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BeenisHat@reddit

Yup. My mom did that. She decided she was good enough to freehand sheep around the kitchen and living room. It looked like we had white pickles with legs matching around the house. 😂

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jambr380@reddit

Free handing was definitely a brave and bold choice. I salute her for the effort

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DoodleDoo1989@reddit

gif

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Mudcreek47@reddit

Moms gonna mom no matter where you are

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Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit

🤣🤣🤣

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draynen@reddit

If my mom weren't cremated she would be rolling in her grave.

[-]

Crocswereinthebox@reddit

Or fruit.

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Issis_P@reddit

Along with that accent wall, don’t forget to paint one wall an entire solid color, one wall half paint and half wallpaper with trim and another wall fully wallpapered. Mom pulled from that book for all of our rooms growing up.

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Disarming_Sapphire@reddit

Are you me?

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clutzycook@reddit

We had that in our kitchen. It was a slightly odd shaped with a small half wall for our pantry. My mom put wallpaper on that small wall and painted the rest of the kitchen.

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TheDivine_MissN@reddit

This was my grandma. Ducks were prominent in the kitchen. With Pale blue ribbons around the neck.

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GetTheLead_Out@reddit

I had a hunt scene!

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Reasonable-Wave8093@reddit

that hunter green

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321incognito@reddit

I was very young but I literally begged my mom to do the kitchen in ducks 😂

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LouiseRed1@reddit

Holy hell! Yes! Ours were mallards!

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bdwf@reddit

Oh my goddddd. We had lighthouses but still yes this.

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NachoNachoDan@reddit

How did you get into my childhood bedroom?

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SeamusMcBalls@reddit

My mom did this to replace the gold veined wall mirror tiles… lol

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epidemicsaints@reddit (OP)

Those are all over South Philly I am absolutely obsessed with them. The rooms are so narrow, it is so freaky!

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Exciting-Argument-67@reddit

I found a box of those gold-veined wall mirror tiles in my grandparents' basement, not too far from South Philly. Must have been a factory in the area.

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Exciting-Argument-67@reddit

I was just thinking, "Nah, not MY mom," and then I remembered the hallway that connected the bedrooms. It was not just that, but stencils that looked like carousel horses.

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Roscoe_P_Trolltrain@reddit

It looks like marble!

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ListeningForAnswers@reddit

I didn’t actually realize these were supposed to look like marble or granite until at least 10 years after they went out of style. I was like, “Wait. THAT’S what they were going for???”

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just-_-just@reddit

The millennials will have to answer for the ship lap walls and live laugh love signs someday. Wait our house was supposed to farmhouse? But we live in Seattle!

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Drum_Eatenton@reddit

So many awkward “barn doors”

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McLoughlin1597@reddit

My friends did this on their bedroom door and there was about a 2 inch gap between the door and the wall. No privacy whatsoever and no way to lock it.

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ListeningForAnswers@reddit

Exactly! I stayed in a hotel room with my family that had a barn door on the bathroom. Everyone heard everyone else’s bathroom business for the entire weekend. No idea why anyone would make the decision to use a barn door for any room that typically requires privacy

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UnicornOnTheJayneCob@reddit

They are good for ADA accessibility!

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cdrikari@reddit

A few moves ago we looked at a house that had western saloon doors for the main bathroom door....and noped right the hell out.

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Key-Demand-2569@reddit

Honestly that the worst part of the trend. Made it acceptable to hotels. Because I fuckin know they’re only doing it because it’s cheaper than hanging a proper door.

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Last_Pick_2169@reddit

Hampton Inn?

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Wolfwoods_Sister@reddit

“Where did you grow up? A barn?!”

“Well… in a way…”

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FionaGoodeEnough@reddit

That is Gen X.

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Southern-Salary2573@reddit

I was right now years old when I found out it was supposed to look like marble or granite

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thinprivileged@reddit

Same.. I still don't see it though

Our bathroom was this- but with blue, teal, and purple. It reminded me of coral

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tjdux@reddit

I can see coral.

I've always thought it looked a lot like cloud edges or water ripples. Not perfect round ripples, but real life messy water texture.

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Wolfwoods_Sister@reddit

The truly terrible thing is that the ancient Romans used these faux marble finishes too and they looked SO TACKY. Like really really awful. It seems that there’s some vein of decorating tackiness built in to certain kinds of people that never dies.

