| º | | Ex Libriſ Ä # § # # ORMA F. BUTLER - º| f H l º i LIBRARY ū arº.22 *2 22 UN J º º & sº gº as sº as as as as º sº gº sº gº me • * sº º ºvº º ºs e s & sº º ºs º ºr º e º ºs º is as ºr e º 'º e < * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Sºlº' (XF THE NERSITY OF MIC ~ ||YA- -—- frºTºº VUITT.I...TTT SS SU r": E.i E. T T T WTT º pºrt ſºlº Tº -:11 —li, III] TE T T t [...] Ell Lºt [...] scienriºr TITUTTE: |## ăți. HH ## HIGAN || *.* N ::B; Sº (2) |## ...] i - | - BEQUEST OF ORMA FITCH BUTLER, PH.D., 'O HP R (). FESS ( ) ºr ( ) F" I, ATI N NK & C. east BE YOUR OWN DECORATOR PLATE I & ANALYSIS A MAN's ROOM You will agree that this room “looks like a man.” The furniture in style reflecting the Renaissance period, is solid, its shape or “lines’’ simple and beautiful. There is nothing easily tipped over, fragile nor “fussy.” You can see almost any man happy in this room. If we could show you the colors they would be strong but cheerful and the pattern of chintz or crêtonne one that is also masculine in gender! This is a point any home- maker can easily decide. Ask yourself the question, “Does it look like the average man or is the pattern and coloring more like a woman or young girl?” That the owner of this room has a real love of this, his own particular home, is shown by the intimate pho- tograph on his desk. He has a hobby too (always en- courage harmless hobbies; they are safety valves). That quaint, old model of a ship was picked up by this man in an out-of-the-way antique shop and for very little. Plain wall paper of a brownish-gray suits the style of furniture and makes a good background for pictures. Let the hangings, furniture covers and lamp shade warm up the room for a man. We have been unable to show open fire, sofa, book-shelves, etc. The man who has both bed and sitting room divides his furniture, keeping in the bedroom only what he needs for sleeping and dressing. sº If you are furnishing a ‘‘guest room” for men, here is your plan. INOOH s, NVW GTIqvlâOJWOO ATHønoãOHL v BE YOUR OWN DECORATOR BY EMILY BURBANK AUTHOR OF “THE ART of INTERIOR DEcoRATION,” “woman As DEcoRATION,” ETc. ILLUSTRATIONS BY F. J. KEGEL NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1922 CopyRIGHT, 1932, By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. ºf tºe &uinn & Soben Gompany E. O. O. K. M. A. N. U FA CT U R S R § º A. H. W. A. Y. N - W J E R S E Y Qºs DEDICATED TO º THE AMERICAN BIOME-MAIKER WEIO WANTS ABSOLUTE COMFORT COMBINED WITEI BEAUTY AT THE LEAST POSSIBLE EXPENSE FOREWORD THE aim of this book is to give the HoME-MAKER a series of simple rules “How To Do IT” with happy, decorative results. Comfort is never lost sight of. The rules are few and we have tried to make them very clear by applying them over and over again as we approach our subject from different angles. - The first chapter gives a brief summary of the main points in house furnishing. If one should read only the first chapter it would be possible to undertake the task of decorating your home in the manner a professional would. In the second chapter we consider rooms which are known to be wrong from the point of view of a decorator, and you are given a lesson in How To ANALYZE A Room. As PROFESSIONALs Do. The third chapter asks your consideration of A BEAUTIFUL Roomſ and shows how one can write one’s own book of rules if the habit of carefully examining what is really beautiful is cultivated. The body of the book is devoted to chapters on How To PAINT FURNITURE, How To STENCIL, How To MAKE YoUR Own LAMP SHADEs, THE ART OF SHOPPING, WHY PERIOD Rooms, and advises as to the furnishing of rooms for MEN, WOMEN, OLD ix X FOREWORD PEOPLE, YoUNG GIRLs, BABIES, THE LEAST ExPEN- SIVE SUMMER COTTAGES, MAKING You R DINING- Room. TABLE MAGNETIC, A KITCHEN YoUB Cook WILL LIKE, How To EQUIP YouB KITCHEN and other subjects are also covered. A chapter of “DoN’Ts WHEN DECORATING,” a glossary of terms used by decorators (useful when reading books on decoration or shopping for your furnishings) and a brief page in CoNCLUSION complete a volume which will, we believe, smooth the path of those wishing to be their own deco- rators either to arrange a home for the least pos- sible price or because the fun of the decorator’s job entices them! CHAPTER II III VII VIII IX XI CONTENTS FoERWORD BRIEF SUMMARY OF MAIN POINTS IN House, FURNISHING. WITH No MoMEY, ExCEPT FOR NECESSITIES, How To PLAN FOR BEAUTY As WELL As CoMFORT IN YOUR HOME. No NEW FURNISHINGS. SOME NEW FURNISHINGS. ALL NEW FURNISH- INGS . tº º © e e e How TO ANALYZE A Room. As PROFES- SIONALS DO BEFORE YOU REDECO- LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL ROOM AND LEARNING TO RECOGNIZE ITS POINTS OF BEAUTY . e º SoRTING You R PoSSESSIONs . PLACING YoUR FURNITURE. PERMA- NENT PIECES. MOVABLE PIECES. THE IMPORTANCE OF LITTLE TABLES Rooms THE MEN OF YOUR HousBHOLD WILL LIKE . & tº tº AN IDEAL Double Room. For HUS- BAND AND WIFE THE WIFE’s ROOM . A. YoUNg GIRL's ROOM ſe Room's PLANNED FOR THE AMUSEMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE AT SMALLEST ExPENSE. KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN’s BARN AT QUILLCOTE, Hollis, MAINE REST Rooms, PRIVATE AND PUBLIC . PAGE 10 18 28 33 41 49 57 63 69 77 xi XII - CONTENTS CHAPTER XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV • XXVI XXVII XXVIII YXIX ROOMS FOR Old PEOPLE. WHAT THEY FIND BIOME-LIKE tº e • • THE BABY’s ROOMS. THE DAY ROOM. THE NIGHT ROOM - © o THE FAMILY LIVING-ROOM. Book- SHELVES. THE FAMILY COAT- CLOSET & & • & tº A FEW SUGGESTIONS FOR YOUR DIN- ING-ROOM e e ſº - e o º SELECTING YoUR CHINA . . . . TABLE DECORATION. SETTING THE TABLE CORRECTLY & & A KITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL DIKE. How To EQUIP YOUR KITCHEN. SERVANT's BEDROOMS - º MAKING ONE's Own Home READY FOR ‘‘PAYING GUESTS.” FARMHouses OR COTTAGES BY THE SEA. TREAT- MENT OF OLD FLOORS YOUR WILLOW FURNITURE . DOING YoUR OWN PAINTING How TO STENCIL . e DOING ONE'S OWN DYEING . ſº WHEN YOU MAKE YOUR Own LAMP SHADES e º © • • TREATMENT OF MANTEL MAKES OR MARS AROOM. To-DAY. YoUR FIRE- PLACE e º o e o e MIRRORS. VARIETIES YOU CAN MAKE YoUR PICTURES. DECIDING WHAT TO BUY. FRAMING THEM. HANGING THEM . . . • . © e ON THE SELECTING OF CHINTZES AND CR£IONNES WINDow CURTAINs. For SUMMER. FOR WINTER. SOFA PILLOW IPAGL) 84 95 103 110 115 124 137 152 158 164 181 188 191 205 210 213 218 227 CONTENTS xiii CHAPTER XXXI XXXII YXXIII XXXIV XXXV XXXVI XXXVII XXXVIII BEAUTY AND HowL.LIKE ATMOSPHERE MADE POSSIBLE WITH CLEVER USE OF SUBSTITUTES . dº º dº º PEWTER AS DECORATION. FACTS OF INTEREST TO THOSE WHO Own OLD PEWTER e Gº º THE ART of SHOPPING . & A SUMMING UP OF OUR SUBJECT PERIODS IN FURNITURE AND FURNISH- INGS. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF MOST PAGES 233 243 247 251 FAMILIAR STYLES OF FURNITURE . AND FACTS TO HELP THE BEGINNER UNDERSTAND How PERIODS OR SHAPES DEVELOPED . © PERIODS IN COLOR ScHEMES “DON'Ts” IN DECORATING . CAN YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONs? e e & CoNCLUSION . • • • * GLOSSARY—DECORATOR’s VocabulARY 261 303 310 318 325 327 PLAT : II III IV VI VII VIII IX XI YII XIII xIV XV XVII XVIII XIX ILLUSTRATIONS A thoroughly comfortable man’s I’OODºl & © e Frontispiece FACING PAGE Small tables which go far toward hu- manizing any room tº gº º The boy’s room, banners, boxing-gloves and all . dº º º ºs © The double room for husband and wife The dressing-room . . . . . A very modern young girl’s bedroom . A room for the amusement of young people in a small house & A rest room with atmosphere of com- fort and pleasure . tº gº An old lady’s room . An old gentleman’s room The up-to-date nursery A magnetic family living-room & A dining-room after Italian Renais- sance style tº º e Breakfast-room furnished in willow A furnished porch can have as much fascination as a furnished room A home-like room for your maid A bedroom furnished with willow Committee room for men or women One end of a furnished porch where space is very limited . tº º 36 46 52 60 66 72 80 88 92 100 106 112 120 132 150 160 168 178 XV xvi. ILLUSTRATIONS IP ATE XX YXII XXIII XXIV XXVI FACING PAGº Lamps and lamp shades should be se- lected with thought . . . . Sun-parlor with gayest of chintz . Suggestions for draping your windows Suggestion for a hall in a small house Simple corner closets . . . . Day-beds in three very popular styles . Two styles of sideboards. No. 1 reflects somewhat early American with Eng- lish influence and No. 2 the French Empire influence . . . . . Refectory tables, two of which reflect the Italian Renaissance type. The third style is within the means of any OIlê . . . . . . . . Victorian room with modern sofa and lamp Shade . . . . . . 194 224 230 238 254 264 278 XXVII XXVIII 286 300 THE author wishes to acknowledge her indebted- ness to House and Garden for permission to quote from three articles which have already appeared in that magazine, and to the following New York designers and makers of house furnishings: the New York Galleries (designers and makers of fur- niture) for the illustrations; Wood, Edey and Slayter, Interior Decorators, for designs for lamp shades; Witcombe, McGeachin & Co. for data con- cerning crêtonnes and chintzes; and to Lewis and Conger for up-to-date kitchen equipment, hints as to china, and necessities for nurseries. \ BE YOUR OWN DECORATOR BE YOUR OWN DECORATOR. CHAPTER I BRIEF SUMMARY OF MIAIN POINTS IN HOUSE FURNISEI- ING. WITH NO MONEY EXCEPT FOR NECESSITIES, IBIOW TO PLAN FOR BEAUTY AS WELL AS COMFORT IN YOUR EIOME. NO NEW FURNISEIINGS. SOME NEW FURNISEIINGS, ALL NEW FTURNISEIINGS. YoU are going to furnish a home. To you is left the decision as to what the furnishings shall be. But at the same time, since you do not live alone, it is important that you consult the taste of the other members of your household. If they have not what you and I call ‘‘taste,” they certainly have likes and dislikes and these are of course to be considered if the place you are about to make attractive is really to attract; if it is to be worthy the name of home. It is possible that you have a very limited sum of money. For any beginner this is a distinct advantage, not a drawback. It means that you cannot “let yourself go” and buy carelessly, but that you will put your mind on the task in hand and get full value for the amount paid out. Your I 2 BRIEF SUMMARY money must be used for “necessities,” in the usual sense of the word. You feel that you know little about house furnishing; in other words, inte- rior decoration. Nevertheless you have the right idea to start with; it is an attractive, a “magnetic” home that you want to make. There is no doubt about it, a magnetic home, like a magnetic person, is a great power for good. Your intention is to make your home the most winning spot on earth to your family. - There are easily learned rules governing all house furnishing which are the result of long ex- perience as well as deep study on the part of professional decorators. If you follow these rules you will save time and money. Since it is the professional Interior Decorator who has moulded public taste and given us standards to work by, let us proceed as he or she would, and carefully plan the room, apartment or house before buying anything for it. - The present is a wonderful time to furnish, for the reason that the homemaker has only to know what he wants as to type of furniture to have it and at moderate prices. Beautiful lines or shapes in furniture are to-day as cheap as the once popu- lar Mission style. Mission furniture was solid and strong, but as a style to live with in a home expected to be magnetic it was not half so pleasing as the types which touch the imagination with their lovely, graceful outlines; modern adapta- BRIEF SUMMARY 3 tions of the fashions of long ago or exact copies of those shapes or “periods.” Mission furniture was designed as a drastic de- parture from the hideous excrescence of the Vic- torian period when our grandmothers and their mothers were furnishing homes. Victorian ugli- ness with its inartistic shapes and too elaborate ornamentation, was the result of rapid production running away with creation when machinery was invented to take the place of the hands of men. Mission furniture, with its uncompromising straight lines and no ornamentation, has served its purpose by breaking a bad tradition. Now the general public is ready to advance into the beauti- ful periods designed to-day and long ago. Because the art of copying or “reproducing” furniture has reached a high degree of perfection here in the United States, few types if any are missing from the long list to be found “ready made” in an infinite variety of woods with pol- ished surfaces, painted, lacquered, stained and in- laid. If American taste in house furnishing is to de- velop and keep pace with American architecture, even in its simplest forms, so that the myriad houses soon to be built shall be homes which mean beautiful comfort to their occupants, we must be- gin at once to show our children (in our houses) what is possible in the way of beautiful shapes to be had in furniture, as well as lovely combi- nations of colors. Children see and children re- 4 BRIEF SUMMARY member. Let us show our children that beauty costs no more than ugliness and that it is a far more paying investment because one does not tire of it. & The second step in house furnishing is to de- cide on the colors you will use in each room for walls, wood-work, carpets, curtains, furniture cov- erings, lamp shades, sofa pillows, ornaments, etc., etc. The shapes and general style of furniture dictate color schemes to a certain extent. If we generalize we can say that heavy types of fur- niture take strong colors, and light, graceful types delicate colors. Each “period” or fashion has had its own color scheme. You will find great interest in the arranging of your furniture in each of your rooms. Noth- ing else so marks the difference between the home of the man or woman who knows and the home of the one who does not. The impression any room makes upon one en- tering it depends upon three things: harmonious coloring, that is, colors which do not clash; “bal- ance,”—the result of properly distributing your large or “permanent” pieces of furniture, and the careful placing of each piece so that it can fulfill the purpose for which it was made. We will assume that you have found the place that is to be your home. To clearly illustrate our points we will confine ourselves to one of your rooms. For what is true of one room is true of all rooms; the principles are the same, one has BRIEF SUMMARY 5 but to apply them over and over again. The fas- cination of house decoration lies in the infinite variety to be had within the laws governing it. If you decide upon wall paper for the room un- der consideration, its design and colors will de- pend upon the style or shape of the furniture you are using. Let us say it is to be an American Colonial room. Any paper hanger can show you Colonial designs (copies of papers in use when we were colonies and not states) or designs made to-day after the originals. Every furniture period has its corresponding colors, and in de- ciding upon your color scheme simply follow colors in wall paper, or if it has no color and you are using chintz, crètonne or some brocade with several colors, let that be your guide. A rule not to be forgotten if you want your efforts at decoration to count is, that if your cur- tains are of chintz or brocade showing several colors, then have your furniture covering a solid color. At most have only one sofa and one big chair figured like curtains. On the other hand, if your curtains are in one color it is interesting to use chintz or brocade on your furniture. But never use more than one pattern of chintz or brocade in one room, and if you decide on chintz, keep the brocades, silks or velvets for somewhere else. Do not mix materials of different classes. If you use only solid colors in a room the effect is usually too formal. Variety adds interest and makes a room more “human.” 6 BRIEF SUMMARY Having accomplished wall papers do not make the mistake of using a ceiling paper with a figure unless your ceiling is very cracked, then use very small design and no color. In a medium sized room and a small one, a figure in ceiling paper often lowers the effect of ceiling when this is not to be desired. Plain, delicately tinted ceilings calcimined (usually cream) are successful and bring light into your rooms. As to the color used , to “tone” or tint ceilings, the side walls exert an influence. Elaborate ceilings and floor coverings belong to rooms where magnificence is the characteristic feature of all furnishings and in which balance is preserved by a corresponding magnificence— elaboration—on side walls. For the average home, we commend plain ceilings toned to har- monize with room, and plain floor coverings, vel- vet “pile” in solid colors or two subdued tones of two colors in almost invisible pattern. Rugs look best when all in one room harmonize as to colors and if the design is not conspicuous. A too pronounced design in a floor covering will destroy the harmony of any room, and harmony in line and colors is the foundation of your deco- ration. Keep your floor coverings in one of the dark shades of your color scheme and the ceiling in the lightest. Say to yourself the earth and the sky! - Your furniture divides itself into two classes; the “permanent” pieces which maintain the bal- BRIEF SUMMARY 7 ance of the picture you have created, and the “movable” or light pieces, which form the groups suggestive of good times and human occupation. Be sure that your desks are always where the light comes from a window or lamp over the left shoulder. Your piano must have the key-board where the light strikes it from window and lamp and the artist must face his audience or at least sit so that profile may be seen. This is always more agreeable for both artist and those who listen. Have a sofa and one or two comfortable chairs forming a group about the fire-place, which should never be too near the entrance to a room. If you get the habit of asking yourself why some rooms invite you to linger, and others al- ways seem inhospitable, you will rapidly pick up valuable hints to use in your own decoration of rooms. If you happen to be arranging a family “living-room,” you may own a big sofa, a big table to hold two lamps, one at each end of sofa, as well as magazines and books; a writing-desk; book-shelves; a large arm-chair and possibly a piano. These we shall regard as your permanent pieces to give balance and restfulness to your “atmosphere” or the effect produced by room. You will find that from the decorator’s point of view, your “movable” pieces are as valuable in completing the “picture” you want your room to be, as the ‘‘permanent” ones are, for without these any room lacks life. If it be winter, the obvious place to put the 8 BRIEF SUMMARY large sofa is before the open fire-place, north wall, we will say; large table back of sofa with a reading-lamp at each end for two readers on sofa, if there are several in your household; place a large arm-chair near book-shelves, on west wall; desk near window on south side; piano east side of room, with keys so that they get light from window. Now for your movable pieces. Put one of the small tables near the big arm-chair to hold a read- ing-lamp, cigarette-box and ash-tray. Draw up one of the small chairs, or a wicker arm-chair, to suggest that some one is going to enjoy conver- sation when not reading. Move another wicker arm-chair near the fire-place to form a group with sofa, or near a window to get the light for read- ing. One of the small chairs can go before the desk, ready for use, and one at the piano, while a third small arm-chair should be placed to form a “group” by the piano, to indicate that if some one is good enough to play, some one else is courteous enough to listen! It will be seen at once that such grouping of furniture makes it appear that the home-maker expects good times; has in fact set the stage for them and incidentally got into her room the very much-to-be-desired quality of magnetism. Lighting fixtures, frames of mirrors and picture frames, as well as clocks, should be the same in period or shape as your furniture. Or, we would add, related periods, those which show a family resemblance as to outline and decoration. BRIEF SUMMARY 9 If you own a number of mirrors and pictures already framed, look them over carefully and then use them in those rooms where they best fit in with your chosen scheme. They may be no de- cided style and therefore easy to combine with other possessions. s In our chapter relating to pictures we shall have something to say about selecting subjects and coloring with reference to the decorative scheme of rooms and the rule that certain sub- jects are suitable for some rooms and not for others. For some the real thrill of decorating comes when they begin to work out color schemes. They are governed by your own taste as well as by the type of furniture you use: as already stated, strong colors for strong styles or shapes and deli- cate colors for delicate shapes, is a general rule which will help you in your decisions. Figured pillows are good on plain sofas and plain pillows on figured sofas. Lamp shades as a rule are best if of one or more of the light, flower-like colors in your chintz, crêtonne or brocade. Lamp shades and sofa pillows look well when alike as to colors. Ornaments such as vases, china birds, etc., can be of any of your colors, and the flowers used in your rooms must harmonize with the other shades of colors used, in order to complete the decorative effect. - * CHAPTER II HOW TO ANALYZE A BOOMI AS PROFESSIONALS DO BEFORE, YOU BEDECORATE Look carefully at the room which you intend do- ing over. Cannot you, unaided, find out why all of your efforts—some of them expensive ones— have failed to make it attractive? You say that the moment you enter your room you have an impression of confused disorder per- vading the whole place. Has the mantel too many things on it, and are these objects placed without any plan as to orderly, balanced arrangement? This is true in most cases where the general im- pression made by a room is one of disorder. Per- haps your mantel ornaments are neither beautiful nor