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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.
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PLACING YOUR FURNITURE 37
antique to have interest, for a quite modern mov-
able table may, in the first month of its existence,
record what sounds very like the outline for a
temperamental story.
We have in mind one “Wanderer,” a modern
reproduction of a lovely sable brown Italian wal-
nut, which has been caught changing character
many times in twenty-four hours. It lives in a
wee modern flat with very attractive society as
to furnishings, and each night acts as bed-side
table; next day, after breakfast on a tray, it cozies
up to the dressing-table to hold pad and pencil
(for making out the shopping list) or the new
novel; again in serious moments it is work-table
and, close to the desk, it holds the telephone. But
most thrilling of all rôles, from the table’s point
of view, is when lights are made and curtains
drawn, to play annex to tea-table and hear amus-
ing bits of gossip ! Such wanderers are the envy
of many a “fixture.” º
In the Victorian age of our grandmothers small
tables were popular, but not seen “at large,” so to
speak. They were then, as a rule, ‘‘placed.” It
was not quite good form for even the smallest
and lightest of them to flutter about. We have
it from one of our stately social queens of the
’70’s that the first time she broke her rigid Vic-
torian line by drawing away from the wall a co-
quettish lacquer table, each day shifting its posi-
tion to fill some need of the moment, her neigh-
bors set her down as rather too progressivel
38 PLACING YoUR FURNITURE
That day is past. Convenience and comfort are
now the slogans when furnishing a home, and the
odd, empty table for ash-tray, or after-dinner cof-
fee cup, books close to arm-chair by fire or vase
of flowers intended to give the needed note of
color to a drab part of the room are rarely at rest.
Insistence on comfort has brought to the fore
nests of tables that can be easily stowed away
after tea or a card party. Our skillful repro-
ducers turn these out with Oriental design and
finish, a style to combine well with many other
styles or periods. As one learns the fundamental
principles of house furnishing one gathers ideas
for the successful combining of styles. This is
always more easily accomplished if there are not
too many things in the room. Too many things
and too many styles are fatal to beauty.
If you happen to have a special fancy for little
tables of some unusual type do not despair if
the shops fail to keep it. There are experts who
can copy and create for the home-maker. You
have but to tell your dealer exactly what it is
you want.
There are no more delightful models in wan-
dering tables than those of the 17th and 18th cen-
turies, realized dreams of the master cabinet-
makers who designed and made by hand individ-
ual pieces for the aristocracy of England, France
and Italy, manipulating rare woods of many
shades as deftly as a painter does his colors.
There are also the painted tables, such as those
PLACING YOUR FURNITURE 39
designed by the Adam Brothers and Sheraton,
with decorations by gifted artists of the brush
like Angelica Kauffmann, tables lovely beyond
words and treasured by their fortunate posses-
SOI’S.
Garden or loggia tables of stone and marble,
reproductions or the originals brought over from
the old world, fall into the class of “fixtures,”
but to-day these are supplemented by “wander-
ers” of the lightest and most indestructible ma-
terial, to be carried hither and yon by our lady
gardeners who want conveniently near them scis-
sors, clippers, strings, watering-cans and the bas-
kets for flowers, fruit or herbs of their own rais-
Ing. -
Wandering porch tables for magazines, fruit
or perhaps a fern brought in from the woods, come
in dashing or modest colors.
One could talk on endlessly about wandering
tables and how they came to be. The tale winds
back through the centuries and involves us in the
story of the development of the home of man.
We have spoken of the ancients’ use of small
tables. Let us now glance at the Dark Ages
(5th to 15th centuries) in Europe and see how
the home of the feudal barons began with one
Great Hall for all purposes and both sexes. It is
here that we find the dean of wandering tables.
We refer to those great carved chests used also
for tables and benches, into which the feudal lord
had packed his possessions,—tapestries, cabinets
40 PLACING YOUR FURNITURE
of treasures, clothes and what not, for transpor-
tation when fleeing from an invading enemy or
changing from one of his estates to another. The
word “furniture” originally meant household ar-
ticles which could be moved as opposed to the
fixtures. In those days the furniture coverings
were made like our slip-covers and fitted over
rough wooden frames which were left behind when
a household moved.
As the rooms of the home of man multiplied
so did his household objects, and the table passed
into varying forms for the preparation, serving
and eating of food; assistant at the toilet; for
games; eventually meeting all the ramifications of
life as lived to-day even to keeping pace with our
restlessness. One can imagine those solid, stately
carved chests, the ancestors of our wanderers,
shaking their heads with disapproval at their su-
perficial descendants—our cherished little tables—
veritable ballet dancers for movement!
CHAPTER VI
ROOMS THE MEN OF YOUR EIOUSEHOLD WILL LIKE
EvKRY man has it in him to love a home, and if
this instinct is not developed it is the fault of
some woman. Think this over. Fan any spark
in your man-child that indicates interest in home.
If he feels that it is his home he will have a pride
in it and like to be in it.
If your man has what you know to be “bad
taste” in house furnishing, no matter! Give him
exactly what he says he likes in shapes and colors,
and then gradually, and not too firmly, teach him,
without any words on the subject, what is best
in his kind of furnishings. Prove to him that
“good” things cost no more than the awkward,
unbeautiful expression of the same thing.
For your men begin by buying and making
comforts, necessities. The rule to keep in mind
is that with the average man the more solidly
square and simple his furniture is the better he
likes it. There is no limit to the beauty to be
had in combination with solidity. This we are
prepared to point out when speaking of the dif-
ferent styles of furniture. It is well to consider
the type of man you are trying to make happy.
41 *
42 ROOMS THE MEN WILL LIKE
But regardless of type, it is usually the bed-
room that proves puzzling. Sitting-room and
library are rather simple propositions, and the
billiard-room is hard to spoil for the reason that
it has only the essentials in it. Woman seems
never to have left a trace of herself in this de-
partment of the home ! In the billiard-room we
have an excellent example of the value of elimi-
nation. It is elimination that every man would
pray for, we fancy, if he had the time to figure
out why he is so uncomfortable. There are so
often too many things about him, but not the One,
two or three things without which no home is a
happy home for him.
Let your men’s furniture be the sort that does
not tremble and crash to the floor when bumped
into in the dark! Furniture that is strongly put
together; bureau drawers which work easily and
smoothly and the knobs of which are firmly fas-
tened on. Fragile antiques, no matter how Spa-
cious and beautiful, are not for the average man. ,
Here, as in every case of furnishing, one must
stop and ask oneself what are the outstanding
needs of man? What does he consider as being
comfortable? A man likes to know exactly where
his own belongings are. So we try to provide
a place for everything he calls personal. This in-
cludes his clothes, toilet articles, tobacco, books
and a lockable place for private papers. These
are certainly man’s necessities in house furnish-
ing. If he has only one room which must be
ROOMS THE MEN WILL LIKE 43
combination of bed and sitting-room, then put
these fundamentals into the one room.
No man likes to have to hunt for things. Give
him so many bureau drawers that his clothes can
be systematized, each article have its place, and
So make it possible for him to put his hand on
the thing he wants. “A place for everything and
everything in its place” is the law of a home in
which nerves do not too often get on edge This
law has led to the invention of every conceivable
comfort for man and woman in the way of fur-
niture, and for those ready to buy there will be
no trouble about finding what is needed.
Some men like a large, good mirror to dress
before, rather than the small affair standing on
the top of their chest of drawers. A chest of
drawers should be generously large. A wardrobe
is a comfort if there is no closet or only a small
one. In either case have plenty of hooks not too
near together; hangers of the sort men use for
coats and trousers; do not forget a chest or large
drawer for woolen sweaters which easily stretch
out of shape if carelessly hung on a hook. Ar-
range a shoe-shelf or a shoe-rack in the closet.
A shaving-glass of the right height for the man
in question should be ready if he wants to shave
in his room. Always have a sofa of some sort
on which he can throw himself down if he cares
to rest, and of course have a big, comfortable
reading-chair, with a table for lamp and books
near at hand. We are assuming that this man’s
44 ROOMS THE MEN WILL LIKE
room is used as night and day room, so a desk
must go by a window and be so placed that the
light falls over the left shoulder. Arrange a
lamp to shed light from the same direction.
Unless your man is very young and strictly the
out-of-door sort, he will want books in his room,
so plan his book-shelves, either the open variety
or those with glass doors. Consult the taste of
your man.
A good, strong foot-rest is a necessity, not a
fiddling little stool. This will save your chairs,
so often pressed into service as “foot-rests.” Let
the heavy curtains be the kind that draw at night.
This gives a look of comfort to any room and will
make the man feel very much at home.
In a man’s room one large rug is as a rule
better than several small ones which so easily get
out of place. Simple lamp shades are the cor-
rect and popular thing. Never have fringe to
cast shadows on the pages of your man who reads!
And see that fresh electric bulbs are in place.
These are the little, but all-important comforts
never forgotten at his club. They are very easily
supplied at home.
If he has no other sitting-room, an open fire is
almost a necessity. It is the next thing to having
a human being in the room. It is, a living presence
which does not speak but calls for attention from
time to time ! A fire is humanizing.
The small chairs and the small tables will be
PLATE III
ANALYSIS
THE YOUNG BOY’s ROOM
The young boy’s room we show is equally suitable for
some other members of the family. We have seen a boy
immensely happy in it and likewise girls in their early
teens. In one home it was used for a “paying-guest”
and it looked very well indeed in a small suburban house
where nothing was more elaborate.
It is in appearance “young” and has no special gen-
der. This is why a boy likes it. Another point in its
favor with the boy is that it is not “fussy.”
:
ROOMS THE MEN WILL LIKE 47
like, or in keeping with, the chief pieces of fur-
niture. One Small table will be for the telephone;
another at the bed-side; a third for his smokes,
tobacco, cigars and pipes, matches and ash-tray.
If your man likes his tobacco “just so.” get him a
humidor. This will keep the tobacco moist.
As to styles of furniture most comfortable for
men, we would advise one of those with straight
lines and strongly built. It is an easy matter to
choose furniture for a man’s room if you will
ask yourself the question “does this look like a
Iman?”
As for color scheme it depends upon what each
man likes. If he has no preferences yet seems to
know what he does not like, grasp at any clew
he may drop when commenting on other homes.
As a rule men like a simple room which not only
has the comforts but looks comfortable. To the
eye of the man not trained in the art of fur-
nishing so as to get subtle beauty, you will find
clear, rather strong colors are most satisfactory.
Try shades of red, attractive deep blues, browns
and greens. Avoid what we call half-tones—
mauves, lavender, old-rose, petunia, etc. There
are men who like these shades, but we are talking
about the average man.
Your figured materials for curtains and furni-
ture coverings will depend, as to pattern and col-
oring, upon the style of the furniture; not abso-
lutely, but there are distinctly suitable and un-
48 ROOMS THE MEN WILL LIKE
suitable colors and designs when considered in
relation to certain shapes. (See chapter on
Periods in Color Schemes.)
Make the sash curtains of some thin white or
cream washable material and arrange them on the
rods so that if the man wants to push them back
and let in all the light of heaven he can do so
and not upset the housekeeper!
The floor covering should be one of the darkest
tones of your color scheme; the curtains if of a
figured material should be more serious in char-
acter than curtains you would choose for a
woman's room. If you make sofa pillows let
them be large and “masculine” looking, not of
many colors and frilly. Follow the rules for
making lamp shades in the chapter devoted to
that subject. They are to be attractive notes of
color in your room to cheer it up as flowers can.
But remember that the average man cares more
for comfort and convenience than he does for
effect, so give him these things in lamp shades as
well as in bed and bureau.
CHAPTER VII
AN IDEAL DOUBLE ROOM FOR EIUSBAND AND WIFE
THE average room furnished for a husband and
wife reflects feminine taste. This is not sur-
prising because it is always easier to decide what
will be useful and sympathetic to oneself than
it is to decide what some one else is going to find
useful and sympathetic.
To begin with, if one would achieve the ideal
double room it is necessary to double the various
articles of furniture and closets. As to the kind
of furniture, make a compromise between what
you would buy for a woman’s room and what you
would buy for the room of a man. Fragile fur-
niture, which some women delight in, is never
appropriate for your man. Therefore realize
from the start that what you want as to type of
furniture is something substantial, whether mod-
ern or old, and since your woman must feel equally
happy in this double room, let the outlines of
beds, dressing-tables, chests of drawers, chairs
and sofa be graceful, not too stolidly square. Re-
member, your woman is going to pass a great deal
more time in this room than is your man. He
can do with the most solid, square shapes ever
49
50 AN IDEAL DOUBLE ROOM
made, because his bed-room is for him a place to
dress and sleep in. If he is at home during the
day, his paper and books are read in the family
sitting-room or his library, and it is there that he
discusses with his friends the news of the day
or golf course. -
A wife finds so many things to do in her own
room ' A stitch to be taken; flowers to arrange;
the cook to interview before she has made her
toilet; the little dressmaker who comes to “try
on’’; the children’s nurse and her problems for
the day, and endless other small duties, even if
there are maids to execute orders. But these are
the days when one does many things, in countless
cases everything, for oneself and the household,
—so “Mother’s room” is the Bureau of Informa-
tion and seen often and by manyl
If there is a big, comfortable desk in the sit-
ting-room, at which the man can write his letters,
it is always well to put a small but convenient
desk in the bed-room, at which the woman may
write a note, draw a check or make out her shop-
ping-list.
When possible, have a telephone in the bed-
room; if the woman is indisposed, it will save her
strength not to have to go into the sitting-room
to use it.
As women sit when they arrange their hair,
etc., they like a fairly low and a very roomy dress-
ing-table for toilet articles, but men stand to
dress, so let their dressing-tables or bureaus be
PLATE IV
ANALYSIS
THE DOUBLE ROOM FOR HUSBAND AND WIFE;
THAT IS ‘‘DouBLE”
The ideal room for husband and wife is one that can
claim to be both masculine and feminine in character.
You see it at a glancel Quite as much thought has been
given to making the man comfortable as to making the
woman so. It is the sort of “guest room” to arrange
if you have but one and expect to entertain sometimes
a man and sometimes a woman. See how comforts have
been duplicated; colors kept cheerful but not too deli-
cate; curtains, sofa pillows, and lamp shades of substan-
tial, not fragile, materials. Few men are attracted by
a bedroom full of either fragile or unnecessary objects.
A crowded room is never a beautiful room and it is
important to keep in mind that the apparent crowding
in some of our plates is due to the limited space in
which to show you furnishings which may serve as a
guide for your decorating of rooms. Fireplaces, sofas,
book-shelves and many other things have to be imagined,
since we can show only one small section of each room
described. Never forget that spaces in a room contribute
the restful quality your professional decorator will tell
you is one of the important qualities to aim at getting
if you would put together a room worthy of the stamp
“a success.”
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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.
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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
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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.~.
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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.
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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.
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REST ROOMS 81
Keep the lines of your furniture simple, more or
less straight and clean cut. In planning the paint
or paper for walls remember that living-rooms,
like dining-rooms, for a large group of people, can-
not be too gay. Large designs may be used here
if preferred, but in a small rest room stick to the
rule for all small rooms, let the design, if any,
be indefinite and the color subdued.
A rest room we have in mind is very large and
has pictures of an original, decorative character
painted on the walls by a member of the club.
The entire room is flooded with dashing color, and
as for furniture and hangings, they are very in-
expensive. The furniture is painted a vivid
‘‘peasant” blue; bright yellow curtains hang at
the windows, the lamps have parchment paper
shades painted orange or yellow and the large
jars which hold flowers out of the fields are of
inexpensive green pottery.
Another rest room had its interior wood-work
and furniture painted a silver gray; rugs were
gray with faint yellow pattern; curtains of pale
green sunpruf; chair cushions a dark green
denim; the lamp shades deep rose-red, edged with
fringe of stem-green. Gay posters were held to
the walls with silver-gray picture moldings; very
jolly and a suitable decoration for this kind of a
TOOIſle
Every rest room needs a big fireplace for a log
fire, and it needs books on shelves and long, strong
tables for magazines and papers.
82 REST ROOMS
Reading-lamps with sensible shades in gay
colors and fresh electric bulbs or well trimmed
wicks in oil lamps are necessities in your rest
TOOIOl.
Let the windows be so planned that plenty of sun
and light can pour into the room during the day
and at night the chintz, crêtonne or whatever is
used for long, inside curtains, the sort that can
be easily drawn to give a look of comfort and
security. Have scrim or net for sash curtains if
you use two pairs of curtains at each window. If
you plan having only one pair, China silk in some
decided shade of a color looks well. Either one
pair at each window or two pairs hung one for
upper sash and one for lower; the upper curtains
should over-lap the lower ones a little. If they
are not made to do so in all probability they will
shrink and show a space between the two tiers
of curtains and then they spoil your room.
Sunpruf material, silk or wool, is perhaps better
than anything else for a rest room where strict
economy is required.
Where there is a charming view of country or
sea we advise no inside or sash curtains, but they
add immensely to the look of a room if it is a city
room and the view doubtful!
Be sure that the fireplace is big, wider than it
is high and deep enough to make a good draught
for smoke.
Dull tiles or brick look better than glazed ones
for hearth and framing fireplace, and it is wise
REST ROOMS 83
to use the natural color of rough brick rather than
to try any colors which are going to restrict color-
scheme used in room. Keep the fireplace looking
simple and practical. Have one big sofa of some
sort in front of the fire and plenty of comfy chairs
easily drawn up to make a jolly group for talk
and fun.