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kellybelly4815@reddit

I think it’s our ability to recognize patterns. When a simulacrum of nature is first introduced to our eyes, it’s hard for most of us to differentiate it from the real thing. But as we see more and more examples to compare against, we start noticing the fakes a lot easier. So to our eyes it looks obviously fake and tacky, but to the Romans and 90s moms, it was a good budget stand-in for the real deal.

I think this is why quartz countertops became so popular in kitchens in the late 00s and 2010s but now that most of us have seen them over and over, they’re still easier to spot and thus are falling out of favor (or at least, that specific grey and white large-scale faux marble pattern is).

Of course, some people are better at pattern recognition than others…

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tjdux@reddit

What if it's as simple as some people like patterns and some people like solids?

Maybe the look is more about enjoying the color interaction vs trying to make a fake version of something? I donno if I worded that right.

I've always enjoyed the sponge patterns in some color combinations just because I love the colors, like a cloudy sunset or rough water ripples, but I've never really seen or cared for the fake marble look.

In the same vein, I rarely like epoxy counters/floors that mimic marble, but I enjoy when they are more extreme.

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Sad_Apple_3387@reddit

lol

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KayBeeToys@reddit

My god, I can smell that booming economy

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cohuman@reddit

Yup our bathroom was peach sponge painted

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Ineedavodka2019@reddit

Ours was mint. It looked like someone got toothpaste all over the walls.

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Constant-Industry262@reddit

Our bathroom was sponge painted light blue, and of course we had beach themed accessories 😄

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civilSurvivorMum@reddit

omg, we had beach-themed accessories as well!I Like this random dish of shells perched precariously on the back of the toilet because beach

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civilSurvivorMum@reddit

same except some kind of mint green/teal instead of peach. She also put up wallpaper border with illustrated seashells that started peeling up almost immediately and was left that way.

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Bad-Moon-Rising@reddit

I wanted to do this all over.my house too. Trading Spaces was my favorite show. My mom wouldn't let me do any of the walls, but I did the back of my bedroom door. She said that way she wouldn't have to look at it, she thought it was tacky.

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ughthatsucks@reddit

We are very close with some people that were on the show. Doug did an application on their walls that they hated and spent days sanding the walls down so they could re-paint.

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Ineedavodka2019@reddit

I loved that show when I was in college and poor and owned nothing. Now that I have a house and decorated how I wanted. No way in hell would I ever let anyone on that show near my house or my stuff. How did I think it was cute?

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spicysatisfaction@reddit

I did my basement bedroom with those sponges with my dad haha core memory unlocked!

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Suitable-Fun-1087@reddit

Needs more stencilling

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geekdadchris@reddit

Yup! She did this for some rooms, and in others she dipped a feather duster in paint to get a sort of palm tree design.

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Visible-Activity-184@reddit

Mine did too! It was "anything but a paintbrush" at my house

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jammin80@reddit

Because heaven forbid we have solid color walls without some "texture".

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fizztothegig@reddit

ugh the feather duster walls. had that for a few years

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jammin80@reddit

My mother sponge painted a gorgeous antique bedroom set (wardrobe, vanity, etc) in the early 90s. She used white, green, and a darker shade of green. I didn't think that furniture could ever look like molded cottage cheese, but she proved me incorrect. It had that same color and texture thanks to the colors and how much paint she plopped on it. And, boy... was she proud.

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Wrong_Ad5460@reddit

My MIL did this with brown paint. Looks like she wiped her ass and stamped it on the walls.

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Anniesoptera@reddit

Lmao one of the bathrooms in my parents house still has this, and in almost the same blue colors as the first pic

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thee_queen@reddit

I feel so attacked but I loved my mom for this cause she made realistic clouds using this technique. lol

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tealraven915@reddit

I went to Lollapalooza in the mid/late 90s as a kid and went through the Brainforest. Loved it so much my mom let me do this to my walls in green, put up a bunch of posters and dubbed my room the Brainforest

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Lucky_Louch@reddit

Mom and sister did it in my sisters room. one of the biggest undertakings, you would think they were building a house.

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Frosty_Cloud_2888@reddit

This was not the use of the phrase “your mom” I was expecting

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blue_suavitel@reddit

We had the Venetian plaster done some time in very the early 2000s.

