The knobby, shady, nonslip history of your home
Ah, the excitement of renovating your home! It’s all sweet dreams — until the moment your interior designer starts to ask those fateful questions: Knobs or pulls? Blinds or shades? Tiles or wood? As the questions pile up and you start to panic, you might have a query of your own: Was it always so overwhelming?
When it comes to interior design, there’s never been an era with so many choices.. But before you find yourself longing for a simpler place and time — tent living, anyone? — consider the challenges our ancestors faced when creating a homey, livable space.
We all know the quote: When one door closes, another opens. But closed doors weren’t a problem for our early ancestors for one simple reason: The door hadn’t yet been invented. Living in door-less caves or tents, their problem was finding a way to keep out unwelcome intruders, whether it be wild animals or dangerous marauders.
An early solution was rigging an animal hide or a woven cloth curtain over the home’s opening, which might not have been very secure, but at least you didn’t have to worry about what sort of doorknob would go with it.
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