In choosing large rugs for the floor remember
many feet will tread upon them, so get colors
which are not perishable and remember also that
an indefinite pattern is not so apt to show dust and
foot marks as a plain ground is.
For some rest rooms the wool washable rugs
are good. These are now made in America.
You can also buy the same thing made in Scot-
land.
Wicker furniture is always good in these inex-
pensive rest rooms. Use white willow if the room
is done in light colors. If you are furnishing with
dark woods have the willow stained the color of
the frames of chairs and sofas.
CHAPTER XII ------
Rooms FoR oLD PEOPLE
MANY families have old people and they too have
their likes and dislikes as to furnishings. There
is no use in trying to tell them that a “new-
fangled” wicker chair stained some artistic color
and fitted with chintz-covered cushions, feels as
comfortable as their beloved old upholstered
rocker. They know better; they know what the
aged bones and trembling flesh find most endura-
ble. So here again we have marshaled facts to
help those who would make grandmother’s or
grandfather’s room exactly what she or he would
like. Remember, old people, like little children,
are elemental; they want what they want and not
what we of another age think they should want.
Give your old people chairs with high backs,
against which they may rest their heads, tired
with the weight of years. Let the chairs have
well-upholstered backs, seats and sides, and see
to it that the seat is low but not too low nor
too deep or your old people will be unable to get
out of the chair unaided. Beds, too, are best if
rather low, provided the old people are still active.
If, however, maids or nurses are required to be
in attendance, high beds will save their backs
when leaning over the patient.
84
ROOMS FOR OLD PEOPLE 85
You will find old eyes touchingly grateful for
carefully shaded lights and dark blue or green win-
dow shades to be drawn down, or blinds to close
in, so as to modify the sunlight.
Next the bed have a solidly made and not easily
upset table for all the comforting little things
which shorten wakeful nights and the resting
hours. Close to the big arm-chair (a rocker, over-
upholstered “wing” chair or some other enfold-
ing type with arms) draw up another table for
paper, eyeglasses and knitting.
Don’t forget a foot-stool for old ladies and a
cushioned leg-rest for old men.
You can make the rug or silk quilted foot-cov-
ering which keeps draughts from the aged limbs,
correspond in color with curtains or some other of
the fabrics used in the room.
Old people like bright, happy colors. The
bright colors reach their receding sight as bright
colors reach the arriving sight of our babies. Al-
ways use “warm” colors, the deep, dignified reds,
soft pinks, sunny yellows and a real apple green
as reminders of the spring of the year and life.
A rich blue, one with “life” in it, can be used to
advantage in rooms for old people. And flowery
chintzes for old ladies. These furnish a mild
diversion as with children. So use the chintzes
with rather literal designs, not the indefinite and
more “artistic” ones. -
Here, as in any room, sofa pillows give oppor-
tunities for cheering bits of color. Make them
86 ROOMS FOR OLD PEOPLE
not too large and very soft, to be tucked into the
“small” of the tired back or under a rheumatic
arm or knee.
Many old people like something alive, as a
growing plant, a bird, or globe of gold fish as
diversion. The flowering plant, the cage and color
of bird, the red-gold of fish and blue or green or
amber glass balls put in bottom of the globe
contribute very decidedly to the color-scheme of
the room.
If you paint the bird cage be sure that the color
will not poison the bird if he picks it off and
swallows it. Also use a color to set off the bird’s
plumage. In other words, let your emphasis be
on the object of interest—the bird rather than
the cage. It is not necessary to use a pure white
bowl for gold fish. They can be found in colors.
Furniture for the rooms of old people pleases
them if it is a style they know—something which
recalls old days of youthful activity. If, by rea-
son of moving about or the breaking up and divi-
sion of old homes, it is necessary to buy new fur-
niture you have only to discover what is the favor-
ite type of bed and bureau, arm-chair and desk or
work-table. To-day, all the old styles may be
had in reproductions.
A room which has given endless comfort and
entertainment to a beloved old lady is absolutely
youthful in its sunny gayness. We describe it
because it is a case of necessities made beautiful
without any extra outlay of money. It was a mat-
PLATE DX
ANALYSIS
AN OLD LADY’s ROOM
Here you will see a really old-fashioned room of the
Early American style. The old lady who occupies it
inherited everything in it from her grandmother, who
furnished it with things of the latest fashion in her
time ! Some old ladies like modern “improvements,”
but not this one ! She loves the old styles and her
family carry out every wish even to making for her
hand-worked bedspreads of the variety called “Colo-
nial.” You all know these lovely spreads,-perhaps
some have seen the unusually beautiful one genuinely
antique, which is shown on a bed in the Thomas Bailey
Aldrich Homestead, at Portsmouth, N. H. This one is
heavy white linen with a very beautiful design—grape-
vine, garlands, vase of flowers in center of spread, all
wonderfully embroidered.
When you come across furniture of the type we show
in this plate be sure that it is Early American of Eng-
lish ancestry. Whether in a family attic or at a country
auction seize upon any such lovely old treasures. If
you do not like them to use many others do and such
pieces command good prices.
Our chapter on Rooms for Old Ladies describes mod-
ern comforts on sale and goes into detail as to the re-
quirements of old ladies in general.
IWIOO™I S
6
XCIVT I CITO NIV
ROOMS FOR OLD PEOPLE 89
ter of selecting shapes and shades sympathetic
to the owner; then creating a restful, harmoni-
ous abode.
The impression one gets on entering this room
is of a lovely soft gray background sprinkled over
with garden flowers of the sort one associates with
old ladies. The reds were a hollyhock shade, the
blues had a purplish tone and the pinks a tinge
of blue. Lovely cheerful colors but with a sugges-
tion of the olden time.
It is a south room—therefore it was possible to
use a light gray paper with a rough crêpe finish.
Had it been a north room the paper would have
been warm in color, pink or yellow. There is no
border, merely a neat picture molding, and the
ceiling is a faint pearl gray.
The wood-work exactly matches the gray of the
walls. This is one way of making a room appear
larger than it really is. It adds a certain restful-
ness, too, not to continually cut up your back-
ground with wood-work in another color.
The carpet is a soft Wilton rug, large enough
to cover all but about three inches of the floor
all around. It is a gray much darker than the
walls, with a border of still darker tone.
The chintzes used have a gray background like
the walls, and the reds and bluish purples and
soft pinks appear as flowers, with soft greens as
leaves.
The curtains are chintz and so is the big arm-
chair of the “wing” variety beloved of the old,
90 ROOMS FOR OLD PEOPLE
for once in the depths of such a chair one is secure
from draughts and ready for “forty winks.”
Here the most punctilious old lady can doze should
the book being read aloud prove dull! -
The bed spread is chintz, but the broad low sofa
for frequent naps, is in hollyhock red (blue would
do also) and so are the chair-pads on cane bottom
chairs and the cushions in two willow chairs
stained gray. The sofa pillows are of chintz.
In choosing flowers for such a room the pre-
vailing soft shades are repeated and flaming scar-
lets and geranium red or other clashing tones
avoided.
In cases where old people own furniture and
their once fashionable shapes have ceased to
please the eye, put your mind to it and see if
there is not some way of altering the best of
what they have and supplementing these with
some more modern and really convenient pieces.
If you happen to own good rosewood beds with
absurdly high headboards it is not always neces-
sary to discard these. We know of many that
have been made rather attractive by having a car-
penter lower the headboard to something ap-
proaching the standard of to-day.
Our old people are quite right to have respect
for beautiful woods and fine workmanship. Some
of the Victorian furniture was less ugly than
others, but as a “period” it surpasses all in its
departure from beautiful line and ornament. Yet
fine woods were used to distort into horrors! And
PLATE X
ANALYSIS
AN OLD GENTLEMAN's ROOM
Did you ever see a room that so suggested an old gen-
tleman who has a love of comfort and happy hours with
books, newspapers and his cigar or pipe? This is a
room the entire family like to visit, for the chairs and
sofa are comfy, the fire always lighted, the lamps the
sort one can read by and nothing here very easily
harmed, for “grandfather” insists that no one shall ever
say “don’t” to any of his young visitors' There are
interesting books and some old-time engravings the owner
bought years ago and can tell you all about. This is
a room with associations. You know the sort | Look
at it and gather ideas for the room you want to arrange
for the grandfather in some happy home.
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ROOMS FOR OLD PEOPLE 93
in recent years we have seen far too little of fine
woods. But the day of fine woods is returning
and an era of fine workmanship will record itself
on the minds of the young people of to-day. The
good old bits of furniture which have been pre-
served in our own and other lands have kept up
the standards of taste and the good woods of the
much decried Victorian age will be respected by
the knowing. So make use of the best of this
type. The large bureaus had convenient bureau
drawers, often beautifully lined with satinwood.
If mirrors are ugly, discard all but the glass it-
self and reframe this to hang above the bureau
proper. -
Various meaningless ornaments can be ampu-
tated, and by so doing you will add much to the
simplicity of the furniture and in some cases the
despised “horror” becomes a dignified object to
greet the eye. -
So if ‘‘Grandmother” owns things she is loath
to part with and without which she will not be
happy, here is an idea which may serve as a com-
promise. -
Old gentlemen like big chairs and sofas that
are not perishable as to coverings, for if they
smoke, the ashes will fall, and feeble eyes cannot
be responsible. There was solid comfort and
much sound sense in the one-time popularity of
leather covering for men’s sofas and reading
chairs, especially when the men were old men.
Desks must be where the light falls on the letter
94. ROOMS FOR OLD PEOPLE
to be written and all unnecessary articles should
be kept off the desk of any man, old or young.
The great exception to this wise rule is intimate
photographs. Most men like a few of these near
them. . -
Do not forget the book-case or shelves for the
old gentleman you are trying to make happy.
Even if he can no longer use his tired eyes to read
he generally wants to have his books where he can
take them out at will, to be read to him.
To plan and then create a room in which our
old people feel at home is indeed an achievement!
CHAPTER XIII
THE BABY’s Rooms: THE DAY ROOM, THE NIGHT Roomſ
THE modern baby has been catered to until it
really seems that every one of his thousand moods
by day and night is met with some invention
which exactly satisfies the need. Whether the re-
sult of all this convenience is going to produce a
Superior type of human remains to be proved,
but the fond attendant of the babe certainly profits
by the many easily moved, quickly packed and
sanitary necessities.
Not so many years ago it was only the baby
born with a silver, or perhaps gold, spoon in its
mouth, who could have an ideal nursery. To-day
there is no need of great wealth nor much fore-
thought on the part of parents. Every conceiv-
able and many not before imagined articles of fur-
niture for the baby’s comfort are on sale in many
shops in all of our cities and towns.
Before you furnish it is necessary to decide
upon the situation of your baby’s room or rooms.
Remember that both child and grown-ups will be
happier if the little one is not where every one
disturbs it if sleeping, and, if awake, its cries or
merry shouts ring out to arouse a slumbering
elder.
Keep all rooms used for babies very simple and
95
96 THE BABY'S ROOMS
therefore airy looking. Put nothing into them
which will hold dust or look as if it could not be
washed or easily cleaned. In placing the crib
see that no draught reaches it. Have a light
which if needed can be turned directly on the crib.
One must be prepared for a hurry call when there
may be no time to readjust the light.
In the room where the baby is to sleep by day
or night have dark shades at the windows. The
room for sleeping must have windows admitting
lots of fresh air. So stuffy curtains or those
which cannot be easily put aside are a real danger
to the child’s well-being.
If you live in a house a small elevator, built
so as to carry food and other things from kitchen
floor to the baby’s room, saves many steps and
avoids the constant desertion of the child by the
ITUITS0.
The room in which the baby passes the day
should, if possible, be flooded with sunshine. And
all nursery windows should be protected with bars
for the safety of children. Whether one or two
rooms are devoted to the baby there are a certain
number of necessities in the way of furniture to
be bought. The wisest because the most economi-
cal way to furnish nurseries is to buy not very
expensive furniture but always a reliable quality.
Reep some of your money for rather frequent re-
painting when the furniture gets disfigured as it
surely will if the babies are old enough to creep
or crawl about.
THE BABY'S ROOMS 97
One advantage of having white enamel or some
pretty pale pink, blue or yellow instead of a never-
show-dirt, dark color is that it always delights the
nurse and brings out in her a pride in keeping the
room or rooms looking spotless. Simple, Washable
curtains for windows are easily made. An attrac-
tive kind is white dotted or barred muslin, tied
back—two sets so that there will be no excuse for
not keeping the windows snowy white. If you
want to have some color at your nursery windows
let the window shades be of gay chintz—the glazed
kind if you can get it because it is thin and very
smooth and rolls up and down easily. You can
perfectly well make window shades yourself if
you have kept the old rollers and the stick at the
bottom of each shade, used to hold it out straight.
On the floor use a large, washable, wool rug.
The chairs usually match bureau, bed, chest of
drawers, wardrobe and chest for baby’s extra
blankets and carriage robes. A way of getting
more color into the nursery is to make chintz slips
for the tops of the backs of the chairs, and ex-
tending a third of the length of back. On one or
two really comfortable arm-chairs, for those who
care for the children, have cushions covered with
a jolly chintz corresponding with color scheme
of room. The tiny chairs and table for the use
of babies are kept strictly in the color scheme of
the larger furniture. Chintz or crêtonnes come
as cheap as twenty-five cents a-yard and are good
enough for a nursery where it is well to use in-
98 THE BABY'S ROOMS
expensive fabrics so as to renew them frequently.
Solid colors or checked ginghams look well. Let
both colors and patterns be baby-like.
For walls choose a plain tinted wash or a paper
with a dainty strip or little, bright flower pattern.
Do not over-do decorations of funny animals.
They are often appropriate, but fatiguing if al-
lowed to caper all over the walls, rugs and fur-
niture! So do not get furniture with animals
painted on it. You will surely tire of it. Choose
plain white enamel or some delicate shade of an
attractive color and with a slight decoration—
flowers or simple lines in another color, look best.
If you can paint, here is a little job for you!
Modern cribs for babies come to fit every fancy
and purse. One of the simplest kind is made like
the rubber bath tubs. That is, canvas suspended
from uprights which fold together like a camp
stool, for stowing away or traveling. These come
with canopies and can be made to look dainty and
babylike with dotted or plain swiss over pink or
blue for canopy and deep frill reaching from rim
of crib to floor.
“Kiddie Koops” and similar makes are well
known to most of the mothers. The sides, head
and foot are made in one and can be moved up
and down to suit the need of the moment. In
Some styles only the sides are movable. When
the baby is very young it is only of importance to
have the “fence” of crib a height convenient for
mother or nurse, but as the child grows and be-
PLATE XI
ANALYSIS
THE MODERN NURSERY
This is a specially crowded plate because it was our
idea to show the young mother living far from large
cities all, or nearly all, the most modern inventions for
the baby’s comfort and delight. We have left no room
for the jolly trotting about that helps make baby grow
straight and strong, but the intelligent mother will
mentally move things back into their proper places, and
if she has a home admitting of a day and a night room
for her child, to bring things into restful order will be
very simple.
DATE NURSERY
-TO-
¿
THE UP
THE BABY'S ROOMS 101
gins to pull itself up and lean over sides of crib,
it is possible to lift this “fence” and have a per-
fect enclosure in which it may be left to amuse
itself.
Besides the rubber bath-tub familiar to most
mothers, there is a combination of bath and baby’s
rubber dressing-table. This table comes not at-
tached to a tub, and in either case is a great con-
venience, as it is padded and therefore comfort-
able for the child. Pockets hanging at the sides
hold safety pins, etc. Its height is 30 inches
from the floor, which means the one dressing the
baby need not bend over to any great extent.
The tub and table combined are made so as to
fit over an adult bath-tub. In small apartments
these are especially convenient. If any but a rub-
ber tub is used, have a rubber mat to prevent
the child’s slipping under the water.
In bureaus and wardrobes the baby’s trousseau
is as carefully provided for as is his elders.
The play hours are filled with forms and colors
invented by artist-craftsmen. They even insert
into fences surrounding the baby’s “play
grounds” highly decorative but familiar animals,
such as illumine the pages of every nursery book.
For the child of six months or less, one can get
amusing animal chairs in which he sits alone and
plays with his toys. The little backs have to be
encouraged to grow strong by being used, and
these chairs for wee babes serve this purpose.
In the old days babies were propped up with pil-
102 THE BABY'S ROOMS
lows, and some still use a clothes basket with great
success. In fact it is possible to buy a glorified
clothes basket (exactly the same shape) mounted
on wheels and to use in various ways. With the
very young, as with old people, it is actual com-
fort that we aim at giving them.
Each mother or nurse has her own ideas as to
the proper way to arrange the furniture in the
nursery. If there are two rooms, one for day and
one for night, put very little in the sleeping room
beside the crib. Into the day room can go the
other furniture. Always keep the sunny room for
the day, if only one has the sun. ---
Large Toy Boxes on wheels are good for teach-
ing a child to put its own toys away after playing
with them. It is not an exaggeration to say that
no child is too young to begin training it.
CHAPTER XIV
THE FAMILY LIVING-Roomſ : BOOK-SHELVES, THE
FAMILY COAT CLOSET
YoUR family “living” or sitting-room must be at-
tractive in coloring, comfortable as to the shapes
of furniture, gay but not perishable as to furni-
ture covering and curtains, and, above all, if this
sitting-room of yours is to win out in its compe-
tion with the Country Club, it must be both happy
and comfy looking! It must be a human room.
