Canadian Homes and Gardens

Canadian Homes and Gardens

Cover of the November 1951 issue
Categories	Lifestyle
Frequency	Monthly
Year founded	1925
Final issue	1962
Company	Maclean-Hunter
Country	Canada
Language	English
ISSN	0826-2160

Canadian Homes and Gardens was a magazine published by Maclean-Hunter in Canada from 1925 until 1962, succeeded by Canadian Homes, which was published until 1978. It targeted an upper middle class or upper class market, mainly of women, giving advice on home decoration. The distinction between editorial content and advertising was blurred.

John Bayne Maclean purchased the magazine in 1925. From then until January 1960 Maclean-Hunter published thirty seven volumes of the magazine. In 1930 Maclean-Hunter published the 242-page Canadian homes and gardens : book of houses.Canadian Homes and Gardens was sold in 1962. It was succeeded by Canadian Homes. This magazine, devoted to interior decoration, was published by Maclean-Hunter until 1978.

Canadian Homes and Gardens targeted urban readers from the upper and upper-middle classes. It competed with U.S. magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens, publishing feature articles on home planning and "gracious living". In the 1920s Canadian Homes and Gardens carried stories and illustrations of developments in furniture and appliance design, including Art Deco styles. At this time Art Deco was associated with a wealthy elite who want to be seen as modern and cosmopolitan. During the Great Depression, the magazine painted an upbeat picture when describing the 1933-34 radios, linking them to high culture, adventure and the home:

Many of the new models are equipped with dual-wave equipment, which makes it a simple matter to "go abroad" for the dance music of Paris, London, Cuba, to receive exciting messages from ships at sea, and so on. Modern radio offers a thrilling contact with the whole world—none the less thrilling because it comes in the form of education and amusement, and because it is perhaps the most vital factor, in these times, of binding the family to the home."

Lorrie Dunington-Grubb (1877–1945), a Toronto-based landscape architect who co-founded Sheridan Nurseries, wrote articles on garden design for Canadian Homes and Gardens. The magazine also helped to promote Canadian nationhood through the concept of a popular Canadian culture expressed in terms of residential aesthetics. Thus in July 1929 Canadian Homes and Gardens published an article on a project by the architect Elizabeth Lalor Harding to convert a farmhouse in the Muskoka region into a summer residence. She was interested in developing a Canadian style of architecture. Around 1945 the Greater Vancouver region emerged as a center of architectural modernism, with elegant and innovative designs. This regional style was given extensive coverage in Canadian Homes and Gardens.