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thejunkmanadv@reddit

Karen shows you how to do it right!

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epidemicsaints@reddit (OP)

Photos with threatening auras.

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7laserbears@reddit

Dis scary

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FungiStudent@reddit

Lol

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GemFarmerr@reddit

I saved this photo. I feel like I’ll need it soon.

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Plutoniumburrito@reddit

Same, I’m just gonna randomly send it to people.

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Pheeline@reddit

And bonus Papyrus font on the video, noice

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kellybelly4815@reddit

It gives the walls ~depth~.

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sunsetandporches@reddit

We were a wallpaper household, thank you very much. But I would have loved to sponge.

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EpistemeUM@reddit

I absolutely thought you meant that haircut.

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lueur-d-espoir@reddit

My aunt I lived with did this with a feather duster not a sponge lol. She actually did TWO colors. Very fancy.

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Limberpuppy@reddit

My aunt used a feather duster to put gold paint on a massive wall. It actually looked really good.

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diydiggdug123@reddit

Also the worn barn/wood look is going out… but it will come back

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diydiggdug123@reddit

Faux finishes always come back…wallpaper accent walls always comes back… fashion is cyclical

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Popular_Bite9246@reddit

Pic looks like Jeb Bush

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Paintedfoot@reddit

I actually did this for a hair salon. Got paid in cash and terrible hair styles 🤣

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djmagicio@reddit

Accurate

[-]

HistoryGirl23@reddit

It's so true

[-]

Jewbacca522@reddit

My mom wanted our kitchen “Tuscan themed” so it was sponge painted this rustic brown over tan/light pink (like a sunset color mix) with trestle decor and fake grape vines.

Not gonna lie, she did it really nice and it looked pretty damn cool.

[-]

bumfuzzledbee@reddit

My bedroom was pink and green sponge painted and it was peak. Had a flower bedspread that matched. A great time to be 8

[-]

PandaBear905@reddit

I honestly really like this style. I don’t get why it gets so much hate.

[-]

Thepoetrycooker@reddit

It was a dark time.

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False_Influence_9090@reddit

For me it was 1996 I think. I had been away at computer camp for like a month. And when I came back my room looked like this. Yay?

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neverknowwhattopick@reddit

My mom would never Ex mil did though and she stenciled too

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TrollOnFire@reddit

Your mom, has an Adam’s Apple.

[-]

Lizziedeg@reddit

That wall + celestial decor was my childhood bedroom!!

[-]

djsynrgy@reddit

Nice try, OP; my mom did this in 1991. 😆

[-]

LakeEarth@reddit

One room in my parent's house is still like this. Looks just fine IMO.

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taney71@reddit

After stripping the wall paper she put up in the 1980s

[-]

RVAforthewin@reddit

Mine was sponged purple and green like the Charlotte Hornets colors circa 1996.

[-]

SpinachnPotatoes@reddit

My bedroom was painted Grey with lighter Grey sponging and dark Grey skirting board and window sill.

Found it rather calming to be honest.

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DoubleSynchronicity@reddit

I stayed in an English couple's home in 2000 when I was in England to attend a language school. The room I stayed in had similar affect, only done by brush strokes. It was purple/lilac tones. The dad was a renovation guy.

[-]

LauraPa1mer@reddit

I just had a dream about this

[-]

Nocturnal-Neurotic@reddit

Our living looks like this. My parents went thru a western dessert vibe in the 90’s. We had brown leather furniture an Aztec type design carpet, and the walls were sponge painted in a dark orange. My dad even sponge painted the sound system up on the walls.

[-]

trailrun1980@reddit

Thus first photo was confusing because she never did sponge paint, but she DID come home with a righteous perm not far from this fellas length

[-]

conspiracyeinstein@reddit

We were behind a little. It was 1995 for us.

[-]

Plutoniumburrito@reddit

Dude. You’re so spot on with the hairdresser/salon thing! 😂😂😂😂😂

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Hungry-Ad265@reddit

My mom did that with black, grey and red. We called it Death on the Highway

[-]

Larry-Man@reddit

The bathroom in our house had this before we moved in. It was painted over everywhere except behind the toilet. That was something.

[-]

suddle@reddit

My mom went crazy with the ivy stencil. It was so tacky.

