I collect 1930's and 1940's issues of American Home and also Better Homes and Gardens. Every once in a while I like to reread them. Today I was reading an article about something that sounded suspiciously like curb appeal. The article went on to say that they way your house looks from the street is important. This is curb appeal only it wasn't called that. They did not use the term.

These old magazines were full of good information that is still relevant today. For instance, I read an article on how to buy furniture and what to look for when buying it. They discussed dove tail joints, springs ties 8 ways, durability, etc. This is exactly what we look for or should when purchasing furniture. How many people even know what springs ties 8 ways are today?

The decorating wasn't all that different then; however they liked wallpaper and used it alot. One article talked about furniture arrangement and how it should fit your family (sounds like redesign). They did not like furniture "floating" in the middle of the room and suggested that big pieces go along the wall and not cattycorner. They dealt with corners by telling the reader to fill the corners with a round table or plants on brackets. In some of the pictures there is no conversation area in the living room and there is no hint of coziness. Although they do speak of conversation areas, some of the pictures would suggest otherwise.

During the Depression and WWII, everyone had to make do and so the magazines showed the creativity of some of its readers. One reader showed how he made patio furniture out of an old treadle sewing machine. Someone else used cake pans as a wall sconce.

Decorating was not the only things that was talked about either. One article on moles sounded like it could have been written today-not 70 years ago. The author of the article was talking with his neighbor (the neighbor had a mole problem). The author said that moles were actually benefical to gardens because they eat parasites in the dirt and aerate the lawn by digging. It is the gophers, voles, and mice that eat the vegetation. Moles do not eat plants.

The articles tell how and what to look for when buying sheets, what they did during gas rationing during the war, and a myriad of other things that can hold true today.

The old magazines may not have had the terminology that we do today, the ideas were and still are the same. It might benefit us to go and read these old magazines and see how the ideas of decorating like  comfort, durability, conversation areas, curb appeal, gardening, et al are timeless; only the fabrics, price, taste, fads, and trends are different.