interesting, and are unrelated in shape and color to the other decorative objects in the room. Until amateur decorators learn to make the mantels in their rooms the key-note of their deco- rative schemes, it is wise not to experiment be- yond the rule of three ornaments. These must be absolutely in character with the other furnish- ings. That is, your Colonial room is not the place for French ornaments, nor your French room the place for Colonial ornaments and clock, unless you have made yourself so familiar with the char- 10 HOW TO ANALYZE A ROOM 11 acteristics of the styles that you recognize re- lated periods and can therefore combine them. In a room with very inexpensive furniture and hangings use equally inexpensive ornaments. In every case harmony is beauty. Suppose you continue the analysis of your room by asking yourself if it has too many things in it to be “restful”? Have you, perhaps, used furni- ture which does not go together as to shapes, color of woods or the materials used as uphol- stery? Have you too many “spots” in the room? By which we mean, are there too many figured materials with different designs and colors, used as hangings and for furniture coverings? Is your figured material, chintz, crêtonnes or brocade, all of one design and coloring, but have you used too much of it, so that the effect is confused and un- restful? Have you a figured and several-colored wall paper and a chintz with different design and col- oring? This is a mistake. It is possible to get wall papers and chintzes to match if you insist on everything being figured. But remember that your figured hangings will look their best with plain walls and only one or two pieces of furni- ture covered with the chintz or brocade. Is your room small, and have you made the wood-work a sharp contrast in color to your walls? You will find that in any room, to paint the wood-work the same color as walls adds im- mensely to the appearance of its size. 12 HOW TO ANALYZE A ROOM If the thing that you object to in your room furnished with attractive up-to-date furnishings is shiny black walnut wood-work, of the days of our grandmothers, have some one sand-paper the whole of it and you will be amazed by the result. Under that varnished finish is a charming, dull, sable-brown. - Is it possible that your room which is puzzling you so would look better if there were no pictures at all on the walls? Is your room really wrong or are you ill and for that reason unfit to judge fairly? There are, no doubt, moods in which, for example, bare walls rest the nerves. There are other moods which find one grateful for the di- version of pictures. These are points to have in mind when arranging rooms for those who are kept to the house by illness. Are your large pieces of furniture so placed as to give the appearance of balance to your room? And have you provided yourself with a sufficient number of easily moved pieces such as small tables and chairs, so as to form “groups” which suggest that human beings are expected to live in and enjoy this room? Is your desk where the light comes over your left shoulder to the page you are writing? Are the lights in the room where they will be of most use? Can you enjoy your open-fire and at the same time have a good light to read by? If you play cards can you light the table and also the hands of each player? Has your room for in- HOW TO ANALYZE A ROOM 13 formal use books and enough of them? Books and an open-fire are the ideal foundation for a home-like room. If the room under consideration is a bed-room, and you do not want to modify its character, have you provided not only a bed but a sofa of some kind on which to rest during the day? Is the “cold” atmosphere of this room you want to alter due to the lack of a few bright flowers? Do you love music and have you many musical friends and yet does your home lack a piano? If you are really a lover of music a piano is as much a part of your home as your desk is a nat- ural feature in your sitting-room. See to it that your home, your rooms—each one of them—expresses the tastes of the family. This is how you make “atmosphere.” It is wise to furnish slowly. Haste is responsible for most mistakes. Begin by owning good shapes and color-combinations, and as you can afford it, dis- card your things of no intrinsic value for beauti- ful shapes and colors with value. Sometimes a room which gave the appearance of an auction room for confusion of objects has been transformed into a thing of order and beauty by painting all of the furniture the same color. It is often wise to sacrifice good wood to get an harmonious effect. It is amazing what happy results one can get if one does not cling too firmly to the idea, often a fallacy, that some inherited curtains or rugs .9 tº e 14 HOW TO ANALYZE A ROOM are “too good to dye.” If you really want to master the secrets of how to decorate your home be prepared to let go of some of your long-cher- ished views. House furnishing which is beautiful need not cost any more than house furnishing which is ugly or simply dull and uninteresting. If you would decorate give in at once and agree to follow the rules of the game: let the laws of decoration dictate to you when it comes to the “composition” of the picture (your room) upon which you are working. The fact that the field of Interior Decoration is crowded is all the proof we need that the occu- pation of decorating is a fascinating one and that you and all the others are helping to perfect our period of Interior Decoration is in itself reward enough for the time and trouble it costs to pro- duce attractive, magnetic homes. Do you want to use only the furnishings you already own in the home you are about to ar- range or will you use some of the old things and add new pieces or hangings? Or is your idea to get rid of everything you have in order to make a fresh start with everything new? We have given sufficient suggestions as to the manipulation of the furnishings one already owns. If only some of the old furnishings are to be kept and new ones bought to supplement these, the thing to keep in mind is that our choice when buying is limited by the possibilities of the old HOW TO ANALYZE A ROOM 15 possessions. In such a case we advise first manip- ulating the old. When you have done all that can be done with them along the lines suggested (amputating inartistic ornaments with a saw; re- framing simply the ornate mirrors on bureaus, and painting disfigured or discordant woods) go out and buy the new pieces of furniture, but select things which are related, in shape and general character, to the old pieces. If you are using hangings with flowered or large figured designs are you also covering some of the furniture with stripes? This should not be done. At any rate not by the beginner, espe- cially if the materials show several colors. The reader can see that what we aim at get- ting into a room is an effect of simplicity and restfulness. Begin your efforts at decoration by having only the pieces of furniture you need in a room and not too many colors. Keep all your colors bright or all subdued; do not mix shades; a wrong shade of a color is like a false note in music. This is what is meant by having your “values” right when arranging a color scheme. Is your room full of little ornaments and the framed photographs of many friends? If so take all of these small things (possibly souvenirs of your travels) and intimate photographs out of the now crowded room and use only a very few of each at one time. Intimate photographs belong in intimate rooms and if you will keep them all together, say on the top of your book-shelves, you 16 HOW TO ANALYZE A ROOM will be surprised how the arrangement improves the appearance of your room. It establishes or- der at once. Have you restful spaces between your pieces of furniture and are there some small tables with nothing on them, awaiting the unexpected need, as a vase of flowers, cigarettes, tea or after-dinner coffee cup? Remember that in any room which is attractive—simple or elaborate—restful spaces and one or two small, empty tables are necessities. In music the rests have as much value as the notes. It is so in decoration. Is that impression of confusion one feels on en- tering your room due to the fact that your rugs are put down at different angles? Let them fol- low the lines of your walls. Is the design in car- pets or rugs too pronounced? It should not be so. In the average home plain carpets or very inconspicuously figured rugs, which are in har- mony with the color scheme are the things to choose. Keep all of the rugs in one room similar in coloring. Are the lighting fixtures, frames of pictures and of mirrors in keeping with style of your fur- niture? They should be. How about the pic- tures themselves? Are they appropriate for the room in which you have hung them? Are they good of their kind? Have you been careful about keeping similar subjects on one wall? Harmony in house furnishing is not difficult to understand, and if you never violate this principle HOW TO ANALYZE A ROOM 17 when furnishing, your home will be beautiful whether its furnishings cost the lowest price pos- sible or a fortune. You can see yourself that if you make the mistake of putting into an inexpen- sively furnished room some wonderful antique, inlaid desk or rare table, suited to a room of quite different character, you will utterly ruin your “picture,”—upset the law of harmony, and, in a sense, the rare object will be thrown away, while your charming “creation” in the shape of a sim- ple (and beautiful) room fails to count as intelli- gent decoration. - When you are beginning at the foundation and furnishing with entirely new things, your prob- lems are fewer. But they exist. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that decorating (even with endless money and time) can be successful if one starts in without a plan of action. Where are you going to live; how are you go- ing to live as to service, etc.; have you both men and women, old and young, in your household; can you gratify the tastes of all and at the same time make your house furnishing give the impres- sion of harmony? These are some of the ques- tions to ponder. º If you really know what you want in decora- tion the battle is half won. Work with the rules of this new game before you, and after your first room is completed you will know by heart the first principles of house furnishing. CHAPTER III LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL ROOM AND LEARNING TO RECOGNIZE ITS POINTS OF BEAUTY STANDING in the doorway of any beautiful room and glancing hurriedly at the picture it makes as a whole, is it not the distinction and charm of the mantel, with its perfectly chosen and perfectly arranged ornaments, that serves as the hall-mark stamping this bit of interior decoration as the work of trained intelligence? We answer for you that it is. Experience is going to teach you that the room with a mantel, correct as to treatment, is invariably a beautiful room. You will find that one beautiful ornament in the center—per- haps a clock and a pair of vases, one at each end, carefully chosen, “furnish” the mantel suffi- ciently. As a rule the eye asks for no more. If there seems to be a need for more color or “in- terest,” add a second pair of ornaments much smaller as to height than the other three, and place these either side of the clock (or whatever occupies the center) halfway between center and end. A way of learning how to make your own rooms attractive is to get the habit of carefully looking at the beautiful rooms you see and making mental notes of their chief points of interest. 18 LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL ROOM. 19 The proportions of a room, that is, its shape and the height of the ceiling as compared with the size, must be correct from the viewpoint of bal- ance. Windows claim one’s attention on enter- ing; not alone the curtains, but the shape of win- dows, their width and their height. Beware of tall, narrow windows, the sills of which are high from the floor. The perfect window is the one with a moderately low sill, the width in good pro- portion to the height and with mouldings around the windows sufficiently broad to make a frame for the glass which pleases the eye. The study of mouldings will interest you. These points are the affair of your architect and not of the deco- rator—that is, house-furnisher—amateur nor pro- fessional—but we call your attention to them be- cause sometimes your dissatisfaction with your own efforts or those of the one employed to deco- rate for you is due to architectural errors. So, look at the proportions of your room, including windows and doors, if you are choosing a new house, flat or small suite of rooms. And notice that a room which is beautiful has a perfectly proportioned fireplace: one which is wider than it is high, and deep enough to assure a good draught which will carry the smoke up and not out into the room. See to it that there is a proper flue leading from your fireplace to the top of the chimney. If you are building, it is an easy thing to have the style of your fireplace and the mantel-shelf 20 LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL ROOM to correspond with the character of your room. But do not forget that in the average home the simpler your fireplace and mantel, the better your room will look. So, even if you are planning to furnish more or less according to some period, choose the lines or shapes which belong to it, but be very conservative when it comes to the orna- ments. Avoid elaborations of any style. The landlord who realizes this invariably makes it easy for tenants to arrange rooms which can be classed as really beautiful. Elaborate fireplaces and mantels, even if pure style of any period, sometimes overbalance the entire scheme of deco- rative furnishing. With simplicity as a founda- tion one can go ahead and create a beautiful room in any style preferred. - Another point that will impress you in any beautiful room is the lighting fixtures. These al- ways seem a part of the entire arrangement, so completely in the picture that one feels they grew where they are In shape they follow the style of the furniture. Your beautiful room carries its furnishings as perfectly dressed men and women do their clothes; no casual observer is conscious of any particular article which contributes to the decoration; it is the impression of nothing wrong which strikes one on entering; a restful, contented sensation diffi- cult to put into words. Perhaps the curtains next claim the attention. These are of course in harmony with the color LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL ROOM 21 scheme, and they are also hung in the manner best suited to the style or character of the room you have arranged. Here is something to make a note of: never put formal looking curtains at the windows of an informal room. On the other hand avoid informal curtains in your formal room. This mistake is common: we recall a case where a woman moved all of her furnishings from one apartment to another in the same building. She had exactly the same arrangement of rooms and windows, so it seemed the natural thing to repeat the variety of curtains she had been using with great success on the floor above. What she failed to take into account was that the ceilings in her new apartment were much higher than those she had left and the windows not only higher but much narrower. The result of the changes mentioned was to impart to this ground floor apartment a formality which one did not associate with the quaint low studded apartment several stories higher up. Bent upon retaining the same “atmosphere,” our lady put up the same lovely blue-green China silk sash curtains, a double row at each window—and no others. These simple curtains had been perfect in the room with low ceiling and seemed of the period suggested by the old furniture, which included the earliest type of piano. One always expected a fair dame in hoop skirt to float in and tinkle out a sentimental ditty! But those quaint short curtains became ridicu- lous at the tall, narrow windows with sills high 22 LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL ROOM from the floor (the sills of the first windows had been much lower) and it was not until long cur- tains of a formal brocade were hung over fine, net sash curtains that the room appeared appropri- ately furnished. Long chintz curtains would have been equally suitable if the furniture had been covered with simple materials. In this case the covering was of silk and velvet in plain colors, so brocade in two colors was used. In your beautiful room a great deal depends upon the window hangings; not only upon the length of curtains but the way in which they are made, hung and looped back. The material is right or it is wrong. Remember this if you are intent on making the room beautiful. Texture appropriate to the other furnishings and color which performs its duty are to be studied. If the beautiful room is hung with chintz, crêtonne or brocade, very often you will see that the ground of the material exactly matches the light walls in color and shade. This is a means used to make the design in a figured material count for the most as decoration. On the other hand, in some beautiful rooms the curtains, regardless of the material (whether plain or figured), are used to weight with color the window side of the room and therefore the background is purposely not like the light walls. To explain what we mean by “weighting” the side of a room with color we ask the reader to think of some familiar room in which a great deal LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL ROOM 23 of heavy furniture is used; large desks, cabinets, book-cases or a sideboard. Possibly the three sides of the room are lined with these heavy pieces and deep colored portières (door curtains) are used. Here is a case where to balance the ‘‘picture” which your beautiful room represents, curtains must be of some deep color as to back- ground. Choose one of the leading colors in the scheme you have decided on. Naturally if your walls are a deep shade of some color and you match them with a background of chintz the de- sign will be very telling as decoration, as in the case of light walls and light background. A safe rule to follow is that portières and win- dow curtains—the heavy ones—must be of the same material. The exceptions to this rule are best left to the experienced decorator. Sash curtains contribute to the beauty of your room and must be of some sheer material; net— cream or white—very pale pink, yellow, mauve or blue. It is considered very modern to have net in rather deep shades, but for the average room we advise cream or white on the ground that win- dows are supposedly to admit the light! How- ever, the colored nets and gauzes have their place in cities where the outlook is not always as beauti- ful as the inlook. Scrim and marquisette are good for our purpose, and whether in cream or white depends upon which harmonizes with your color scheme. If your beautiful room has a chintz in it with white background or a wall paper with 24 LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL ROOM f white ground, and the paint is white, you will find that the sash curtains are also pure white. If the ground of textiles and wall papers is cream the sash curtains will, in order to harmonize, be CI'éâIſle This idea of harmony will soon take a hold on your brain and you will instinctively remove from your decorative schemes the notes which are “out of tune.” As your eye grows more and more sen- sitive to harmonious coloring your efforts at be- ing your own decorator will become like playing a fascinating game. You will learn to manipulate colors and shades of colors as a painter of pic- tures does and all of your rooms will become beau- tiful rooms. One way to increase the beauty of a room is to have the inside of closets and the walls and wood-work of bath-rooms (if adjoining) harmo- nize in color with the room. Now that we call your attention to this point, perhaps you have seen the thing done without, at the time, knowing what made the room seem so much more attractive than some others. Mirrors on the closet doors, full length ones, are often “beauty spots” in a room. They mul- tiply the charming objects and colors. If you al- ready have enough mirrors and simply need one long one to dress before, then it is wise to have this one fastened to the inside of closet door. The room that you and others are apt to de- scribe as beautiful is not always the room filled LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL ROOM 25 with rare furniture and other works of art. The room may have treasures in it, but they will not mean beauty unless they are so placed and the colors which surround them so chosen that the first impression received on entering is one of ab- solute inviting comfort. The intrinsic worth of the furnishings of a room has very little to do with the quality we wish to imply when we say “this room is beautiful.” The kind of beauty we are talking about is within the power of the decorator—you or any other—to create. It is a matter of the shape of your furniture, the har- mony of color between background (walls and hangings) and textiles used on furniture, and how you place the furnishings. We are assuming that the architectural proportions have been taken into consideration and that you have not asked too much of the room you are striving to make beauti- ful. Sometimes what are in fact faults in the shape or details of your room can be so cleverly disguised with your hangings or grouping of the furniture that no one but you yourself will ever imagine they exist ! To make a beautiful room out of one which has been pronounced “impossible” is the greatest tri- umph of the decorator, and it is encouraging to know that many rooms now unmistakably beauti- ful have some blemish hidden by the right curtain or the skillful placing of a piece of furniture. The use of lamps in a room, instead of high center or wall lights, will give the intimate charm 26 LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL ROOM one longs for in a room used for intimate hours. Beautiful rooms like beautiful women are very dependent upon the arrangement and