Do-It-Yourself: Home Improvement in 20th-Century America

October 19, 2002 - August 17, 2003

A century ago, few homeowners assumed they could make home improvements on their own-or even thought they should.

...Today, decisions about which projects to take on and who should undertake them are influenced by our dwellings themselves, our disposable time and money, our level of skill, our available supplies, and, ultimately, our expectations about what a home is.

Americans have come to understand home improvement through three words: do it yourself. This 20th-century phenomenon came of age with the middle-class baby-boomer families of the 1950s and 1960s, as returning GIs and their counterparts on the home front encountered a host of new products and step-by-step instructions for how to use them. Members of this "can-do" generation-primed by their fathers' basement workbenches and by Uncle Sam's Depression-era push to modernize the nation's housing stock-eagerly embraced the developing "how-to" marketplace. Hobby enthusiasts and amateurs alike transformed themselves into handymen and handywomen as do-it-yourself grew from an acceptable, perhaps even desirable activity into an expected domestic leisure-time pursuit. The next generation pushed the do-it-yourself ethos further by focusing on older houses in need of care and repair. Interest in traditional building arts surged and so did a general desire to incorporate the past - or a modern facsimile of it.

"The house which adequately fulfilled all the needs of the family twenty years ago is now found to be inconvenient, wastefully planned and shabby." House and Garden Modernization Portfolio, 1938
 

TURN to Hobbies
America's original leisure "power" tool - the treadle-driven scroll saw- launched a woodworking craze in the 1870s and 1880s. For the first time, middle-class men and women became interested in learning manual skills as a pastime and, eventually, in applying them to home improvement. Scrollwork, or fretwork, ornamented Victorian homes and became emblematic of the era.

 Although decorative scrollwork fell from favor around 1900, woodworking enjoyed renewed interest, especially among men who were drawn to the strong lines and simpler forms of the popular Arts and Crafts movement. These modern, less elaborate designs were relatively easy for amateurs to replicate, and new publications responded to this interest with advice and instructions. The Craftsman, for example, provided dimensioned drawings of furniture, and Popular Science and Popular Mechanics began guiding novices through small home craft and construction projects as well as basic household repairs.

The phrase "do-it-yourself" first appeared in an October 1912 article
in Suburban Life encouraging men to do their own interior painting instead of hiring professionals. Finishing projects - such as painting furniture, touching up trim, or varnishing floors - were often directed toward women, reinforcing the traditional female roles of decorating and maintaining the domestic realm.

 Between 1890 and 1930, home ownership in the United States tripled, and the house itself emerged as a middle-class hobby. Many new houses contained something their predecessors had not: a garage or concrete basement - quickly claimed and partially converted by the home craftsman into his workshop. Here, men gained the skills and confidence to tackle increasingly ambitious projects. Mail-order-catalog companies supported this trend by making the appropriate tools and equipment available to a mass market. By 1930, Sears, Roebuck and Co. had created a building-materials catalog offering "everything you need to build, remodel, modernize,or repair your house," as well as a Builders' Service Department to support it.

PUSH to Modernize
In 1934, the dream of homeownership became a possibility for unprecedented numbers of families with passage of the National Housing Act, a New Deal program designed to modernize the nation's housing stock and stimulate the depressed economy. In addition to guaranteeing loans for home purchases, the Federal Housing Administration provided up to $2,000 in loans for "repairs, alterations, or improvements" to existing dwellings. During the first three years of the Better Housing Program, one in eight homeowners received a home-modernization loan. The average $400 loan covered such typical projects as repainting a home's exterior, installing a new heating system, and electrifying a kitchen.

 Hardware and building-supply manufacturers began spreading the word to consumers and offered flexible financing incentives of their own. Bathrooms and kitchens became the standard-bearers of modernization. The availability of newly mass-produced porcelain and ceramic fixtures, for example, encouraged the transformation of bathrooms into idealized havens of sanitation and cleanliness. Likewise, gas and electric kitchen appliances promised increased efficiency and convenience. For homeowners who lacked the means to remodel entire rooms, floor coverings and decorative finishes offered more affordable modernization possibilities.