[-]

thisbroadreadsbooks@reddit

The faux finishes! I made a bunch of pencil holders to give as gifts when I was like 13. I used tin cans with cardstock wrapped around them and painted them using this method. They were hideous. So glad I never used it on any walls. 🤣

[-]

SirGothamHatt@reddit

Every HGTV decorating show in the 90s and early 2000s touted this

[-]

AJediPrincess@reddit

I saw this photo and instantly thought of Room by Room. Remember that show? They had some truly 90's techniques, including transfer flowers and crackle paint for some "aged patina" furniture effects. 😆

[-]

SirGothamHatt@reddit

Yes! Omg in high school I'd watch Room by Room, Decorating Cents, & Design on a Dime and thought I was getting some great ideas for my future house

Besides inflation and the economy, I think I'm also cursed to never afford a house to prevent me from using every cheesy design trend from those shows

[-]

AJediPrincess@reddit

I was obsessed with HGTV in the 90's. I would play with my Barbie dolls and make cardboard box houses for them and have my dolls hire my self-insert doll to redo one of their rooms. I used construction paper, markers (the ones with the shapes I could "stamp" on were the best for making wallpaper patterns), and sometimes felt (for texture) and then scotch tape the designs to the inside of the boxes for the "renovation." And I'd narrate the whole thing as if it was being filmed. 😅

[-]

dogtor_howl@reddit

Let’s be best friends. (Or at least our Barbies!)

[-]

SirGothamHatt@reddit

That is amazing. I love it.

[-]

ScarecrowZombie1@reddit

I'd rather put carpet on my walls

[-]

dogtor_howl@reddit

My best friend’s house had decorative walls like this in every room. It was so cool!

[-]

Luger14@reddit

Or the Johnson’s down the street and it just looked “fabulous” or “to die for”

[-]

portmanteautally@reddit

My mom 100% did this with pink and blue when my sister moved to college and I got my own room 😊 30 years later I have the same color scheme for my bedroom.

[-]

lushico@reddit

My mom did this to my room! She had a home improvement book with instructions in it

[-]

ajtreee@reddit

Had purple and teal sponged on in our bedroom. It was that way til it was sold in 2005.

[-]

ASherrets@reddit

I’m guessing you wore the Charlotte Hornets Starter jacket? Everyone in my tiny Iowa town was wearing either a Charlotte Hornets, Orlando Magic or Chicago Bulls Starter jacket. We thought we were hot shit 😆

[-]

Possible-Jerk0138@reddit

I had this done in my bedroom. I also had a waterbed and a beta fish at 13.

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ASherrets@reddit

Happy Cake Day. My best friend who I helped her and her mom paint their whole house like this (also with the grapevine wallpaper in the living room) had a water bed. She was much much much heavier than I was because the entire summer between 4th and 5th grade she drank slimfasts that her mom had with lunch and supper 😱

Anyway, re: waterbed, I had to get in first and then her and every damn time I ended up rolling over and getting stuck under the padded edge and the waterbed. I had completely forgotten about that memory until now!!

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AJediPrincess@reddit

Are you me? I had the same thing! My walls were bubblegum pink with blue and yellow sponge stamped "wainscotting" and blue trim. Was your waterbed also in a giant wooden frame with a set of drawers underneath and a secret storage cabinet that ran the length of the bed, with tiny doors on one end? 😆

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effitalll@reddit

My mom is a snob. We didn’t have that shit. No wonder I’m a snobby designer now.

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ASherrets@reddit

I helped several friends’ parents and even my friends paint the sponge pattern 😬

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HedyHarlowe@reddit

I forgot how ugly this was! My friend’s mom was ‘a bit arty’ and her bathroom had this effect with green paint. It looked like mould.

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Starship-innerthighs@reddit

I remember doing this to my moms bathroom in the nineties. We wanted to be transported to Olive Garden when we used the can

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Overall-Rush-8853@reddit

That’s funny, the first thing I thought of was Olive Garden and Cheesecake Factory with the sponge walls.

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DangerousLoner@reddit

In the can you’re family

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Treadingresin@reddit

My mom hand stenciled entire scenes on her walls. Make fun of her all you want but it sure was A LOT better looking than the millennial grey the new home owners painted on every single surface. They sucked all the warmth and joy out of that place.

