The scarcity of visual sources depicting urban domestic interiors in Greece from the late 19th to the early 20th century became apparent to me at the very beginning of my research. A few surviving photographs and some scattered studies on furniture offered partial insights into spatial organization, materials, and furnishings. These allowed me to sketch a rough picture of how rooms evolved during the period I was studying. Yet, what remained missing was a narrative—an image of how these spaces were inhabited, and by whom.

Some answers emerged with the discovery of a series of housekeeping manuals aimed at young women, at future housewives. The first, published in 1885, proved particularly revealing: such guides prescribed in detail nearly every aspect of domestic life, from cooking and hygiene to the construction and furnishing of the home. A comparative analysis of these texts provided a clearer perspective on the domestic interior, though I still had to ask to whom exactly these manuals referred. Moreover, I needed numerical data on the furniture and objects that made up an actual household of the period.

Unexpectedly, a series of legal documents—specifically dowry contracts—helped fill this gap. The dowry system, deeply embedded in Greek society, required women to bring property into marriage. The contracts I examined contained precise inventories of household furnishings, cooking utensils, and clothing allocated to brides by their families. These documents provided invaluable data for reconstructing the image of the domestic interior in which a newly married couple would live.

This paper outlines a research methodology for studying the history of the domestic interior through non-architectural texts. By drawing on disciplines such as demography, the history of emotions, and family studies, the image of what happened behind closed doors and windows becomes significantly clearer.