Editors of home magazines, who had campaigned for a national home-building policy, now instructed readers on how to take advantage of both private and federal modernization incentives. Feature articles on interior and exterior remodeling had become standard in the 1920s, eventually culminating in the sponsorship of remodeling competitions. Better Homes and Gardens initiated the trend with its 1932 "How We Rebuilt" contest, inviting readers to submit "before" and "after" photographs of their renovations. House Beautiful launched its own contest a year later, and, by decade's end, most home magazines had established similar competitions.

Although most homeowners still relied on the skills of professionals, by 1940 home improvement was well on its way to becoming a self-conscious part of American consumer culture and domestic life.

"In any suburb on any weekend, the master of the house is apt to turn into his own handyman. He's painting the porch, patching a pipe, or building an open-air fireplace
so he can roast weenies in the garden." "The New Do-it-Yourself Market," Business Week, June 14, 1952
 

PULL of Suburbia
 The suburban ideal, and the post-World War II building boom that made it accessible to growing numbers of middle-class Americans, set the stage for do-it-yourself to become a widespread cultural phenomenon. Assembly line "starter homes" subsidized by government loans, such as those in William and Alfred Levitt's famous developments, were designed to easily accommodate future improvements-and growing families. Staircases led to unfinished attics, carports could be enclosed as garages or converted into living spaces, and rear windows could be removed to make way for the door to an additional room. For first-time homeowners-many of whom had gained technical skills and confidence during the war-do-it-yourself was an affordable way to realize the American dream of a comfortable and modern home.

To ride the wave of postwar prosperity and attract the business of suburban homeowners, manufacturers began redesigning home-imporvement products such as power tools in lightweight, safer models. Amateur-friendly tools, often packaged with accessories and detailed instructions, substituted for the skills of professionals and made it possible to tackle tasks previously out of reach. In 1940, the power-tool industry had total sales of $25 million; by 1954, sales had climbed to $200 million. The first industrial-purpose tool to reach home-appliance status was the trigger grip power drill, pioneered by Black & Decker in 1917. In contrast, the popular Shopsmith-a general-purpose combination tool with vertical and horizontal drill presses, a circular saw, a wood lathe, and a disc sander-was developed specifically for home workshops. Though widely available later, the Shopsmith made its exclusive debut at Montgomery Ward stores in 1947. To better compete with these mass merchandisers, independent hardware and lumber dealers formed wholesale buying cooperatives as well as retail outlets such as True Value, Ace, and ServiStar. The industry's new orientation caught the attention of the business and popular press, which heralded the arrival of a do-it-yourself market.

"Driving nails is work - no doubt about it. But it's also the kind of clean, thumping exercise a man can enjoy. There's smacking satisfaction in belting a shiny tenpenny into stout 2 x 4 studding…. Hammers up, men." Stanley Tools Advertisement, Popular Mechanics, October 1956
 

FINISH It Off
The popular interest in do-it-yourself-and the enthusiasm for home remodeling it generated-revolutionized not only the sale of power tools but also the design and retailing of building materials and finishing supplies. All were modified for the convenience of do-it-yourselfers: Plywood was cut to more manageable panel sizes, drywall was lightened, concrete mix came in 60-pound bags, insulation was formed into square blocks, aluminum was manufactured in standardized units, hardwood panels came varnished and pre-finished, wallpaper came pre-trimmed and pre-pasted, linoleum and vinyl flooring were cut into small squares, and synthetics were molded into brick and other decorative textures.

In the do-it-yourself family conceived by many editors and advertisers, the handyman husband built things, usually with the aid of power tools, and the intuitive wife took care of surfaces and interior decorating. Previously reserved for hired help, the term "handyman" now referred to suburban husbands. The shift symbolized a larger transformation: Do-it-yourself was no longer a dabbler's hobby but an expected domestic pursuit.

