Full of whimsical illustrations and street-smart comments by Swiss architect Berta Rahm, this book on how to furnish apartments is a testament to a time when progressive young women could rent (and appropriate) their own apartment, but naturally were expected to marry, pay a dowry and buy long-lasting furniture with their husbands.

It is a sort of guide-book that is structured according to the stages a young reader goes through, once he (and explicitly she) has moved out from the parental home into the city. It starts with cheap and inventive DIY-tips to turn a grandmotherly furnished rental apartment into a hip single-person flat, ready even for hosting guests (a drawer stuck upside-down in a cupboard can serve as a table!) and ends with tips for the the newly-wed couple moving in together for the first time on how to distinguish durable, well-made furniture from fashionable faux-pas.

Berta Rahm published “Vom möblierten Zimmer bis zur Wohnung: Anregungen für das Einrichten von Einzelräumen und Wohnungen” when she was 37 years old, single and living in her own apartment.