The term “Interior Decorator” was first used in America in the early 1900’s. Elsie de Wolfe (1865 – 1950), an American actress, is thought of as the first interior design professional because she was the first to be “commissioned” to decorate. In 1913 she also published the first interior design book, “The House in Good Taste”. Source
In the 1930’s the term “Interior Designer” was first used in the magazine “Interior Design and Decoration”. The magazine went out of print between 1943 – 1952, during which time a competing magazine, “Interiors” insisted on strictly using the term “designer” instead of “decorator”. When “Interior Design and Decoration” came back into publication, it dropped the “and Decoration” from it’s name, distinguishing designers from decorators. Source
The worlds oldest remaining area rug, the Pazyryk rug, is estimated to be 2,500 years old. It was found in the grave of the prince of Altai, near Pazyryk (modern day Russia). The carpet was preserved so well because the grave of the prince was robbed, exposing the rug to the elements and extremely low temperatures. This froze the rug, preserving it in ice for 25 centuries! The design on the rug features men walking and riding horses, and elks with anatomically correct internal organs. Source
The first ever design show was called Changing Rooms which aired from 1997 – 2004 on the BBC network. In the show, neighbors swapped homes with each other and were given 2 days, £500, the help of a design professional, and a handyman to re-design a room. All rules were thrown out the window, which honestly resulted in some truly horrific design situations, many tears, and some very unhappy neighbors. Non-the-less, it holds an important place in our hearts as the first design show ever! Source
The word “sofa” comes from the Arabic word “suffah,” which means bench, and dates back to 2000 BC Egypt. Some fun stats on what the average sofa goes through: in it’s lifetime it will see 782 visitors, 1,663 spills, and will be used as a bed 489 times. On average, we spend about 4 hours a day sitting on our sofas, eat 13 meals a month on them, and will watch about 782 movies on them! Source
The word “modern” actually refers to a specific design era, not just a clean style that is on trend right now. The modern era started with the Bauhaus movement in the mid 1900’s. This movement began at a German art school founded by Walter Gropius. It is characterized by “economic sensibility, simplicity and a focus on mass production” according to this source. “Contemporary” is actually the correct term to use when talking about the clean style that is currently trendy.
Hope you enjoyed these interior design facts! Which one interested you the most? Tell us in the comments below!
XOXO,