Have an open fire, plenty of books on shelves,
a big table of magazines and papers as well as
reading lamps; a big family sofa, an arm-chair
for each member of the family; lamps that all can
read by; windows which fill the room with light
by day, a carpet not perishable, therefore not a
Solid color, but instead one of those showing two
colors in the smallest of small designs so that at
a glance the effect is plain, not figured.
Select your furniture carefully, for it is the
simple, strongly built styles which are going to
give the substantial look you are trying to get.
In the family living-room it is wise to have no
unnecessary pieces of furniture. Space to move
about in is one of the features of this sort of
room not to be neglected. An over-crowded liv-
103
104 THE FAMILY LIVING-ROOM
ing-room is a failure even if all the things in it
are beautifully simple and appropriate.
The sitting-room mantel should have a clock
which keeps good time and whose case is in style
related to the furniture you have chosen.
Let the lighting fixtures be simple, and as this
is a practical room for reading and card-playing
as well as sewing, have plenty of bright lights and
let the windows be so simply curtained that it is
not a great deal of work to push the curtains
back and let in the light of day. The side lights
of a living-room require shades to soften the light
when one sits to talk, but it is equally important
to use bulbs of sufficient power to produce a bright
light when one is needed. Be sure that your fix-
tures are so planned that they will carry the bulb
needed. -
These suggestions, with those given in other
chapters on rooms for different uses, should make
the arranging of the average living-room a simple
task. Advice as to shelves for your books, with-
out which your living-room is incomplete, follows.
BOOK-SIFIELVES
When planning your home provide for books.
Let book-shelves count as one of your necessities.
If you like book-cases with glass doors (the old
style or the new) better than shelves made by your
carpenter or clever man of the family, then there
is not much to worry about. In a ready-made
PLATE XII
ANALYSIS
A MAGNETIC FAMILY LIVING-ROOM
A magnetic family living-room is one which every mem-
ber of the family loves to sit about in and “just be
happy.” There are certain pieces of furniture necessary
for comfort and convenience, but the chief point to keep
in mind when planning a room to be shared by the entire
household is comfort 1 Is there a comfy chair for
everybody? Are there book-shelves full of interesting
books for each age? Is there a cozy fire to gather
around? Is there a card-table and one for tea? Can
you draw the heavy curtains at night and fling open
windows for sun and air during the day? In other
words, is it a practical room where each member of the
family feels at home?
If you can say that, so far as your means will allow,
your living-room supplies these comforts, then yours is
worthy of being pronounced a success.
§§§
$$$$
A MAGNETIC FAMILY LIVING-ROOM
THE FAMILY LIVING-ROOM 107
book-case the shelves are usually adjustable or
made to the most practical and the average height
and depth. But should you and yours like simple
carpenter-made book-shelves these have to be
thought out and planned to certain measurements.
Otherwise you will discover, when ready to place
your books on shelves, that you have not allowed
for big or even biggish books, and there will be
an unsightly and dust-collecting pile of unhoused
volumes heaped in some corner of the room! So
measure your tallest books and your broadest
books. All of the shelves must be the same width,
of course, but as to distance between the shelves,
the lowest shelf can be the one for the big books
and the top shelf made to suit the height of your
very small books. The other shelves look best
when the same height or distance apart.
Let the color of your book-shelves match your
furniture or the woodwork in room. Have these
shelves fitted to and securely fastened against the
wall, or set into paneling.
Have books in your living-room and any in-
formal sitting-room and in your bed-rooms too,
unless the occupant of the bed-room has also his
or her own sitting-room. Books are next best
to humans as companions. If you can live with-
out them then there is a great void in your life
which some day you will become conscious of if
you are developing as you should. It is important
to have about the home books the family like.
There are many fascinating books which talk
108 THE FAMILY LIVING-ROOM
about things your young people are interested in.
Cultivate in your household the habit of reading.
It is a great safety-valve. And even your out-of-
door boys can see that shelves full of interesting
books, with their variously colored bindings, cheer
up the sitting-room; they have a distinct decora-
tive value.
THE FAMILY COAT CLOSET
Houses now being built have in their plans as
a “necessity” one large closet situated near the
door from which the family takes its departure
for Country Club or Railway Station. . This is
the coat closet in which the entire family hang
their country outside coats, stand golf clubs, um-
brellas and sticks, and deposit scarfs and robes
used in cars. What one did without these catch-
'alls before the progressive architect inserted them
into their plans for even the smallest of suburban
homes, no one seems to rememberl But you are
correct when you venture the surmise that the
coat closet is the modern representative of a
well-known, old family,–the hat-rack of Victorian
days l -
The coat closet has wonderful possibilities and
of course the larger the house the larger it is.
From a closet furnished with hooks for coats and
hats, a large, deep drawer or chest for rugs,
sweaters and other “woolies,” and a strong, large
stand for umbrellas and sticks, the idea can be
THE FAMILY LIVING-ROOM 109
elaborated until, in very large and expensive
homes the closet becomes a room and one finds
there running water, brushes and all of the con-
veniences of the club or hotel dressing-room.
One Small suburban home we know has two
coat closets side by side, and one of these is kept
for the guests and made unusual by painting the
inside of it the same blue as the hall and fitting
to the inside of the closet door a long mirror.
There is an electric light which turns on when
the door is opened, and just inside, to the right,
is a little cabinet attached to the wall which con-
tains powder and other things useful in touching
up the Fair Lady who may have arrived for din-
ner on a blowy night!
The larger the closet the greater are the number
of its subdivisions. Storm shoes, tennis shoes and
skating shoes with skates attached, are all pro-
vided for. The new shoe racks come in conveni-
ently here.
In a house having a formal entrance and one
used for the usual coming and going of the family,
it is wise to have the coat closet near the latter
door.
CHAPTER XV
A FEW SUGGESTIONS FOR YOUR DINING-ROOM
IN a large dining-room use substantial, impor-
tant-looking shapes; in a small room, delicate,
graceful shapes will be more satisfactory.
Painted furniture, Directoire in shape, is popular
for small dining-rooms in town or country.
When deciding on the colors you will use in
your dining-room you must remember that a
shaded room needs warm colors and that in a
room flooded with Sunshine you can, if you like,
use cold colors such as grays, blues and greens.
For a family of grown-ups a dining-room
should be cheerful but dignified. If there are
young people you cannot make the room too gay
and winning in color. Blue and yellow of the
corn-flower and daffodil shades are lovely, but
the choosing of color scheme is a matter you can
work out yourself; you have a wonderful guide
in the coloring of some of your attractive china
for the table. Never forget that a decorator tries
to show a relationship between all of the furnish-
ings in any room.
Be sure that your curtains are strong enough
in shade of color you decide upon, to count as
decoration. And equally important is the rule
110
PLATE XIII
ANALYSIS
THE DINING-ROOM
The average dining-room in the average home is much
simpler than the one shown in this plate, but it would
be tiresome to be always insisting on the very simplest
expression of beauty, so we make an exception to our
rule and choose this time a beautiful room well worked
out by one who has been about the world and cultivated
a taste for rather elaborate styles. In certain homes this
room would be very appropriate, but it suggests plenty
of servants to dust and polish as well as to keep in
shining condition the china, silver and glass suitable
for use in such a room. You cannot stop at furniture,
everything in the room must be in the same “key” or
character, carpet, curtains, walls and lighting fixtures.
This room is formal and if there are young children
in the family they appear at this table on stated occa-
sions only. For so elaborate a room suggests a certain
amount of ceremonious living.
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A DINING-ROOM. A
SUGGESTIONS FOR DINING-ROOM 113
that a simple room calls for simple materials at
windows, a very handsome room with expensive
furniture, equally choice hangings. It is har-
mony that underlies all good decoration.
If your summer cottage has all willow furniture
in the dining-room it looks well in the natural
white, or if stained yellow, blue, apple-green, ma-
hogany or two tones—one over the other—to har-
monize with your crêtonne or chintz.
For a summer dining-room or a small flat in
winter, one of the new sunpruf materials, a plain
color, two colors (of the “taffeta” variety) or
broad stripes in different soft shades of colors,
make attractive curtains.
Corner closets for china and glass are charming
in a dining-room if you will have them painted on
the outside to match woodwork and on the inside
one of the bright colors in the chintz. Choose a
strong shade because that will be the most telling
background for your china and glass. The paint
should be heavily enameled. It looks attractive
and is easily washed. If you own interesting old
china keep it in your dining-room. Here it is
appropriate and counts to the full as decoration.
Your dining-room pictures should be chosen
with care. Never hang on these walls the fancy
heads of cupids or pretty women done in color
or black and white. These are bed-room pictures
or for intimate sitting-rooms. Your dining-room
calls for flowers, fruit, birds, game and landscapes
as subjects, and if you own good family portraits
114 SUGGESTIONS FOR DINING-ROOM
in oil, hang these in a dignified dining-room. Not
of course in the dining-room of a cottage, or very
simple flat. In such a case hang the portraits (if
well painted) in your sitting-room.
If your pantry opens out of your dining-room
paint and paper it the same color (as the dining-
room). You have no idea how this will add to the
attractiveness of a dining-room.
For a dining-room where economy is important
one of the new linoleums makes an attractive and
practical floor covering. Some prefer the solid
colors, others linoleums which look like hard wood,
marble or painted wood. Fine linoleums are now
cemented down over builder’s deadening felt.
This method gives a perfectly smooth surface.
Many waſ their plain linoleums, and if the color
is dark red or dark blue the effect is delightful
and a wonderful background for your large din-
ing-room rug. Rugs and carpets should have a
small figure, otherwise they will show every crumb
or bit of dust. -
In deciding on wall papers or how to paint your
walls keep in mind the character of your furni-
ture and do not make the mistake of putting a
large patterned, chintz-like paper on a room in
which you intend using furniture calling for
stripes. Plain walls are always safe.
CHAPTER XVI
SELECTING YOUR, CIHINA
THE selecting of your china is important if you
want your dining-room to be as decorative as is
possible. Therefore de not wander into a china
shop aimlessly, but decide before you leave home
exactly what style (as to decoration) and quality
best suits the room it is to be used in as well
as the pocketbook that is to pay for it!
The word “china” has come to mean all earth-
enware used on the table. As a matter of fact
there are three classes of earthenware differing
in quality, and of course many pastes or compo-
sitions, of which the body of the earthenware is
composed. Correctly speaking, “china” means
the finest quality or porcelain; this is so well and
therefore expensively baked in the making as to
be rendered semi-transparent or translucent when
held to the light.
The next quality, semi-porcelain or earthenware,
is not so thoroughly baked and in consequence less
expensive.
An advantage which porcelain has over “earth-
enware” is that when nicked it does not turn dark.
The “body,” burned hard all through, remains
the same white. On the other hand, earthenware
115
116 SELECTING YoUR CHINA
when nicked turns brown because softer inside
from less baking. -
Both porcelain and “earthenware” are deco-
rated before the final glaze is put on. This glaze
is like a thin coat of glass and after firing never
wears off. Fine porcelain is decorated by hand.
Much of the semi-porcelain or earthenware, is dec-
orated by transferring to the object narrow bands
—decorative designs in charming patterns and
colors, which have been stamped on paper. Over
these decorations comes the glaze, making the
colors indestructible.
A third class of tableware is “pottery.” It
is, as a rule, the least carefully, and therefore the
least expensively, made tableware. We do not
here include the unique productions by artists
who, following the ancient traditions of this type
of earthenware (specimens of which every mu-
seum preserves), are to-day, here in the United
States, creating works of art. We speak of the
simple “tea-room” variety, gay in color and ele-
mental as to decoration, such as all are familiar
with. Some of our readers may have collected
pieces of such pottery when traveling in various
parts of the world and know that it is the type
of earthenware used by peasants, and for this
reason the simple designs are often called “peas-
ant patterns.” Peasant patterns are seen on
earthenware also, and because appropriate for
use in the simplest homes called also “cottage”
patterns. If the house or apartment is as simple
SELECTING YoUR CHINA 117
as the pottery (it may be so and yet beautiful)
then you may use this ware for breakfast, lunch
and dinner. In some homes pottery is appropri-
ate for breakfast and lunch and tea, but the din-
ner table may call for more formal china.
A rule to remember is, that it is in bad taste
to use informal china in a formal home and formal
china in an informal one. It is both the character
of your other furnishings and the kind of service
you have that dictate the china you will use. But
do not make the mistake of thinking that the num-
ber of servants alone constitute “formality” as
to mode of living. We know small homes with
one or two servants, where each article of fur-
niture is a treasure and the general atmosphere
that of a diminutive palace. In such a setting your
china must correspond with the other objects of
art and general luxury.
On the other hand, in a large house all chintzy
and simple as to the style of furnishing, be sure
to keep your china just as simple. Select cheer-
ful, flowery patterns in colors harmonizing with
hangings, etc., and use the same even when giv-
ing “parties” for it will contribute to the gay,
informal atmosphere and keep the table “in the
picture” and distinctly your table! Which re-
minds us to caution you against copying the table
of a friend before carefully considering whether
that table will fit into the scheme of decoration
you have built up. Avoid “false notes” in dec-
oration. It is harmony in effect you want to get
118 SELECTING YOUR CHINA
and your china is no exception to this rule. Give
the same amount of attention to choosing your
china that you do to the choice of a hat.
Always ask if the china you are buying is an
“open stock” pattern. If it is you can easily
replace broken pieces. And do not forget to find
out whether it “crazes” or, as we often express
it, crackles. You can get china with a guarantee
not to craze.
Most of the tableware sold in this country comes
from abroad, in spite of the fact that we make
china here in our own country. If you know what
you want as to style of decoration (there is china
to correspond with every style of furniture) you
can get it in a variety of makes and from France,
England, Sweden, Germany, etc. If you are all at
sea as to the china you should get to go with a
room you have made beautiful, go to the most reli-
able dealer in the city or town you live in, and tell
him what your room is like. In recent years the
coöperation between different branches of house
furnishing has made it a perfectly natural thing to
expect that the head of any department, and some
of the assistants, will know “periods” in decora-
tive designs and color schemes, whether the ques-
tion pertain to fabrics or china. You may say that
‘‘periods” do not interest you, but even so “in
the trade,” each style of shape and arrangement
of color is fitted into the pigeonhole of a period.
This is because educated interior decorators and
dealers in all house furnishings are agreed that
PLATE XIV
ANAIYSTS
A WILLOW BREAKFAST-ROOM
Isn’t this sideboard charming? It shows delf blue china.
In fact the coloring of the room is delf blue and jonquil
yellow. The furniture is left in the natural color of
the willow. On the floor is a Japanese rug of blue and
white, and window-boxes are filled with growing plants
having yellow and blue flowers. This family owns a
blue and yellow African parrot and he adds so much
to the style of the room that one is tempted to urge
the use of beautiful birds and gold fish whenever they
can be introduced as notes of color. No, this is not a
new idea, but it is a very good one to perpetuate. The
curtains are of a soft light green “Sundure” because
this south room gets a flood of golden sun rays as long
as the day is light and fine. Green awnings could be
used and then yellow curtains would be lovely. We say
green awnings, but what we mean is white lined with
green or green and white striped.
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SELECTING YOUR CHINA 121
the best styles are those which have for years
been classified as meeting the requirements of
artistic, good taste. Novelties and bizarre effects
in shapes and color combinations have their place,
but not in the homes of those whose aim is to
get permanent furnishings, furnishings one does
not tire of. -
We warn you against the eaſpensive looking but
cheap quality china with elaborate designs in
gold or colors. Speaking in a general way, it is
safe to classify flowers, fruit and chintz effects
as “informal” china. The “tea-room” type of
china or pottery you will instantly understand to
mean rather dashing designs intended to attract,
for your table china is either winning (or “mag-
netic”), or it is not! This is important for the
woman planning a Tea Room to consider.
If your home is of no special type, buy china
with lovely bands of color. It comes to harmonize
with any color scheme; beautiful yellows, greens,
violets and blues, in inch-wide bands. .
With your simple tableware use equally simple
furniture, linen, glass and flowers. Use garden
flowers, not hot-house roses, violets, gardenias
and orchids in a very simple room. And for your
garden flowers use a simple pottery bowl or one
of plain white or colored glass.
A good informal china is the well known “Onion
Blue,” Dresden ware. It comes in both porcelain
and earthenware. If you like quaint patterns ask
for what is called “Old Leeds.” If your taste is
122 SELECTING YOUR CHINA
for beautiful simplicity, with style and some ele-
gance, look at Wedgwood ware. It comes in plain
cream and with exquisite designs in color. This
is not always expensive, it depends upon the qual-
ity you select. An inexpensive ware suggesting
Wedgwood, and very attractive, is a Swedish
semi-porcelain. Ask for it when shopping for
your table. You will find it in plain ivory with
ribbed border and one very smart pattern has a
sapphire blue line on the edge and a small basket
of flowers in color in the center of each piece.
If you are fond of graceful patterns after the
classic models, familiar to all housekeepers, look
at Royal Worcester. In this make you will find
both simple and elaborate decorations to suit every
type of home.
In choosing cups try to find those with a decora-
tion inside as well as out. This can be had in the
Swedish ware already referred to.
