ABSTRACT
The chapter argues that the fields of interior decorating (later interior design) emerged in the 1800s because of the Industrial Revolution. Prior to the widespread use of machines to manufacture furniture and other household goods in the mid-1800s, people handed scarce and expensive household products, such as china and furniture, down from generation to generation. Interior fashions changed only gradually. No concept of an interior decorator or designer existed in preindustrial times. Design work fell on architects and tradespeople. This chapter discusses the origins of the occupation of interior decorating in England and America from the early 1700s until the last third of the nineteenth century. It traces how each of these occupations evolved. By the second half of the nineteenth century, home decorating became the purview of amateur women among the middle classes as gender roles became more defined and distinct in Victorian culture.
