Katrina Holte is a modern woman in the most untraditionally modern way. She was happily married for three years but wasn’t happy in her stressful job in a payroll department.
When enough was enough, she quit to begin pursuing her dream of living like a 1950s housewife.
Thirty-year-old Holte transformed her home in Hillsboro, Oregon, into the classic suburban household with vintage furniture and décor. It’s designed according to her taste, and less “like it’s a museum,” she explains.
But being a housewife means more than wearing A-line skirts and red lipstick. Holte is busy everyday cleaning, sewing 50s-style dresses, and cooking dinner, to be served when Lars, her husband, comes home from working as an engineering manager.
“I feel like I’m living how I always wanted to. It’s my dream life and my husband shares my vision,” she says. “It is a lot of work. I do tons of dishes, laundry and ironing, but I love it and it’s helping to take care of my husband and that makes me really happy.”
Her wardrobe is full of color and distinct prints. All the dresses and skirts were homemade. Holte runs a part-time business selling her vintage clothes online. She has been sewing clothes for 10 years now.
Katrina Holte admits to being an old soul. “When I look at everything that is happening in the world now, I feel like I belong in a nicer, more old-fashioned time,” she says. “I agree with old-fashioned values, like being a housewife, taking care of your family, nurturing the people in it and keeping your house in excellent condition, so everyone feels relaxed.”
Fortunately, Lars was on board with the retreat into the twentieth century.
“I spoke to my husband and told him I want to be a housewife and he said that was fine with him,” Holte says. “It was a fantastic feeling when I quit. I can do what I want to now and run my house as I want to run it. Now I’m a full-time homemaker.”
She looks forward to raising a big family and is aware that children would change her utopic domesticity. Although she plans to dress her daughter in cute petticoats and hats, she will allow them to choose their own path when they get older.
A Day in the Life of Katrina Holte
An average day for Holte begins at 6:30 a.m. She wakes up and prepares Lars’s clothes for him; then she cooks his breakfast and packs his lunch. After she eats, she does 15 minutes of gentle exercise.
“We have the idea today that we have to push our bodies to the limit, but in the 1950s, the attitude was simply that you had to take care of it,” she explains. “I have a vintage slant board, which is a small wooden ramp, to do core exercises like sit-ups. I do them for about 10 to 15 minutes a day and they keep me in shape to fit into my 1950s dresses.”
After her exercises, Holte showers, dresses, applies a “full face of vintage makeup,” including the iconic red lip, and curls her hair with traditional hot rollers. Then she’s ready to tackle the chores.
“I will then spend a good hour doing the laundry, dusting, and sweeping. I make sure everything is kept in its place,” she says. “After lunch, when my house is tidy and smelling fresh, I will go upstairs and sew either for myself, for my customers or to try out new patterns.”
At around four in the afternoon, Holte begins to cook dinner to be ready for Lars when he comes home from work.
“I usually cook recipes from the era like pot roasts or chicken pies and make sure there are vegetables,” she says. “In the 1950s, housewives liked to make sure all the food groups were there.”
When Lars arrives, he hangs up his coat and his wife serves him water and a plate of snacks like cheese, dried fruit or nuts to munch on while she puts the final touches on their entrees.
After dinner, they play board games like Scrabble, watch old TV shows like the Donna Reed Show and I Love Lucy, or they read. “I like reading 1950s cookbooks and vintage beauty and sewing magazines,” says Holte. Sometimes they’ll play Doris Day or Frank Sinatra, on vinyl, of course.
The only crack in the perfect 50s vibe is their TV, which they keep hidden when it’s not in use to avoid ruining the rest of the house’s aesthetic. Fear not though, they don’t have cable or use streaming channels.
In reply to those who think of her as ‘anti-feminist,’ Holte states that she doesn’t feel repressed by this arrangement. In fact, she views it as an equal partnership.
“I think we, as women, should support each other. If a woman says she wants to be a homemaker, we should not say that’s not right. What’s right for me might not be right for someone else. We all have to do what’s right for ourselves.”