character of lights. Ball-rooms, formal reception-rooms and halls call for high lighting. Here it is space that you need. But in rooms where you expect con- versation and informal gatherings of friends, low lighting, by which we mean lamps, is the thing to aim at having. A beautiful room is always so supplied with lamps that when all are lighted they balance. One is conscious of an equal distribu- tion of the light instead of the unbalanced, un- beautiful effect produced by having the lamps all on one side, or at one end of the room. Lamps, lighted or unlighted, count as spots of flower-like color and must be so distributed that the eye is satisfied as to the balanced appearance of the room. Of course it is not necessary to be extrava- gant and use all of one’s lights all of the time; we are explaining how to arrange lights to get a decorative effect. The owner of a beautiful room treats her flowers in the same way that she does her lamps, letting them count as touches of color by placing them in those parts of her room needing color to give life. We give these few suggestions feeling sure that those who will work out the ideas in their homes can develop their talent and later explore the subject of “composition” which is primarily the province of the painter of pictures. But the laws LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL ROOM 27 governing his art of composing or arranging ob- jects so as to make “pictures” are also the laws for “composing” rooms. You will get many use- ful ideas when visiting picture galleries, if you notice how color (as well as objects) is distributed to give balance to composition. - Beautiful rooms are those furnished appropri ately for the purpose to which they are to be put. Beautiful rooms may be furnished with “kitchen” furniture or with treasures taken from palaces. It is the magic wand of the decorator that brings out the quality of beauty and gives the atmosphere of home. Simplicity; good lines or shapes; attractive colors which harmonize; comfortable chairs and sofas; an open fire and plenty of books; pictures that are good of their kind and appropriate for the room, well framed and properly hung; sun- light when possible and plenty of good reading- lights by night; these are points which make for the kind of beauty which is home-like. CHAPTER IV SORTING YOUR POSSESSIONS Do you own many things for house furnishing and are these things of many different kinds? If so the first step toward making them serve your purpose is to sort them. Put into one group all the Chinese and Japa- nese belongings. These differ, but in a general way are related and harmonize as decoration. Into other groups put furniture and fabrics which you know to be French, Dutch, English, German, Spanish, Italian or Russian. Separate Early American from your grandmother’s Victorian, modern painted furniture from American “Em- pire” (wrongly called Colonial). You may own a few or many ornamental things bought in Mex- ico, and gay blankets and attractive pottery made by our American Indians. Remember each group is decorative if given a chance to make its own impression and not forced into the society of un- related things. Many of us have seen Indian things used so that they were most attractive. It was always in rooms where no other kind of furnishings was introduced. Indian things look their best in sim- ple houses in the country and where the coloring of walls, wood-work and floors are (stained) the 28 SORTING YOUR POSSESSIONS 29 out-of-door colors which suggest the sort of sur- roundings such possessions were intended for. Indian or other crude furnishings, such as one knows to have been made by simple people for use in simple homes, are never appropriate in rooms intended for furnishings which reflect a high de- gree of civilization,-creations which follow the traditions of art as the educated world knows them. Simple furnishings belong in simple houses, flats or rooms, and your choice possessions of an entirely different character in your room, flat or house having their stamp. Beauty can be ele- mental and it can be developed. If you own gilt furniture use it in rooms fur- nished formally. Do not put it in the family liv- ing-room planned for comfort and informal en- joyment. Gilt frames on chairs and sofas mean equally handsome curtains, rugs or carpets, pic- tures and other furnishings. Beautiful gilt furniture with fine shapes, the best workmanship, hand-carved ornaments, and with really beautiful silk or velvet upholstery is beautiful indeed if used in the proper setting. Cheap gilt furniture with clumsy shapes and in- artistic or gaudy coverings is the worst possible style of house furnishing. It is “imitation” in the same way that glass ‘‘diamonds” are l Having classified your possessions with regard to nationality and quality examine them with re- lation to their colors. 30 SORTING YOUR POSSESSIONS Professional decorators have great fun invent- ing the color schemes for rooms and one of their favorite “tricks” is to take some lovely vase (it may be of pottery and quite inexpensive), a pic- ture, rug or perhaps a chair done in some fine color and “build up” the color scheme to that. Which means they take the color of the chosen object and let that count as the dominating color and shade of color. Everything else in the room is made to harmonize with it. If you will remember to keep your brilliant shades together in one room and the subdued shades together in another, it is possible to com- bine many colors. Do not get off the “key” of the color you start with. If you will treat your American Indian blankets this way, or your gay bits of peasant pottery col- lected in old curiosity shops or at sales, or per- haps when traveling in Europe, you can make interesting and attractive rooms which cost only time and industry. We can all recall rooms full of lovely things, furniture, good pictures and costly rugs, but of many, many kinds huddled together like a crowd of humans in some railway station, and because of this crowding not one of them seemed to be beautiful or interesting. In another chapter we will tell of a delightful little summer home furnished with kitchen chairs and tables, and of the cheapest of wooden beds which can be bought. This furniture, painted by SORTING YOUR POSSESSIONS 31 the owner of the house, in charming colors, is most attractive because it suits the simple style of house and no other type of furnishings is al- lowed to spoil the “picture.” Sorting your pictures is very important. If you own paintings and want to make them count to the full in a decorative way, be sure that you put into one room those which harmonize in color as well as subject. The professional decorator always thinks of the decorative value of a picture as a quality quite apart from its worth as an artistic production based on the technical skill of the artist. Separate your paintings from your black and white pictures. Do not hang them in the same room. If you are so fortunate as to own good— that is, well painted—family portraits, by all means cherish them, but if the family likenesses are of no value as pictures and are kept only be- cause of love or respect for the originals, be truly respectful and as soon as you realize that they are bad art and therefore unworthy of your loved ones, banish them! Small, neatly framed photo- graphs can take the place of the “eyesores” you once thought attractive, and you will agree with us that in a beautiful home intended to attract family and friends, it is hardly fair that the “false note” should be some disfiguring portrait of a fine man, woman or lovely little child, each of them deserving to be more beautifully repre- sented. 32 SORTING YOUR POSSESSIONS What we have said will suggest many ways of sorting your possessions. You will be surprised to find what wonderful results can be obtained by merely sorting. Sort and eliminate and you may discover there is not so much that is wrong with your furnishings after all! - CHAPTER V PLACING YOUR FURNITURE–TEIE IMPORTANCE OF LITTLE TABLES IN the creating of beautiful rooms the decorator, whether amateur or professional, has two classes of furniture to consider: the permanent pieces and the movable or “wandering” pieces. The decorator begins by placing against the walls or at the ends or sides or in the center of his room those permanent pieces whose rôle it is to give to the composition balance, or, if you pre- fer, a quality of sustained repose. In this class are large heavy tables with more or less stately proportions, desks, large sofas, large chairs, cab- inets, pianos, sideboards, bureaus, beds and ward- robes. Each of these permanent pieces is placed in what the practiced eye considers to be accord- ing to a preconceived scheme, its inevitable posi- tion. It is not moved unless the entire scheme of the composition is to be altered; to do so would, to the artist’s eye, be like removing a foundation stone; the balance would be lost, the effect built up with careful consideration would fall to the ground. But the human quality of a room is largely due to those pieces of furniture easily shifted from 33 34 PLACING YOUR FURNITURE place to place to fill the need of the moment. They lend movement, they indicate life and usage. Any room intended for ordinary use, for the in- formal life of a family, is not only inconvenient but unhome-like and rigid in appearance if lack- ing “wandering” tables and chairs. If one may judge from ancient frescoes and reliefs even the early Egyptians and Greeks realized this fact and used small tables to support lamps near larger tables, a couch or stately chair. (One includes pedestals in this class of little tables.) This use of a small table to hold a lamp is the surest way of quickly getting an intimate atmos- phere into a room which before, by reason of the high wall or ceiling lights, was formal, perhaps austere and forbidding in spite of beautiful fur- nishings. The wall torch of the ancients and our modern high lights both suggest times and places demanding space for continuous movement. High lights are especially for halls, reception and ball rooms—not for living apartments. Endless are the rôles filled by wandering tables. We were recently looking at a collection of them brought from Italy, France and England and could not help longing to hear each charming bit of old mahogany, satinwood, pear, chestnut or walnut reminisce. For, like wandering people, they must have played many a part during the course of their careers, and could unfold fasci- nating tales if they would ! Of course a table of this type need not be an PLATE II ANALYSIS SMALL TABLES This plate shows some of those indispensable little tables which, because always being moved about to fill a sud- den need, are called “wandering” or “caddie” tables. 1. is a nest of tables so convenient where space is valua- ble in a small home. These are made in many kinds of wood to suit any style of furniture and with an infinite variety of finish. A popular kind is the well- known black or red lacquer Japanese style with a Japa- nese design on top done in gold. Some are imported, but many made here in America. 2. is a table and chair convenient for telephone, dress- ing-table and many other purposes. This takes up very little space. 3. is a very low table to draw up to a low couch or arm-chair for a tea-tray, smokes, newspapers and books: 4. is a poker table, decidedly masculine in genderl 5. one of the wandering or caddie sort for the side of chair, desk or bed to hold a light, a cup of after- dinner coffee, cigarettes or a vase of flowers. J. KEGEL- |× ī£ 0^ }}} zd * * ſº AN IDEAL DOUBLE ROOM 53 higher. Some men prefer to dress before a “shaving-glass” which stands on the top of a chest of drawers. To be sure shaving-glasses are a part of the equipment of a man’s room, but as a matter of fact most men shave in the bath-room and beg for a plain mirror so placed that they can easily see themselves by day or by night. Keep this in mind and be sure that the mirror gets light from the window and also from the electricity or gas. In your double room be sure that one of the large closets is for the exclusive use of your man. Let nothing of the feminine gender stray into it! And see that his hooks and hangers are the sort he needs. Silk-covered hangers are irritating to all men. Guest-room closets are sometimes pro- vided with no other kind. Do not make this mis- take. Arrange plenty of space for the man’s shoes. Shoe-racks now come which fasten to the inside of closet doors. These are especially convenient for women and keep their more fragile shoes and slippers from being disfigured by too much han- dling or coming in contact with other shoes. A shoe-rack takes the place of shoe-shelves and calls for less room. - Do not forget to provide your man with a small chest into which he may toss his sweaters. Noth- ing so shortens the life of a sweater as hanging it on a hook, so provide a chest or deep drawer. In a room used by a man and woman let the 54 AN IDEAL DOUBLE ROOM colors be not too delicate and not too solemn. The same rule applies here as in the case of the furniture. Let the colors and the designs both be grown-up ones and not the young and “faddy” sort enjoyed by your “sub-deb” or undergradu- ate daughter! If you and your husband have favorite colors try to combine the likes of both. This is always easy to do. Simply remember that bright shades go together and soft shades go to- gether; that to mix brilliant shades of colors with soft shades makes discords in color, and that it is harmony we are always aiming at. - If, for any reason, the husband likes to read in his bed-room, give him his pet variety of easy chair and cover it in an attractive color which he likes and one harmonizing with your scheme. Let the material be not too perishable if he is a smoker. The wife will see to it that her own comfy chair is her kind and if a sofa is installed —and one should be put in every bedroom when possible—have it for genuine comfort. For wall decoration it is well to use plain colors. If painted, use two colors, one over the other, to get what decorators call “depth of tone.” You will find that any room used by two people is more restful if you arrange walls and all the fur- nishings with reference to giving the impression of space. A wall paper with a design in colors fills up your room; it seems to project itself to meet the eye. It is always a mistake to put a AN IDEAL DOUBLE ROOM 55 paper with a heavy design, even if the colors are delicate, on the walls of any but a very large room. The simpler your walls the more effect of space you get and the more restful to the eye will be your room. Do not get too much crêtonne, chintz nor any other figured material for curtains or furniture coverings in your double room. Crétonne or chintz is good for curtains because less perish- able than plain curtains. Have your sash cur- tains very simple and thin but strong. Your man will want the daylight to come into the room and he will want to feel that he is free to push back the curtains when the view he wants to get is an untrammeled one. Too fragile or too fussy curtains, sofa pillows or lamp shades are out of place in any room shared by a man. Have carpet or rugs of an attractive and at the same time serviceable color. Have something that is not marked if the man enters in boots carrying the dust of the golf course ! A deep shade of one of your leading colors, with a faint design over it in a neutral color, is an excellent way out of your dilemma. For the double room choose few pictures and let those be cheerfully decorative but not feminine and fussy. With gay curtains and attractive walls one can do very well with no pictures at all. Good engravings and etchings usually please men if the subjects are interesting. Ask advice of some one 56 AN IDEAL DOUBLE ROOM who understands pictures and then see what you can find in second-hand shops. Some lovely things drift from our most beautiful and dignified homes into side streets where the “antique” business flourishes. CHAPTER VIII THE wire's Room. HERE everything may be feminine. And if we consider this wife to be not so very young, every- thing may be beautiful with a lasting kind of beauty; not the beauty which is absolutely “new” as in the case of the young girl charmed by nov- elty. The wife’s room is one of the most fasci- nating to furnish because this older woman knows what has proved to be beautiful and practical. She has also no doubt tried various expressions of her idea of comfort and can tell what she likes as to pieces of furniture, their shapes and size and her favorite combinations of colors figuring as hangings, carpets, lamp shades, etc. The wife who is in or beyond the thirties cares more for comfort than effect, if asked to take her choice between the two, so be sure that her fur- niture is in shape and color restful from her point of view. Never force upon her a fatiguing nov- elty. Let her dressing-table have a large and very good mirror with plenty of light by day and night so that dressing is a pleasure and not an effort. Have the top of the dressing-table large enough to accommodate all of her toilet articles not kept 57 58 THE WIFE'S ROOM in the top drawer, which by the way is more useful if divided into compartments. - Some women like figured or striped walls in their bed-room, but as a rule it will be found far more restful to use plain walls and few pictures. If the walls are a beautiful shade of some cheer- ful color—always very light—it is not a bad idea to have no pictures at all. You can get interest and charm into your room with beautiful crêtonne or chintz. But even here be careful not to choose a pronounced design. Pronounced designs are fatiguing if one looks at them continually. Re- member that this older woman is going to pass more hours in her room than the young girl and some of those hours may be weary ones or worried ones, and if you give her charming soft shades of the colors she prefers you will contribute very decidedly to her well-being. If her bath-room adjoin her bed-room she finds it a great comfort and the restful effect she finds so soothing is increased if you paint the inside of the bath-room and her bed-room closets the same as room, walls and wood-work For several years it has been the fashion to paint or paper rooms in a lovely soft blue which has some gray in it. The wood-work is made ex- actly to match. This shade of blue needs a good deal of pink in hangings and lamp shades to give it life. If it is a sunny room the blue is attractive for bed-room or sitting-room, but keep in mind that it is a “grown-up” color to live with or in and PLATE V ANALYSIS THE DRESSING-ROOM This dressing-room gives suggestions for one part of your bed-room, the dressing-room in some country club you may be arranging or as a woman’s private dressing- room off her bed-room. You will find the most important things called for in such a feminine stronghold. The dressing-table is so made as to serve the double purpose of ordinary toilet-table and full-length mirror. Before the table is the now fashionable bench instead of a chair. There is an arm-chair to rest in and a low chair to use when getting out of shoes and into slippers, a “slipper- chair.” There is a shoe cabinet for the woman who has accumulated a collection of evening slippers and other foot-wear. It is equally useful for toilet articles such as brushes, shoe pastes, hair tonics and many things women make use of between sun-up and bedtime. When planning a dressing-room be sure that a window gives a good light to dress by during the day and a gas or electric fixture at night. The earpet or rug should be . so as not to show every fleck of powder or other ust. º º *…*.*.*.*.