A great deal of china sold in this country comes
from Limoges, France. One of the most famous
makers there is Ahrenfeldt, and if you ask for
his creations for your table you will not be dis-
appointed.
“Service” plates are those one finds placed be-
fore each guest or member of the family when
a formal meal is to be served, and removed when
the plate from which one is to eat is brought.
The “service” plate is always the most beautiful
one owns, and your dealer will show you a large
variety which are sold under this head. Some of
SELECTING YOUR CHINA 123
the most elaborate have designs done in coin gold
which covers the entire surface of the plate (effect
of metal). These can be very beautiful, but are
only appropriate for elegant homes and become an
“eyesore” if introduced into a charming, simple
room done in an entirely different manner.
CELAPTER XVII
TABLE DECORATION.—SETTING TEIE TABLE CORRECTLY
You can be certain that a table beautifully set for
any meal in a manner to attract those gathered
about it and make them glad to be exactly where
they are is always the table of a thoughtful host-
ess. She may be merely “setting the stage” for
the pleasure of her own household or she may
be exerting herself for some distinguished guest.
It is not a mysterious rite, this act of accom-
plishing beautiful table decoration. Try it.
Start with two rules. First let the arrangement
of your table be simple and balanced and never
fail to make it look like your table. This is ac-
complished by using your pet china, glass, lace,
linen or flowers; some variety which your friends
have come to associate with you and your taste.
This is the way to give the personal touch to the
“feast” that you are offering to your family or
friends.
A little experimenting will prove to you that
the arranging of inanimate objects on your table
so as to make an attractive effect is one of the
most satisfactory efforts in house decoration. It
may be that you have a gift for this sort of thing
and it may be that you are merely very observing
124
TABLE DECORATION 125
and have by this means taught yourself to make
your table a thing of beauty in a dozen different
ways. In either case, almost with your first at-
tempt, you learned that a table beautifully set
need not be a table upon which much money has
been expended.
A sign of the times we are living in is that the
average man and woman recognize beauty in in-
animate objects. And the immense advance made
in taste with regard to house decoration has di-
rected the eye and mind to the setting of a table
as a feature quite independent of the food to be
served. To-day everybody agrees that table deco-
ration is an important part of a meal. They know
the open secret, that by gladdening the eye you
increase the appetite for the food you will offer.
Experiment and see how an attractive looking
table will cheer up the group of people gathering
about it and at once stimulate conversation.
The art of making beautiful the table upon
which a meal is to be served is as old as civili-
zation. Ancient frescoes, carvings on stone, the
oldest paintings and most ancient books written
down by hand long before printing was invented,
with their hand-painted illustrations, show us
tables with dishes for food and vessels for drink,
which are ornamental and so placed with relation
to one another as to present the appearance of
balanced table arrangement or “effect.”
The art of decorating tables for meals was
carried to such a point of perfection in the 16th,
126 TABLE I) ECORATION
17th and 18th centuries that even to-day we are
going back to those old models for our ideas. The
centuries named represent some of the great
ages of art when the wealthy nobility of each
country employed the genius of their time to de-
sign and make for their use household articles.
Among these were all tableware of silver, gold,
glass and earthenware; ornamental clocks, lamps,
vases, andirons, shovels, and tongs; specially de-
signed silks, and velvets, tapestries (see glossary),
or woven pictures for the walls; in fact all inter-
ior decoration. No wonder lovers of the rare
and the beautiful go back to those centuries for
models
If you happen to be furnishing with rare and
costly objects of art, you will be interested in
specimens of table decorations still preserved in
our museums and on sale in shops where the rare
and valuable are to be found. If you buy the
originals which have escaped the accidents of time,
and found their way to our shores, it is necessary
to pay a considerable amount for them. On the
other hand, if you are content with copies of choice
table arrangements these too are to be had. They
are modern, and imported for the most part from
Italy. Even if you have no idea of owning these
beautiful table arrangements look at them in or-
der to get an indelible impression of perfection
of arrangement so as to preserve the idea of line
in spite of many objects within a very limited
Space.
TABLE DECORATION 127
It was a passion on the part of the master de-
signers of these interesting miniature “Italian
gardens,” as some call them, to reproduce in ala-
baster, gold, silver or Venetian glass the balus-
trades, fountains, vases and statuary as seen in
the ducal gardens of the old world, gardens
planned by the master landscape gardeners of the
great day of landscape gardening. In the vases
are “blooming” plants made of colored Venetian
glass, the entire “garden” on so small a scale
as to occupy only the center of a moderately small
table. Of course, table decorations for banquet
tables can also be had.
If yours is the average simple home and,
though you recognize and desire the most rare
and costly, you have limited means and the good
sense to make the most of the limitation and get
all the beauty possible, go ahead and work out a
decorative, entertaining idea for the table that is
yours. Suppose that the dining-room you are at
this moment using is a very simple one; that your
dining-room furniture is inexpensive stained wood
of absolutely no real value but good looking.
Very well! Keep everything in that room, includ-
ing everything on that dining table “in the pic-
ture.” Aim at harmony; have not one false note.
Use on such a table artistic looking, coarse, deep
cream linen doilies, and the most attractive ‘‘peas-
ant” tableware—earthenware or pottery; not
porcelain. Decide what price you can pay for it,
and then choose with regard to the color scheme of
128 TABLE DECORATION
room. Have your glass equally simple and at-
tractive shapes. Whether silver is solid or plated,
that must be simple too. Avoid fancy, “fussy.”
looking silver. It is seldom good style, difficult to
clean and often expensive. -
It is the fashion now to have only forks, knives
and spoons of silver. Glass, china and pottery are
used for all purposes of table decoration, table
lighting and the serving of food. This is wise as
an economic expedient. To-day servants are in
numbers below the normal, they are therefore ab-
normally expensive and the average servant avail-
able is not well trained. Anything to save labor
is a God-send to the modern housekeeper.
Granted you have the required tableware, let
us give our attention to the interesting problem
of decoration, pure and simple. Assuming that
your table is round or square, our attention will
focus on the center of the board. Place there
something to excite admiration. Let, if possible,
this center-piece have color, the same as used for
walls, curtains, chair covers, etc. White is more
formal. Repeat the same colors in the flowers on
the table. This shows that the decoration has
had thought, and it “brings together” the general
color scheme of the room, to borrow a term used
by the professional decorator.
Whether you use a bowl of flowers or of fruit,
a now fashionable china bird or statuette, see to
it that it does not interfere with the sociability
of your table. It will surely do so if so high as
TABLE DECORATION 129
to cut off the guests seated on one side of the table
from those opposite. Keep table decorations be-
low or above the line of the eyes. And remember
this applies as well to candle-light. Those candles,
so placed that the flame is in line with the eyes,
should be shaded. Tall candles are attractive un
shaded. ...
Since balance is the keynote of beauty in th
decoration of your table remember this includes
size of objects. Beware of small candle-sticks on
a large table or too large ones on a very small
table. If you have a bowl of flowers in center of
table, two bowls of fruit—one toward the head
and one toward the foot of table—are always good
if the bowls are of the same character.
If you like the fashion for china birds, one in
the center, if large enough to be important, is a
way to avoid spending money on flowers. Two or
four smaller birds look well at corners of an
imaginary square around center-piece of fruit or
flowers, if placed facing toward center.
Never by any chance have too many objects
on your table, no matter how beautiful or valuable
each may be. Make each object count. This can
be done only by having your spacing count and
the intervals even.
There are homes in which one still sees beauti-
ful damask tablecloths used. When the damask
is really of a wonderful quality there is nothing
more beautiful, but fashion now demands lace in-
stead of the damask cloth, and this means that the
130 TABLE DECORATION
top of the table itself must be attractive and in
perfect condition.
Fashion dictates to those in all conditions of
life (so far as income is concerned) and what is
done in the mansion one finds also done in the un-
pretentious cottage by the sea or on a mountain-
side. This is always so. The farmer’s wife wore
hoops and voluminous skirts when the social belles
of the near-by city did. And poke-bonnets are
stowed away in the garrets of the rich and poor
alike. So whether you and your husband live on
two or four thousand a year or a princely income,
if you live what is called a “social” life in which
one’s idea of beauty changes with fashion, remem-
ber that you can put away your damask, thus sav-
ing laundry bills, and use doilies and center-pieces
of linen, linen and lace, or lace. Lace tablecloths
come at all prices from those within the reach of
the average housekeeper to priceless treasures
owned only by the very rich.
Fashion dictates how one should set a table as
to the necessary articles: forks, knives and
spoons, glasses, bread-and-butter plates and the
napkins. Boiled down to its simplest form, one
says to the ignorant maid servant: “When set-
ting your table, place the knife to the right of
the plate and the fork to the left; the soup spoon
to the right of the knife and in America keep all
of the knives and spoons to be used to the right
and all of the forks to be used to the left of the
plate.” This fashion of displaying all of the im-
PLATE XV
ANALYSIS
A FURNISHED PORCH
Willow furniture is especially adapted for use on porches.
It is strong and durable and as now offered to home-
makers has great charm. Use it in the natural color
or painted to suit the chintz or crêtonne you cushion
it with. As a table you can use wood, iron painted or
a modern reproduction of an old marble table. We
show one in this plate.
If you take all of your meals or only afternoon tea
on your porch you will need to give attention to ap-
propriate china and linen. These must be informal.
Colored linens are less glaring than white out of doors.
Many use colored or decorated oilcloth for table covers
and doilies. If you stencil or paint your oilcloth be
sure to use colors that will harmonize with the coloring
of china, crêtonnes used on porch, and flowers—cut or
on growing plants. Harmony is the foundation of beauty
when you decorate, indoors or out. Into this harmonious
scheme of color must be brought porch awnings, and
Crex or other porch rugs. Black and white rugs har-
monize with any color scheme and have great style.
FASCINATION AS A
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TABLE DECORATION 133
plements demanded by the ensuing meal seems to
be purely American and a style which is dying out.
As in England, one now often sees the fork and
spoon or knife and fork or single fork or spoon
put down just before the course is to be served.
Since servants have become fewer in most
houses and non-existent in many, the simplest
methods are the most popular, so one often sees
two small serving tables—one each side of the
hostess—and on these the extra articles required
during the course of the meal.
Glasses are always placed in front of and to
the right of the plate; and receptacles for salt
and pepper and other ornamental dishes, such as
are used for sweets and pickles, if placed on the
table, must maintain the required balance. This
is equally true with regard to candles. A tall,
branching candelabrum, if beautiful as to shape,
may be placed in the center of table, provided the
lights are above the eyes. Unless very high, use
tiny shades, one on each candle.
A “service plate” is always one of your most
attractive plates both as to color and design. It
is on the table—one at each plate when the guests
or family sit down. If oysters or soup is served,
the plate they are on is placed on the service plate.
If grapefruit or fruit punch is served first the
service plate is taken up as the other is put down.
The service plate is never used to eat off.
Be careful to find out what training your new
waitress has had. If she has worked in an hotel
134 TABLE DECORATION
or restaurant you may be treated to the fancy
folding of napkins, never permissible in a private
house and bad style anywhere. Insist that each
napkin be folded flat and so that it is longer than
wide and placed at the right of the plate.
A way to test your ingenuity at table decora-
'tion is to try removing one of the objects you
have placed. If the “balance” is lost when it is
removed, the picture spoiled, then what you had
arranged was correct. On the other hand, if the
removal of a piece makes no difference in the
effect you had arranged, you know that your dec-
oration was not decorative for the all-important
reason that every object was in reality not indis-
pensable to the completion of the “picture” you
aimed at making.
Acquire the habit of looking at your friends’
tables. Discover for yourself why some are dull
and depressing and others charming and mag-
netic.
Appropriateness being the keynote in table dec-
oration, be sure that with fine china (porcelain)
you use fine damask, fine linen with lace, or fine
lace. With ordinary but beautiful and interesting
earthenware or semi-porcelain, let whatever linen
or lace you use on your table be in keeping with
the general character of your room. If you own
furniture and hangings which have some elegance
and dignity, and yet your china is not porcelain
but fine semi-porcelain, with conventional deco-
ration, let the linen or lace for table be as dis-
TABLE DECORATION 135
tinguished as the general air of your room. On
the other hand, should the dining-room be an ab-
Solutely simple one with furnishings which cost
practically nothing, but having a charm just the
same, never use pretentious or too formal china,
even if you paid little for it. Remember the rule
that decoration has primarily to do with effect.
So be careful to avoid the appearance of having
too elaborate or too formal china or linen in a
room, the charm of which lies in its being simple
and informal.
If in summer you like taking your meals in
the open air, avoid the blinding glare which re-
sults from using white table linen. For use out-
of-doors all sorts of beautiful and inexpensive
tablecloths, doilies and napkins can be had. A
good color for the eyes and one that combines
well with the greens and bright colors of one’s
garden or flowering boxes on the porch, is blue
butcher’s linen.
You can buy many colors in tablecloths, but if
you prefer a tablecloth without the fancy border
characteristic of most “ready-made” cloths,
many colored cottons or linens suitable for such
cloths may be bought by the yard. Some resource-
ful women buy white “kitchen damask” and dye
it the color they want. They use this not only for
out-of-door table linen, but also for hangings. It
looks like the imported material called “broco-
tello,” a combination of linen and silk, made in
Italy.
136 TABLE DECORATION
If you use doilies, these come in cotton and linen
of every color and shade. You can buy them
ready to use or you can make them.
Never lose sight of the china you own and will
use with the linen. Keep the character the same
and also the coloring. •
If your object is to economize as to laundry
bills, then use some of the colored oil-cloths.
These come as tablecloths and as doilies. Some
like those with flower designs, while others prefer
solid colors. In this variety of material the new-
est thing is to get the oil-cloth by the yard, in
dark blue, dark red or dark yellow. This gives
the effect of lacquer, or a painted and very highly
varnished table-top. There are also delicate
shades to be had if your taste is for the pale
greens and lemon-yellows. Pinks and blues come
too. -
CHAPTER XVIII
A KITCHEN YoUB Cook wiLL LIKE. How TO MAKE
YOUR KITCHENETTE ATTRACTIVE IN DIFFERENT
WAYS. HOW TO EQUIP YOUR KITCHEN. SEBV-
ANTS’ BEDROOMS -
A CHEERFUL looking kitchen is very apt to make
a cheerful feeling cook. If one stops to consider,
one will realize that there is every reason for giv-
ing time and careful consideration to the task of
creating an attractive kitchen. Is there anything
which so quickly demoralizes a home as an un-
happy cook who takes no interest in the prepara-
tion of meals and ruins good materials? It seems
only natural if the housekeeper shows by her neg-
lect of the cook’s domain that she regards it as
unimportant compared with the rest of the home
she is decorating, that the cook should have the
same idea and neglect the work done in it.
The equipping of your kitchen is no longer a
dull task for the reason that no department of
house furnishing has made so great an advance
within recent years. If yours is one of the very
modern kitchens, with enameled tiles and every
provision made for sanitation, light and air, there
will be left little for you to do except buy tables,
chairs, cooking utensils, china and glass for
- 137
138 KITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL LIKE
kitchen use and articles needed for cleaning. But
remember this spotlessly white-enameled kitchen
can be made more home-like and attractive with
some color and a bit of real relaxing comfort such
as a chair large enough for your cook to rest in.
Opportunities for color are offered by linoleum
floor covering, muslin washable curtains, and
chairs and tables, and should yours be a simple
kitchen of the old type, it is the easiest thing in the
world to make your cook happy as a queen by
painting the walls and battered wood-work an at-
tractive color. Yellow is always good in a kitchen,
especially if the room is a dark one, for it seems
to flood it with sunshine.
Plenty of air, light and sanitary drainage are
the prime necessities for a kitchen, but if one can-
not have the joy of building and has to take
kitchens as they come, the problem is, how to
make any kitchen one that the average cook
will be able to work in happily. A cheerful win-
ning appearance comes first, for the impression
on entering any room is of great importance.
If it is not well lighted by windows plenty of
artificial light must be used. Be sure that there
is a light over the stove and near each table.
There is an old rule and a perfectly reliable one,—
“The better the cook the more utensils will she
require for the preparation of a meal.” In other
words, if you are an artist you must of course
have the proper instruments with which to exe-
cute your art. If your cook is not especially
EITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL LIKE 139
capable it is your responsibility to see that she
has a well equipped kitchen, and this task, instead
of being dull and uninteresting, can be fascinat-
ing. Almost any one knows how to create an at-
tractive living-room, but to work out a kitchen
which is equally a “winner” is a far more unique
achievement.
If you have bought the best stove that you can
afford be sure not to make demands on the cook
which exceed the capacity of that stove. If you
are very particular about every dish being served
hot be sure the stove is provided with a place in
which cooked dishes can be kept warm. For
stoves are limited as to cooking capacity and some
dishes must be prepared in advance of others.
This is only one of many points concerning which
the young housekeeper is usually ignorant and
impatient with a ‘‘perfectly good cook.”
We assume that the stove is equal to your de-
mands, that it is in perfect running order, and for
the sake of cleanliness, the floor covered with a
good quality of linoleum. The best quality pays
in the end. You have at least two tables, chairs,
cupboards large enough to allow of the cook ar-
ranging the dishes, etc., in order, and then keep-
ing them thus systematized. This idea of system
saves time and tempers, and remember some na-
tionalities have it inborn and others are naturally
disorderly. If a cook is brought into a kitchen
that has been arranged with system she is very
apt to continue in the same way. Be sure that
140 KITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL LIKE
you have provided shelf paper for closets, and
oilcloth for table tops before you find fault with
the cook for having an untidy kitchen. w
Only those who have wandered about among the
beguiling things now offered the housekeeper for
use in her kitchen can understand with what a
thrill such a shopping expedition is undertaken.