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clemkaddidlehopper@reddit

Agreed. I’d rather have something “tacky” and unique than bland and soulless any day.

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highlighter416@reddit

This was so hgtv chic

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fattykyle2@reddit

Oh wow-a

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mookpa2@reddit

I did this to our toilet

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grocerygirlie@reddit

I wanted to just Pollock my walls, but my mom painted the walls seafoam green and then sponged white paint over it. The border, bedding, and curtains had pink/cream/green paint streaks on a cream background. SHE loved it. I believe it was around 1992, lol. I think she saw it at a friend's house when she went for one of those MLM parties.

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Inkersd@reddit

I got lucky, my dad (and I as well) is a mural and faux finish artist. So he painted our rooms as kids with full on murals. As someone who has done faux finishing for 30 years, I can honestly say the stipple sponge look is the worst atrocity to come from that world. Now, using the sponge to do a nice French wash, totally different story.

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Material-Imagination@reddit

gif

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More_Programmer5053@reddit

Omg my parents bathroom still has this sponge painted nightmare.

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queijinhos@reddit

Mom painted a sky with clouds for me! I thought it was GENIUS to make clouds with a sponge. I loved it so much. It’s one of my most cherished memories.

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Karreck@reddit

I always liked it. Seems Im the minority. :(

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AnytimeInvitation@reddit

I watched a react video to Design Cents. What they did to one kitchen no joke slaps.

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OrganicAverage1@reddit

My aunt, but yeah. My mom hated this look. My aunt paid me to help her.

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biscuitvillage@reddit

Trading Spaces ptsd

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TheDivine_MissN@reddit

Correction, my mom did it in 2004. 🤣 Pastels. Pink, Yellow, Blue, maybe more. It made her happy, which was the most important thing.

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The1Zenith@reddit

This and popcorn ceilings were interior decoration sins.

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SliceRevolutionary79@reddit

My bedroom was like this in purples and pinks, with glow in the dark stars all over the ceiling.

And then a border with wolves all over it.

And a border with grapes in the kitchen with faux green marble countertops to replace the cow motif the previous owners had installed.

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Paleo_Fecest@reddit

1997, because in Wisconsin we are 5 years behind the rest of the country.

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leeesssaaa@reddit

Only 5…… babe.

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hextasy@reddit

My dad did this with grapefruits and orange halves, and other weird objects. It was pretty cool, ngl

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cellrdoor2@reddit

The scenic crew was asked to sponge paint the green room and one of our theaters. Golden yellow with a light brown over it and olive green trim. It looked like Sesame Street.

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Minimum_Rooster2818@reddit

Omg my MIL did this in 2005 and it's still rocking her dining room.

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TP_Crisis_2020@reddit

90's dentist office decor as well.

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stilettopanda@reddit

Oh I did sponging for my room in high school. It looked amazing though, because I used 3 colors on a plate and blended the ever loving fuck out of it. It took me probably 4x as long as it should have. That last picture hurts my feelings haha

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THExIMPLIKATION@reddit

The main entry way to our house in aquamarine.

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SciFi_MuffinMan@reddit

Oh my gosh my mom wanted the sponge treatment so bad in our house and I so glad my dad put his foot down and just said no. First because I would have had to paint it and do it, and second because it looks horrible.

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LaraAlexandra7@reddit

My mom sponge painted her bathroom shades of mauve, raspberry, white and pink around that time.

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JSpitzRule@reddit

My friend did this in hunter green.

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smokiechick@reddit

Wrong! She got into refinishing small side tables and stenciling them.

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mondomiketron@reddit

As a teen I used to do LSD and get lost in the spongy wall patterns and popcorn ceiling.

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anythingspossible45@reddit

Jokes on you, my mom didn’t go to a hairdresser ha. But now that I think about it, I don’t know who did her hair. I think she just cut it herself. We were poor white trash but hey, we’re upper white trash now.

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Dull-Librarian-2676@reddit

God, this and the grape stencil border in the "Tuscany" themed kitchen 🙈

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Revolutionary_Gas551@reddit

My sister BEGGED to do that when she was in junior high, haha.

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FieOnU@reddit

My mom did the bathroom with white walls and pink and blue sponging. It was fun to do bc we were kids, but my GOD it looked awful.

