19-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Thursday, October 8, 1914: <no entry>
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Since Grandma didn’t write anything a hundred years ago today, I’ll share some “rules” there were in the October, 1914 issue of Ladies Home Journal about how to decorate rooms:
There are certain general rules that govern the furnishing of every room in the house, whether it be living-room, dining-room, or bedroom that is under consideration.
- Beginning with the floor, see that the covering for this is of a slightly darker color than that selected for walls.
- The colors used for your wall, of course, depend upon the amount of light admitted to the room and also upon the exposure. For a south light, which is in itself warm, choose cool colors, light greens and blues; on the other hand, for a north light select warm colors like tones of yellow and red.
- Do not use a decidedly figured paper in the same room that you used figured draperies. Figured draperies should be used only with plain paper.
- When your paper is figured, be careful not to put too many small pictures on your walls or the effect will be spotty.
A Hundred Years Ago 
wow…too many rules to remember! 😀
Diana xo
And, decorating “rules” always seem to change about the time that I get them figured out. 🙂
I suppose these rules would hold well for today, too.
Probably. . . though I’m not sure whether people think about whether a room is on the sunny side of a house when selecting colors. . . .and it seems like fewer people have wallpaper any more.
A couple of years ago I put in my first wallpaper ever. Just on one wall. I love it.
It’s fun to read about interior decorating! I love that kind of stuff! Hugz Lisa and Bear
I’m glad you liked it.
Haha! Martha Stewart: Eat your heart out!! LMAO!
LOL-The comparison is wonderful. . . some things never change. 🙂
Love this as hubby is in the carpet business and I do marketing stuff for him. We can get so much inspiration from looking into other times.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. It sounds like fun to be able to use your creative decorating ideas as part of your marketing efforts.
I’m always amazed how long Ladies Home Journal has been around, telling us what to do, what to wear, what to eat!
It is amazing–though I was saddened when I recently heard that Ladies Home Journal is struggling and shifting to a quarterly publication. According to Wikipedia:
It was the first American magazine to reach 1 million subscribers in 1903 On April 24, 2014, Meredith announced it would stop publishing the magazine as a monthly with the July issue, stating it was “transitioning Ladies’ Home Journal to a special interest publication”. It will now be available quarterly on newsstands only, though its website remains in operation.
I’m not much for rules, but I’m with the “Journal” when it comes to patterned wallpaper and patterned drapes. It’s the home decorating version of “don’t wear stripes with plaid”!
I’m not much for decorating rules either. Eclectic is my favorite decorating term. 🙂
I love that we can break ALL of these rules today and have spectacularly beautiful rooms. Definitely not one to follow the rules!! Fun post, Sheryl.
I agree! I also don’t follow decorating rules, but have fun in the process.
My mother followed all the rules and now some of her things and her methods grace our own home.Thank you for helping me to relive my mothers home and how it relates to ours.
You’re comment makes me think about how we incorporate items from the homes of our parents and other relatives into our homes over the years. It is a way of remembering them, but the items also become a part of our own stories.
Very limited range of rules, too. But from the photo, the bones are still the same today.
The basics really haven’t changed much.
Oh this is so wonderfully simple compared to the avalanche of decorating advice we are now subjected to!!
Sometimes it seems like the decorating advice changes annually these days.
I’m sure some of the rules made sense at the time, but if applied today they would seem slightly boring. There is so much more flexibility today in decorating – just as there is in fashion clothing.
When it comes to decorating, I prefer today’s flexibility.
I like the dresser, but the comfort of that chair probably leaves something to be desired.
Just what exactly is Grandma DOING that she doesn’t have time to write???
I’ve also wondered what Grandma was doing. Your comment about the chair made me smile–it looks totally impractical.
I never thought about painting according to the sunlight. It makes sense, though.