You will be tempted a thousand times, and un-
less one eye is kept on the list, you will surely
fall! It will not be the salesman’s fault alto-
gether, it will be partly the faults of inventor and
manufacturer who design and make the household
implements in such alluring forms and finish that
no matter whether one knows what they are for
or not, one is impelled to buy them! For some
women no other department of house furnishing
is so intriguing ! Here we have a veritable pitfall
for weak womanhood. -
The actual furniture for your kitchen is offered
in good looking and practical styles. Besides the
usual wooden chairs and tables which may be left
in the natural wood or painted and enameled in
any light color (so as to be easily washed) there
are to-day portable, white enameled steel closets
(for lightness) and cupboards for every conceiva-
ble article used in the kitchen; these represent the
last word in modern convenience. You can get
closets for food, ice and milk, for utensils, for
brooms and cleaning materials in any size to fit
your kitchen, and differently combined. They are
not, however, for the average apartment, but are
KITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL LIKE 141
invaluable in a house. In a rented house, the
fact that you own your closets and can move them,
if you give up the house, converts them into a real
economy. For cleanliness there is no cupboard
so perfect. One of these closets—for a small
kitchen where space is an important matter—has
a steel-topped table and, being higher than the
average table, a special chair comes for the cook
to use when preparing vegetables, etc.
We give a list of articles for use in a kitchen
which may be studied and then adapted to the
needs and purse of any housekeeper about to fur-
nish this all-important department of every home.
That there should be any trouble about getting
a modern cook into the modern kitchen is difficult
to understand. How she can be induced to take
even an afternoon off is what puzzles some of us!
HOW TO MAKE YOUR EITCHENETTE ATTRACTIVE
If your kitchenette is seen from your dining- or
living-room, treat it as an experienced decorator
would; have the walls and wood-work painted to
match those of adjoining room. The same rule
applies here as in the case of a bath-room which
opens out of a bed-room in a small apartment.
By keeping all walls and wood-work in any small
group of rooms one color, you gain in effect of
space and restful atmosphere. The shelves of a
kitchenette must be treated as part of wood-work.
If it is necessary to use curtains to conceal cook-
142 KITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL LIKE
ing utensils, make them of some washable cotton
goods to exactly match the walls. By following
this method, the once glaringly white kitchenette
is made to sink into the background and figure
merely as an unnoticed alcove.
If the kitchenette is so situated that it is not
seen from the other room or rooms, treat it as
you would a kitchen, letting it make its own effect
with dainty white or colored muslin at the win-
dows, gay, harmonizing chintz where needed, and
walls, wood-work, floors and furniture some one
or two of the colors, in chintz. If you prefer a
dainty white kitchenette, use color only on the
furniture and keep that in one color.
EIOW TO EQUIP YOUR KITCHEN
Furniture
Refrigerator.
Table.
Chairs.
Step-ladder or stool.
Receptacles for Food
Canisters—6 large and 1 small, glass or enam-
eled steel. For sugar, flour, tea, coffee and
cereals.
Cake box—Japanned tin.
Bread box—Japanned tin. (Some think earth-
enware keeps bread fresher).
Salt box—Japanned tin, glass lining.
KITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL LIKE 143
3 bowls for food in refrigerator, different sizes.
Pitchers—3 of china.
China platters for fish or meat in ice-box.
Box of assorted corks.
Preparation for Food
Mixing bowls, 4 sizes, earthenware, 1 pt., 1 qt.,
2 qt., 6 qts. e -
Moulds, melon for ice-cream or pudding—tin.
Moulds, border—tin.
Colander—aluminum.
Ladle—aluminum or enameled steel.
Measures, qt.—tin, enameled steel or aluminum.
Measures, half pint—tin or aluminum.
Funnel—tin or enameled steel.
Soup sieve—tinned wire.
Dredger, salt and pepper—tin.
Dredger, sugar—tin.
Dredger, flour—tin.
Strainers, 1 large, 1 small—tin. For vege-
tables, gravy, tea, coffee, orange.
Graters, large and small—tin.
Scoops for sugar and flour—tin.
Skimmer—enameled steel.
Cutter, biscuit, cake, doughnut—tin.
Chopping bowl—wood.
Bread board (large kitchen has also meat and
pastry boards; Small kitchen uses same board
for all purposes)—wood.
Pair of butter rollers—boxwood.
Egg whip—tin.
144 KITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL LIKE
Salad washer—tinned wire.
Spoons—enameled steel.
Spoons, 2—aluminum.
Spoons, 2—wood.
Kitchen Machinery
Ritchen scales.
Egg beater.
Lemon reamer—glass.
Coffee mill, box or wall.
Ice cream freezer.
Potato masher or ricer.
Apple corer.
Meat grinder.
Rolling pin.
Flour sifter.
Ice bag and mallet.
Cooking
Saucepans, 3, 2 qts., covered—aluminum.
Saucepans, 1, 4 qts., covered—aluminum.
Saucepans, 2, 1 qt., uncovered, lipped—alumi-
Ill IIſl. -
Double boiler, milk, cereal, 1 qt.—aluminum.
Double boiler, milk, cereal, 2 qts.—aluminum.
Double boiler for Sauces, 1 pt.—aluminum.
Fish kettle—gray enamel.
Frying pan, large—iron.
Frying pan, Small—iron.
Stock soup pot (boiling ham and making pre-
serves)—iron or granite. -
KITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL LIKE 145
Broiler for steak, fish or oysters.
Kettle—aluminum or enameled steel.
Omelette pan—aluminum.
Steamer for vegetables or pudding—tin.
Pie plates, 2—tin.
Griddle—aluminum, soapstone or iron.
Frying basket with pan.
Bread pans, 3—tin.
Roasting pan, double—Russia iron.
Roasting pan, single—Russia iron.
Coffee or percolator—enameled steel or alumi-
ITUIII]. -
Egg poacher—tin.
Cake turner—tin.
Tea pot—earthenware.
Asbestos stove mats, 2.
Pudding dish—Pyrex or fireproof china, enam-
eled steel.
Casserole, round—Pyrex or fireproof china,
enameled steel.
Casserole, oval—Pyrex or fireproof china,
enameled steel. .# -
Muffin pan—tin.
Cake pans, 3, round—tin.
Cake pans, 1, square—tin.
. Cutlery
Bread knife.
Vegetable knives, 2.
Carving knife and fork.
Slicing knife.
146 KITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL LIKE
Grapefruit knife.
Chopping knife.
Heavy scissors.
Cook fork.
Knife sharpener.
Corkscrew.
Can opener.
Ice pick.
Cloths
One half dozen dish towels.
One half dozen glass towels.
One half dozen hand towels.
Three dish cloths.
Three scrub cloths.
One half dozen dusters.
Three chamois cloths.
Floor mop and handle.
Chamois for silver.
Brushes
1 scrub brush.
1 sink brush and shovel.
1 bottle brush.
2 silver brushes.
1 dust brush and pan.
1 refrigerator brush.
Broom.
Stove brush.
Pot scrub.
KITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL LIKE 147
General equipment—cleaning up, etc.
Carpet sweeper.
Dish pan.
Soap dish.
Sink drainer.
Garbage pail.
Towel roller.
Soap shaker.
Pail—enamel.
Door mat.
Ash can, 1.
Nickel polish.
Brass and copper polish.
Silver polish.
Stove polish.
Knife board and emery or knife-cleaning ma-
chine.
Furniture polish and floor polish.
Disinfectant.
Insecticide.
Dutch Cleanser.
Sapolio or Bon Ami.
Ammonia—“household.”
Soap—Kirkman’s borax, Colgate’s, Ivory, etc.
Hammer.
Tack lifter.
Screw driver.
Wire scissors.
Ball of soft white twine for tying birds or vege-
tables.
Spice box.
148 KITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL LIKE
Clock—alarm.
Large enamel tray for kitchen use. -
Knives, forks, spoons and teaspoons for kitchen
use, number according to domestics employed.
China for kitchen use, plates, cups and saucers.
Glass tumblers for kitchen use, and, if required,
a glass water pitcher. Use a heavy variety
and “open stock” pattern.
SERVANTs’ BED-ROOMs
Servants will be happier and therefore work
better if they are given rooms that are home-like.
By this we mean rooms which look as if the one
who arranged them expected human beings to use
them and like them.
Cheerful paint, some inexpensive gay chintz
of a washable kind, a muslin curtain at the win-
dow, a good spring and comfortable mattress on
bed, a chest of drawers and a good mirror, at least
one chair big and comfortable enough to relax in
and a closet or wardrobe for clothes; these are
necessities. -
Add a light bright enough to read by and a
table for books or a photograph. Always when
possible have your maid’s room so situated that
it has outside ventilation. Let the chintz.be used
as day-time cover for the bed, and if you wish,
as curtains to hang over the one against the sash,
made of muslin. Provide suitable arrangements
for washing and necessary towels and soap...
PLATE XVI
ANALYSIS
A HOMELIKE ROOM FOR YOUR MAID
Study this little room and see how easy it is to plan
a room that will make any maid feel at home, and
this is a very important thing to aim at doing. If you
use gas or electricity have a light, one,—overhead suf-
ficiently good for the occupant of the room to read a
letter or arrange her toilet. If you use lamps for kero-
sene be sure that hers is not an old worn-out one.
Make the maid comfortable in a simple way and she
will be far more apt to make you comfortable. You
are given a chance to teach her the advantages resulting
from clean lamps, neat and well-aired rooms. See that
her room has proper ventilation. She will need warm
bedding for cold weather. Your maid is in your care
and you in hers.
ES
tº Co.
tº R;
NEw York Geil
ºrano Raptos FuRN
$32
:*
-LIKE ROOM FOR YOUR MAID
A HOME
EITCHEN YOUR COOK WILL LIKE 151
If a servant takes pride in her room she is very
apt to grow more and more interested in the rooms
of her employers.
CHAPTER XIX
MAKING ONE’s HOME READY FOR ‘‘PAYING GUESTs.”
FARMEIOUSE OR COTTAGE BY TEIE SEA. SECRET OF
POPULARITY. TREATMENT OF OLD FLOORS.
THESE are the days when many of us are obliged
to do what we never did before to make ends
meet. Some are selling their homes, some are let-
ting them, others deciding to open their summer
houses and take “paying guests.” It is for many
an entirely new experiment, and as there is no
time for money to be wasted one hears cries for
help! In order to make our suggestions as clear
and brief as possible, let us suppose a certain type
of old farmhouse is under discussion. It has al-
ways done very well for “the family,” but if
strangers are to feel it is their happy home for
a summer we must, of course, consider their ideas
of comfort and attractiveness. It saves much
trouble and experimenting if you keep before you
the fact that when people go to the country or
Seashore, they go for change of environment as
well as change of air. So do not make the mis-
take of trying to make your house look like the
one they have left in town. Give the house they
are coming to its own character.
In summer, where warm weather prevails, the
simpler and cooler a house is made to look the
152
READY FOR “PAYING GUESTS” 153
better it will please everybody. So whether the
home be large or small remember it is always
attractive to use as furniture coverings, curtains,
table covers and bed coverings materials which
will wash without fading or that can be easily
cleaned. For very simple rooms nothing is more
charming than some of the pretty ginghams—
checked or plain. As a rule sheer white muslin,
scrim or marquisette in white or deep cream are
good in sitting and dining-rooms. If you feel
like spending more money, China silk in yellow,
apple-green or soft rose is lovely. All of these
thin, lightweight curtains are made short, just
reaching sill or to bottom of wood-work of win-
dow frame, below sill.
Any pretty chintzes, no matter how inexpen-
sive, make a house attractive in the hot months.
If you want the least expensive of all hangings
for windows, ginghams can be so used as to look
charming. Try the small pink and white checks
or green and white or blue and white. You can
use this gingham for covering bed, dressing-table,
a bureau, tables and to hang at closet doors.
If your house is really in the country, away
from neighbors and the passing stranger, a sim-
ple gingham curtain is all one needs at the win-
dow, and if your windows are small ones why not
do as our early American ancestors did with their
Small windows: needing all the light and air pos-
sible, they made one simple curtain to hang at
the window so arranged that it could be easily
154 READY FOR “PAYING GUESTS”
pushed to one side. Whenever the simplest
method looks well you may be sure that is the one
best suited to the case under consideration. No
matter what the style of your furniture happens
to be, give it very careful consideration before you
turn out any of it. If the house you live in is
an old one, it is possible that some of the things
in it are better than you realize and have a beauty
which you will recognize and treasure after you
have been your own decorator for a while.
Begin by arranging each room so that the fur-
niture in it looks as if belonging to the same fam-
ily l This establishes a certain harmony at once.
Keep your bed-room “sets” together, each in its
own room. If you own iron or brass beds use
them with the odd pieces that have strayed from
their “families” into a world of adventure You
may have a chest of drawers that is painted and
no bureau. Put this with the iron or brass bed
and make a fascinating dressing-table if you can-
not afford to buy one of the many kinds sold at
many prices to meet each purse.
A rough wooden packing box on its side gives
you a foundation for your dressing-table. A shelf
inside it will be most useful for either toilet arti-
cles or shoes. Pad the top with a thin sheet of
cotton and then cover it with a pretty pink, blue
or yellow muslin, or white if you prefer, and over
this use white dotted muslin. Next make a long
flounce which will reach from table top to floor.
A small, neat “heading” which every woman
READY FOR “PAYING GUESTs” 155
knows how to make is the correct finish. If you
must buy a mirror to hang above the dressing-
table be sure that the mirror itself is a good One.
The frame does not matter, provided it is a plain
one. Then paint it white or the same color that
you use under the dotted Swiss.
If in such a room as this you must use odd
chairs, paint them to match the chest of drawers,
if that is painted. If it happens to be of some
hard wood, stain the chairs to match. Brass beds
can be painted and look better if they are. This
is a room in which you can use to advantage wil-
low in the natural color or painted to match other
pieces. Make the chair cushions of one of the
colors in curtains and keep them a solid color to
avoid a too spotty effect in the room.
Stain or paint your floors. If you use plenty of
rugs to save the floor, some light color in paint
makes a gay and charming room. For real service
we suggest dark blue, dark red or dark green if
you are tired of browns. Any variety of rag rug
is appropriate for a summer home of this type.
As to wall paper, we assume that its color and
design have been taken into account when plan-
ning your rearrangement.
In your rooms which have “sets” of furniture,
if the wood is not beautiful perhaps you will be
wise enough to sacrifice it to beauty of effect and
give each piece a rebirth with a coat or two of
attractive paint; some color that will cheer up
the room and repay you for the trouble taken.
156 READY FOR ‘‘PAYING GUESTS”
Often one new piece of furniture added to the
old assortment (if in the same style as to line or
shape) makes the greatest difference in general
effect. If your old furniture is interesting and
of a long-ago period, remember that you can now
buy modern reproductions of every style ever
used, and if what you need is not in stock, you
can order what piece or pieces you require. There
are clever artists now employed by all of the large
manufacturers.
In a room made ready for some one who is off
to the country or sea for a holiday of rest as well
as recreation, any sofa is better than no sofa in
their room. Remember this If the only avail-
able sofa is an old one and rather unattractive
as to shape, make the best of it and re-upholster
in some jolly crétonne or inexpensive chintz, cool
to the eye and touch. This means a cotton fabric.
Never try to ‘‘cheer up” an ugly old sofa by
throwing a shawl or large piece of material over
it. This will make your room look untidy and
“stuffy” and gives unnecessary labor, as it re-
quires being constantly straightened out by one
with a sense of order. s
If your summer home has only one, the family,
bath-room, the old-fashioned wash-stands are in
order, but remember you can utterly spoil a pretty
room by carelessly selecting the china to be used
in it. It is not easy to find simple, attractive
toilet sets for wash-stands at low prices. As a
rule the plain and beautiful ones, always expen-
READY FOR “PAYING GUESTs” 157
sive, are not to be found for the reason that the
modern plan of a bath-room adjoining every bed-
room has done away with howl and pitchers, so
you find only soap-dish and Small articles for use
in a bath-room. Those toilet sets easily found
are too fancy and not what your good-looking room
requires, so if possible buy a white glass bowl and
pitcher; they come and are most attractive be-
cause they attract so little attention. Perhaps, in
the corner of your attic there may be stowed away
an old china bowl and pitcher with a band of one
lovely color. This type of decoration is always
good, whether on table or toilet china. If your
house is too new to boast an attic with treasures,
then look in old, second-hand shops for what you
seek. .
If you have only very small closets and cannot
afford to buy wardrobes for your paying guests,
put up a long, narrow shelf in an inconspicuous
part of the room, screw into the lower side, not
too close together, plenty of clothes hooks and
arrange the shelf so that when a one piece dress
is hung it will be at least a foot off the floor.
Paint the shelf like the wood-work of the room.
Be sure, if you have a garden, that there are
flowers in it which will be becoming to your rooms.
By this we mean old-fashioned flowers for old-
fashioned rooms, brilliantly colored flowers for
rooms in which modern, striking colors are used.