*. ºr cºº & ; % ROOM THE DFESSING- THE WIFE'S ROOM 61 therefore not appropriate for a very young wife. With this blue you can use besides pink lovely mauves, soft yellows and greens, but no crude, startling shades can be introduced here; crude or harsh shades would throw the whole scheme out of joint. Be sure to hang at the windows against the glass, soft filmy curtains. They add to the “at- mosphere” and hide any unattractive sights which in cities sometimes lie beyond the windows. If you use silk on the top of dressing-table be sure that there is a washable cover to put over it when the toilet is in process. No silk cover however beautiful retains its charm if spotted with perfume and face creams. Have the bureau drawers long and wide and deep. Some sort of a slipper closet is a necessity. It can have glass doors or be a simple home-made set of wooden shelves with a curtain in front to keep out dust. Near the sofa have a table to hold a reading light, and if you have been so wise as to select a room with an open fire-place, put the sofa, table and lamp where our lady can enjoy the warm glow. By day one needs a window near sofa for light, so careful manipulation of furniture is re- quired. This woman is going to want a few book-shelves for her pet volumes and a work-table that is small and therefore easily drawn up to chair or sofa. 62 THE WIFE's ROOM For dressing a long mirror on outside or inside of closet door is a great convenience. The closets should have the sort of shelves, drawers, hooks and hangers this particular woman prefers. Give her a low “slipper-chair” for putting on her shoes in comfort. Very important are at least two little empty tables for an emergency, one very low for the breakfast or tea tray if it is brought to the sofa. If you feel an over-stuffed sofa is too expensive, have one of willow stained to match the wood of furniture used in room, and make it comfort- able with a mattress covered in chintz, crêtonne, velveteen or brocade, according to your taste and pocketbook. Your lady’s floor covering must be plain, that is one color, if you would have her room at its best. If children enter often a faint design is more serviceable. CHAPTER IX A YOUNG GIRL's ROOM OUR young girls usually like furniture with straight, slender lines made of some light-colored wood or painted one of the soft, silvery grays, blues or lavenders. Blush-pink is sometimes used on youthful furniture and apple-green delights young girls if you are sure to give them as cur- tains pink gingham, linen, or taffeta, with pure white net or scrim against the sash—an apple blossom effect! We know daffodil rooms in which a lovely yellow and stem green are combined. In fact one mother with half a dozen daughters, in the spring of their years, has taken a flower for each room and the family always say, “You will find it in the Primrose Room,” meaning Kath- erine's, or “It is in the Rose Room,” meaning Belle’s. One modern girl—ultra modern—whose room is much discussed, has used colors of a more sophis- ticated sort than those above. She goes in for crimson, royal purple, orange and emerald green, and shades her lamps with plain natural colored parchment paper, over which she drops squares of chiffon—a hole cut out in the center. These “veils” are of every rich Oriental shade and 63 64 A YOUNG GIRL’S ROOM weighted with gold fringe or balls sewn to the corners. Her walls are covered with Japanese fiber paper in dull gold, and at her windows hang curtains of a very thin, rope color material known as theatrical gauze. This she has bound with em- erald green satin ribbon. The valance at the top and the bands which loop back the curtains are of crêtonne having a purple ground with birds as design, in most of the colors used over lamp shades. Every young girl likes a three-winged mirror on her dressing-table. We think her very wise. The hair most carefully arranged is going to look the most attractive and the hat put on at an angle to accentuate the special charm of the girl who is inspecting herself, is the hat one will call a “winner.” Your young girl knows! As to the wood of which her furniture is made, that is a question of the style of the season. This sounds, and is, very expensive unless your young girl is the clever, up-to-date, self-helping sort who can do things herself. There are many girls of fifteen and sixteen who paint their own furni- ture and do it very well. They get their brother or some friend, expert with the saw, to amputate unbeautiful knobs and other fancy excrescence, once the fashion, but compared with modern crea- tions patterned after classic shapes, offensive to her eye. Any girl with a keen intelligence can educate her taste by studying the furniture dis- played by the leading dealers. PLATE WI ANALYSIS A VERY MODERN YOUNG GIRL's BED-ROOM The young girl’s room must be what she, not your mature woman, calls attractive. So consult each girl in turn. Young girls as a rule like bright and springlike colors. One should feel on entering that some happy girl calls it her very own. Hangings and furniture covers can be of solid colors, pink, yellow or pale blue with danc- ing, frilly white sash curtains. If preferred, lovely chintz and crêtonne to suit each style of furniture, come at all prices. Dear to the heart of your young girl is a dressing-table with a three-winged mirror. They sound an extrava- gance, but remember you can pay a great deal for one, a moderate sum, or you can even make one yourself! If you are blessed with plenty of this world’s goods and can satisfy your heart’s desire we would suggest furniture of the Louis XVI style made in some light glossy wood or painted. This style with cane let into wood is very girlish and charming. But do not be discouraged; if you are possessed of more taste than money, use your wits. Buy what you can and make the rest ! We have in mind an ingenious woman who made for a young girl friend a fascinating three-winged mirror—in fact the whole table—by reconstructing an old-fashioned wash- stand that had one drawer and two doors below. The doors were removed and became the side wings of mirror. Sides and back of stand were also taken away and the back lifted to form back of center mirror. Mirror glass was then fastened to center and wings and framed with picture molding. Sides and back with doors having been removed, the four corner uprights figured as the four legs of a slender dressing-table. The whole was painted and enameled white. A clever girl can make almost anything! º : s * * º A YOUNG GIRL’S ROOM 67 One young woman we know bought up many kinds of old tables, chairs, bureaus and beds at auctions in her town, and these she stored in her father’s barn to make over on rainy afternoons after school hours. This resulted in her re- furnishing their home, and then, that turned out so alluring, she drifted into decorating the homes of friends. To-day, five years after she painted her first piece of furniture, she has become a full- fledged decorator, with her sign out! She loves doing rooms for young girls and says “Give your girl, as well as your older woman, a sofa in her room and on the foot of each sofa a dainty, soft and warm coverlet to draw up over the feet and limbs if she wants to steal a nap after lunch or before dinner. Let this coverlet be one of the bright colors used for lamp shades or sofa pillows. Give your young girl gay colors and graceful shapes; plenty of mirrors and windows, lots of windows! Youth would have light and life.” Your young girl needs a writing-desk in her room and so placed that the light falls over her left shoulder. If it is comfortable to write, she will be far more apt to answer letters and not put off the “bread and butter” sort | Start her with a generous supply of paper, pens, ink, stamps and blotters. After that she is the one to see that her equipment is kept up so that the desk of some grown-up is not resorted to for necessities. As much a necessity as her desk is her work- table. And when your young girl moves into 68 A YOUNG GIRL’S ROOM her beautiful and complete new room, she is often so fascinated by the convenience of silks and cot- tons to match all her belongings that the task of repairing ceases to be a burden and things get done as a matter of course. It is all taken as one of the items “in the day’s work” or program. Those who live with young people of either sex know that half the battle of teaching order is won when a place has been provided for everything. By this method “house-keeping” is reduced to its simplest form and the actual cost of service kept down. All youth has its untidy moments not to be taken too seriously, but the chronic habit of untidiness, if not checked, gets into the character. 1°3.~. i º CHAPTER X ROOMS PLANNED FOR TEIE AMUSEMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE AT THE SMALLEST EXPENSE KATE DougLAs wiGGIN 's BARN ONE of our illustrations shows Kate Douglas Wig- gin’s barn at her summer home, Quillcote-on-the- Saco, near Portland, Maine. It is an ideal pleas- ure hall and one that could be duplicated by any one owning an unused barn. There are so many unused barns in these days of automobiles! And so many young people wanting to have a place all their own, where they may dance, and have theatricals or play games, have “sing-songs,” roast marshmallows and otherwise make fun. One barn like Kate Douglas Wiggin's can serve to stage all the good times of an entire country- side. . “Quillcote” is a very large, Early American house, built about one hundred and fifty years ago; a frame house painted white, with green shutters. It is a beautiful and stately home, yet absolutely simple and furnished in the period of its youth. Its owner wants every one who sees it or hears about it to know that she reconstructed the interior of her lovely house (where most of 69 70 ROOMS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE her well-known and beloved books have been writ- ten) at a comparatively small expense. She says, “Any one can afford a home like this!” Quillcote has furniture bought when the con- tents of other old homes were sold, because the time for their dismantling had come. It has car- pets and rugs made of rags. The hangings of beds and at windows are of chintz, and what is of greatest interest, everything has been kept “in the picture,” yet not a need neglected. Quillcote represents the ideal of interior decoration,-neces- sities which have beauty and cost no more than the unbeautiful expression of the same thing. Behind the large house are many small build- ings strung along in the New England fashion, suggesting a train of cars, and these terminate in the barn. The reason for this procession of build- ings leading to the now quaint barn was to give the New England farmer a covered passage by means of which he could reach his work in the snowy SeaSOIle Rate Douglas Wiggin's barn is about fifty feet square. When you enter it the first impression is one of harmonious grayish-brown coloring. You know that lovely color of very old wood, wood that has never been painted nor stained. Floor, side walls, windows and door frames, ceil- ing and the heavy overhead rafters, are all the same soft time-colored grayish-brown. And of exactly the same shade are the benches which line the walls, so useful when a dance is given. PLATE VII ANALYSIS A ROOM FOR THE AMUSEMENTS OF YOUNG PEOPLE In our text we describe an ideal room for young people to gather in for amusement. In this plate we show the rather restricted room of a small house or flat where there is room for but few pieces of furniture and the piano must be an upright one. Here there is not room for dancing, but this does not mean that happy days and nights without number are not being recorded by the jolly group that calls this house “home.” The sofa is light enough to be easily moved before the fire, near to the piano or to watch a game of tennis outside. If your young people prefer a Chesterfield, get them the sort we show in our plate entitled “A Victorian Room.” We show a gateleg tea-table. The card-table has been folded and put aside. Remember lamp for piano and cards. $ utú * * *t, 4.1.1 $ * x *~~. . Wwº- * 3, *::::::::-- . . E EOPLE IN A SMALL HOUS F YOUNG P A ROOM IFOR THE AMUSEMENT O ROOMS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 73 These benches the mistress of the house has in- stalled, and another addition of hers is the stage used for giving plays. This is added on to the barn and therefore does not take up any of the original floor space. - Every one who sees the barn for the first time is puzzled to know how Mrs. Riggs (Kate Douglas Wiggin) has been able to give the new parts (stage and benches) the same color as the old. Here is a point to bear in mind if any of our readers means at once to turn his or her disused barn into just such an adorable place for amuse- ment. Instead of buying new lumber for stage and benches, look about until you find some very old tumble-down building of no use to any one, and buy that wood. This is the secret, one of the secrets, connected with the famous Quillcote Barn and its charm. It is a perfect place for summer concerts, for on such occasions the great doors are thrown open and not only does the delicious, cool breeze come drifting in like a benediction, but the picture, framed by the opening, is delightful; a sloping hay field gently rising to a wooded hill-top with apple trees, and two stately elms guarding a white Co- lonial mansion; on beyond the dark-green pines of Maine. - At night the barn is lighted with very simple lanterns (hung from the rafters) which are ab- solutely appropriate. If flowers are used as dec- oration, they are the varieties which grow just 74 ROOMS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE outside in the garden or woods. The jars and baskets used for the flowers are the simplest that come. Everything “fancy” is barred admission. In fact, Simplicity Enthroned would not be a bad name to give this barn. The Quillcote Barn figures as the central point from which radiate all the other features of the annual Quillcote Fair held for the benefit of the parish. Some seasons several thousand gather for the fête and then the Barn Concert, this barn has its piano l—a continuous performance, brings in an incredible number of dollars paid in install- ments of ten cents per head! It is because Kate Douglas Wiggin recognized the beauty to be had by keeping her old-fashioned summer home “old fashioned,” and as nearly as possible a perfect reproduction of what houses were when it was built, that it has become an object of interest to strangers from far and near. It is as she expressed it, “An object lesson in what can be done with an old-fashioned country home to make it beautiful and absolutely comfort- able, and yet not spend much money in the proc- ess.” The addition of a modern bath-room was an expense out of all proportion to the rest, but that lies outside our subject of Decoration. We all know barns converted into studios, and work-shops of various sorts, but a barn set aside for every kind of neighborhood fun for young people is not such a usual happening. The writer’s most entrancing memories of the ROOMS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 75 Quillcote Barn are those summer nights when “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” was in the mak- ing and the author read aloud to a few favored ones her manuscript—as it grew. If you own a barn not in use, look it over and see if it cannot be reborn into just such a place for happy days and nights, within the shadow of your own home. To many of you barns are not available to convert into rooms for amusement. Some of you live in villages, towns or cities. You have young people and long to create an irresisti- ble spot at home. It must not be too expensive. In reply to this demand for suggestions we would say at once, lose no time, take your young people into your confidence and ask them what in their opinion makes a jolly room to entertain their friends in. - Everybody knows that happy times do not al- ways depend upon the expenditure of large sums of money—even in large cities. It is easy for most of us to recall “happy days” passed where there were few “luxuries” but attractive home comforts and joyous hospitality offered without too many restrictions. This combination always assures a good time from the start. Perhaps the removal of unnecessary restraint is the first step toward making our young people happy in their own homes. For this reason it is wise when possible to plan a room in which they may amuse themselves and not feel that their elders are being disturbed. 76 ROOMS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE One of the most attractive and popular rooms for young people we have known was in a not very large nor elaborate suburban house. In thinking of this room one recalls an impression of space; a hardwood floor with rugs small enough to be easily taken up for the dancing; an open fire; a piano with songs on the rack; bright lights, plenty of them, with dainty pink shades, some having white lace flounces; comfy chairs and one big sofa before the fire. It was a jolly, chintzy room where nothing was very perishable, always such an enormous relief to young people. Here they could dance, sing, play bridge, or gather around the fire for story-telling, while some one toasted marshmallows. It was a young people’s room to remember! CHAPTER XI REST ROOMS FOR HOURS OF CHEERING RELAXATION. PRIVATE OR PUBLIC IN the planning of rest rooms economy is usually important. This is true whether the room is for a wealthy Country Club, a summer or winter resort hotel, or for the employees of a large De- partment Store. Post-war incomes have changed things. Professional decorators tell us that to- day one seldom hears the pre-war reckless re- mark, “Oh, I’ll order this or I'll buy that—if I get tired of it I can turn it out next season.” Emotional buying has become “bad form” as well as poor economy. The new slogan is ‘‘Build and furnish for the future.” Architects, decorators and furnishers are now used to making plans to submit, which consider incomes as well as wants. They came head on against this situation when at the full tide of carte blanche orders to meet the demands of pre- war conditions. The shock was bewildering. But instead of checking the imagination of the crea- tive, new brain cells have opened up and a flock of ideas—beautiful and practical—are let loose every day. A fact full of encouragement and stimulation for the amateur decorator. The magic wand has been stern utility, em- 77 78 REST ROOMS phatic elimination of all but the essential, and a censored budget for outlay when the work to be done was the interior decoration of rooms for men and women or for organizations, with limited incomes. Those of you who plan creating or doing-over rest rooms on very restricted amounts have an immediate reward awaiting you; the unexpected possibilities of interesting line and color, suitabil- ity and durability within your restrictions. The rest rooms described here are for hours of recreation. It is a fact to which doctors and nurses attest, that colors cheer, brace or depress those living with them. The effect of color on the sensations of human beings is always taken into consideration when restaurants, ball-rooms and other public rooms are being decorated. In- terior decorators, more or less masters in the manipulation of color, say that the cheering “warm” tones are pink, yellow and red; the cool colors gray, violet, blue and deep green; for gen- uine restfulness they advise the low, subdued tones of colors; if you would awaken, stimulate those gathered in a room, give them intense, striking red, blue, orange, vivid green or purple. This will guide you in the selecting of materials and wall papers for your rest room now under con- sideration. With regard to furniture, use well seasoned, strong woods and the strongest, which means the best quality of willow or rattan, are suitable. PLATE VIII Tan ALYSIS A REST ROOM This rest room can be used to give suggestions for a living-room in your summer home where young people gather for boisterous times; for a country club; a sum- mer or winter resort hotel; a Y. M. C. A. or Y. W. C. A. sitting-room or a rest room in some large shop either for patrons or employees. It is both comfortable and inexpensive as to furnishings. º * *- : * * tº dº ſº £d P UD O O R O ſº £d ſº I P- CD O > H O O ſº H UD ſº ſ: --> ------------, -, - • * * , - ** * * * x * * * s—- - - - ºr:” “.... • “ --~~~~ : “”, “…-: * *-* * * ~ * * * * * * * . . - - *. ©. York Galleries. Sºssant raetoſ Furn.co. SIMPLE CORNER CLOSETS SUMMING UP OF OUR SUBJECT 255 chosen. It is bad style to use fussy bows, fancy cords or unnecessary decorations anywhere in your rooms. This fashion has come as a blessing to the housekeeper who does a part or all of the work of her home. No more “dust catchers” are seen in any one’s house. The rule of modern home-making is everything for practical service and within this law to make it as attractive in shape, or “line,” and color as you can. The stamp of modern simplicity is registered in any room by doing away with all fancy sofa pil- lows, scrap-baskets and elaborately trimmed lamp- shades. Oh, those now almost-forgotten days of gilded pine cones and peacock’s feathers and cat- tails fastened to baskets, lamp shades and where not? Hand-painted china plaques done by an un- talented member of the family; sofa-pillows so over-trimmed with ruffles, ribbon embroidery and large bows that no head could find rest upon them, and certainly not the eye trained to recognize true beauty, these have all gone to rummage sales long ago. Walls are now left without pictures if the choice is between the cheap chromos (which imitate oil paintings), or other “imitations” and the simple, restful beauty of well-chosen wall papers—plain or figured. The day of dark and elaborately fig- ured walls, whether of cheap paper or very expen- sive silk has gone by. Simplicity declares itself from the walls of most rooms the moment you enter. 256 SUMMING UP OF OUR SUBJECT “Tapestry” furniture is a pitfall to beginners because it is so easy to buy too many pieces cov- ered with this figured material and so get the old-fashioned look of too many spots in your room. Simplicity means no confusion of lines and colors to greet the eye. Use enough plain—unfigured— surfaces as walls, floors (coverings), draperies or furniture coverings, to rest the eye and make wel- come the occasional chair, sofa, or window cur- tains which show a design in colors. Too much of any one material or style of design is tiresome in a room. Keep in your mind the value of contrasts if you want your decoration to look professional. Regardless of the amount of money you plan spending on your home, the fashion of to-day de- mands this appearance of simplicity. Unless a room is to be the reproduction of one belonging to a by-gone age, in which elaboration instead of sim- plicity was admired, you will find most beautiful and expensive silk brocades—copies of museum specimens now being reproduced in Italy—so sim- ply hung that the room gives one the impression of informal, home-like beauty. In your little apartment, your tiny summer cot- tage by the sea or on a shady country road, we urge that you experiment with these rules for at- taining the modern type of a magnetic home. You will often be astonished to see how much you own and have thought of no value in the ar- ranging of your new room or house has just the quality of charm we aim at getting. We have over SUMMING UP OF OUR SUBJECT 257 and over again spoken of the too elaborate Vic- torian style of house decoration, but this does not mean that some of the things in your old home, where grandmother allowed nothing to be changed, are not very attractive to use in your modern plan. Victorian colored glass bottles and vases will look charming in the rooms done in their color. Some of the old-fashioned needlework will look well on certain chairs and foot-stools and even the wax fruit and artificial flowers may be used as charming decorations if you will take the most nat- ural looking fruit and arrange it in a bowl in the center of your dining-room table, and removing the glass globe now over the artificial flowers, put them in a simple, one-colored vase harmonizing with the color scheme of the room, or one of ala- baster, old or modern. When these flowers collect dust remove it with your fire bellows. Be sure to let the flowers remain as originally arranged. The quaint, formal shape of the bouquet adds to their interest and shows that you use them as fas- cinating notes of color and do not try to pretend that they are real flowers. The little flowered and gilded china vases they are usually in are too un- important in size to balance (in appearance) the flowers when they are removed from the globe, so it is better to put them in a larger and simpler vase. As any bunch of flowers represents many colors the only way to keep them in your “key” of simplicity is to have the vase which holds them one tone and undecorated. 