I mean, better than the 1980's gold floral Victorian Revival wallpaper we spent a week tearing down, but still ugly as hell

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stormbutton@reddit

My mom legit tore up wallpaper and sort of like….randomly paper mache collaged it to the wall?

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Rednecks_Wife@reddit

My mom totally did this in our bathroom! A teal/turquoise colour over light pink. Very beach vibe lol

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PoisonMind@reddit

No, she saw it on Interior Motives with Christopher Lowell.

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UseInternational1080@reddit

Oldest daughter's room still has this paint effect. :)

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StonedWheatThicc@reddit

Damn this is taking me back. My mom did this to the kitchen in my childhood home.

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Emkems@reddit

omg every room in our house was some weird combination of sponge paint

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Past-Entertainer1778@reddit

My room was butter yellow with white sponge... or was it white with butter yellow sponge? Either way it was iconic

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Funlaughjokeplay@reddit

1995, but yes!

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Ok_Percentage5157@reddit

Ugh, trauma unlocked. Excuse me while I go make a therapy appointment. My mom was an interior decorator for a long time, and between this and lining up wallpaper, I'll take the wallpaper.

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imfirealarmman@reddit

Yes.

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deepbluenothings@reddit

Honestly it's not worse than the stark whites and greys that have taken over. Now I wouldn't want that in my house but I'd probably take it over the sterile lab look that's so popular.

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ProjectMomager@reddit

Omg forgot all about this…for good reason.

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RineMetal@reddit

And just went full ham. No masking, no plastic, no dropcloth. Just full raw dawging house paint all over my Nintendo.

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Chemical_Butterfly40@reddit

I always wanted to do something like this but we were always renters.

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PickledPixie83@reddit

was at my aunts house for Easter where they did this years ago and never repainted

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snoopyh42@reddit

My Mom used a sprig of star jasmine from our yard with gold paint on one wall of our kitchen.

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username__0000@reddit

No, it was because Kelly did it to her room in 90210 lol

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katharsister@reddit

Came here to say this. Wasn't she trying out 2 different colors? At the time I was like "she must be rich if her mom let her buy 2 different cans of paint just to try them out...." I didn't know about sample sizes yet.

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username__0000@reddit

Haha. Yes.

I think it was yellow and black.

But I’m going completely on my terrible memory (that only remembers stupid stuff like this instead of actual useful info)

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Amy_Macadamia@reddit

We had a landlord sponge paint our entire stairwell in glossy brown. Looked like a poo explosion

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ProfessionalBad1836@reddit

This is Jeffrey Epstein.

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CastleBravoXVC@reddit

For me it was 1997, yellow on orange, and it was a plastic bag instead of a sponge, but yeah.

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maringue@reddit

Still better than wallpaper

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crownblack@reddit

Ahhhahaaaaa! My mom did this to my room in 92. I got to choose the colors: blues and golds. It looked really good at the time.

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Clevergirlphysicist@reddit

We had the ducks. But thank goodness there was no sponge paint ugh

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Peja1611@reddit

Same. My mom was obsessed with duck decoys as decor, ducks with plaid. We were living in FL at the time, with a hunting lodge interior

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kellybelly4815@reddit

My mom had duck ceramics, duck salt and pepper shakers, and a duck toilet paper holder. I think the were gifts, as she has never expressed interest in ducks, and yet they littered our house, usually with that dusty blue shade in ribbons around their necks, or straw hats.

I guess ducks were to the 90s what owls were to the 70s.

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Peja1611@reddit

What was the obsession with slate blue bows on geese and ducks? She had some of those too for whimsy.

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kellybelly4815@reddit

I really came to hate that slate blue. And dusty rose.

And those marshmallowy overstuffed La-Z-Boys (ours was tan).

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SteveEcks@reddit

Oh my God this was a thing for everyone???? Oh my God. Oh my God.

The little bathroom, my brother's room, the kitchen, my parent's room, even the weird art deco piece hanging in the living room had some elements of this. (it was so bizarre of my parents to put up artwork, let alone crappy pastel color slop)

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DoveOnTheInternet@reddit

I literally just finished watching the Nicole Rudolph video on popcorn ceilings that featured this exact photo.