Your flowers must always be in the key of your
color scheme. -
CHAPTER XX
YOUR WILLOW FTURNITURE
WILLow furniture combines with many other kinds
and if you get the best quality it lasts for years.
Most of us have the habit of taking willow furni-
ture for granted and then when a dealer points
out the special advantages of a certain piece we
are surprised that there are so many things we
don’t know about this material. To begin with,
the willow for making furniture is grown for the
purpose and is not the variety we see in the coun-
try, with long fringy branches—the “weeping wil-
low” tree. What is called “basket” willow is
grown in France (a beautiful, clear, white vari-
ety), Italy, Sicily, Madeira, Belgium, Holland,
Germany, Austria, Russia. and the United States.
The best willow furniture sold in this country is
made here, from French willow, by foreign wil-
low weavers. French willow is not only very
white, it is freest from knots and insect holes. It
is also peeled by hand, which is a great advantage.
When willow is peeled by machinery, as in Amer-
ica where labor is very expensive, it may be
bought for less, but is brittle and does not wear so
well.
American made willow furniture includes the
158
PLATE XVII
ANALYSIS
A BED-ROOM FURNISHED WITH WILLOW
See what really beautiful shapes are now to be had in
willow furniture. Could anything be more attractive
than this bed with its gracefully low head and foot-
board? In one of the largest summer homes (by the sea)
near New York, willow is the only kind of furniture used
throughout the house. Certainly nothing looks cooler
and it has the qualities of comfort, beauty and dura-
bility. If you tire of the natural color of the willow,
stain it any light flower-like color for bedrooms and
grays or mahogany for living-rooms. Two colors—one
on the other—are now fashionable and one’s guide in
deciding the colors to combine is the general effect of
the crêtonnes or chintz or other materials chosen for
curtains. Willow furniture and dainty white sash cur-
tains at all the windows make a fascinating effect. The
cheapest variety of furniture made of sea-weed can be
painted or stained to look very well and your crêtonne
and muslin of the cheapest kind will give the effect of
beauty and cool daintiness.
Yor &eaterieſ
A BEDROOM IEURNISHED WITH WILLOW
C F
C
#
*
\&
YOUR WILLOW FURNITURE 161
best and the poorest quality. If you will examine
what you consider buying you will find that the
finest furniture is made of slender, supple Sprouts
with few knots and no insect holes.
We are told by willow specialists that it takes
as many as five years to teach a willow weaver
his trade and even then he has as a rule mastered
only some one style of weaving, some one design,
and cannot vary his work. Willow weaving runs
in families. A weaver is usually the son of a
WeaWer. -
To bend the willow for weaving in and out,
making the patterns, is such a strain on the arms
and chest that women can not do this work and
so far no machine has been invented for the pur-
pose. It takes eight hours to make one or two
simple pieces. The best willow furniture is the
lightest in weight because the least wood is used
in the making of it. Almost no nails are used as
the plaiting of the willow holds the wooden braces
in the legs and under the seats. -
The moment one begins to look into the history
of any branch of house furnishing one is tempted
to stay too long in the by-ways, but we can not
hurry on without mentioning that the ancient
Romans made willow baskets, willow bee-hives
and willow shields, covered with leather, and that
in the middle ages—5th to 15th centuries—there
were Willow Guilds just as there were Silver
Guilds and Pewter Guilds, so that willow weaving
has the dignity of an art.
162 YOUR WILLOW FURNITURE
Rattan furniture which looks like willow, is a
variety of palm and grows in the East Indies.
It is harder to grow and so more expensive.
When buying your willow furniture remember
that it invariably gives to any room an informal
appearance. This is true no matter what color
is used to stain it. The staining of willow is now
done very artistically. You can do it yourself or
let the dealer see the crêtonne or chintz you intend
using for the room and he will match any shade
of any color by combining his stains. Two-toned
effects are had by putting one color over another
as when painting walls. Try a blue with a gray
over it, or a pink with a thin coat of violet.
There was a time when willow appeared only as
chairs and sofas and tables but to-day we can fur-
nish an entire house with it; bed-room, sitting-
room, dining-room, hall, porch, all are provided
for with attractive and appropriate pieces of fur-
niture. Willow is especially good for rooms used
by young people because it does not get scratched
nor show dust. For rest rooms anywhere, it is ad-
mirable for it has a ‘‘give” when one sits in it
which is restful and for damp places, as by the sea,
it will be found practical owing to its not warping.
Use white or natural willow in rooms done in
very light colors but in rooms where other furni-
ture has dark wooden frames stain the willow the
same color. If you use natural colored willow on
your porches do not spoil the effect you have
YOUR WILLOW FURNITURE 163
succeeded in getting by bringing out the dark
furniture planned for indoors.
"Willow lamps may be used in willow rooms but
not elsewhere. You will like your willow room
better if you use a willow stand and a silk or
crêtonne shade in some lovely, gay, cheering color.
There is something depressing about a willow
lamp shade. If stained a very gay color one can
imagine it being decorative in a country club, large
rest room or summer hotel. For a private home
another sort of shade will be more satisfactory.
CHAPTER, XXI
Dong your own existing
THE first thing to do before you begin to paint is
to remove any varnish which may be on the object
you intend decorating. Not realizing this import-
ant fact has proved fatal to many adventures on
the part of man and woman ambitious to change
the appearance of furniture, frames of pictures or
mirrors, or possibly the railing of a staircase.
Paint put on over varnish is going to peel off in
a very short time. So buy warnish remover or
put into water some Babbitt's lye, for sale in any
grocery store, and (if you live in the suburbs or the
country) take the piece of furniture out into the
garden and swab it off with a big rag tied to a
stick. Be careful not to get your hands and clothes
or your carpets and rugs burned by careless use
of the lye.
To paint house furnishings is not difficult. Of
course the first attempt will be that of the be-
ginner. Your brush strokes will show and the
more careless you are the more directions those
strokes are going to take on the surface of your
table, chair or mirror frame. So be painstaking
and work with the certain knowledge that in a
very short time you will “get the hang” of it, and
be able to make those unruly strokes of the brush
i 164
DOING YOUR OWN PAINTING 165
blend one into the other so perfectly that no one
can say your painting is amateurish.
Always be certain that you are getting the color
that you want and a shade of the color which will
carry out the plan you have for your room. If
you want a flat or dull surface then tell the sales-
man who sells you the paint. On the other hand,
should your idea be to get the attractive gloss
that you admire on what we know as lacquered
furniture, after painting, add one, two or three
coats of enamel in the same color. The paint de-
partments of our large department stores carry
many colors. Before applying a second coat of
warnish it will be necessary to rub down the sur-
face of the first with pumice, otherwise it will not
“take” the varnish or enamel. -
Some of us have inherited furniture which we
do not like. It was once valuable and still is, so
far as the quality of wood goes. But we do not
like it. It is quite possible that this is a case of
a call for paint, even if it means a sacrifice of
fine woods. Paint can sometimes divert the eye
from shape. We have in mind a Victorian cabinet
of rosewood with satinwood panels on which
birds were painted. It was beautifully made, but
an eyesore. Yet the owner who had inherited it
clung to the idea of quality and refused to make
her respected heirloom stoop to conquer as deco-
ration. An artist seeing the cabinet standing in
a room which had the walls partly lined with book-
shelves painted a very dark green, said “Put a
166 DOING YOUR OWN PAINTING
coat or two of the same green paint on that piece
and it won’t be half bad.” The Victorian eyesore
was forthwith given a garment of green paint, and
will you believe it? so many of the unlovely de-
tails disappeared that the actual outline proved
to be inoffensive and to fall in with the general
scheme of the room. This is a fact to keep in
mind when faced with a similar problem. The
number of coats of paint required depends entirely
on the state your furniture is in when you begin.
Count on two coats at least for furniture from
which the paint has been removed. If you are
repainting with the same color, one coat often
does. Any one who can paint can stain furniture
or wood-work. One buys stains where one buys
paints.
If you want to give wood-work or furniture an
enamel finish, we advise a low gloss known as
an “egg-shell finish.” This is the next thing to
paint with no enamel, and you will find that it is
much easier to keep wood clean if it has some
enamel. But very shiny wood in a room is inartis-
tic and not fashionable now. If you want to give
any piece of furniture the very high glaze we know
as lacquer, be careful to put on a coat of enamel
and then rub it down with pumice or steel wool,
after which you apply the second coat. Repeat
this process until the finish looks as you desire.
Real lacquer, done as the Orientals do it, is made
in our country (most if not all of it, in New York
City).
PLATE XVIII
ANALYSIS
COMMITTEE ROOM FOR MEN OR WOMEN
We hope that this committee room looks “human.”
Some do not as most of us have experienced. There
seems to be nothing of importance omitted. There is
the usual large table for members of the committee to
gather around for discussion, the desk for everyday
work and sofa and easy-chairs for moments of relaxa-
tion. The light appears to be practical as to size and
appropriate in style of shade. The coloring of room is
not too serious. It is “warm” enough to suggest happy
days and the optimistic view of subjects under discus-
sion. On the other side of the room you will find a big
fireplace where logs of wood crackle when the season
asks for heat. Big windows admit plenty of air in the
§UIIIllſleI’.
§ ¶ ¡ ¿ † ? ? ? .
I'OR MEN OR WOMEN
COMMITTEE ROOM
DOING YOUR OWN PAINTING 169
If you intend painting your own walls rather
lovely effects are had by painting one color over
another. This gives what artists call “depth of
tone.” We know one room which the owner
painted with yellow first and over that he put
cream. Another experimenter used a first coat of
orange and covered it with putty color. Pale
violet over pink is lovely for a sunny room. Pink
with gray over it is dainty, as you can imagine.
Be sure that the first coat is perfectly dry before
you put the second one on.
Experiment with shades and colors, always hav-
ing near you the curtains and furniture coverings
which are to go into the room. It is now the
fashion to paint your furniture and wood-work
alike and even to keep the walls the same. In such
cases the two colors, one over the other, give the
walls the needed variety in tone. A room done
this way gains in size because the outlines of the
furniture lose themselves against the background
and the result is often just the restful effect de-
sired. You warm the room up with colors in cur-
"ains, furniture hangings and ornaments as well as
cushions, lamps and flowers.
Have you in your collection of furniture small,
light chairs with wooden frames and cane seats?
These can be painted one of the bright colors used
in the room and even if the shape is not remark-
able for beauty, the effect will be so decorative and
modern it will be color your friends and the family
will be struck by and the shape will be lost sight
170 DOING YOUR OWN PAINTING
of. In one home done over in the way we advise,
we saw many chairs painted by the woman of the
house. In a room where a chintz was used for
curtains which had a robin's egg blue ground and
pink and white roses as design, two small chairs
were painted the same blue, and the seat-pads
were made of rose. A guest-room had black and
gold silk brocade curtains with a Japanese design,
and the small chairs were painted a brilliant Japa-
nese red (which has some yellow in it) and then
varnished until they looked like the Japanese lac-
quer.
Two small tables were treated the same way
with great success. If your room is done in grays,
mulberry and blue, then paint the chairs gray and
add lines of mulberry which will give character
to the gray. In some rooms you can use blue
chairs in the new shade seen so often in furniture
today, a shade once called military blue—on this
lines of red in a shade which harmonizes with the
blue will have a lot of style. It is easy to make
all sorts of odd pieces of furniture count as deco-
ration if one will only remember to select paint for
their new “clothing” in colors and shades which
match some important furnishing in the room as
curtains, covering of sofa, etc.
For young people it is a good idea to paint the
entire set of furniture in a brilliant diverting color,
but in such a case have the walls a plain and a
neutral color as a background.
If you think of painting the walls and wood-
DOING YOUR OWN PAINTING 171
work of your kitchen, and the room is full of sun-
shine, you may like military blue with lines of
red when you come to the woodwork. In a dark
kitchen this would be too dreary. There you need
yellows to bring in the effect of sun.
Your dishes will look more attractive if you
paint the inside of your cupboards a deep shade
of a bright color which sets them off. How well we
remember the years when everyone thought a
kitchen was quite good enough if its cupboards had
a coat of whitewash! Use attractive paint and
cheer up your cook. Soft wood is bad for painting
and so are all the woods which have open grains
such as oak, ash, chestnut and hickory. Perhaps
you have attempted to paint some of your oak
furniture and found it a serious task. Woods suit-
able for painting, because they are hard and also
have close grains, are, besides birch already men-
tioned, white wood (poplar), mahogany, rosewood
and ebony. If you own a summer cottage which
is finished off in wood and you want to give it some
color, good results can be had by using stains;
mahogany, cherry, greens or lovely grays; even
blues or mauves (that very feminine pinkish-lav-
ender). Yellows or orange make fine colors for
some summer homes. But it should be borne in
mind that one can live part of a year with vivid
walls whereas for a year-round home they would
undoubtedly prove tiring. We know winter homes
in Florida and on lovely Swiss lakes, in which
these brilliant Eastern colors are used and they
172 DOING YoUR own PAINTING
are more fascinating than any other color scheme
would be there, because the houses are Eastern or
Oriental in architecture, or the surroundings lack
color—as by the sea.
Speaking of painted furniture, many home-
makers have first tried their hands at interior dec-
oration by taking some very simple and inexpen-
sive cottage and using in it little besides kitchen
furniture which they had themselves painted in
various fascinating colors, holding to one color
for each room. Kitchen chairs and tables are
nearly always made of white wood (poplar). One
sometimes hears of a “deal” or white-wood table,
meaning the kitchen sort. The great William
Morris, who created an epoch of good taste in line
and color harmony in England (about sixty years
ago), following the Victorian wreckage of both, ate
all of his own meals at a “deal” table. One who
was his guest has told us this. Morris was the
herald of the great simple note in house decora-
tion, and to be certain of genuine accomplishment
as an educator, struck at fundamentals; he went
back to the first principles and feasted his eyes
on restful line and nature’s color harmony.
From these points he built up his new epoch in in-
terior decoration. The method employed by Mor-
ris is one we cannot improve on. Try developing
your own skill in decoration on his firm founda-
tion.
Take kitchen tables and kitchen chairs, and the
DOING YOUR OWN PAINTING 173
simplest and therefore least expensive of cheap
wooden beds, having low headboards, and care-
fully consider the various ways in which you can
treat them to make attractive and unusual rooms.
If you prefer kitchen chairs with the old-style
curved back, like the Windsor chairs, you will
find that the curved rim is of hickory, one of the
hard woods, as are the curved frames of most
chairs. But these can be painted by patiently put-
ting on enough of the color. The rest of the chairs
are of white wood, close-grained.
We know a much admired little summer cottage
near the White Sulphur Springs, in West Virginia,
which is an object lesson in how to furnish with
kitchen chairs and tables and create an inexpen-
sive and beguiling home. Every one said that the
owner of the little, mountain-side cottage could
not furnish on the very limited sum she had al-
lowed for her experiment. She insisted that she
knew she could and how to go about it. And she
was right! We, her friends, stood speechless in-
side her home. Such clever inventions and turn-
ing of the thing in hand into the thing desired,
few of us had seen before. To begin with the
house itself, which the owner had built, one went
from a large entrance porch, into the living-room,
beyond which was a dining-room (a wide arch be-
tween), and on to a delightful sun-parlor, over-
looking a deep valley and high, wooded hills. Side
walls, wood-work and ceilings of wood were stained
174 DOING YOUR OWN PAINTING
a soft, silvery gray. The heavy rafters overhead
in the living-room were almost black. The floors
were stained as dark as the rafters.
All of the rugs used were of rags—dark grays
and black-and-gray. But it was the blaze of color
one saw or felt—which was it? The effect was as
if one entered a rock-garden and saw masses of
sun-flooded nasturtiums in every shade, with nod-
ding dahlias and zinnias flashing yellows, orange,
lemon, maroons, scarlets, terra-cottas, and all the
vivid greens ! This flowering chintz hung as cur-
tains at windows, doors and corner china closets.
The same chintz was used in both the rooms and
as chair-pads and sofa-cushions for the silver
gray wicker furniture of the sun-parlor.
As sun-screens at the adjustable glass windows
of the sun-room were straight sash-curtains of
orange-colored sunpruf.
Now for the furniture. The living-room chairs
were the Windsor type of kitchen chair painted a
dark shade of gray, and two wicker chairs stained
the same shade. These and a big gray wicker
sofa had cushions of solid colors which appeared
in the chintz. The gayest ones were chosen. Had
chintz been used for cushions it would have been
too much. Plain cushions gave emphasis to the
chintz of hangings.
The dining-room chairs were the square back
style (of kitchen chair) and painted the same dark
gray. The chair-pads were orange color. Of
course, a sideboard and a serving-table were
DOING YOUR OWN PAINTING 175
needed in the dining-room and a writing-desk was
a necessity for the living-room. These three ar-
ticles were concocted out of kitchen tables. The
dining-room being rather small, in fine weather
meals were served in the sun-parlor; one medium-
sized table cut in half, made sideboard and serv-
ing table. This was managed by placing the half
of table against the wall, the two legs in front, and
adding a third leg at the back. These two pieces
were painted to match chairs.
One large kitchen table was used in sun-parlor,
sometimes as sideboard and sometimes as stand
for books and magazines. To increase its useful-
ness a shelf was added, about two feet from the
floor. And to give it the appearance of a side-
board, a board, a foot in height, was fitted to the
top, against the wall. In a large dining-room it
would be advisable to use this instead of the half
table. Half tables made desks for the living-room
and each of the bed-rooms. A row of pigeon-holes
was added for convenience.
