4 min readTrends come and go, but do you know how far back your favorite interior design trends really go? Peel-and-stick tiles popped up in a House Beautiful issue from the ’60s, for example—so no, they actually weren’t invented by the very well-intentioned content creators you see touting them as recent discoveries today.
In honor of House Beautiful’s 130th anniversary, we dipped back into the magazine archives—all the way to 1896—to see which home design trends and decorating ideas have stood the test of time. We found plenty you may at first recognize as “new”: plant walls, cottagecore interiors, glass blocks, wall-to-wall carpet, and more. In reality, they’re just really good ideas that designers and homeowners keep rediscovering every few decades because, well, they work. Here are 13 vintage design ideas that still feel surprisingly current—and that we’d happily use in a home today (or tomorrow).
Plant Wall, 1952
With 16-foot ceilings and skylights all over, this central living room wall—planted to mirror the California landscape outside, and featured in full color amid the mostly black-and-white pages of our September 1952 issue—was the brainchild of owners Dorothea Walker and her husband, design-builder Rodney Walker.
Wall-to-Wall Carpeting, 1959
In this home by Bartlett Simons, wall-to-wall carpet unites a living and dining room visually. Our editors waxed poetic about their benefits: “We see them as creators of serenity in a world that can stand a lot more physical and emotional calm. Quieters of noise, buffers against unnerving clatter, they can also refresh the eye and spirit, giving a home and the people in it a sense of stability and coherence.”
Stenciling, 1965
Adele Bishop and Cile Lord joined forces to create custom stenciled designs wherever a designer directed them: “floor, walls, furniture, stair risers, window and door frames, or any other reasonably flat surface.” Each motif on this paneled wood wall they completed for a historic home in the Hamptons is from a single stencil, using one or more colors of paint. Each tile around the fireplace required four stencils.
Allover Toile, 1967
An “all-toile surprise,” as described by our editors, the guest room in this Long Island home featured illustrated green scenes on both fabric and wallcovering. Besides giving the room its impactful look, the busy pattern also camouflaged cupboards that were built into the walls.
Peel-and-Stick Tiles, 1969
Technically, this checkered black-and-white floor featured in the October 1969 issue was a permanent installation. But the editors suggested that readers could dupe the look using DIY supplies: “Lay peel-and-stick tiles, of either carpet or vinyl, diagonally to recreate the drama of this op-art floor.”
Solarium, 1971
On a bare, rocky shore surrounded by towering oak trees, Ruth Merrill and her architect Judith Chaffee devised a house that opens to the woods and seascape. A glass-walled solarium creates the perfect perch for houseplants, and casts plenty of sunlight over the dining table.
Jungle Gym Bed, 1975
Combining three things that all kids love—a playground, bunk beds, and highlighter-bright colors—this bedroom by Kate M. Gaydos would make it nearly impossible for parents to get their children to sleep. But climbing, swinging, and sliding down the sides would definitely create core memories.
Screen Room Divider, 1981
It took Hal and Laura Davis five years to transform this one-room schoolhouse in Dutchess County, New York, into a home. A towering folding screen standing behind the sofa creates a half-wall, obscuring a ladder that leads to a sleeping loft.
Porch Curtains, 1991
Russia’s first professional playwright, Alexander Ostrov, was inspired by the countryside surrounding his family dacha, or summer cottage. On the veranda, ruched curtains soften the light and make it easy to imagine why he wrote so many plays there.
Cottagecore, 1992
A former dealer in old textiles, Ellen O’Neill’s home was all sun-faded patterns, whitewashed walls, and painted furniture. She even had a decorative painter come and mute the floral wallpaper in her dining room with “a thin wash of Japan paint” when she realized it was too bright.
Glass Blocks, 1992
A “thrillingly modern” renovation of a Tudor home in Hillsborough, California, by House+House resulted in this glass-block wall in the primary bedroom. A centered window, right above the bed, frames one of the palm trees in the garden.
Unpainted Plaster, 1992
Buzz Yudell and Tina Beebe created this Malibu home with the spirit of a Tuscan farmhouse, adding burnt sienna dry pigment to the interior wall plaster to create this warm tone. (Those sconces? Yudell folded and taped paper over some bare light bulbs.)
Wall Hanging, 1998
This linen panel in Emily Fisher Landau's bedroom, woven by Sam Kasten, is all at once a wallcovering and art installation, adding both softness and graphic shapes to the elegant but simple architecture—not to mention standing in for a headboard.
