The chap­ter “Sev­en Ages” of Fur­ni­ture from “World­ly Ways and Byways” delin­eates the evolv­ing tastes in house­hold dec­o­ra­tion of an Amer­i­can cou­ple as a metaphor for broad­er cul­tur­al and per­son­al growth. It begins by paint­ing a pic­ture of young Amer­i­can cou­ples, includ­ing the trope of the insight­ful wife and her ador­ing hus­band, nav­i­gat­ing their way through var­i­ous stages of domes­tic aes­theti­cism, influ­enced large­ly by their finan­cial sta­tus, expo­sure to dif­fer­ent cul­tures, and the pre­vail­ing tastes of their times.

Ini­tial­ly, young cou­ples start their homes with hand-me-down fur­ni­ture, often bulky and unat­trac­tive pieces passed down as gifts from old­er rel­a­tives. This peri­od is marked by a lack of orig­i­nal­i­ty and per­son­al input into the home­’s dec­o­ra­tion, reflect­ing an embry­on­ic stage of cul­tur­al and aes­thet­ic aware­ness.

The nar­ra­tive then tran­si­tions to what is termed the “Japan­ese peri­od,” where the wife, embark­ing on a jour­ney of self-cul­ture and exper­i­men­ta­tion, begins to over­lay the grim fur­ni­ture with silk, gauze draperies, and ori­en­tal orna­ments. This phase sym­bol­izes a rudi­men­ta­ry attempt at per­son­al­iz­ing their liv­ing space, influ­enced by super­fi­cial trends rather than a deep under­stand­ing of art and design.

As the cou­ple’s finan­cial stand­ing improves, they move into a phase of gaudy opu­lence, replac­ing the eclec­tic mix with what the nar­ra­tor views as mon­strosi­ties of design—rooms filled with inlaid woods, com­pli­cat­ed ceil­ing designs, and flashy fur­ni­ture. This stage rep­re­sents an uncrit­i­cal embrace of wealth’s pos­si­bil­i­ties, man­i­fest­ing in a lack of cohe­sive aes­thet­ic vision.

The nar­ra­tive con­tin­ues to describe the cou­ple’s pro­gres­sion through var­i­ous fash­ions of inte­ri­or design, includ­ing the dark and impos­ing “eccle­si­as­ti­cal junk shop” look influ­enced by Eng­lish trends and a failed attempt at adopt­ing aris­to­crat­ic French styles in their grand new house. Each phase reflects a deep­er engage­ment with the world of art and dec­o­ra­tion, though often mis­guid­ed by trends and the avail­abil­i­ty of dis­pos­able income rather than a true under­stand­ing of design prin­ci­ples.

In the final stages, dis­il­lu­sioned by the hol­low allure of lux­u­ri­ous but imper­son­al dec­o­ra­tions, the cou­ple rec­og­nizes their super­fi­cial under­stand­ing of true artistry in fur­nish­ing and design. They come to under­stand that gen­uine appre­ci­a­tion and appli­ca­tion of art in one’s liv­ing space require a depth of knowl­edge and guid­ance they have yet to achieve, set­ting the stage for fur­ther growth and explo­ration.

This chap­ter not only chron­i­cles the aes­thet­ic evo­lu­tion of a cou­ple in terms of their mate­r­i­al sur­round­ings but also mir­rors the broad­er soci­etal shifts in taste and the pur­suit of cul­tur­al sophis­ti­ca­tion. Through their jour­ney, the nar­ra­tive cri­tiques the often unques­tioned adop­tion of trend­ing styles and the super­fi­cial treat­ment of art and cul­ture as mere sym­bols of sta­tus, prompt­ing a reflec­tion on the val­ues that tru­ly enrich human life and spaces.