In this text, I will discuss how history is used and understood in different contemporary contexts regarding the domestic architecture of the fin de siecle (approx. 1880-1915). The focus is on apartment housing and my examples are all found in central Stockholm. I have used an ethnographical method with personal stories and experiences as my main focus while conducting interviews with people living in apartments in houses originally built around 1900. To place the interviews in a broader context they have been analyzed in relation to contemporary housing advertisements. In the first part of the article fin de siecle architecture is discussed as a coherent material style, modified to modern needs and dreams and given the function of a sign of among other things history, quality and status, legitimizing new modern lifestyles. In the second part, the use of history is considered as one among many factors in the project of homemaking and as being a possibility to transform yourself and your surroundings into better and more beautiful and interesting versions.