You know I love my daily dose of decor blogs. But it hasn’t replaced my long-standing affair with decorating magazines. I’ve been a decorating magazine junkie for over 20 years. Back in the mid-90s, I’d sneak in some time with Canadian House and Home in the ‘current periodicals’ section of the university library when I should have been studying for a marketing exam…and I’ve been hooked ever since.
If you’re a decorating magazine junkie too, you probably get the same kind of kid-in-a-candy-store-feeling as me when you find a new issue in the mailbox, or on the grocery store stands! The only thing that’s better, is locking myself away in a quiet (kid-free) room to drool over the pages with a big cuppa java.
For the better part of the two decades I’ve been reading them, decor magazines have been mostly about ‘aspirational’ decorating. Filled with glossy spreads of gorgeous homes decorated (mostly) by professional designers, they appealed to our dreams, not necessarily our realities. They’ve fed our appetite for eye candy – even if, albeit, the eye candy is a little, er, inaccessible. As a poor university student, I knew it would be a loooooong time before I could afford a home like the ones they featured (if ever), but by schooling me on the rules of great design, those old issues inspired me nonetheless.
- A space featured in a 1996 issue of Canadian House and Home. Source and credits: Canadian House and Home.
Fast forward 20 years to 2013.
The June issue of another favorite, Style at Home, looks like this:
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