apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

House Proud: Nineteenth-Century Watercolor Interiors from the Thaw Collection features illustrations of European interiors and documents the development of domestic life and aesthetics from the 1800s. You may see for yourself how thoroughly a room was planned from the chandelier down to the carpet tacks. The drawings are detailed and delicate and if I may loosely quote the New York Times, this is the origin of our current obsession with shelter porn.

Through January 25. Photos Matt Flynn, courtesy of the Cooper-Hewitt.

- Mark Chamberlain, interior and decorative painter