Throwback - Connecticut USA 1947

It's confession time.

I don't watch My Kitchen Rules. I just don't. Or Big Brother (that's still around, right?). Offspring? Negatory.

Getting into and catching up on Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Revenge and The Good Wife, is on my list of things to do. Soon. I'll do it soon, I am sure.  There are many reasons for my appalling water-cooler conversation skills. Not least that I have v-little tv-time and generally shut down by 7:30pm on a weeknight (that was not a joke).

The real problem is that over the last year or so, I have developed an obsession with the Lifestyle Channel. Designers, architects, project managers, location scouts, selling agents, buying agents, bedrooms, kitchens, open plan living, barn conversions, polished concrete, bespoke bathroom taps... Obsession.

The height of my obsession is matched only by the height of my happiness when Viola pulled out her collection of vintage magazines. An absolute treasure trove of design inspiration, the pictures below were published in an American publication called The Women's Home Journal in February 1947. While we live a little differently today (this Early American, Connecticut property has two drawing rooms whose walls I would be inclined to knock into one humongous, indulgent living space - and don't get me started on the advice offered to housewives), one thing we still aim for in our homes is comfort; that feeling that the space around us is a reflection and extension of ourselves, so much so that it is moulded around us so very personally.  With a few cosmetic tweaks, this home completed in 1753, looks like it would fit the 'Hampton's Weekender' bill for a slick New Yorker's heaving property portfolio with no problems at all.

Now I just need a block of land and a Grand Design of my own... Sydney, you break my heart.