258 SUMMING UP OF OUR SUBJECT Let your floor coverings be so simple in color (never showing more than two) that they are scarcely noticeable, and keep to very small pat- terms, the smaller the better. This is true whether you buy Brussels, Wilton or Axminster carpets, rag rugs, grass rugs (for sun-parlor or porch). If using linoleum remember the rule for sim- plicity. The solid colors in dark shades, if waxed, are most attractive as a background for rugs in halls and dining-rooms. Manufacturers of furniture are ready to meet your demand for simplicity in shapes and deco- ration. There was a brief period, now passed, of strange shapes and inartistic coloring in furni- ture referred to in some of the daily papers as the “Jazz” type. This had a very short life, and it is to the credit of our manufacturers that good taste has reasserted itself and the beautiful clas- sic shapes, somewhat modified to meet our mod- ern needs, offered the public at prices within the means of the average home-maker. It is no new thing for fashion to swing to sim- plicity after a period of over-ornamentation. You will find this happening all through the history of house furnishing which begins—so far as we can trace it—about 4000 B.C. To-day’s fashion for simplicity has given us a type of beautiful house furnishing which combines comfort with appropriateness and suggests that the home has been furnished within the means of the owner and SUMMING UP OF OUR SUBJECT 259 therefore is in harmony with the general scale of living which the family in question can afford to indulge in. This welcome fashon for simplicity has brought into the home an atmosphere of hos- pitality far more genial than the more unbending formality of the days of our Victorian elders. The moment a home has the look of solid com- fort and informal ease, such as broad, long sofas and cheery hangings and furniture coverings give, one can be sure that young people are going to gather there for good times. When book-shelves were moved into the old- time “parlor” and open fires re-installed as a cen- ter around which the family and friends gathered for intimate hours, that was the signal for the return of beautiful simplicity into our midst. Some of us remember very distinctly the few brave souls who first dared to smash traditions and make the rigid, forbidding and thoroughly un- comfortable “parlor” into the fascinating sitting or “living-room” which is the center of family life in every American home to-day. It was an innovation indeed when the dust-collecting, stri- dent carpets were taken up and “parquet,” or inlaid hardwood floors, put down as background for rugs. - Fashion in rugs has changed to meet the de- mands for simplicity, and those “Orientals” with vivid reds and blues and greens of fifty and sixty years ago have been removed to make room for 260 SUMMING UP OF OUR SUBJECT others with lovely soft coloring which harmonize with shades of colors now in fashion for hang- ings, furniture coverings, etc. Those so unfortunate as to have in their pos- session furniture of the glossy, golden oak type which swept over our country like an avalanche about fifty years ago, remember the elaborate, shiny yellow oak “over-mantels” into whose niches were stowed china and glass ornaments of every conceivable size, shape and color! In most cases wise housekeepers have had the mantel cab- inets torn down, but some are still in a quandary concerning the fancy oak chairs, bureaus and tables of that dreadful period in the history of American factory furniture. Our advice is to use the saw whenever it is possible to remove some useless ornament, and to apply a varnish remover which will take off the undesirable shine. Give away to some very needy person the worst of the lot and supplant these with a few modern pieces—chairs and sofas of the over-stuffed sort which show no woodwork and can be covered with a crêtonne or chintz so fascinating that it draws attention away from the less attractive posses- sions. If you wish to change the color it is pos- sible to stain the oak. We have seen this done and with success. Ugly knobs can be exchanged for simple glass or brass ones which even your Five and Ten Cent Store sells. Glass knobs are labor savers. CHAPTER XXXIV PERIODS IN FURNITURE-SUBDIVISIONS OF SUBJECT 1. Introduction: giving main characteristics of the ‘‘period” we are now helping to record, and leading back over the ground covered by the so-called Great Periods, with the idea of making the story one easily understood. Ancient Egypt. 2. Classic Periods 6 & Greece. & 6 Rome. Gothic Period. Italian Renaissance. English Furniture of the Great Periods. French Furniture of the Great Periods. America’s Great Designer and Maker of Fur- i niture Last Half 18th Century. 8. Victorian Period in America and Degenera- tion of Shape in Furniture and All Interior Decoration. The story we give in this chapter prepares the reader for the present renaissance or re-birth of Beautiful Simplicity which to-day has its founda- tion in comfort, and appropriateness for needs. 261 - 262 PERIODS IN FURNITURE PERIODS IN FURNITURE AND FURNISHINGs Among the various styles in house furnishing to-day considered new, the outstanding one, which survives and is passed down to our grandchildren will in the future constitute a distinct “period” in the history of decoration. You are responsible with other home-makers for our achievement. What name will be given to the period we are now living in remains to be seen. But as surely as there are to-day periods known as Renaissance, Jacobean, The Louis, Chippendale, Empire and Colonial, so surely will the current period be named and given its place in the archives relating to this branch of art. Of one thing there is no doubt: the type will be the child of what went before and the parent of what follows. This is always the case. And it is the gradual emerging of a type which makes it almost impossible for those who are in a period to visualize it. We will, however, venture to make the statement that two of the characteristics of this, our period, will undoubtedly be the har- monious combining of different periods in shapes of furniture and an extraordinary development of color combinations. During the World War, and since, blazing color and eccentric shapes indicated a departure from classic standards of beauty. Some have given the name “Jazz” to this expression in interior PLATE XXV ANALYSIS DAY-BEDS Day-beds are narrow, low beds for use during the day, in a bed-room containing another bed for use at night, in a sitting-room, or in these days of every sort of economy, as the only bed in any small room of a house or apartment. Our plate shows three models, one of which (No. 2) reflects the influence of the French Directoire period. The other two are descendants from Early American day-beds under English influence. No- tice the “splat” connecting top rail of rounded head and footboard, also the “turned” top rails at head and foot of the first style. You will find these convenient day-beds in every shape or period. In choosing covering for one use what covers other furniture in the same room. Bring the newcomer into the family. No piece of furniture is successfully placed if to any one it looks like a lonely stranger stranded in the midst of a group of intimate friends. ****************** ſ; *******&&&&&&&&&&&&&& &&&& Ģă…º. ...etº º: **. WNEw York Galle Rieſ. ©ºš Rabib's Purn, do. DAY-BEDS IN THREE VERY POPULAR STYLES PERIODS IN FURNITURE 265 decoration. Fortunately it was the mood of a moment and is already discarded. Just previous to the war, leaders in our field of art had made an effort to establish popularity for straight lines and slender proportions, follow- ing the French Directoire style. This type not only held its own, but led the way to a popular- izing of all the beautiful shapes—fashions of many centuries—now adapted to our needs and to be had for moderate sums. Some account for the fashion for blazing color by saying it gratified an emotional hunger for excitement, the same mood that kept most of the world dancing and applauding hectic theat- rical performances. It is claimed that we have echoed the mood of the French Revolution. This may be true, but a commercial reason was that the only producers of decorative articles not in- volved in the business of war to the exclusion of everything else, were the Chinese and Japanese, and in consequence their wares flooded our mar- kets. Oriental effects became the fashion. If you can afford to change when tired of vivid purples, magentas, gold, orange, blues and gleam- ing greens, try one of your rooms done in this style. You will find that for Americans (due to our climate and social customs) Oriental forms and colors are always “foreign.” They never be- come a vital expression of our national art. We can better adapt the “classic” shapes and color schemes to the beautifying of our homes, and you 266 PERIODS IN FURNITURE will be fascinated by the story which leads you back to ancient Egypt via the Italian Renaissance (16th century). Interest in classic art and literature began in Italy as early as the 14th century. It was the usual reaction to simplicity and pure line from a period of over-elaboration. Ancient buildings and their furnishings were literally dug up, and fragments of these art treasures placed in mu- seums, where those interested in carrying on the traditions of the greatest periods in art might see them. This re-birth of ideal beauty was en- couraged in the 16th century by the unearthing of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and from Italy the Renaissance movement spread over Europe. The great artists of Italy first reproduced these treasures, the buildings and their furnishings, and England, France and other countries employed Italian workmen to make houses and house fur- nishings in the same style. In cases where no furniture survived the rust and decay of centuries, frescoes on the inner walls and outside of buildings have shown us the an- cestors of many shapes in furniture used to-day —shapes which still rank as the perfection of style. Since in these days every one knows something about old furniture, it is a convenient thing to know some of the “ear-marks” of each type, or period. As we have already said, to-day our beautiful PERIODS IN FURNITURE 267 rooms often have in them several shapes or periods in furniture so cleverly combined that the result is perfect harmony. This harmony is usu- ally had by combining the shapes which are re- lated and therefore bear a “family likeness.” Straight lines with the straight lines, and curved lines with the curved is a safe rule for beginners. Let the more experienced take chances with com- bining shapes which to the novice are unrelated. We owe a debt of gratitude to our interior deco- rators. They have educated public taste to like and want beautiful, simple shapes in furniture. Decorators have imported into our country the finest specimens representative of the fashions of every age. The result is that those Americans who have neither the desire, time nor money for travel have been shown the best, because the most enduring styles. This importing of models to be copied for the benefit of our citizens began in reality with the settling of our country. Look carefully at what we call “Early American” shapes and then turn to any book on ‘‘period” furniture showing the foreign types, and you will find that the pieces made in the days of our Colonies (our “Colonial” furniture) were copies of the styles being made in England at that time. Most of that early American furniture was made in New England by men who had come from Old England, bringing furniture with them, or who copied beautiful pieces brought by more affluent settlers from that 268 pHRIODS IN FURNITURE . country. The Dutch and French settlers also brought furniture, and the influence may be de- tected in some Colonial pieces, but the chief in- fluence was English. Any one who reads the newspapers knows that every shape or style has a name. Our morning papers announce for sale “suites” for bed-rooms, dining-rooms, sitting or living-rooms, etc., de- scribed as Chippendale, Heppelwhite, Italian Ren- aissance, Louis XV (with lovely curving lines, making what are called “bow end” beds and be- guiling “vanity dressers”), Adam designs which, if correct, have straight lines, William and Mary, Sheraton, Early American, Jacobean, etc., etc. We could continue this list, taken at random from a paper before us. Periods in decoration take their names from the outstanding events of the time, from ruling monarchs more or less responsible for the events, and from designers and makers of furniture and furnishings. Take for example the “Renaissance Period.” It dates from the 16th century. Renais- sance put into English is re-born. The Renais- sance Period refers to those years during which it was the fashion to make the shapes of furniture and the shapes of buildings in the classic or clas- sified ancient shapes. There is the revival of the classic types, as the Italians understood them, and the French interpretation, which reached its height under Louis XIV. There were artists of the Directoire Period who created an original type PERIODS IN FURNITURE; 269 after classic models perfectly adapted to the needs of their own time. This very beautiful ex- pression far excelled mere imitations of the classic, which were made under the direction of Napoleon I, who insisted on slavish copying of the ancient, regardless of modern conditions of life. In collecting Empire furniture, those with a feeling for the beautiful choose very early Em- pire. Late Empire is the least beautiful, because too elaborate. This is an excellent time to call attention to the fact that when we speak of “Empire” furniture and the furniture of “Louis XIV, XV and XVI, Elizabethan or Queen Anne,” we do not mean that this type was made for the monarch alone. The great artist-designers who created the finest types of such periods did of course make for their royal patrons, but types created by them were copied by other, less gifted but skilled, artisans and for the most part it is such pieces that have found their way down through the centuries to collec- tors of to-day. Before the 17th century the average man had little money and only rude necessities, but as trade developed he had more money, and we find de- lightful pieces of furniture of the Jacobean period (17th century), discovered in farmhouses or way- side inns. One need not feel in awe of any period. To-day our reproductions are for many modes of life. There are very simple and very elegant ex- amples of all styles. - 270 PERIODS IN FURNITURE Collectors and museums want the veritable orig- inals or exact copies, but to use in our daily living, in a house we make “home,” modern adaptations of the Great Periods are best. They are based on comfort and the needs of to-day. Those who want to inform themselves at length concerning the various periods of furniture should read Walter A. Dyer’s Handbook of Furniture Styles, published by the Century Company. He has gone into the subject exhaustively, and it is hoped that the few hints we give may stimulate the reader to observe genuine old pieces as well as modern reproductions, and, with Mr. Dyer’s assistance, get by heart the leading characteristics of all the styles. INTERIOR DECORATION IN ANCIENT “CLASSIC” EGYPT –4000-3000 13.C. Our story of Interior Decoration begins in Egypt 3,000 years before Christ, when that ancient civilization was at its height and the rooms of the cultivated classes were not unlike some we see in what are called “very modern” houses to- day! From various sources one gleans the infor- mation that the ancient Egyptians had wonder- ful gilded ceilings, beautifully wrought bronze, gold and gilded furniture, cushions and mattresses covered with gorgeously colored materials and stuffed with down. Those who like Empire furni- ture will be interested to find that the type origi- PERIODS IN FURNITURE 271 nated in Egypt and that even what we call Em- pire “rolls” or sofa pillows—the, long, round style—were used by Egyptian beauties on their “day-beds!” Which couches, by the way, were covered with colored woven textiles. The Egyptians understood the “turning” of legs and frames of furniture quite as well as the cabinet makers did in the time of William and Mary or the French Empire, and those little ani- mal heads which surmount the high backs of large and small Spanish chairs are only the continua- tion of an Egyptian fashion. On your Empire furniture you will sometimes see mahogany pilas- ters, capped by the heads of women, gilded, and terminating in two little gilded feet. Some say that this is a souvenir of the ancient Egyptian throne chairs which were supported on the backs of slaves or prisoners of war! We have thought our Crex porch rugs “mod- ern,” but the Egyptians had carpets and rugs of woven palm fiber. As for the sensation of “modern” vivid color- ing in house decoration, we imagine that it would seem subdued if brought near the blaze of red, yellow and green used as stripes in the wall deco- rations of ancient Assyrian and Egyptian pal- aces. (3000 B.C.) CLASSIC GBEECE During the 4th century before Christ the home 272 PERIODS IN FURNITURE; of a Greek of importance had, besides bed-rooms and sitting-rooms, its libraries, music-rooms, pic- ture galleries and banqueting rooms. The wife’s suite of rooms was apart from her husband's, and in one of these she and the women of the house- hold met to spin, weave and embroider. They had open fires and also braziers in which coke and charcoal were burned. In all the descriptions of house furnishing em- phasis is put on the fact that while there was elegance—even magnificence—in that period we call “classic” there was also great simplicity. Chairs and tables were beautiful in shape and much like the Directoire and Empire styles. Sofas were placed against the walls and covered with “skins or purple carpets and heaped with cushions.” Carved chairs with straight backs and low arms were called “throne chairs,” and used by the heads of the house. A custom we follow at our dining-room table! There were footstools for these large chairs and sometimes they were fastened to the front feet of the chair. Folding stools were used, the type we know as Renais- sance. Beds were couch-like and suggest our now fashionable “day-bed.” The Greek bed of the prosperous was very luxurious and often made of olive wood, inlaid with gold and ivory or veneered with tortoise-shell. Some beds were made of solid silver. Mattresses were made of sponge, feathers and wool and covered with gorgeously colored mate- PERIODS IN FURNITURE 273 rials as blankets. In some cases the skins of peacocks were cured with the beautiful feathers on them and perfumed with imported scents! When a banquet was given foreign cooks were imported for the occasion, but at that time no forks, knives, spoons, napkins nor tablecloths were used l Servants passed basins of water in which guests washed frequently during a meal. ROME JUST BEFORE THE FAILL We read that Augustus Caesar (B.C. 27) owned a table which cost in our money $40,000.00 That was after the pure Roman style of building and furnishings, which were a continuation of the best Greek style, had given place to elaboration, re- sulting from a mixture of the Greek and Byzan- time, or Turkish and Persian styles. With the Oriental influence on art came arabesques and geometrical designs copied when woods were in- laid and stone combined in mosaics for the deco- ration of rooms. We see also in early Italian textiles Persian designs. Made rich through trade, the new Roman craved all the glowing luxuries brought to his markets in the form of carpets, soft cushions, magnificent embroideries, hangings, etc. Ivory inlaid with gold and every conceivable elaboration was in- vented to cater to the taste of that time. Finally too much luxury, too much dissipation and self- indulgence so weakened the nation that Rome was 274 PERIODS IN FURNITURE conquered by its vigorous, red-blooded, barbaric neighbors and the classic tradition in art broken. The Dark Ages in Europe followed (5th to 15th century), and during the Dark or Middle Ages we have the Gothic Period of art, 11th to 14th century. - THE GOTHIC OR POINTED PERIOD-11TH TO 14TH CENTURY During the Gothic period, which was during the Dark or Middle Ages in Europe, art lived and flourished for the glory of the Church. And for this reason the Gothic cathedral developed into the rare and wondrous expression we admire and marvel at. Building churches and decorating their interiors was a form of national worship. And the same style of decoration adorned the fur- niture of the baronial halls or homes of the Princes of the Church. Our knowledge of this early house decoration is had from old manu- scripts and missals. Wood carving characterized the period in every country, and the chief article of furniture was the oak chest into which pos- sessions were put when the feudal lord moved from one part of the country to another. When the lives of men became more settled we find their house furnishings multiplying and the one Great Hall which at first constituted the “home” is gradually divided into different rooms. Even at the end of the eleventh century only the PERIODS IN FURNITURE 275 nobility owned bedsteads! These were immense affairs, carved and draped and naturally expen- SIVE, It was about this time—end of eleventh century —that we hear of wonderfully carved presses or wardrobes. And so the furniture of our day grad- ually comes into being after the tradition of the “classic” periods was broken by the fall of Rome. ITALIAN RENAISSANCE The Italian Renaissance began in the 14th cen- tury. It was the natural reaction from the con- fusion existing during the Dark Ages (5th to 15th century, A. D.) to a desire for law and order in art as well as in life. The movement began with the intellectuals bringing to light the ideas of the Greeks of the Classic Age as they appeared in their literature. An interest in the art of the an- cients was revived, and with the unearthing of buried cities came the re-birth or Renaissance of the Classic styles in architecture and house fur- nishings. - The furniture of the Renaissance was in type like the architecture, large cabinets reproducing the façades or fronts of buildings. It is not sur- prising that the furniture of this period was mas- sive and magnificent because it was designed for palaces of royalty and the nobility and was un- related to the life of the average man. Renaissance furniture differed as to material 276 PERIODS IN FURNITURE and workmanship in the different countries as the Renaissance movement reached them, but in general character there was a resemblance and the shape was the same, always the straight or Classic lines. . Wood carving is a characteristic of this period. Modern Renaissance furniture, while following the general character of the period, is adapted to our needs and the size of the modern home. In this style, as in all others, there are good and bad reproductions and adaptations. The sim- ple types of all periods are apt to be the best expressions. It is these we commend to those who would be their own decorators. ENGLISHI EURNITURE; The Oak Period (including early Jacobean). Gothic, through 14th century. Renaissance, 16th century (including Eliza- bethan). Early Jacobean or Stuart, 17th century; James I, Charles I, Charles II and James II, 1603– 1688. - The Walnut Period. Late Jacobean. William and Mary, 1688. Queen Anne, 1702. Mahogany Period (and other imported woods), or Chippendale Period. - PLATE XXVI ANALYSIS Two STYLEs of SIDEBOARDs The sideboard at top of plate is a modern creation which reflects no special period. Possibly the one who “composed” it had in mind certain points asso- ciated with the Jacobean period. We prefer to say that it is modern in feeling. The other sideboard is strongly influenced by the furniture of the French Empire period. It will remind you of the Early American furniture which was fashionable after we became states, a style wrongly called “Colonial.” Both examples have the virtue of simplicity and could be made in any wood or finish desired. If you want a pure style Early Amer- ican sideboard ask to be shown a Sheraton model. This type is beautifully proportioned and gracefully slender as to build. If you like painted furniture a delicate style is French Directoire. For a large house or apart- ment the solid, squarely built Renaissance sideboards are suitable. The rest of the furniture must be of the same, or similar, shape or period. Three well-chosen objects— silver, glass or china—will decorate your sideboard. Never crowd the top. Two STYLES OF SIDEBOARDS. No. 1 REFLECTS SOMEWHAT EARLY AMERICAN WITH ENGLISH INFLUENCE AND No. 2 THE FRENCH EMEPIRE INFLUENCE PERIODS IN FURNITURE 279 Chippendale. Heppelwhite. Sheraton. The Adam Brothers. 