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Yo_momma_so_fat77@reddit

It was 1999 or 2000 and mom did this to her bedroom. Like a pinkish maroon base and GOLD sponged over it! Hahahaha. It was awful

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Munchkin531@reddit

My mom painted my sister's room like this in 2000. I thought it looked awful! But I guess she liked it. I mean she was like 13.

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Santos_L_Halper_II@reddit

Thank god my mother wasn’t crafty. We built a house in 1989 and it remains frozen in time to this day.

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Slartibartfast39@reddit

"I just had the walls sponge painted Val."

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wheres_the_revolt@reddit

Lmao this is so real

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Babymakerwannabe@reddit

I’m shit you not that’s my mom’s current wall treatment. Yellow with a red overlay.

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themoonhasgone@reddit

Yep....bathroom walls. Wow I totally forgot about it until now

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King_Corduroy@reddit

To be fair I actually love the look of textured walls. Maybe not in the garish mid 90's colors here but still. lol

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Hossflex@reddit

My mom did this to my room back in ‘93 lol. Dark blue and white lol. Heavy on the white though.

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monsters_from_the_id@reddit

Are you me?!

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bikeonychus@reddit

Right. This can look good. But only when good colours are chosen, and it's done by someone with skill.

The orange, cream, and green my dad chose looked exactly like vomit.

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chriszimort@reddit

My mom did this to our bathroom! It looked pretty good

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purveyoroftheranch@reddit

Oh my gosh, you just unearth a long lost memory from my youth! Mine was light blue with white sponging… “like clouds”.

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twilightswimmer@reddit

I had several friends who did this to their rooms.

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DipsyDooRight@reddit

I feather dusted my room

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sey5_venn@reddit

My aunt did this to her house. She even included the faceplates for the lights and plug outlets.

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butterednoodlelovers@reddit

I have the same aunt. She still faux paints her home. She is very talented at it and her home is beautiful. It just isn't my taste.

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FuzzyScarf@reddit

My mom did this in the kitchen and in the bathroom.

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Squirrel_Master82@reddit

My mom was into wallpaper.

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Antigravity1231@reddit

Omg it’s my bathroom. My mom feather painted it in 1992, and again in 94, and again in 98. Now the walls are very textured. A water leak destroyed one wall so now it’s all smooth and everything else is bumpy.

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DragonBee_Fairy147@reddit

Not one, but two full bedrooms (not just one wall) were painted in pepto bismol pink with white sponge over the top in the first house I purchased. Maybe the area I was in, but it was much later than the ‘90s.

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DisplacedEastCoaster@reddit

I did this in my bedroom. Around 1998? The walls were originally pale pink from when I was little, then we sponged on hot pink and lime green. I loved it! I spent hours finding faces in the sponged parts

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HiddenUser1248@reddit

3rd picture was the dining room at my first house, but with purple paint...but early 2000s

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TheSpanxxx@reddit

My wife and I, and two of our friends, did this kind of nonsense to one of our rooms in our first house. And then we helped them do it in a room in their first house. And we all swore later it was the dumbest shit ever, and it was like painting a room 3 times instead of once. Never again

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babydeerie@reddit

My step-mother did a version in both pink and metallic teal with a feather duster on the bathroom walls. YUCK

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Procrasturbating@reddit

Ah, the Ol’ shit brown on beige.. appropriate #2 photo

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GingerbreadmanCDN@reddit

I helped my mum paint one of our bathrooms sort of like this but we used a custom roller.

I also painted the bathroom cabinet with an artificial distressed look to it. Basically paint a base colour, then this special coating, then your top colour. As the intermediate coating dried it contracted and made it look like the top was chipped and weathered so you could see the colour behind. Used a medium dark green grey for the base and white for top. I still like how that looked.

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User_Says_What@reddit

This was my childhood bedroom.

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Ok_Stranger_9520@reddit

HAHAHA our hairdresser did it at her salon. Where was this? I imagine a ton of salons did tbis

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FormidableMistress@reddit

In the house I spent most of my childhood in, the half bath had this terrible bamboo wallpaper from the 70's. I used to joke that you could hear the crickets when you were in there, because it looked like you were sitting in a bamboo forest. Anyway she painted it pink and it was more than what she wanted. It was a very small space and Barbie's Dream Bathroom was too much. So she sponged white paint over it and toned it down quite a bit and looked much better.