Those dear little bedrooms were as beguiling
and dainty as any one could wish for. Beauty and
comfort were given the occupant and a special fea-
ture was, that while each room had its own color
scheme they were all the lovely delicate shades
of Sweetpeas and when standing in the hall, which
was almost square, and glancing about at the bou-
quet of colors, it was like being in a garden, and
a beautifully harmonious garden at that.
Upstairs was left the natural color of the wood.
176 DOING YOUR OWN PAINTING
The walls were of wood not plastered. And the
stairs leading to the second floor were also kept in
the natural wood. A door shut off this stairway
so that its color did not clash with the grays of the
first floor. The rag rugs used for the upper hall
and bedrooms were very like the green foliage of
sweet peas and the thin, deep cream sash curtains
toned in with the new wood and were made of
the cheapest quality cheese-cloth. (If you buy any-
thing but the cheapest quality the texture will be
wrong. What you want is a filmy look and not a
too evident screen at windows, so buy that stringy,
open weave.)
Dark blue window shades made it possible to
shut out the morning sun and when not actually
needed were rolled to the top, out of sight.
The beds in all of the rooms were exactly the
same and of wood unfinished. In color they
matched the walls and wood-work. In order to get
them this way it was necessary to have the dealer
order them unfinished from the factory. If the
owner of this cottage had decided to paint the bed
and chairs in each of her rooms one of the dainty
shades of sweetpeas and then enamel them
(enamel makes it possible to easily wash off finger
marks), she would still have ordered the beds un-
finished. In this case the color was provided by
the straight lengths of plain gingham used for
curtains over cream cheesecloth sash curtains, and
for bedspreads.
Our advice would be if you, in your cottage,
PLATE XIX
ANALYSIS
ONE END OF A FURNISHED PORCH
This end of a furnished porch shows a willow lamp for
reading or playing cards. It seemed necessary to use
two plates for furnished porches in order to give the
reader full information as to what can be had for use
in this department of her home. Those furnishing coun-
try clubs or hotels in hot climates may gather ideas from
what is given here.
A NOTE ON WALL-PAPERS AND WINDOW SHADES
Wall-papers are easily had to make the correct and
beautiful background for every style of furnishing;
plain papers, chintzy papers, dignified stripes and pan-
eled effects. You can get absolutely pure style period
papers. Just ask your dealer to order what you want.
WINDOW SHADES
If you live in a house—not apartment—have all the
window shades alike. This is a safe rule for apart-
ments, but if yours is on a court you may safely use
different shades in each room. They should be neutral
in color not to upset your color scheme in room. Try
making your own shades of glazed chintz. If you paint
and stencil designs on your window shades use plain
curtains. This work is well paid for.
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T)OING YOUR OWN PAINTING 179
want to paint beds dainty sweetpea colors, then
stain your walls and woodwork light gray and
use pure white sash curtains.
With painted furniture any attractive chintz is
charming. Or if you prefer, use China silk, the
solid colors or a white ground with figures. If
you use China silk at cottage windows this one set
of curtains is quite enough.
Match-boxes, candlesticks, tin cake baskets, Salt
and pepper pots—of tin—and your watering-can
for porch flowers, can all be painted by you to
suit your taste and your color scheme. We advise
beginners to confine themselves to the prepared
paints on sale everywhere. Mixing paints and
combining colors is for those who have some
knowledge along this line. Later, when you have
mastered the simple methods of putting on the pre-
pared paints, it is easy to find teachers to take you
who are ambitious and perhaps talented, still far-
ther in this field.
When shopping, if some particular bit of infor-
mation you need cannot be given you by the sales-
man in charge of your purchase, ask for the head
of the department, and you will usually be saved
a time- and money-wasting mistake. Colors are
tricky things! Remember that in getting colors
together in a room the rule is birds of a feather
should flock together! In other words, keep to
soft shades in one room and to the brilliant shades
in another—if your taste is for brilliant color—-
but do not make the mistake of mixing the lovely
180 DOING YoUR own PAINTING
faded notes with the startling, exciting ones and
by so doing destroy your harmony and produce
an atmosphere of lawlessness—the lawlessness
which disturbs all who enter the room, even those
who could not tell you why they dislike the re-
sults of your efforts at decoration.
If you are painting a piece of furniture to go
with some that is old, and therefore an attrac-
tive soft shade which is the result of time with its
varying atmospheres and dust, experiment and
see if you cannot by a little clever manipulation
of the paint, so new and bright, get exactly the
shade desired. Painters of pictures and fine furni-
ture know how to make these effects of old paint.
They call it “antiquing.” To go into this branch
to any extent is to lead you into by-paths requir-
ing expert knowledge and it is better to confine
our remarks to the perfectly possible and trust
to the intelligent readers feeling their way, and
as they gain in confidence, seeking expert advice.
CHAPTER XXII
IBIOW TO STENCIL
STENCILING is the kindergarten of decorative
painting. It requires no knowledge of drawing
and any little child can be shown how to do it.
Which does not in the least mean that there
are not different grades of stenciling. There is
the rudimentary sort the children do on wet days
when kept in the nursery and there is the artistic
variety which we have all seen on very beautiful
curtains, lamp shades and other furnishings.
A stencil is a thin sheet or plate of metal, card-
board or some other substance out of which a
design, letters or numbers have been cut. One lays
this plate or stencil board on the object to be deco-
rated and then draws over it a brush saturated
with paint or ink. The table, chair, silk or velvet
receives the color through the cut out parts of
the plate. Gold or silver paint as well as colors is
often used. g
If you wish to use two or three different colors
it is possible to buy a set of stencil boards in
which one will be solid all but the stem and leaves
of the vine; another solid all but the grapes, and
a third solid all but the wicker basket which holds
the fruit. The same design is on each of the
181 -
182 HOW TO STENCIL
plates, so that the parts of the pattern fit perfectly.
We then take the vine and leaf plate and use green
paint, oils; the grape plate and use purple paint
and the basket plate and dip a brush in the gold
paint.
Result a gilded wicker basket holding purple
grapes with stem and leaves of green.
If you have stenciled a border or only a few set
designs on a table cover you have made of some
light shade of silk and you decide that the back-
ground of silk is too light in tone for the colors
of design it is a perfectly easy thing to change the
background and not injure the paints. Simply
buy some Diamond or other dyes, make a solu-
tion in warm water and dip the silk cover until
you have the right tone, then hang it to dry with-
out wringing out. The oil paints are not affected
by the water in which dyes are dissolved.
Any Department Store has stencil boards for
sale and many designs from which to choose. In
some of these stores it is possible to take lessons
in stenciling from teachers trained at Schools de-
voted to the arts and crafts.
The first lessons are usually given on simple
one color designs to decorate parchment paper
lamp or candle shades. But it is as easy to begin
on a painted tin fruit dish which you can buy un-
decorated, or a piece of furniture. :
If you find, after using the designs which you
can buy in the shops, that you want something
quite different, trace off a design that pleases you
HOW TO STENCIL 183
from a magazine, book or poster; transfer it to the
stencil board which can be bought without design,
and then carefully cut out the pattern, always
remembering to leave the tiny “bridges” which
are necessary to hold together the cut out parts.
To be perfectly clear as to what we mean get
one of your ready made stencil boards and exam-
ine it closely before launching out on your original
Venture. -
If you know something about painting you will
be able to touch up your stencil work and add very
much to its effectiveness.
An excellent example of how one can get attrac-
tive results by stenciling furniture we saw re-
cently. It was in a bedroom in a delightful farm-
house made convenient for the summer home of a
family with young people. The farm itself had
been sold and only the old and rather worn out
house kept.
The problem presented was how to make it com-
fortable, pretty, and a home the children would
love without running into debt. The children
would love it more if they helped arrange it. This
was the conviction of the mother. There were
countless expedients resorted to but in this chap-
ter we are concerned only with how the mother,
her two boys and her girl, ages twelve to sixteen,
stenciled, after painting an entire set of furni-
ture. It sounds like work but it was regarded by
all who had a hand in it as more fun than anything
they had ever tried to do.
184 HOW TO STENCIL
The furniture they had to decorate was shabby
and hopeless looking—but the shapes were good
and each piece “had known better days l’’
There was a bed, a bureau, a chest of drawers,
a large rocker, three small chairs, a round table for
the center of the room and two small tables, light
and easily moved. The three small chairs were
alike but no two of the other pieces had ever met
until brought together under this roof. The entire
assortment had been bought at country auctions
for small sums because battered, scratched,
handles lost or stolen from bureau drawers and
a rocker missing on the large chair.
First they were assembled and placed in the
positions the owner wished them to occupy. As
it stood the furniture looked like a group of be-
draggled soldiers who had lost their uniforms'
One piece was brown, another oak, a third mahog-
any finish and so on. But the three small chairs,
like faded belles, retained the remnants of beauty
and gave the idea of painting the whole collection
the color these once had been—a lovely apple-
green. The design painted on chairs was pink
roses with green leaves and pinkish-brown stems,
and here and there touches of gold. It had almost
disappeared. This had to be drawn off, trans-
ferred to the stencil board, cut out and, after the
stenciling was done on table tops, fronts of bu-
reau drawers, head and foot of bed, backs of
chairs, lines were painted to outline tables, fronts
HOW TO STENCIL 185
of bureau drawers, etc., in the pinkish-brown.
Then touches of gold were added to carry out the
quaint effect of the old chairs, which were of
course, given a fresh finish.
Before the painting was done a little butcher-
ing was necessary on some of the pieces; for ex-
ample ugly, meaningless knobs were sawed off
the head and foot of the bed; the headboard was
lowered to bring it as nearly the height of the foot-
board as possible; the legs of the small table by
the window shortened so that it would be a com-
fortable height for writing letters; the bureau
mirror removed, its ornate mirror frame and the
supporting uprights discarded and the glass re-
framed in a plain flat frame three inches wide.
This was hung above the “dressing-table” or old
bureau. It was a simple thing to have the missing
rocker made, after which the painting was begun.
It is well to realize that painting lines on furni-
ture takes patience and a very steady hand. It
took odd moments and hours during about three
weeks for this jolly adventuring family to create
a perfectly charming lot of furniture.
When we were shown this room, later in the
same summer, pale pink mosquito netting made
fascinating curtains at the windows; the bed had
an old fashioned, white, hand-woven spread bought
for a song at one of the neighborhood auctions;
lamp shades of parchment paper had borders of
little dancing nymphs stenciled in black ink and
186 HOW TO STENCIL
bands of black at top and bottom of the shades.
Anything more suggestive of coolness in the hot
season would have been hard to find.
Home-made rag rugs were on the floor, which
had been stained by the older son. And the patch
quilts the old American painted furniture called
for, had been given by a woman who had thought
them “out of style.”
There are some important points to keep in
mind when stenciling. In selecting colors be sure
that they all harmonize, the colors of decoration
with each other and also with the background, soft
shades on soft shades and brilliant shades on bril-
liant shades.
Your design must be appropriate for the room
in which it is to be used. Keep your flowers, birds
and fruit for the dining-room; flowers birds and
figures for bedrooms; human figures if quaint and
amusing for the children’s rooms and classic de-
signs from Greek statuary and “reliefs” for the
more formal rooms.
An informal family sitting-room (town or coun-
try), or sun-parlor, calls for a cheerful gayness of
flowers and birds in color.
Curtains are interesting to stencil and one feels
repaid for the effort because they meet the eye on
entering a room. If colors are well chosen sten-
ciled curtains can give great style to an otherwise
characterless room.
If you own faded fawn or gray curtains of silk,
velvet or wool rep, you can dye them black and
How TO STENCIL 187
stencil a broad border in gold. We have seen this
done with great success.
Dull pink rep curtains look charming if a broad
border in gray is used. But the beauty of your
curtains depends upon the sort of room they are
hung in; other things such as style of furniture
and general character of decoration, must be con-
sidered.
Blue butcher’s linen can have borders, top and
bottom, of gay parrots done in reds, emerald green
and orange. These for a young boy’s room will
prove decorative and diverting when the curtains
are drawn and lights made.
A baby’s playroom we know has white China
silk sash curtains with borders of animals stenciled
in black ink.
Table covers planned along the same lines as
curtains are attractive if used in the proper places.
If you know something about painting you can im-
prove the flowers by touching them up. Flowers
need shading.
CHAPTER XXIII
DoING ONE’s own DYEING
FoR our purposes, effects in interior decoration,
where we do not expect to wash what we have dyed
nor expose it to the sun, it is not necessary to
boil materials in the dyes. Simply make a solution
in hot water, of one dye or several mixed together
to get the color and shade wanted. After testing
the color with a bit of the same material or some-
thing similar—silk for silk, cotton for cotton, wool
for wool, one goes ahead with the dipping of
the curtains, bed cover, or whatever it is that you
want to change the color of. The oftener the
article is dipped, the more dye it takes up and the
darker it will be. Do not let your things lie in the
solution, if you do they will be streaked and
spotted because the dye settles to the bottom of the
tub or basin. So keep the things you are dyeing
always moving and do not wring them out. Press
out as much of the liquid as you can; this prevents
creasing your articles. Hang to dry out of doors
if possible, and in the shade if the sun is hot.
You can absolutely transform your rooms,
everything in them including lamp shades already
made, with a few dyes. Here is a case of a young
woman who made a highly successful job of her
- 188
DOING ONE'S OWN DYEING 189
own dyeing. The apartment was originally fur-
nished in soft tones of blues, rose, mauve and dull
magentas, the shades of colors we associate with
lovely old furniture, which by-the-way this “deco-
rator” happened to own. The apartment had
been planned when the fashion for “antique” ef-
fects was at its height and only half tones figured.
But the time came when she tired of her half
tones and longed for brighter shades and then it
was that a very limited income led her to dis-
cover that nothing was simpler than to change the
colors of all her dear belongings and get the cheer-
ing atmosphere she craved. Dyes of the sort
one can buy at any drug store, wrought the mir-
acle. The make of dye is not important if you
find the colors and shades needed.
Our young friend began her experiment with
dipping one of her lamp shades, and encouraged
by what was pronounced by friends a genuine
success, she went on to sofa pillow covers, linen
slip covers for furniture, even velvet portières and
long curtains!
The large shade on her piano lamp every one
warned her not to attempt. It was sand colored
silk lined with pink silk of a very pale shade,
and had expensive, though simple, silk fringe,
showing three colors—the sand color, pale pink
and dull blue. It had been a beautiful shade but
was soiled and shabby now, so our friend mixed
two parts cerise with one part French blue, dis-
solved the powder in hot water, tested the color
190 DOING ONE'S OWN DYEING
with a bit of silk—since her shade was silk—and
into this bath plunged the faded beauty!
When it was dried and exhibited no one would
believe it could be the old shade. The outside
had come out a lovely shade of Jacqueminot rose,
the inside a deep pink, and the fringe continued
as if made to order, with three colors in stripes,
now different shades of the red.
All of the faded tones of blue, mauve and faded,
salmon pink, got a bath of the same color but a
stronger shade, and the result was as if a garden
had suddenly come into bloom after a blighting
winter |
The floor was covered with a gray velvet pile
carpet now dingy and depressing, so off to the dyer
it went and came back a rich mid-night blue.
Even the net sash curtains were changed by
the owner to a now fashionable blue which went
well with her new color scheme.
CHAPTER XXIV
WEIEN YOU MAKE YoUR OWN LAMP SEIADES
LAMP shades are usually the first step in house
decoration. Most women and not a few men have
tried their hand at making them. A lamp shade
of sorts is easily made by any one. A good lamp
shade is turned out by comparatively few. The
word lamp shade explains itself. In selecting our
illustrations we have made a point of singling out
those styles which will be practical as well as or-
namental.
Since everything Oriental has been having a
vogue, lamp shades have been forced into service
to reflect shapes and color schemes characteristic
of that part of the world. It is possible to find
attractive specimens of this type of decoration,
but as a rule it is wise to avoid the sort of thing
that now claims attention in the basements of
some Department Stores. The new shapes range
from lanterns, balloons, pagodas and octagonal
umbrellas to contorted forms not to be designated
by any familiar name! Colour is piled on colour;
ornament on ornament; every material figures
that goes to make up a woman’s evening toilet—
sometimes all on the same shade' We echo the
best decorators when we say that over done lamp-
191
192 WHEN YOU MAKE LAMP SHADES
shades are like over dressed women, they tire one
to look at them.
It is wise for the amateur and most profes-
sionals to remain faithful to the simple, practical
and beautiful shapes in shades familiar to all.
For materials we have a large variety to choose
from. The shape of your lamp shade is supposed
to be in keeping with the character of your fur-
niture.
Always consider where the shade is to be used,
by which we mean can it occupy considerable
space or is it to stand on a desk where its space
is limited? If on a desk use an oblong or oval
shade which does not come forward so much as
the round ones.
Be sure that the shade is the correct size for
the base of your lamp. When ready for use your
lamp must not look top-heavy nor must it give
the appearance of a hat too small for the wearer.
Some amateurs and some professionals make the
mistake of having too much space between the top
of the base and the bottom of the shade. This
looks very awkward and can spoil the appearance
of a room.