18th century. Gothic Period (through 14th century). There was no set type; each piece was an indi- vidual creation, hand-made and irregular in line and decoration. This furniture reflects in an interesting way the personality of the maker. Almost no furniture exists of the 13th century. What we know we have learned from illus- trated manuscripts of the time. The furni- ture was carved oak or plain oak, ornamented with iron scroll work, intended both for strength and decoration. During the 14th century the furnishings of the homes of men increased, and we find interest- ing tables, presses, chairs, settles and benches. Tudor Period—the Renaissance—(including Eliz- abethan type) 16th century. Some of the points to notice in connection with the furniture of this period are small panels with heavy, wide mouldings. The carving is heavy and round. During the time of Queen Elizabeth tables, chests, presses, chairs, and small chests of drawers show that types had begun to repeat themselves and get established. This influ- enced public taste and advanced the stand- ards for house furnishing. 280 PERIODS IN FURNITURE Wood carving was characteristic of this period. The furniture was carved and so was the woodwork of rooms. Henry VIII encouraged the development of the Renaissance movement in England. He brought Italians from Italy to work in wood and textiles, and this accounts for the simi- larity between the art of the two countries at that time, a similarity in line and deco- rative design used in textiles as well as the wood carving. The best of the French skilled artisans em- ployed in the famous factories founded by Louis XIV were driven to England and other countries when he persecuted the Protestants in France. England was fortunate. Fur- thermore, when Henry VIII—a Protestant— closed the monasteries artist-monks who had until then worked only for the Church turned to secular work, and government buildings and the homes of citizens gained in beauty and comfort. During the Tudor Period there were chairs only for the head of the family. Others used stools, benches, settles and forms. “JACOBEAN” OR STUART PERIOD-NAME DERIVED FROM LATIN FOR. JAMES James I. 1603. Charles I. Puritan Revolution. 1628. PERIODS IN FURNITURE 281 Panels are large and mouldings narrow and flat or no mouldings and flat carving. Oliver Cromwell. Commonwealth. 1649. Reaction from everything associated with roy- alty, therefore we see return to classic straight lines. Simplicity and restraint en- couraged in all decoration. Pilasters and pediments fashionable. Charles II. Restoration. 1660. With the restoration of royalty came the re- turn to elaboration, and late Jacobean shows “turned” and carved legs, frames and stretchers. Spiral turnings were very fash- ionable and so were ebonized, oblong bosses of the jewel type. Period of “gate-leg” tables. - James II. Deposition and flight. 1686. William and Mary. 1688. Princess Mary married her relation, William of Orange (Holland), the only available Protes- tant. This marriage accounts for the marked Dutch influence reflected in all furnishings of the last half of the 17th century in Eng- land. Inlaying with ebony, ivory and mother- of-pearl are characteristic. Some chairs have cane seats and backs, velvet cushions, stuffed seats covered with velvet, satin damask and needlework. 282 PERIODS IN FURNITURE Queen Anne followed William and Mary, and gradually a type similar, but to be distin- guished from it, developed. TEIE GEORGIAN PERIOD George I.-Dutch influence not so marked. 1714-1727. George II—Transition Period and Chippen- dale. 1727–1766. George III.--What is called Classic Georgian and Decadence. 1766–1826. George IV and Victorian Period art of Interior Decoration at low ebb. QUEEN ANNE PERIOD Queen Anne chairs have a solid splat, sometimes vase-shaped. Most of the legs are the bent-out or cabriole type. The feet are claw and ball or simply balls. The top of backs round into sides making a continuous line. Tall, slender poles with sliding screens called “pole-screens” are Queen Anne. The hangings were of wonderful damask, silk and velvet. And the wainscot of rooms was painted some delicate tint to set off the dark walnut or brilliant red, green or black lacquered pieces decorated with gold. Some pieces had lock plates and hinges of chased brass. High ceilings of the period led to the making of “tall boys,” or, as we say, high boys, a com- bination of bookcase, desk and drawers. PERIODS IN FURNITURE 283 The Windsor chair appeared in the reign of Queen Anne. CHIPPENDALE PERIOD So called because Chippendale wrote the best books of the time on furniture and while stimulat- ing trade educated his public and moulded taste. Chippendale followed the outline of Louis XV chairs, etc. - The Adam Brothers followed the Classic with straight lines. Heppelwhite went in for the fragile and very light type. - Sheraton painted much of his furniture and in- laid it. His are classic or straight lines. A careful study of each style will show that they are sometimes guilty of a “family resemblance,” but also that each maker insisted upon certain distinguishing details. - Chippendale Chairs Tops bow-shaped with ends extending beyond the sides of back and usually turned upwards. The splats have upward movement and were joined to seats and not to a cross-rail. They were pierced and had “ribbon” and other kinds of carving. Some were “ladder backs,” and others in Chinese style had open lattice work over entire back, square tops and straight legs. The 284 PERIODS IN FURNITURE leg usually associated with Chippendale was cabriole and had claw and ball foot. Sheraton Chairs Backs of Sheraton chairs had straight tops and several small splats joined to a cross-rail and not to seat. The legs were straight. “Turned” wood was used on legs and outer supports of backs of chairs. Sheraton painted furniture, especially satin-wood, and he employed Angelica Kauffman to decorate for him. Some chairs having cane seats have the backs painted black and gold. Heppelwhite Chairs Heppelwhite chairs have a fascinating delicacy and are easy to recognize by their backs, which are in shape shield, heart or oval or, if very fine, show carved Prince of Wales feathers held to- gether with a finely carved ribbon. These chairs are sometimes painted. The legs are straight. Adam Furniture Robert Adam and his brother James followed classic models in architecture, decoration of walls and wood-work, and their furniture belongs to the group with straight lines. PLATE XXVII ANALYSIS REFECTORY TABLES It is now fashionable to use dining-tables which are long and narrow and suggest the tables monks used in their monasteries in the olden times. The “refectory” was where the monks ate. It is possible to buy genuine antique refectory tables, but most of those we see used are reproductions or modern creations which follow the original type in proportions only. This style of table is admirable in a living-room which is at the same time dining-room. It makes a very dignified table for lamps, books and magazines and calls for a bowl of flowers, wild or cultivated, if they can be had. Be careful not to use too small a bowl for flowers or too few of the blooms when your intention is to decorate a large table. If yours is a very simple home and yet the shape of these tables pleases you, it will cost but little to have a carpenter make one to suit your room, that is as to size, and you yourself can paint it. Our plate shows two antique models or reproductions of antiques, and an easily copied modern type. If you have a period room try to get a table of the same style as other pieces of furniture. Italian Renaissance re- fectory tables and English Jacobean are perhaps the most sought after models. 27 *…*&º sº a . . . . ... º º § F.J. KEGE L- . - - - -- NEw Yoºk GALLERAE ſ - Se/Grano RAPuby Yurn.co. REFECTORY TABLES, TWO OF WHICH REFLECT THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE TYPE. THE THIRD STYLE IS WITHIN THE MEANS OF ANYONE PERIODS IN FURNITURE 287 BEAUTIFUL CURVED SEIAPES IN FURNITURE; The beautiful curved shapes, or “periods,” in furniture are Louis XIV. Louis XV. William and Mary. Queen Anne. Chippendale. Heppelwhite. BEAUTIFUL STRAIGHT SHAPES IN FURNITURE The beautiful straight shapes, or “periods,” in furniture are Egyptian. Greek. Early Roman. Early Renaissance. Jacobean. Directoire. Early First Empire. Adam. Sheraton. Duncan Phyfe (Classic type). THE MOST IMPORTANT STAND TAKEN FOR BEAUTIFUL SIMPLICITY IN MODERN TIMES Was the work done by William Morris and the pre-Raphael school of art in England in the last half of the 19th century. 288 PERIODS IN FURNITURE YOUR PERIOD FURNITURE REGARDED AS HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS Let us pause and analyze a Chippendale chair by way of showing you what people mean when they say period furniture is one kind of historical document. Your dealer may have told you that this particular chair shows the “Chinese influ- ence,” in its flat, pierced carving such as one sees on Chinese wood-work. Let us remind you that Chippendale was England’s greatest designer and maker of furniture in the 18th century and shortly after England had established trade routes by sea with the Orient. The sailing vessels brought to England Oriental art, and the interest thus aroused carried English travelers to the far East, one of whom wrote a book called “The Chinese Craze.” This book fanned the flame of interest in the new fashion for decoration, including house decoration. You may have guessed that the outline or shape of the Chippendale chair was taken from the French furniture of Louis XIV and XV styles, with their curving lines and bent-out cabriole legs. The Chippendale feet of this chair show the an- cient “Classic” style of claw and ball which, with the animal hoof, was used in ancient Egypt 3,000 years before Christ! This style of foot for fur- niture was a part of the revival of interest in the fashions of ancient Egypt, Assyria, Greece PERIODS IN FURNITURE 289 and Early Rome which has recorded itself as the Renaissance Period (16th century). So much for the Chippendale “document.” Now turn to one of the chairs your dealer tells you is called “William and Mary,” and look at the “Dutch” foot which characterizes it. “Why ‘Dutch’?” you may ask. Because it is a type of foot much used in Holland before it was intro- duced into England and came to that country when the Dutch Prince William of Orange married the English Princess Mary and became joint ruler with her. If we have interested you in this search for the origin of decorative details of furniture, you can follow that “Dutch” foot back to its Spanish origin! For it was to be seen on old Spanish chairs before Holland used the design, and is one of many reminders of the fact that in the 16th century Charles V was ruler of Hol- land as well as of Spain and Germany, in con- sequence of which the commerce and arts of the three countries were interchanged. Have you ever wondered why crimson and gold and silver lace figures with Jacobean furnishings of the time of Charles II? Look at your history and you will find that the wife of Charles was a Portuguese and brought with her into England some fashions of her own country, one of them the vivid color loved of her race. To return to the 18th century before closing, we would say that the Chinese influence found expression not only in England but in Holland, 290 PERIODS IN FURNITURE France and the neighboring countries. In France it is the furniture of Louis XV which frequently reflects the “Chinese craze.” Chinese printed cottons and linens were imported and they were copied. Wall papers were also made with Chi- nese designs and served as an admirable back- ground for the Chinese Chippendale furniture. Holland was the first country to import Chinese labor to lacquer and decorate in the Oriental Iſla ſlide I’. DESIGNS IN TEXTILES A Few Hints Speaking in a general way, one can say that Italian Renaissance designs are large and con- ventional in character. Louis XIV designs are large, reflecting the Re- naissance. Louis XV designs show many flowers, foliage and motives peculiar to the period, all of which are curving and shell-like in outline. Louis XVI designs show stripes—in keeping with the shape of furniture—over which are scat- tered flowers and intertwining ribbons with bow- knots. Cupids, garlands, wreathes and quivers of arrows figure also. The Directoire designs are taken from Greek mythology, and as a rule restraint and order are implied by the framing of the exquisitely graceful PERIODS IN FURNITURE 291 figures and groups in medallions. These are stamped on linens, cottons and wall papers at stated intervals and in one or two subdued colors. The Directoire calls for stripes without any other decoration. In materials used for house furnish- ing and for costumes this is noticeable. The Empire designs in textiles are very similar to designs used for ormolu ornaments. Stripes figure also. If you use a brocade with Empire furniture the design must be small and set, not a large, spread- ing design nor one showing a continuous running pattern. To a certain extent one may generalize and say that those periods in which the outline of furniture is curved and irregular the designs are large and spreading; while the periods having straight lines show textiles with stripes, or small “set” patterns not connected and no continuous and spreading design. But this is only partly true. Take for example the English Jacobean furniture with its small, set type of design for carving and the well-known flowing Jacobean de- sign for textiles, showing a continuous tree trunk (origin Persian). This is a characteristic of Italian textiles of the Renaissance and when Henry VIII brought workmen from Italy to England they grafted their foreign ideas on to those of their adopted country. The history of design in textiles is distinct from the history of design in wood carv- ing, and this is one of the many facts which make 292 PERIODS IN FURNITURE our subject interesting but most difficult to boil down into a few terms and infallible rules. FRIENCEI FURNITURE OF THE TIME OF TEIE LOUIS- Louis XIV, xv, AND XVI The Renaissance style of furniture, revived from ancient models, to be used by royalties and the nobility in their magnificent palaces, was as to shape and size architectural. This was appro- priate for the immense rooms it must furnish. When Catherine de Medici of Italy married Henry II of France she carried with her the new Italian fashion for house decoration, and stately palaces were built in France and furnished in the same stately manner. Louis XIV inherited the Renaissance type with all of its “compressed regularity,” and it was under the influence of this great patron of the arts (who established factories for the making of furniture, silks, tapestries and every decora- tive article for the home of man) that an en- tirely new period in furniture and all decoration was invented. - The straight lines of the classic type begin to curve and we see first straight, square or grooved legs on furniture and then the very squat, cabriole or bent-out type of Louis XIV style. The best of this period is beautiful beyond words, the worst too ornate and clumsy. PERIODS IN FURNITURE 293 The Period of Louis XIV is associated in one’s mind with the formal entertaining of kings and the nobility who had Audience Chambers where all stood, as in a pageantl The Period of Louis XV has been character- ized as the period in which woman reigned socially (in court circles). Certainly to beautify her per- sonal sitting-room or boudoir was the pleasure of interior decorators of the time. The Louis XVI period starred the intimate re- ception room—and other home-like house furnish- ing (as opposed to the formal, grandiose style of Louis XIV). The taste of the queen, Marie Antoinette, for an informal life brought about this change. THE TEIREE, LOUIS Louis XIV. 1643–1715. Reynote the grand audience rooms. Compressed regularity of the Renaissance type giving way in reaction to a ponderous ugliness. The legs of Louis XIV chairs, sofas and tables are straight, square, grooved and very squat, bent out, or cabriole. The Regency and Louis XV. 1715-1774. Keynote the boudoir, which indicates the reign of woman at that time. Of all periods that of Louis XV, in its most 294 PERIODS IN FURNITURE beautiful expression, is unsurpassed. Now we see cabriole legs of a perfect lightness and grace. The ideal expression of Louis XV line and decora- tion suggests flowering vines. The Period of Louis XVI. 1774-1793. Keynote the intimate salon or reception room. Life even at court takes on a more human aspect. This is an age of great mental activity. The aver- age man, the citizen who carries the burden of national affairs, begins to assert himself. Grad- ually the Bourbon interior decoration gives way to a transition style which shows a return to more serious lines, the Classic form. The legs are straight instead of curved, tapering and round or grooved. Since every period has souvenirs of those which have gone before, it is possible for a veritable Louis XVI chair to have square, grooved legs (Louis XIV) or graceful, slender cabriole legs (Louis XV). Exquisitely chiseled bronze ornaments on furniture. Some of our modern reproductions take liber- ties with “period” furniture, but one must be very certain before condemning, for our best work is true to type. The Directoire Period—End of 18th Century and Beginning of 19th. 1795-1809. This is a transition between Louis XVI and the First Empire, and therefore has character- PERIODS IN FURNITURE 295 istics of both, with a psychology of its own. The Directoire marks the conception and birth of the Empire style and was the outcome of a chain of circumstances: the luxury of the ruling classes under the Louis; the rebellion of an oppressed people; the Revolution; condemnation and de- struction of luxuries and consequent reaction to simple living; Perier and Fontaine, architects and interior decorators, steeped in the art of early Rome (unearthed in Pompeii) back in Paris and ready to direct and satisfy the craving for order, restraint and simple strength. These two artists are responsible for the incredibly beautiful dec- orative designs known as Directoire. These are original creations inspired by the classic models. - In no period of history have architecture and interior decoration been so perfectly in accord as during the Directorate and First Empire. If you find yourself in a room which is called French, with quaint, painted wall papers (or reproduc- tions of these) instead of the tapestries of the Louis, furniture coverings and curtains of cré- tonne with classic designs in place of the perish- able brocades and damasks of the Louis, or mag- nificent textiles of the First Empire; simple cur- tain poles—often arrow shaped—not the heavy cornices of the Louis and the Empire; painted furniture with straight lines or simple mahogany and chestnut; chair backs showing the graceful 296 PERIODS IN FURNITURE; backward curve from seat to rolled-over chair top (Classic); legs slender and curved like the silver line of a very new moon—the classic type (with curve outward) seen in ancient Egyptian and Greek frescoes, you may be sure that you ar looking at a Directoire interior. - The First Empire—Napoleon I. 1804-1814. Classic shapes or lines and classic decorations in chiseled bronze called ormolu, the work of the greatest artists of the time. The subjects for ormolu