Today's teenagers live under the slogan "your peace is your fortress!". They consider their home corner to be a completely autonomous space that they can paint from ceiling to floor black or cover their idols with kitschy posters. About 150 years ago, adolescent girls could only be polite, nice and obedient, and their rooms were supposed to fully reflect that!
In the nineteenth century, teenage girls were already put into the role of wives and mothers. Parents, relatives, teachers and nannies instilled in them all the desirable qualities so that they would be gentle, sweet, obedient, economical, just accurate. This upbringing was also visible in the way of arranging small, girlish alcoves. 
A teenage girl who was about to start showing up in society and making social contacts, she was given her own room. In the nursery, it gave way to the rest of the siblings, and she gained her own corner, adapted to her needs. Interestingly, this was not the case with boys. They had to share space with the brothers until they fled the family nest…
A typical room of a nineteenth-century teenager (photo:Historical Museum of the City of Krakow).
The young lady's room was supposed to be subdued and girlish, and above all, reflect the character of the tenant. It was usually decorated in pastel colors. The walls were either painted or covered with light wallpaper with flowers or other delicate motifs. There were usually two color versions - pale pink or pale blue.
Cute and very light
There was little furniture in a nineteenth-century teenager's room. Most often they chose light and simple, in the familiar, bourgeois "Biedermeier style". For everyday use, the young girl had a wardrobe (not too big, so as not to pay too much attention to vanity!), A simple bed, a toilet, a desk, a table by the bed, a thread or a manual sewing machine, and a nice stove to warm the room without disfiguring it. . All these pieces of furniture were to be bright and delicate, like their owner. We tried to make them varnished in white or made of light wood, but always light, even filigree.
Several layers of bedding were put on the bed, as if they were afraid that the princess sleeping on it would feel like a fairy-tale pea. The folded sheets were topped with a beautifully decorated, starched quilt.
Ideally, it should be skillfully made by a girl's hands, just like beautiful pillows! It is a beautiful display of patience and diligence ... Sometimes a small canopy of tulle or muslin hung over the bed. From the side of the wall, a wall-paper could also hang, as in the Hipolitów Tenement House in Krakow, protecting the young lady from carelessly hugging the cold wall.
There were few decorations in the room. A few potted flowers, a few idyllic-angelic pictures, a holy picture above the bed, a mirror in a decorative frame, a clock, a music box, a doll somewhere on the side that was difficult to part with, someone's photo in a frame (of course, rather at the end of the century) and the inherent streak by the bed, and besides, drapes covering all possible furniture.
The needle danced with the thread and the pen danced with the inkwell
The desk was an important piece of furniture. You had to keep writing instruments somewhere. It required them to keep a diary or the first household bills counted by the hands of the future hostess. Where to do homework if not on it? Where to write letters to my dear aunt or Papa, who just left? In addition, you had to practice calligraphy, sitting upright while writing (the desks even had a special "support" for a simple posture). With time, when the young lady became a virgin, and finally a young married woman, she earned an elegant secretary, but in the meantime this piece of furniture had to suffice for her, sometimes remembering a few, if not a dozen, students.
And an indispensable element of every girl's room:a mirror ... (photo:Historical Museum of the City of Krakow).
There was a thread calmly standing by the window, in the brightest place. If we consider how important a role in the education of a young lady was played by learning needlework, we will understand its place almost in the heart of the room. The young lady, when she finished her lessons, helped her mother, looked at her grandparents and cheered her father up, started sewing. It was with the help of such an inconspicuous piece of furniture that beautiful needlework was created, which often became a nice gift for loved ones given on various occasions. Moreover, a very important skill was darning one's own underwear and repairing clothes. The authors of nineteenth-century educational textbooks suggest one more important role that this skill may or may not play in a woman's life. In case her family becomes poorer, the future housewife will be able to repair the home budget by selling her needlework!
Where the light from the window does not reach…
And since we are already near the window, it is worth taking a closer look at its appearance. A row of flowers on the windowsill. The more beautiful and lush, the greater the pride of the owner and dungarees in one. Above the flowers hangs a delicate and nicely pinned up curtain, of course in the brightest possible color, mounted on a simple curtain rod.
When we look a little into the shadow, or rather into the dark corner of the young lady's room, we see a place that we should probably not notice. A beautiful screen hides what is embarrassing. There is a bedside vessel slightly hidden there. In richer homes, of course, it may be a "vessel for going outside at home", but much more often it is an ordinary potty. The authors of the guides suggest that night residues should be thrown out of it in the morning to avoid the spread of unpleasant odors. Well, home toilets are just a fad from the very end of the century.
One more word about fun
In the branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow - the Hipolit House - the interior of such a girl's room from the 19th century has been arranged. There is no library, no fold-out games, but its alleged tenant has other interests. Music must be her talent and passion. Somewhere a mandolin is lying carelessly, a beautiful music box stands proudly on the chest of drawers, and the clock adjacent to it must be melodiously chiming the hours. The hen room of the Hipolitów family shows best that although these rooms were arranged in a similar style, everything depended on the personal preferences of the owner. Instead of a mandolin, it could include, for example, easels or painting accessories. Anyway, the similarities with today's teenager's rooms are hard to find ...