Interior Rustic Pictures

The interior rustic pictures on this page tell a story of lives more than a century ago, in a world that still exists.

I took these photos at the museum of Ballenberg in Switzerland - a beautifully preserved collection of historic rural houses from all over the country, and a wonderful place to study the interior rustic style of alpine homes.


The first of my interior rustic pictures shows the inside of an Alphütte, a small log cabin high up in the Swiss mountains.

A team of men lived there over the summer, herding the cattle and making cheese, and they carved their initials into the wooden walls - 19th-century alpine graffiti.


Some of the men returned for several summers, and one of those was “D.S.”

I can’t include his photograph here with my interior rustic pictures; but his signature, DS 1882.83.84.85. is cut into a dark part of the cabin wall (the wall was so dark that the photo I took didn’t come out good enough to show you – you’ll just have to believe me.)

"D.S."

Even though we don’t have a photo of D.S., I’m convinced there actually is an image of him among the pictures in one of the houses at Ballenberg ;-).

I have it that he’s the man at the tip of the herd, leading them up to the alpine meadows in late spring. (This is always a festive occasion, and the cows are lavishly decorated with flowers when they go to the summer pastures.)

D.S. is wearing a red woollen hat and he has a beard. (No need to shave with no womenfolk around - women were considered bad luck on the Alp). He’s carrying his own belongings with him; a shirt or two to change, a sweater, some socks maybe.

He or one of his colleagues will go down to the valley once a week, pulling the new cheese downhill on a sled (or rather, trying to stop the sled from taking a wild ride down on its own); on the way back, they’ll bring supplies up from the valley floor.

The next picture shows what may well have been D.S.’s bed in the rustic cabin interior.

There's room for a pull-out bed underneath to save space - an important feature in the interior rustic style of alpine huts.

The rustic cabin interior even contains D.S.’s shirt, and the petroleum lamp he lights every night.

The next morning, as everyday, the men will wake up to the sound of the cowbells, and to the song of larks, and the wind.

They will stay on the Alp until the fall, then give the cows another festive makeover and return to the valley in a splendid procession.

Life in the Valley

I wonder, did he have to work for daily wages, or was he in steady employment with one of the farmers, and lived on the farm?

Was he among the farmhands who would gather in the living room on a winter night, sitting on a bench around the big tiled oven to warm themselves?

Maybe he had enough money to build his own house and start a family.

One of my interior rustic pictures shows a small kitchen-cum-living room in what could have been his home. It’s in typical interior rustic style - the walls are thick, the ceilings low and the windows tiny, to keep the heat inside and firewood expenses low.

The facilities inside the house will have been similar to the rustic cabin interior on the mountain. Maybe they had a few goats (the 'poor man’s cows'), and a small cottage garden where the family would grow much of their food.

I’m sure there are records in his village that show who D.S. was, and what he got up to in 1886, after his last summer on the Alp. I doubt, though, that we would find interior rustic pictures of his family home – farm workers’ cottages were rarely thought worth preserving. But who knows?

There are many more interior rustic pictures on this site. You’ll find them on the following pages:

Country Style Bedroom Furniture

Country Style Sofas

Country Style Living Room Furniture Rustic Country Style Decor

Country Style Home Decor on a Shoestring

Country Style Decorating - Get the Look


And you’ll find some more interior rustic pictures on your …

… return from Interior Rustic Pictures to Country Decorating.


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