decorations were taken from Greek myth- ology. Combined with these were emblems of liberty, lyres, rosettes, etc. Fine brass inlaying figures on Empire furniture. On some of this furniture we also see fine “turning,” as on Jacobean pieces, not the spiral, but the round style. (See the legs of sofa on which Madame Recamier reclines in the well- known portrait of her by David.) It was the desire of Napoleon to be surrounded by all the dignity and pomp associated with the great Ro- man generals, and those who served him catered to this wish. On his return from Rome and Egypt furniture made for his palaces reflected styles he had seen in both places, and it is be- cause much of the so-called Late Empire was slavish imitation of what was made for another time and different conditions that it is judged the least attractive of the period. PERIODS IN FURNITURE 297 AMERICA’s GREAT DESIGNER AND MAKER OF FURNITUBE End of 18th Century A Scotchman by the name of Duncan Phyfe came to America about 1784, and in 1795 was well established in New York designing and making such beautiful furniture of the Classic style, like Adam and Sheraton, that he deserves to be classed with the great English designers. His sofas, chairs and tables are eagerly sought for by col- lectors of beautiful furniture. The pieces made by Phyfe after Empire models and his ornate Vic- torian creations are not worthy of his best style. VICTORIAN PERIOD 19th Century The Victorian period had its origin in England, but enveloped our own country, and there are homes which are still snowed under by the mon- strous wooden beds, wardrobes, uncomfortable sofas and chairs on which no one could possibly relax! The Victorian period was unfortunate in be- ing the transition between hand-made furniture designed by artists and the new machine-made type now an art product, but when first experi- mented with a flagrant example of bad line and 298 PERIODS IN FURNITURE over-elaboration. Even in the Victorian prime, the carved furniture made in England and sold here was not nearly as fine in workmanship as carvings of the same time made on the Conti- nent. Most of us remember the late Victorian horrors in the shape of monstrously high head- boards for beds, immense and clumsy wardrobes, tables too heavy to be moved and over everything meaningless carved ornaments often glued on, not carved out of the solid piece. There are, however, some attractive early Vic- torian specimens of furniture made here in the United States, and collectors are buying these. We refer to chairs and sofas with a medallion of upholstery framed by a broad, shell-like band of pierced carving. A few of our best cabinet- makers glued together and put under heavy pres- sure seven to nine layers of rosewood with the grain running at different angles. This produced strength. The layers were crushed into a solid block, then the open designs carved, and even very large sofas were made with one continuous ornamental rim. The wider the carved rim the more beautiful is this type of chair or sofa. The most beautiful fashions in shapes or ‘‘periods” in furniture have been those charac- terized by restraint or distinguished simplicity. When Egyptian civilization was at its height and her ruling classes living in fabulous luxury, be- tween 4000 and 3000 B.C., we know (from frescoes on the walls of ruined temples, etc.) that rooms PLATE XXVIII ANALYSIS VICTORIAN ROOM WITH SOME MODERN FURNITURE Here is a room you may have seen in your grandmother's home or some other old-fashioned house. It was fur- nished about seventy-five years ago, curtains and all,— with furnishings them fashionable in England and Amer- ica. As Queen Victoria was then on the throne of England “Victorian’’ is the name given to this par- ticular type of house decoration. It is not necessary to point out the modern additions introduced to make the family now occupying the house feel at home. The one who inherited the quaint things and in their original setting, has added one of the now popular “Chester- field” sofas to replace a stiff, hard and very formal one. Another modern touch is the beautiful lamp shade of rose-colored taffeta. It ‘‘warms up” the room to an amaz- ing degree. At our suggestion the awkward-looking low chair—a bad example of the Victorian Gothic chair—is to be moved upstairs to a bedroom and used as a “slip- per-chair.” The proportions of this chair are wrong, the back should be narrow and high, the seat smaller and the legs longer. It may have been intended for some particular purpose unknown to us. The foot-stool is very characteristic of such a room, but must be put where hasty moderns will not stumble over it. Every family has or should have a grandmother and she likes to use a foot-stool! Notice how the curtains are draped and held back. A Victorian room is called ugly, but even this style can have a charm of its own. : -ºr - - % r •º ºf lí iſ titli <: Wiili : $ -º-º: # 3 : 3 x ; : ::::::: \{ {. º-º * J.-: * - *******. g #Exºdeº York Gallerºle : Ew. agant Repubs Fven.co. N VICTORIAN ROOM WITH MODERN SOFA AND LAMP SHADE PERIODS IN FURNITURE 301 were so arranged as to show beautifully conceived spaces between objects, and the same restraint and therefore “restful” lines, we talk so much about to-day. Distinguished simplicity, orna- mentation kept within bounds, is characteristic of pure Greek, the best Roman, Gothic and Early Renaissance, the best of the Louis XIV, XV, and XVI styles, Directoire, Early First Empire, the simplest of the Chippendale, the Adam, Sheraton and Heppelwhite. The bad or too elaborate periods are Late Roman (with Byzantine—Turkish and Persian influence), Late Renaissance, Italian Rococo, Portuguese Barrocco (baroque), the elaborately curved and contorted, degenerate forms of Louis XIV and XV, and the Victorian creations from which we have so decidedly reacted into our beau- tiful simplicity. It is to be hoped that the same simplicity now fashionable as house decoration may cast its spell over the younger generation and gradually lead to a fashion in manners and customs which will be a reflection of those great days in Greece when the citizens of Athens were educated by the law- makers to understand the practical value of re- straint, not alone in decoration but in the lives of men and women. The Greek law-makers lifted their people to the heights of civilization by show- ing them how to master self-restraint, and they insisted that all civic buildings erected to the glory of their gods and heroes should present to 302 PERIODS IN FURNITURE the admiring public monuments of the same re- straint as to line and ornamentation. It was the Greek who first insisted that the useful should be beautiful. Before the great days of Greece (4th century B.C.) buildings erected for the various uses of man were monuments of strength and duration. Since the period we are now recording in interior decoration, as well as architecture, stands for necessities made beauti- ful, we should lift our eyes to an understanding contemplation of Greek ideals. CHAPTER XXXV IPERIODS IN COLOB, SCEIEMES BACH “period” in shapes of furniture had its corresponding colors, so we talk of periods in color schemes. You may not own any furniture which is, strictly speaking, of a well-defined period. Yours may be squarely built, modern painted furniture, entirely the creation of to-day, or with certain de- tails used as decoration taken from a long ago fashion in furniture. You may feel that it comes under no special class. Even so, we do not hesi- tate to advise following the general law as to use of colors: let the solidly built, strong types have strong colors for covering, curtains, carpets, etc., and the delicate, slender types have the delicate colors. You will find that most straight and curved types of furniture are based on some es- tablished style or period. So the beginner will avoid serious blunders by noticing both the colors and the designs used to upholster the different shapes on view in our most reliable shops. This method is simple, amusing, very educat- ing and gives the beginner something to pin to from the start. Nothing so wastes time and leads to such bad results as aimless fumbling and un- 303 304 PERIODS IN COLOR SCHEMES certain choosing in the matter of colors one puts into a room. By way of making clear our point as to colors and shapes being related, take our own “Colo- nial” furniture which reflects the French Empire type. This is as a matter of fact not Colonial but Early American States furniture, the real Colonial, made when we were colonies, being on the lines of English furniture of the time (Jaco- bean, William and Mary, Queen Anne, and the styles invented in the so-called Mahogany Period, which are Chippendale, Heppelwhite, Sheraton and Adam). The French Empire style took deep reds, strong greens, deep but vivid blues, yellows, purples and magentas. The American version of this style takes the same color scheme. If we turn to the Victorian Period, which takes its name from Queen Victoria, we find that the furniture was heavy in type and the colors used strong, not unlike the Empire color scheme. Now turn to the delicate types of furniture fashionable during the reigns of Louis XV and XVI (France, 1715 to 1793), Directoire (France, 1795 to 1809, period following the Revolution), and Sheraton, Heppelwhite and Adam of Eng- land (18th century). You will find that the colors echo the delicacy and complete that harmony of effect which we keep insisting on as the founda- tion of all decoration—inexpensive or costly—if it is successful. The delicate, spring-like pinks, yellows, forget- PERIODS IN COLOR. SCHEMES 305 me-not blues, apple-greens, and that lovely com- bination of violet and pink we know as “mauve” became as much a part of the periods during which lines of furniture were exquisitely fine and grace- ful (suggesting the slender stalks of flowers beau- tifully straight or waving, vine-like) as were the shapes themselves. You have no doubt noticed that the moment furniture is made after Oriental models, which abound in carving, inlays of ivory, wood and mother-of-pearl, at once the materials used for cushions and hangings take on the same elabora- tion as to colors, intricate weaves, and the use of metal threads, even gems, being worked into some of the Eastern textiles! If you want Eastern elaboration as to fur- niture the only way to get harmony of effect is to keep everything in this same “key” of elab- oration. We talk of Renaissance furniture, and many beautiful homes are made attractive by using this squarely built style in certain rooms, but if you will read about the Italian Renaissance (re-birth of the antique) you will find that in those days the furniture which we now faintly echo as to shape and decorative designs was made for princes to decorate palaces in which life was lived more or less as a pageant and at fabulous cost. The Italian Renaissance was the most gorgeous of all recorded periods of decorative house fur- nishing. Then the artistic genius of the most 306 PERIODS IN COLOR SOHEMES artistic of all countries at the time was devoted to the sumptuous furnishing of palaces and the magnificent costuming of the nobility. The aver- age man had only the most crude necessities with which to make his home endurable. There were two reasons for the type of decora- tive furnishing which stamp this period in Italy as unique (for the Renaissance in France and in England was not the same in detail of ex- pression). In the 16th century there was a great revival of interest in the literature and the art of ancient Greece and Rome—an interest in- creased by the unearthing of long-buried cities. Frescoes on walls showed the type of house fur- nishings used, and very great artists took these ideas and created the Italian Renaissance type as to shape and decoration. At the same time India, Persia and Turkey were pouring into Italy and other European countries, over trade routes, materials of Eastern weaves and dyes, gold and silver gauzes, silk damasks, gleaming and blazing with gem-like pur- ples and crimsons and sapphire blues. And we read of pearls and other precious stones woven into materials on handlooms' Henry II of France married Catherine de Me- dici of Italy and she carried the Renaissance ex- pression of art into France. Fashions in house decoration are immensely in- teresting, as are fashions in the costuming of men and women. Fashions are founded on rea- PERIODS IN COLOR SCHEMES 307 sons which lie pretty near to the roots of things human. Fashions are historical records and eas- ily read if one cultivates the habit of observing. We suggest your beginning this study of how his- tory is reflected in fashions with the French Directoire Period, during which a revolution in fashions for house furnishing and costuming of men and women took place which was quite as drastic as the revolution in French politics. You have but to ask why the silks and satins and flowering velvets of Louis XVI’s time were fol- lowed by muslins and cottons and linens of the Directorate and why elaborate designs, showing cupids and bow-knots, arrows and garlands, gave way to stripes and plain surfaces in order to get the entire story of the French Revolution! Besides the periods in color schemes we dis- cover that there is to a certain extent nationality. You recall at once such familiar expressions as “That is very French in coloring.” As a rule this means French of the time of the Louis. Or “How Spanish that coloring is l’” Here it would mean the reds and yellows and purples and ma- gentas of the Spanish woman’s shawls. The professional decorator knows this color vocabulary and can reproduce interiors which are Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Italian, Elizabethan (English) or any other type because they appre- ciate that correct colors are quite as important to the satisfactory results as correct lines or shapes. 308 PERIODS IN COLOR SCHEMES It may be that you have decided to use in one of your rooms English furniture of the Jacobean style. The word Jacobean is derived from the Latin for James, and indicates furniture used during the reign of the Stuarts, beginning with James I and including Charles I and II and James II. If you decide upon Jacobean furniture of the period of Charles II (we shall in this case assume your furniture to be the genuine antique) the correct color to use in the room is a bright “Spanish” red with some gold or silver intro- duced as embroidery or lace. Do you ask why? It is because one sees this color scheme used in Jacobean rooms in England which have been pre- served in their original state. And if you are really interested in knowing the reasons lying behind schemes of decoration, it is soon made quite clear to you why vivid colors, including bright blues, are seen. The wife of Charles II was a Portuguese, and she brought with her to England this fashion for brilliant coloring. We know a modern Jacobean room furnished with American reproduction of the style, in which a clever woman has produced a most charming and interesting effect. She knew that when one can afford it the correct thing to do in reproduc- ing a Jacobean room is to have your walls paneled with wood. This being out of the question in her case, she papered the walls with a plain, grayish- brown suggesting in color old wood. She made crimson curtains of wool rep and stenciled a wide PERIODS IN COLOR SCHEMES 309 border in gold, copying the design from the carv- ing on her furniture! The cushions on the wooden seats of her chairs she covered, or had covered, with leather, and these she gilded, and then painted in the center of each a basket of brightly colored flowers. She also stained the wood her- self, making it match the dark oak furniture. CHAPTER XXXVI DON'TS IN DECORATING A “HomE” should be a place in which one’s needs are as fully satisfied as one’s pocketbook will per- mit; therefore: DON'T LITTER IT WITH SUPERFLUous OBJECTS. Home-making and collecting are not the same. If one has a home one may add to it a “collection” of objects, but this takes an artist’s knowledge in placing not to have the result a mad muddle of useless and confusing things. - DoN'T HANG A MIRROR WHERE No ONE CAN SEE INTo IT unless you do so to reflect light or some attractive part of your room. If you are clever about hanging your mirrors you can make them count as so many pictures in your rooms. DON'T BUY. Two OF ANYTHING WHEN ONLY ONE Is NEEDED. The second is not a “bargain,” it is very often a nuisance. We do not refer to pairs of objects; these always have value in decoration and distinct charm whether ornaments, pictures or pieces of furniture. DoN'T PUT IN A LoNG, NARRow HALL USED ONLY • As A PASSAGE FURNITURE INTENDED FOR USE IN BED-Booms, SITTING-Rooms, ETC. The need here is 310 DON'TS IN DECORATING 311 for space, not things. The best way to furnish it is with a table for hats and wraps, a straight “hall” chair each side of table, and on the wall a mirror (for use) or a picture which is suffi- ciently important as to size and subject to give dignity to the hall. A square hall is often treated like a room and used as such in country houses especially. In this case use sitting-room furnish- ings. DoN'T LIVE IN A Room, APARTMENT OR House, THAT DEPRESSEs YoU. Cheer it up with colors and shapes you like. Even in an hotel this is often possible. Ask if there are not available lamp shades and furniture you can have in exchange for things you dislike. Happiness gives health. Try it. DON'T STRIKE A LEVEL YoU CAN'T HOLD To WHEN DECORATING YoUR HomE. The way to have your home attractive is to keep everything in good repair. So plan a home within your means. And remember when estimating the cost of your home to include repairs from time to time. DoN'T Hold ON To YoUR NICKED OR CRACKED CHINA BECAUSE IT WAS ONCE VERY ExPENSIVE. Nothing makes a house appear so shabby and down at the heel. Far better use inexpensive and whole china. DoN'T THRow OR GIVE Away HANGINGs, SoFA PILLows AND LAMP SHADEs UNTILYoU SEE IF THEY ALL (CARPETs AND RUGS Too) CAN BE DYED SoME FASCINATING COLOR. By dyeing you may be able 312 DON'TS IN DECORATING to get an effect more attractive than the original one you are so tired of living with. DoN'T USE “JUST ANY PICTURES.” Have the right pictures or no pictures if you want a beauti- ful room. (See chapter on pictures.) DON'T USE VASES WITH FANCY DECORATIONS OR Too MANY Colors FoR YoUR FLOWERS. If atten- tion is called away from the flowers they count less as decoration. Vases in one color are best, matching flowers or in harmony with them. Use glass, china or pottery in white, black, greens, vio- lets, amber or smoky blues. DoN'T PUT Too MANY DIFFERENT ColoFED LAMP SHADEs oR SoFA PILLows IN ONE Room. DoN'T BUY MACHINE-MADE TAPESTRY. Wait un- til you can afford the real thing. Imitation tap- estry, cheap, very ornate gilt furniture and glass ‘‘diamonds” all belong in the same class! Let what you buy be good of its kind and not a cheap pretense of costly luxuries. DoN'T USE UNLINED SILK LAMP SHADES unless they are very full, for the bulbs should not show through when lighted. The lining gives the effect of diffused light. It is this effect that we want. DoN'T USE FLOWERS NOT IN HARMONY WITH CoLoR SCHEME OF Room. Keep this rule in mind when planting your garden if you are so blessed as to own one. DoN'T SPoſL HARMONIOUs Color SCHEME of Room WITH WHITE MATs on SoME OF YOUR PIC- DON'TS IN DECORATING 313 TUBEs. Use all white mats or no white mats in one I’OOIſl. DoN’T MIX ENGRAVINGS AND PAINTING IN THE SAME Room. Learn to classify your pictures. DoN'T MAKE You R CURTAINs Too SHORT; either sash or full-length curtains. Nothing gives a room so awkward an appearance. DoN’T HAVE A GLooMy NURSERY. DoN'T USE UNWASHABLE MATERIALS IN A NUR- sERY. Even large and washable wool rugs come, made in America and imported from Scotland. They have amusing borders and are in many colors. DoN'T PLACE YoUR RUGS So THAT THEY GIVE AN IMPRESSION OF CONFUSION AND RESTLESSNESS WHEN ONE ENTERS THE Room. Rugs should fol- low the lines of architecture (the walls), and not be placed at angles on floors. Put your rugs where they are most needed. DON'T FORGET THAT EVERY ROOM NEEDS ONE oR Two EMPTY, SMALL TABLEs FoR THE UNEx- PECTED NEED, as a vase of flowers, ash-trays, ciga- rettes, tea or after-dinner coffee cup. DoN’T LET You R AFTERNOON TEA-TABLE STAND WITH CuPS AND OTHER PARTs of THE SERVICE WHEN TEA Is NoT BEING SERVED. Let a large tray on which has been placed all that 7ou re- quire when offering tea be brought in after your family or guests have assembled. This is not only the fashion, it is the sensible way to offer 314 DON'TS IN DECORATING tea. A table with tea things on it, kept always ready for use, as was fashionable some years ago in parts of America, had the disadvantage of be- ing unsanitary. DoN'T LET You R CHINA AND GLAss, INTENDED FoR USE IN SERVING MEALs, BE SEEN BETWEEN MEALS IN A Room WHICH HAs To SERVE THE DoublE PURPOSE OF DINING- AND SITTING-Room. Keep tableware in the pantry when it is not in use. This is a rule to observe even when your china and glass are very beautiful. One sees collections of rare, old china, glass and silver pre- served in cabinets with glass doors. Of course if you own such a collection the dining-room is of all places the most appropriate for it. DoN’T FORGET THAT You CAN BUY FOR A MOD- ERATE SUM BEAUTIFUL MoDERN BROCADEs. They are kept in the upholstery departments and make table covers which will give your room with a double character the needed stamp of “sitting- room” between meals. Buy a square—that is, a length which is the same as the width of the brocade, and put a narrow fringe around it which matches one of the colors in the brocade. This table cover will give you a color scheme for your room if you have been careful to get a design in keeping with the style of furniture. You have, of course, made your table as small as is possible by removing any extra leaves required for meals. Put on the table a few books, a good reading lamp with an attractive shade and draw up to the table DON'TS IN DECORATING 315 two arm-chairs to suggest quiet hours of reading. DON'T MAKE IT PossIBLE FOR THE STRANGER WHO SEES YoUR Rooms For THE FIRST TIME TO SAy, “OH, How CRowDED!” Be sure to have or- der in the arrangement of your rooms and at the same time the atmosphere of a place in which people live and are happy! y DoN'T USE UNSHADED OR BADLY SHADED LIGHTS IN. Room's WHERE PEOPLE SIT TO READ OR TALK. TJnshaded lights, if the bulbs (electric) are frosted, sometimes suit halls, and in very large rooms, such as music rooms, when electric side brackets have many branches which carry candles, it is possible with a tall, slender candle bulb now made, to get, at a distance, an exact candle-light effect when no shades are used. DoN’T HAVE MANY THINGs on YoUR MANTELs. A clock or bowl of flowers in the center, an attrac- tive vase, candlestick or ornament at each end, al- ways pairs, and possibly two smaller ornaments, as very well made and charmingly colored china birds, between the end ornaments and the clock or bowl of flowers. This is quite enough on a mantel. Your photographs look best if arranged in a row on top of book-shelves or on a table in your own personal room. DON'T FORGET THE RULE FOR PHOTOGRAPHs; personal photographs belong in very intimate sit- ting-rooms or bedrooms. Strangers are not inter- ested in our intimate possessions. Photographs of public characters are of general interest. 