Schoener Wohnen: the brave new world of interiors magazines

Back in the days of penfriends and school exchanges, I used to go to Germany fairly regularly.  There were certain things I’d look to bring back with me: including the latest copy of Schoener Wohnen, the German interiors magazine.

I can’t remember quite where I discovered it.  Perhaps in the sitting room of one of the families I stayed with (three school exchanges, three separate exchange partners).  But I loved it – and I kept buying it. (Along with Roemer wine glasses and Haribo Gummi bears.)

There are many interiors magazines out there – and I have been in thrall to a few.  In the early days, it was the Habitat catalogue (RIP, sniff, etc.).  I loved the way it gave alternatives to florals – and that it did cool duvet covers for kids.

In fact, the catalogue was responsible for helping my design education – enough that I had a point of reference with a certain student of architecture, whose design awareness was far greater than mine.  (But he still married me.  Phew.)

But in my teens, it was Schoener Wohnen that fitted the bill.  German design, in the late 80s and early 90s, was much more inclined to be eco than the UK – plus self-build was part of the culture.  You bought your plot, you raised your house – little by little.

But interiors magazines aren’t just about houses.  So many products are sold to us as part of a certain lifestyle nowadays – but interiors magazines depict lifestyles right from the start: ones where you take in the fabrics as well as the colours.  The materials as well as the design.

There was also a certain shock factor with buying more continental magazines: they didn’t balk at combining pictures of beds for sale – and nude people on them.   (But then Britain is much less used to public nudity than in continental Europe – which is why mixed changing rooms at swimming pools in Germany, with no cubicles, were more than a bit daunting to a British teenager.)

My uncle knew Schoener Wohnen from the time when his parents (my grandparents) lived in Germany – and he may have bought it then.  I wonder whether, in turn, it was Germany that influenced him towards learning about interiors.

Through him, I read classic interiors books like Conran’s Bed and Bath Book.  I took in the look of Wassily chairs that he had (I think produced by Habitat) – and sat in them too.

You may not always grow up with a design awareness – but you can find ways of acquiring one.  And the notion of ‘living more beautifully’ (to attempt a translation of the Schoener Wohnen title) is still as attractive as ever – whatever your source of inspiration.