I hate to brag, well, not really. One of my interiors has been featured on the cover of House Beautiful magazine. This was a huge win for me, both professionally and personally, because I adore House Beautiful and have been reading it for years. Finding myself on the cover had me asking, “What makes the “house beautiful” and why? We all have our personal tastes and aesthetics. But no. When flipping through the history of House Beautiful magazine, you can see a unifying thread that ties together over a century of style. Now that one of my spaces will be forever preserved in the House Beautiful Archive (yes, there is a real archive!), I wanted to uncover precisely what that thread is. 

“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.” — Louisa May Alcott

Landing the Cover of House Beautiful Magazine 

Finding myself on the cover of House Beautiful magazine came as a huge surprise. One day, an interior design client in Philadelphia texted me a photo of the latest House Beautiful issue with my Holiday Haus project on the cover, along with the caption, “Congratulations!” At first, I’d thought she’d mocked up a make-believe issue because she knows how much I love the publication. It wasn’t until I zoomed in on the postmark that I realized it was the real thing. I was ecstatic! 

I hadn’t recently reached out to the magazine (or any other publications, for that matter). So the news truly was a surprise. What many folks don’t realize is that magazines don’t always tell you when they are going to publish your work in print. Sometimes, they simply pull images you or your publicist may have shared in the past to fill in their editorial calendar at their discretion. I quickly ran out and got my own copy, and it was a thrill to have that cover in my hands. The article was a round-up of cozy bunk bed interiors by myself and other designers, of which I was honored to be included. The framed copy hangs in my new interior design workshop here in Austin. 

 

A Brief History of House Beautiful Magazine

House Beautiful was first published in 1896, making it the oldest continuously published shelter magazine in America. The shelter genre has an editorial focus on all things home, including architecture, interior design, gardening, and entertaining. Martha Stewart Living, Gloria Vanderbilt Designs for Your Home, and Arch Digest are all examples of shelter magazines. 

 

The founder of House Beautiful was not an interior designer or media mogul but a preacher from Chicago who based the first issue on an essay he wrote about creating a home that was simple, useful, and personal. Current Editor-in-Chief Sophie Donelson explains that these three tenants still guide the magazine, giving readers the tools to have a beautiful home. She goes on to say, “House Beautiful has consciously been a forward-looking magazine—it’s always about action, celebrating ideas to DO instead of a great job that’s DONE. We recognize and celebrate that a house is really an evolving project.”

 

Today, the House Beautiful Archive contains over 125 years of family life, art, architecture, and design, providing a comprehensive resource of American design history for designers and homeowners alike. 

Examining the Ideology Behind “The House Beautiful” 

The idea of “The House Beautiful” has a history extending beyond the magazine. Many attribute the phrase to the design principles of William Morris. Morris was a leader of the 1880s Arts & Crafts movement, which rejected industrialization and functional mass-produced goods in favor of beautiful artisan furnishings inspired by nature. “The House Beautiful” also shares ties with Oscar Wilde’s 1882 American walking tour lecture, in which he preaches to “have nothing in your house which is not useful or beautiful,” urging audiences to clear out drab knickknacks and use their fine china for every meals. The House Beautiful title is seen again in the 1895 publication by William C. Gannett and Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright illustrates Gannett’s essay on the importance of tasteful design for a harmonious home and good design’s effect on emotional and physical well-being. He opens with the bible verse, “A building of God, a house not made with hands.” He goes on to explain that a home is so much more than the millwork and furnishings, but the emotion and heart that goes into curating a space to feel comfortable and personal. 

These musings on what makes “the house beautiful” culminated over a decade and set the foundation for a century of elegantly livable and personal interiors. 

“Some people look for a beautiful place; others make a place beautiful.” — Hazrat Inayat Khan 

The House Beautiful is a Wonderfully Imperfect Work in Progress

What I love about House Beautiful (and I imagine the rest of the readers love, too) is that it’s not a magazine obsessed with perfection. The pages aren’t filled with unattainable, untouchable, museum-like celebrity homes. Instead, it devotes itself to livable spaces. These designs are accessible, homey, and speak to the ongoing work in progress of life. 

While I can appreciate a good, aspirational home as much as the next person, the stark perfection of these gallery-inspired interiors can leave those inside feeling cold and lonely. However, it turns out imperfection is inviting—in fact, it’s even preferred over perfection! 

What I adore are spaces that welcome the human form and can accommodate the messy everydayness of life. Spaces that inspire play and conversation. A room is just a room until it’s filled with people. These are the types of spaces House Beautiful puts on the cover. 

What truly makes “the house beautiful” is being able to see your life unfold inside its walls.