316 DON'TS IN DECORATING DoN'T SHow DISRESPECT TO BELOVED MEMBERS of YoUR FAMILY BY KEEPING ON YOUR WALLS PoRTRAITs of THEM AFTER YoU REALIZE THAT THE PICTURES ARE BAD As ART, AND THEREFORE UN- worthy of THE SUBJECTs. This is a form of dis- respect, for portraits which are not good art are most decidedly eyesores and the casual visitor is going to see them as such. So spare your loved ones by removing bad portraits of them (possibly in equally offensive, because ornate, frames) and make for these same dear friends or relations a corner sacred to them, where really artistically framed small photographs will take the place of the discarded bad representations. Nearly every one has at Some time made the mistake we here call attention to. DON'T USE FANCY SCRAP-BASKETs. The simpler these are the better. DoN'T USE IN YoUR Rooms FURNISHED WITH DARK WooDs WHITE WILLow FuRNITURE. White willow is for use in light rooms, light as to other furnishings. It is a safe rule to let it match the frames of furniture. DON'T BUY CHAIRs, SoFAs, TABLEs, FIRE- SCREENS, ANDIRONs, MIRRORs, PICTURE FRAMEs, CLOCKS NOR VASEs HEAVILY DECORATED WITH GILDED WREATHs, GARLANDs, CUPIDs AND Bow- RNOTs. This style of house decoration is in bad taste because it is an imitation of a style created for palaces of the nobility in an age of great magnificence and regal living, on which fabulous DON'TS IN DECORATING 317 sums were spent. The inexpensive expression of such elaborate decoration is as if one wore glass and called it “diamonds,” pretending a degree of elegance belonging to a very different scale of living. Also, even when one is the possessor of vast wealth, the fashion of to-day is to be simple, and if some formal room is to be decorated in the style of an elaborate period of fashion (of the past) it is invariably a simple expression of the period which our best decorators prefer to re- produce. CHAPTER XXXVII CAN YOU ANswer THE Following QUESTIONs? 1. Having decided to be your own decorator, what is the first thing to be done? Find out how much money you can afford and want to spend on furnishings. 2. Being certain as to the amount to be spent to make an attractive home, where does one be- gin in the planning of a beautiful room? The first step in furnishing any room is to choose the style of furniture you will buy. 3. Having bought your furniture, what comes next? If you use wall paper, the design must be in keeping with the style of furniture. The period of furniture must also be reflected in lighting fixtures. - 4. The next step is the choosing of a color scheme to be used in the room. This is more or less limited by style of furni- ture, as is explained in the chapter on ‘‘Periods in Color Scheme.” 5. What qualifies the selection of color scheme? The location of your room (a shady room taking warm colors, while cold colors are kept for rooms with plenty of sunshine) and your own particu- 318 CAN YOU ANSWER QUESTIONS: 319 lar taste. It is a great help to keep in mind that heavy, solid furniture calls for strong coloring, and delicately built, graceful types of furniture delicate coloring. We speak in a general way. 6. Do you know when it is better to use striped materials or wall paper, and when the results will be more satisfactory if you use flowered or figured designs in textiles and wall decorations? There are exceptions to every rule, but, broadly speaking, furniture with straight lines takes stripes or small set designs as coverings and on walls, and furniture with curving, elaborated out- lines takes flowered and large figured designs which correspond in elaboration. Even if you say that your furniture has no marked style or shape, we insist that it is either heavy or light in type, and it is wise to follow the rule given above. It is a mistake in decoration to use chintzes or brocades with a dainty Louis XVI stripe with delicately colored flowers in blues and pinks, and bow-knots, on your heavy furniture. Keep this design and coloring for the delicate, straight lines which, even if remotely, show a relationship to the furniture of the Louis XVI type. 7. If your grandmother’s Victorian furniture is now yours, and it is time to replace the cur- tains and floor coverings and decide on wall papers, what are you going to buy? If the originals still exist at windows, floors and on walls you have something to go by. If the 320 CAN YOU ANSWER QUESTIONS: old curtains were brocade and you cannot afford to renew them, find a charming crêtonne with a large Victorian pattern and strong coloring, such as was used with Victorian things. Walls are easily managed. You can to-day buy the paneled paper characteristic of that time and coming into fashion again. The Victorian large-figured velvet carpets, woven to fit a room, are an undreamed-of luxury now, but there is an easily obtainable car- pet which can be used with any style of furniture —“velvet pile.”—which comes in solid colors, dark brown, grays, blues, mulberry or black. Per- haps the most popular shade is “midnight blue.” 8. What is the general rule to follow in the coloring of floor coverings? To keep the floors darker than the side walls. In the language of the decorator, the floors should be dark enough to “hold down” the picture you have composed. We know that experts take lib- erties and with success, but it is best to leave ex- periments of this kind to them. 9. What is the rule about ceilings? Your ceiling, in the average house, should be much lighter than the side walls. A plain paper or “wash” of a delicate tint to harmonize with side walls is always good. When possible use a cream, as this brings light into your room. Avoid the mistake one often sees in houses built to rent or sell, of using a ceiling paper with figure or perhaps an imitation of “watered” silk. It is a mistake even if in one tone. A figured ceiling CAN YOU ANSWER QUESTIONS: 321 paper or a deep-toned calcimine lowers the effect of your ceiling, and is not the most artistic way of doing this when your object is to make a lower effect. One correct way of lowering the effect of your ceiling is to drop your picture-moulding several inches, treating the wall above the mould- ing as you do the ceiling. 10. Do you realize that chintzes come which are especially suitable for a man’s room, or an old lady’s room, the nursery, etc., etc.? A feminine chintz in your husband’s room or nursery curtains at the windows of a bath-room to be used by grown-ups, male or female, is not attractive. 11. Is the double room you have arranged for husband and wife a feminine room? This would be an obvious fault. It is perfectly possible to plan and carry out a “double room” for a man and a woman which is a compromise in gender, and because it is so, far more attrac- tive to the husband and to every one who happens to see what you have decorated than the “double room” which has catered only to the taste of the WOIſlan. 12. Are you ever at a loss when selecting rag rugs for your summer home? Do you know why rag rugs look right in some houses and altogether wrong in others? It is usually a matter of too “spotty” an effect in the rooms—too many colors in the rugs when many colors appear in chintzes. Rag rugs with 322 CAN YOU ANSWER QUESTIONS: several colors look their best in a room in which solid colors are used for hangings and furniture coverings. Unless the skill of the decorator is considerable, rag rugs make for confusion of ef- fect when many-colored. In a small house or cottage for summer use, it is well to get the rag rugs all alike for all the rooms on one floor. 13. Do you know a well-established rule for getting the most beauty of effect into a very small apartment or house you are furnishing? When we say “beauty” we mean an effect of harmony and restfulness as the foundation of a decorative scheme. * It is always satisfactory in results if you use the same plain wall papers, color of wood-work (matching paper), carpeting, or similar rugs, and general character of lamp shades, in any small suite of rooms. By this method you will gain in effect of space. We also advise in a suite of rooms which are thrown together for entertaining the same curtains at windows and doors, whether they be silk brocade or the least expensive cotton rep. This is a rule for small suites of rooms. It is of greatest value to the beginner. The experi- enced know how to keep the rooms of a small suite in harmony and yet use different color schemes. 14. Do you know some of the simple rules for hanging your pictures? Keep them on a line with the eye. If you use one picture in a given space be sure that it is CAN YOU ANSWER QUESTIONS: 323 not too small. Never crowd your walls and do not mix paintings and engravings on the same walls, by which we mean the walls of the same room. If you are hanging one picture on a wall space, be sure that it occupies the center. In this, as in all departments of decoration, keep balance in mind. When possible let there be a relationship between the size of a picture and the size of the piece of furniture it hangs above. 15. Do you know how to make a mirror count to the full extent of its possibilities in a room? Hang it on a line with the eye. If it is in any room except one used for dressing, be careful that it reflects some charming object in your room and therefore figures in decorative value as another “picture” on your walls. 16. Do you understand how to make your din- ing-room table count as one of the attractive— magnetic—features in your home? It is how you present delicious food, as well as what that food consists of, that contributes to the attractions of your home. The conventional set- ting of a table and the correct use of decorative articles, such as flowers, fruit and other orna- ments now fashionable, is explained in our chap- ter on ‘‘Table Decoration.” 17. Are your rugs properly placed on your floors, or have you made the mistake of laying them down “on the bias”? Rugs should be so placed on the floor that they follow the lines of 324 CAN YOU ANSWER QUESTIONS: your walls. This gives any room an appearance of order and restfulness. 18. If asked, could you tell why most mantels look unattractive? If you have grasped the idea of not too many objects, order in arrangement and that every man- tel should give one the “key-note” to the char- acter of a room, your answer will be that most mantels fail to live up to what decorators require of them. The rearrangement of mantels so that they fulfill their rôles in house decoration is one of the first things for the amateur decorator to undertake. Here, few objects, and those in keep- ing with the type of room you have planned, is your rule. - Cultivate the habit of asking yourself questions such as we have put in this chapter. Our entire subject is, as you have seen, capable of being boiled down into a few simple rules which apply alike to one room, an apartment, Small house or mansion, a furnished porch, the dining-room table and the mantelpiece. Do not forget that spaces have as much value as objects in decorating, and that order, with simplicity of line and color are all-important for the attainment of your aim. CHAPTER XXXVIII CoNCLUSION IF, as we hope, the foregoing chapters are clear expositions of the few laws governing all beauti- ful house furnishing, it is not assuming too much to suggest that this book be taken as your family doctor when putting your home in order. With it in hand you should be able to diagnose your own case and recognize the good and the bad points in your interior decoration as it now stands. When the weak point in your decoration is of the sort that only a specialist can prescribe for consult one! There are many by-paths you will be tempted to follow, such as the history of deco- rative design; the story of tapestries; detailed de- scriptions of period furniture, etc., etc. Interior Decoration, popularized for the consumption of everybody, is a new thing, but you will neverthe- less find books on the subject to fill months of reading hours. Books which specialize in the different departments of house furnishing and make fascinating reading may be had from your city libraries if it is not practical to buy them. The rarest books are naturally found only in the largest libraries in the largest cities. Every problem you work out for yourself may 325 326 CONCLUSION - - - - - - - -- - - be counted as one of the “five-finger exercises” which make easier the difficulties in future deco- rating jobs. We are launching you on an absorb- ing pastime and one with generous rewards. If you wish, you can carry it through and become expert, perhaps a professional decorator! GLOSSARY DECORATOR’s VOCABULARY BACKGROUND.—As applied to rooms the dominating color of walls, wood-work, hangings and carpets. BALANCE.-The distribution of furniture and other objects so as to give the appearance of balance—ob- jects balancing one another. Balance gives a room the desired atmosphere of repose and restfulness. BROCADES.—Silks, satins and velvets with the design woven in one, two or more colors. BROCATELLO.—An Italian material made of silk and linen, used for furniture covers, curtains and table covers. CASEMENT OR SASH CURTAINS.-Short curtains used next the glass at windows, usually of thin, sheer material, white or cream. CHESTERFIELD OR DAVENPORT.-Name given to large, over-stuffed sofas. CHINTZ.—Printed cotton or linen. Usually in several colors. Lighter weight and smaller patterns than crêtonnes. CLASSIC PERIODS IN FURNITURE.-Styles or shapes used by the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks and early Romans and revived in the 16th century, period of Renaissance. This revival of interest in the art of the ancients was stimulated by the unearthing of buried cities, especially Pompeii and Herculaneum. CoLoRs.—Warm colors: Pinks, yellows and reds. Cold colors: Grays, violets, blues and greens (except “apple-green”). Restful colors: subdued shades of colors. Exciting, awakening colors: intense red, blue, orange and vivid green. CR£roMNES.—Printed cotton and linen. Heavier qual- ity and with larger desig than chintz. 32 328 GLOSSARY DAVENPORT OR CHESTERFIELD.—Large, over-stuffed sofa. DAY-BED.—A narrow, low couch or bed for use during the day. Some are upholstered, but the most attrac- tive styles have a mattress of feathers or down covered with chintz, crêtonne, silk or velvet, according to the furnishings of the room in which it is to be used. Day-beds are very fashionable now, but the idea is an old one. Our Early American ancestors had them. FILLING.-A variety of light weight one-color carpet made to be used as a background for rugs. It is put down so as to completely cover the floor. FLOOR-PLUG.—An electric connection in base-board of room or floor to which your electric lamps are attached. “GooD CoMPOSITION.”—A room in which the furnish- ings are so cleverly placed that they make a picture for the eye which conforms to the rules for painting pictures. One of these rules is to preserve balance between objects. GROSS PoſNTE.-Needlework done on canvas with silk or wool threads. It is called “gross pointe’’—meaning large stitch—to distinguish it from ‘‘petit pointe’’ or small stitch in the same type of needlework. HARMONY.-A term borrowed from music, meaning accord, the opposite to discord or unpleasant contrasts. “Holding Down YoUR CoMPOSITION.”—One sometimes uses this expression to indicate that the color of rugs or carpet is dark enough to give the impression that the lower part of your “picture” is weighted. In this case by color. “IN THE PICTURE.”—In harmony with the general scheme of the room you are creating. A color or a shape of object which to the eye seems a part of the “picture” you aim at making. “KEY NOTE.”—Musical term applied to decoration. In this connection it refers to some object or group of objects which at a glance tells one the character or type of decoration you had in mind when decorating your room. The mantel, with its ornaments, the ar- rangement of them, and the treatment of the wall over the mantel (type of mirror, or picture) should GLOSS ARY 329 give “key-note” of the room. In this group we include shape of fireplace, andirons and fender if there is one. KITCHEN DAMASK.—Cotton or linen damask for table cloths which is dyed and used by some decorators as curtains, etc. It takes very artistic shades to har- monize with any color scheme and makes beautiful and inexpensive curtains. - - LACQUER.—A varnish made of shellac dissolved in alco- hol and colored. “LINEs.” OF FURNITURE.-Outlines or shape. - MoVABLE PIECES OF FURNITURE.—Small, easily moved tables, chairs, etc., which aid in grouping furniture to suggest good times and so lend “human” atmos- phere. MoVEMENT.-‘‘Giving movement to an arrangement of objects.”—The placing of certain easily moved pieces of furniture so as to form groups suggesting that the room is lived in. One can also bring evidences of life into a room by having clocks going, a fire burning in the fireplace, growing plants, and live birds or gold fish. PoTTERY.—As the term is usually employed it means a crude type of earthenware. Frequently very decora- tive as to shapes and colors. RADIATOR-COVER.—Usually made of wood which in shape and painted decoration is in keeping with shape or period of furniture in the room. The radiator has open carving to allow heat to come through and warm the room. The shelf top is used for a large vase or other decorative ornament. SEMI-PORCELAIN OR EARTHENWARE.-Not so thoroughly baked as porcelain, therefore less expensive. Nicks turn brown. SHOT-TAFFETA.—Silk popular for curtains. Comes in many colors. Two colors are so woven together that it is “changeable.” TAPESTRY.-Wall “carpets” made on hand-looms. Used for decoration of walls, the partitioning off of rooms and as portières or door-curtains to keep out draughts. Some very heavy tapestries were used for floor cover- IngS. 330 GLOSSARY Tapestries represented the “fancy work” of the great ladies of the Middle Ages and during 16th and 17th centuries. They were used in homes, churches and public buildings and to decorate the streets of cities by suspending them from balconies of buildings on festival occasions. The subjects of designs were taken from history, mythology, legend and nature. In museums we see world famous tapestries, some of them representing “sets” which during the course of centuries have been separated, sold or lost and in rare cases reassembled for great collectors. The great tapestries form an important branch of the decorative arts. They were made during the years of great art, when the greatest geniuses devoted a part of their time to making designs ordered for kings, the wealthy no- bility and the Church. Making of tapestries became an important industry in Italy, Belgium and France, an industry subsidized by governments in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. - America has her tapestry hand-looms which turn out beautiful things. Machine-made, cheap tapestries rank with cheap gilt furniture and “glass diamonds.” “OVER-STUFFED.”—Upholstery which covers the entire frame of chairs or sofa. PARCHMENT PAPER.—For lamp shades. Paper imitating parchment, which is the skin of a very young calf, sheep or goat dressed and prepared for writing on. PERIOD FURNITURE.-Furniture the shapes of which were invented or evolved from former fashions and are associated with certain groups of years or ‘‘periods” in history. They take their names from outstanding events in the period, the monarchs more or less re- sponsible for the events or designers and makers of fur- niture. PERIODS IN COLOR ScHEMES..—Colors associated with each period in furniture shapes and style of decoration. PERIODS IN DESIGNs.—Each period has its corresponding decorative designs. The designs for textiles have their GLOSSARY 331 own tradition, which is not the same as that of designs used for decorating wood-work of furniture, etc. PERMANENT PIECES OF FURNITURE.-Large, heavy pieces of furniture so placed as to give balance to the ap- pearance of a room. - PETIT POINTE.-Needlework done on canvas with silk or wool threads. It is so called (“‘little stitch”) to dis- tinguish it from “gross pointe”—“large stitch.” PoRCELAIN OR CHINA.—The most thoroughly baked or “fired” earthenware, and therefore the most expen- sive. As the “body” is thoroughly baked through a nick in this ware never turns dark. PoRTIÉRES.—Curtains to hang in doorways. TESTER.—A curtain about two feet deep around the wooden canopy of a four-post bed. ToNE.—A term taken from music. It means vibration in sound and shades in colors. WALANCE.-Curtain around the base of a bed, usually a four-post bed, also at top of window curtains. “VALUES.”—If you keep bright shades of colors in one room and soft or rather dull shades of colors in an- other room you will have in each room correct values. If you put in the same room strong colors and pale shades of the same colors, you will have wrong values. WENETIAN GLASS.—Glace made in Venice, Italy. Now fashionable for tableware, candlesticks, vases and bot- tles on dressing-tables. It comes in beautiful coloring and simple shapes. END ae.* ‘’’（~~~~ ! . . . . ********* √∞ → • • • • • • • • • ∞ √∞:-