Berta Sander studied at the School of arts and crafts in Cologne, where she was taught by Philipp Hausler, who in turn had been a student of Josef Hoffman. One of the founding members of both the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstatte, Hoffman was a key promoter of International Modernism in the 1920s. In 1923 Sander spent a year at the Wiener Werkstatte before returning to Cologne where she set up a workshop as an interior designer specialising in wallpaper, furniture design and single-person dwellings. It was during this period that she made this drawing. Sander was heavily influenced by architects and designers of the new International Modernist style in Germany, Austria and various Eastern European countries, who were concerned with developing a rational aesthetic for the new technologies.

This design shows the separation of the kitchen from the eating area, which was key to new kitchen-planning in mass housing. Sander's obvious interest in flat pattern is seen in the dividing draperies and the matching patterns on the chair seats and lampshade. There is a strong Modernist influence in the furniture with its slim, tapered legs and the simple squareness of the forms, in the lack of decoration on the walls and floor, and in the choice of the crisp and spiky forms of the cacti on the windowsill.