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GoldDiamondsAndBags@reddit

I had an apartment that the owner painted with a broom. In yellow. It looked kinda cool bc it looked like a Van Gogh painting.

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ImpossibleJob5788@reddit

Now way, number one is clearly Epstein.

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legiononAT@reddit

Omg. Mom got divorced from my stepdad in ‘92 and there was a lot of redecorating. On the list was repainting a previously wallpapered bathroom. We used the sponge technique. She wanted to do the same thing in the living room, but the bathroom took so long just the one room got the “fancy” technique.

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adrianalikestea@reddit

OMGGGG memory unlocked

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Aware_Policy_9174@reddit

My dad gave me a book of decorative painting techniques in 1995 so I could pant my room. I did some kind of wet rag technique where you painted one color then painted another similar color on top and partly wiped it off so it looked like old plaster maybe? It was in a yellow color that was in a lot of coffee shops at the time. It was time consuming though so I only did two walls.

Then my mom did some sponge painting with peach or salmon (the Italian restaurant look at the time) in the living room and dining room.

She sent me a link to a listing for the house maybe 10 years ago and it still had the half painted room upstairs that they played off as “artsy” or something.

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Waughwaughwaugh@reddit

My parents did a version of sponge painting that involved a plastic grocery bag (?) but ON THEIR KITCHEN CABINETS. And it was a very vibrant green. Did it in the early 90s, still there to this day (at least as of 5 years ago, we don’t talk anymore) because it would be such a pain in the ass to sand and repaint it. And they also have a lovely nicotine sheen due to decades of smoking inside.

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adamousg@reddit

A feather duster instead of a sponge, otherwise lore accurate to the exact year.

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VintageLover79@reddit

And now Gen Z is trying to bring this nonsense back!

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101violations@reddit

Ughh my aunt this did using marble greenish color. It was absolute trash.

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ErnieBochII@reddit

That’s not my mom. That’s my mom’s live-in “best friend” Dixie in 1992.

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Frequent_Alfalfa_347@reddit

I helped my sister do this to her living room in her first house circa 1998.

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LineImpossible3958@reddit

I had a paint splatter room by 1993. Dark blue. My parents did it while I was at Six Flags so at least I didn’t have to help them.

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ArtsyRabb1t@reddit

I did my bedroom like this in black. Dad must have hated me repainting it

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DangerousLoner@reddit

We bought our house in 1990 and yes honey oak and sponge pant with borders for the win

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amhudson02@reddit

Omfg….yes and yes. This is perfect.

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Wolfwoods_Sister@reddit

I’m so grateful my mother was too prim and too lazy to do anything like this. Her “wild streak” was to paint the entire interior of our small house a very soft peach in the 80s. (Our bedroom, we were allowed to go our own way with aqua and turquoise - hey, we were in elementary school).

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blueyedwineaux@reddit

It was marigold yellow with purple velvet accents for the curtains and pillows.

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Wolfwoods_Sister@reddit

That sounds like a room to never have a migraine in

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OkAnything3213@reddit

I never thought about it

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nyXhcinPDX@reddit

I've never seen this. Maybe because I lived in NYC

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Sad_Apple_3387@reddit

We remodeled our house to create a teen suite, and had to do something hideous like this in the bathroom. 1992, it was forest green and gold “veins”. The bedroom had that forest green carpet.

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RepublicOfVenus@reddit

We did the version where you use a feather duster

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Imaginary-Oil-9984@reddit

such an ugly trend

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Ill-Percentage-3276@reddit

I kid you not, when we bought our house from people who apparently thought they were flippers 13 years ago, one wall in the dining room was sponge painted. I had flashbacks to mom's Martha Stewart days where she was inspired to have me sponge paint butcher paper for homemade wrapping paper.

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flotusspunkmeyer@reddit

My aunt did it in maroon with a feather duster in her kitchen.

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mutantbabysnort@reddit

Core memory unlocked. My parents did this to my ceiling.

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georgecm12@reddit

I inherited Mom's house, and I've got several rooms of this that I'm going to need a painter out to repaint before the house goes on the market. (That, and a room of what I'd call Burnt Sienna. Definitely need to repaint that. Oh, yeah, and a room of sponge paint-like wallpaper that will need to come down. Phew.)

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