By the late 1950s, painting emerged as the quintessential do-it-yourself activity. The development of water-based resin (and, soon afterward, latex) emulsion paints made the complicated and labor-intensive process of mixing and applying oil-and-lead house paints obsolete. Two successful merchandising strategies capitalized on these advances: Paint rollers superseded brushes after Sherwin-Williams introduced its Kem-Decorator Roller-Koater as part of an integrated line of accessories in the 1940s, and automated color dispensing machines mixed any of 7,500 standard colors on demand. Painting now offered homeowners a fast, easy, inexpensive way to express themselves and individualize their homes.

"An old house is a state of mind." The Old-House Journal, January 1974
 

STEP Back
From the authentic re-creation of historic houses to the simulation of historic features using new materials and techniques, restoration fascinates contemporary homeowners. Since the 1960s, when grassroots organizations began rallying to save threatened urban neighborhoods and significant buildings, Americans have looked to older houses-as well as vintage furniture, clothing, and other objects-as a way to connect with the past. The celebration of old homes secured its place in mainstream American culture most decisively on television with the inauguration of This Old House on PBS in 1979. The program makes many tasks seem accessible to the novice while promoting an appreciation for professional craftsmanship and for regional and historic house styles. By the late 1980s, the same marketplace that had responded to the 1950s do-it-yourself movement capitalized on this interest by offering products for such tasks as stripping paint, matching original moldings, and replacing tin ceilings. While still holding to the ideas of "modern living" adopted from the 1930s through the 1950s, homeowners have increasingly remodeled their dwellings with an eye to the past, and home improvement now refers to renovation as well as modernization.

DRIVE for Power
Do-it-yourself home improvement affords homeowners a way to individualize and reinvent their homes. Skills first acquired using tools in hobby projects or for minor repairs empower men and women to tackle increasingly complex projects that can add real value to their investment. Today's tool manufacturers make this increasingly probable by designing tools equipped with the facility and accuracy of a professional, as well as advanced safety features. The drive for increasing power, automation, and cutting edge technology that permeates the professional marketplace eventually finds its way to the homeowner-if the price is right. Mass media, and now entire cable television networks, devote themselves to showcasing what types of projects to undertake, and all the new products available. And retailers make it economically attractive for homeowners to buy, or rent, the equipment needed to fulfill their domestic dreams.

A century ago, few homeowners assumed they could make home improvements on their own-or even thought they should. Today, with resourcefulness and imagination, even homeowners on limited budgets can realize their aspirations. Once derided, then accepted, and eventually expected, taking tools in hand remains a leisure pursuit that provides a unique satisfaction: you can do it yourself.

Sponsors

The National Building Museum gratefully acknowledges the contribution of Steven M. Gelber, author of Hobbies: Leisure and the Culture of Work in America.

The Museum wishes to thank the following organizations for their contributions of goods and services to Do It Yourself: Andersen® Windows; Azrock Commercial Flooring; Balmer Architectural Mouldings; Benjamin Moore & Co.; Delta Machinery; Hewlett-Packard Company; JET, WMH Tool Group; Milwaukee Electric Tool Company; Penn State Industries; Porter Cable; SENCO Products Inc.; The Stanley Works; Waterloo Industries Inc./Tool Dock™; Waverly Wallpaper® donated by FSC Wallcoverings, a division of F. Schumacher & Co., New York, NY; and Gladiator Garage Works donated by Whirlpool Brand.

Do It Yourself: Home Improvement in 20th-Century America is sponsored by:

This Old House Ventures, Inc.

in association with

Andersen® Windows

Benjamin Moore & Co.

 DuPont™ Corian®

 GMC

GREAT STUFF™ Insulating Foam Sealants

Hewlett-Packard Company

Home & Garden Television

Leatherman Tools

Lennox Industries Inc.

 

Whirlpool Brand

Credits

Curator: Chrysanthe B. Broikos
Curatorial Associate: Ramee Gentry
Educator: Eileen B. Langholtz
Originating and Consulting Curators: Carolyn M. Goldstein and Michael R. Harrison.
Carolyn Goldstein is the author of Do It Yourself: Home Improvement in 20th-Century America.

Exhibition Design: Pentagram Design, Inc. (J. Abbott Miller, James Hicks, and Jeremy Hoffman)
Video Production: VideoTakes, Inc.