If you use fringe or lace on the lower edge of
a lamp be sure that it is the correct width, neither
too narrow nor too wide. You can study the
shades you see in the beautiful houses, best shops
and clubs you visit and make a mental note of
such details. All accomplished people are in a
way self-taught, and you can make great strides
PLATE xx
ANALYSIS
LAMPS AND LAMP SHADES
The shades shown in the plate are numbered.
1. is a lamp useful for many purposes such as read-
ing, to light the bridge table or to place by the piano or
bedside. The shade on this one is of parchment paper
with a neat border painted on it.
2. is appropriate for a man's sitting-room or a family
sitting-room.
3. suggests a woman’s sitting-room.
4. shows a style convenient for the top of a desk where
room is a matter of importance or at the two ends of a
mantelpiece.
5. and 6. are very good for the room of a young girl.
7. we would recommend for a man’s room or the sit-
ting-room in a club. It is also a good style for the liv-
ing-room in a home of some pretensions.
8. is a plaited linen shade. The same style is made
of glazed chintz and of silk put on buckram foundation.
This is a rather feminine shade and best suited to a room
dominated by a woman or in a summer home where in-
formality is the keynote of decorative scheme.
Originals made by Wood, Edey & Slayter, Interior
Decorators, New York.
: º +3 kugel * º
@) New York Gallerieſ . . . -
=<<rent Raptos turn, a
* “g’
LAMPS AND LAMP SHADES SHOULD BE SELECTED WITH THOUGHT
/
cº
WHEN YOU MAKE LAMP SHADES 195
in your new effort if you will cultivate this habit
of observing carefully those things which you ad-
mire.
Fortunately the simple, really beautiful lamp
shades, which never go out of fashion, are the
easiest to copy. What materials you use depends
upon the room in which you will use the lamp.
You have to choose from paper, parchment paper,
crêtonne, chintz, silk, satin and chiffon to use over
some other material, glass, china, metal, and wil-
low which is appropriate only in rooms or on
porches where willow furniture is used. Do not
forget that your lamps are expected to figure as
notes of decorative color and to be kept in har-
mony with the general color scheme of the room
as well as with the character of materials used
in the room. Never use a very handsome lamp
in a room furnished with simple, unpretentious
things, and never use a simple, crudely made lamp
in a room where everything else is rare and finely
made. It is important to have harmony in quality
as well as in color and shape of decorative fur-
nishings.
All lighting fixtures or lamps whether for elec-
tricity, gas, oil or candles are important items
in your decorative scheme. Do not overlook this
when selecting a room, flat or house. If you want
to have a simple, unpretentious home which is
really beautiful see to it that lighting fixtures and
lamps are “in the picture.”
There are “seven ages” in lamps as there are
196 WHEN YOU MAKE LAMP SEIADES
Seven Ages in Man. We refer to color and type
of decoration. There is the simple, straightfor-
ward lamp shade, the kind that goes well almost
anywhere, and there is the ultra feminine one;
the strictly masculine “businesslike” shade, the
young girl’s favorite and the flashing, modern
sort that looks well only in a room done in the
same “key” as to color and style of furniture.
The most useful shade can be made to look at-
tractive. Consider your eyesight when selecting
materials and colors. Is it to be a lamp shade for
a room in which some one must read, write, sew,
dress, or is it simply to soften the light where
people talk?
Shades for lights used when playing cards are
to be planned with care. Remember to place
lights so that every one can see his own hand
and cards on the table. Appropriate is the
idea here as in every branch of house decora-
tion.
Your young people will like gay, happy colors
such as pink and American Beauty (rose) yellow
of sunshine, and warm orange. Mature women,
over the early twenties, like softened effects, such
as old rose, mauve (that lovely pinkish lavender
shade) or even white, if arranging rooms for their
special use. Over colored silk a deep lace flounce
is used and squares of various colored silks, with
a hole cut out in the center, are dropped over
lights. These can be weighted with fringe or glass
WHEN YOU MAKE LAMP SELADES 197
beads sewed to the corners. Chiffon is used in
the same way and we have seen these “veils” very
long and giving great style in certain modish
rooms where other furnishings were the kind that
follow closely every passing fashion.
Men nearly always prefer simple, not very per-
ishable shades for their lamps, so that the light
can come through and cheer up the room. For
reading a man will be happy with any shade which
allows a good light to fall on the book or paper
in hand. But it must not be too feminine in color
if it is the man’s own room. An important point
to remember is to see that no fringe casts shad-
ows on his reading matter.
There are intimate and formal colors; jolly and
sedate ones. A lamp can cheer or depress a room.
It is not such a very simple matter either to de-
cide upon the material for each of your rooms.
You will find by experience that there are rooms
in which parchment shades look best. This is
especially true if there is a good deal of silk and
chintz used in curtains, cushions, etc. The simple
lines and decorations of the parchment shades
rest the eyes fatigued by details.
In making your paper or parchment shade after
decorating the outside be sure to tint the inside
a cream with some pink or yellow in it. This will
add to the warmth of the room, give it “atmos-
phere.” -
A silk shade must be lined if you would success-
198 WHEN YOU MAKE LAMP SHADES
fully screen the bulb when lighted. The best color
for lining is a pale pink if it goes with the color-
ing of the shade. If not, try a soft yellow. A
lined shade always has more elegance than an
unlined one, and repays one for the extra trouble
it costs. -
Fringe and the “moss” edges and gimps used
for finishing off the top of shades and the head-
ing of fringe, give an opportunity for color ef-
fects. If the lamp shade is of a solid color the
fringe may be the same or in one, two or three
colors provided one of the colors in fringe matches
the shade. In choosing colors for the lamp shade
remember you are restricted by the color scheme
of the room. -
A shade made of figured crètonne or brocade
or any combination of colors needs a plain or one
tone fringe. Select for fringe the color you wish
to have dominate in your room.
Now to begin the actual work of making the
shadel Know exactly what it is you want before
you start out to buy frame or materials. It is
fatal to the success of the shade and your pocket-
book to be vague as to plan of action.
Frames may be bought in Department Stores as
well as in shops which make a speciality of them.
In many Department Stores lessons are given in
how to make shades. If you have in mind a parch-
ment shade these can be bought already mounted
on the frame. The beginner should buy mounted
WHEN YOU MAKE LAMP SHADES 199
shades, because the mounting of a parchment
shade is a very neat job and the first one or two
are apt to go wrong. However, you can easily
master the art if you are not impatient. All ma-
terials for making these shades are on sale in
the stores, and if you want to stencil a border
or other decoration, books giving designs are sold
where the materials are.
If you know only a very little about painting
it is possible to stencil the outline of a design
and then paint in the flowers or whatever you
have to paint. Parchment shades tinted any color
you like—the lighter the color the more light you
will get into your room, decorated with bands
of color painted on, each band differing in width,
for variety, and then the whole varnished make
lovely and practical shades. An “antique” effect
can be had by making the varnish dark.
You can buy a parchment shade not attached
to a frame which, when decorated, you simply
drop over it. Or if you become expert, you can
buy parchment paper, cut your shades any size
and form you like, and after you have decorated
them, fasten them together with small “pins”
which come for the purpose.
The usual shapes for this variety of shade are
the always-good spreading shade or the “Em-
pire” style, also spreading, but with the top of
the shade nearly as large around as is the bottom.
These look well with Colonial furnishings. They
200 WHEN YOU MAKE LAMP SHADES
take their name from the period when Emperor
Napoleon I. reigned in France. .
Before undertaking the making of any lamp
shade be sure to carefully examine the “model.”
you intend to copy. Keep the model in hand or
in mind while making your first attempt. -
For any woman who has made a hat, trimmed
and lined it neatly, the work of sewing a silk shade
will not be so difficult. Neatness is the great
thing. A lamp shade must be “ship-shape” for
it catches the eye at once, if it is, as it should be,
an interesting note of color in your room.
What are the colors to be used in your room?
That is the first thing to be considered. These
limit your choice for colors in lamp shades.
You answer, “How can I say? The coverings
of furniture are of chintz, the background of it
gray and the design of flowers and birds in mul-
berry, blue, soft green and a deep rose. The
over-stuffed chairs, a big sofa and the cushions
in the gray wicker chairs are chintz covered. My
curtains are plain mulberry rep and the sash cur-
tains of deep cream marquisette.” -
Good enoughl You have told us exactly what
we require to know in order to give you the ad-
vice you seek. In this room you have described
as to color scheme, you should use rose colored
shades. - * -
When you have a chintz or a brocade from
which you are selecting your colors for shades,
WHEN YOU MAKE LAMP SHADES 201
never, unless you are an experienced decorator,
experiment with blue and green shades. These
two colors are depressing and call for real skill
if they are to be interesting additions to your
room. As a practical shade for a reading lamp
one in dark green silk with quillings of the same,
top and bottom, has style.
If your taste is for very modern colors and
you happen to be using crêtonnes which have a
mustard colored ground with dragon-flies, butter-
flies, and tall swamp grasses in greens, turquoise
blue, terra cotta and black, let your shades be of
light terra cotta lined with palest pink, if they
are silk. Yellow lined with cream will also be
good in this room.
What we say of lamp shades applies to shades
for candles and all electric fixtures.
If you do not want to make or decorate your
shades when first beginning your home-making,
it is possible to buy an endless variety ready made
in the Department Stores and smaller shops.
We have seen paper shades imitating parch-
ment paper and sold under the same name, with
good, simple and really attractive decorations in
black or colors at the Five and Ten Cent Stores.
In selecting candles get the plain, undecorated
ones, and those not twisted. Fancy candles are
not homelike. -
We show a large variety of lamp shades, plain,
shirred, plaited like a fan or accordion, and in
202 WHEN YOU MAKE LAMP SHADES
many materials. The shades are all described for
the assistance of those wishing to use them as
models.
SUGGESTIONS FOR LAMPS AND LAMP SHADEs
Standard of wood painted tan. Shade made of
chintz with tan ground and a design of red roses
with green leaves and black stems. A gray-blue
shown in chintz is repeated in silk fringe used on
shade—a fringe of solid gray-blue. This scheme
makes the shade harmonize with a gray-blue room.
A narrow line of black edges the top of the shade
and heads the fringe. For table or desk.
Table lamp. Lilac pottery base and shade of
taffeta with wide strips of lilac and narrow stripes
of green and tan. Lilac silk fringe.
Bridge lamp. Black iron stand touched with
dull gold on the simple decoration in the form
of leaves. Shade which suspends over the table
is of parchment in a beautiful French blue. The
decoration of shade is a narrow band of dull gold
leaves, painted or stenciled.
Standing lamp for a man’s room. Any stand
preferred and shade of “sun-fast” in green-blue
with mauve fringe. Dull gold “studs” half inch
in diameter outline top and bottom of shade and
are placed at intervals of two inches. They ap-
pear to fasten a finishing braid to shade.
Young girl’s lamp. Soft blue pottery vase, with
WHEN YOU MAKE LAMP SHADES 203
shade made of sash ribbon so used that the stripes
run around the shade. Colors are blue like the
lamp, brown and tan. The fringe shows the same
blue, brown and tan.
The very spreading, shallow lamp shade use for
tables or as standing lamp is usually covered with
brocade or damask in one or two colors, and fringe
matches one or both colors.
Plaited linen shades are made of plain colors
on which a decorative border is painted or sten-
ciled. Crétonnes or chintzes are attractive made
into plaited shades.
For a man’s room some of the severe paper
shades with simple design painted all over or
bands of color to harmonize with the color of the
room are very popular. Some of the large and
striking designs are stenciled. An orange shade
with a design in black is good for country house,
club, or hotel and is good to read by.
A very handsome shade for a living-room is
made of striped paper highly varnished. The
colors are a broad stripe of tan, and a group of
narrow stripes showing green, terra cotta, white
and black. At the top and bottom of the shade
is a border of black which is so put on that the
stripes in the paper give the impression of “linen
folds.”
For an old lady nothing could be more suitable
than a chiffon plaited shade in some color to go
with her room. A lovely combination is apricot
204 WHEN YOU MAKE LAMP SHADES
chiffon with a narrow line of Indian red top and
bottom and the narrow flounce,—very nearly
straight, of the apricot chiffon edged with narrow
line of the pinkish red. Try borders of wall-paper
for shades varnished after making up.
CHAPTER XXV
TREATMENT OF MANTELS-YOUR FIREPLACE
PROFESSIONAL decorators call the mantel the key-
note of the room. They include in the term “man-
tel” not only the ornaments placed on it and their
manner of arrangement, but your fireplace and
andirons. So go about this part of your interior
decoration most carefully. It is wise to concen-
trate first on the clock or other ornament you in-
tend using on the center of the mantel shelf. Let
it be sufficiently important in size and beautiful
in shape and color for the position given it. Nat-
urally the ornaments on your mantel should be
in the same style as your furniture and in a color
that harmonizes with the color scheme you have
chosen for your room.
For example, if you are furnishing a simple
summer home with the simplest furniture and
using Indian blankets with jolly, gay colors, on
your floors, let the ornament which occupies the
center of your mantel be also Indian in character,
—pottery or metal, simple in shape and crude in
style of decoration. As ornaments at each end of
the shelf, use a pair of pottery vases or other
205
206 TREATMENT OF MANTELS
material in the same character as the center orna-
ment.
If you are furnishing with dainty painted furni-
ture in the style of the Directoire or Louis XVI,
then be sure that your mantel reflects the same
period. For the amateur it is well to limit him
or herself to only three ornaments on the mantel
until it becomes perfectly clear in the mind what
kind of mantel decoration each room calls for.
If candlesticks are used on the ends of your
mantel one of the beautiful, highly colored china
parrots or a cockatoo in yellows will look attrac-
tive in the center.
It is no longer considered in good taste to use
framed photographs on your mantel, and the
crowding of it with many little souvenirs of travel
or card parties is in the worst possible taste.
Above everything, this rule of the trained deco-
rator should be insisted on, for if it is not, and
confusion be allowed to reign on the mantel no
amount of careful placing of the furniture and
correct hanging of appropriate pictures can give
to the room the stamp one associates with intelli-
gent house furnishing.
Too much emphasis can not be put on the value
of having your fireplace, mantel and ornaments
used on it absolutely in character with your room,
and the simplicity and restfulness, which to-day
must characterize every room, proclaimed by the
arrangement of the mantel ornaments.
TREATMENT OF MANTELS 207
Having selected for each mantel what you know
to be beautiful and appropriate ornaments—three
in number, add to the interest of the room by
using each side of the clock or whatever occupies
the center, some small object, that is a pair of
lovely colored glass bottles (Early American,
English, Bohemian or Venetian). If you have
used a clock in the center, and a vase at each
end, it makes an attractive mantel to use a pair
of lovely bronzes, gay china birds smaller than
the vases at the ends of the mantel, or dainty re-
productions of antique statuettes.
Be sure that the second pair of ornaments used
on your mantel is much smaller than the end pair.
Nothing makes a mantel look so stupid and un-
interesting as to use three or five ornaments of
the same height.
As a decoration over the mantel use a mirror,
or one large picture. Hang the picture so that
the ornaments on the mantel do not interfere with
the decorative effect of the picture itself. That
is, do not treat a picture as mere background for
the ornaments
YOUR FIREPLACE
When possible have an open fire in your rooms.
In a sitting-room nothing so humanizes it as a
glow from wood or coal on the hearth. Avoid
gas logs, they always increase the inhuman, arti-
208 TREATMENT OF MANTELS
ficial atmosphere of any room. We often see in
fireplaces one or two gas jets which are used both
alone,—to keep up the semblance of a fire, -and
in combination with real logs of wood. The idea
is one of economy—less wood is needed to get the
effect wanted—and it does away with the neces-
sity of kindlings. When used in this way a few
scorched logs of wood are arranged in the fireplace
not touching flame, and it must be acknowledged
that as a modern expedient, it has its advantages
and sometimes it takes a very sharp eye to dis-
tinguish between the gas flame and a burning logl
If you plan using a grate of any kind, try to
find one which is in keeping with the style of your
furniture. A very simple grate will look well
with any style, but if you are using furniture
which is Early American try to find a grate such
as was fashionable in those days. Franklin
stoves (or movable open fireplaces) can be had
at shops where such things are sold and it is often
possible to get the veritable old ones at second-
hand shops.
If yours is a simple open fireplace and your
need is for fire “dogs” or andirons, these should
match in style the period of your furniture. Co-
lonial rooms take Colonial andirons, Empire
rooms, Empire andirons, Louis XVI rooms and-
irons of that style, etc., etc.
Highly glazed tiles in any color or pressed brick
make unattractive fireplaces. Natural colored,
rough bricks and stone make good fireplaces for
TREATMENT OF MANTELS 209
country homes. In cities, unless one builds one’s
own home, it is usually necessary to take what one
finds, but let it be said that the average apart-
ment house built within the last twenty years is
decorated simply and in good taste.
CHAPTER XXVI
MIRRORs. VARIETIES YoU CAN MAKE
MIRRORs are a very important part of house fur-
nishing. They not only serve when making one’s
toilet, but can be so cleverly hung that they make
a narrow hall appear wide and a very small room
larger than it is. They “push out the walls” and
entirely alter the appearance of a house.
If you can afford to buy interesting looking
mirrors which in shape correspond with the
style of your furniture, your problem is not
a difficult one, but for those who have limited
means buying mirrors means a large slice out of
what must buy all the furnishings. For these
home-makers we advise measuring the space the
mirror is to fill and then ordering that amount of
mirror glass. At the same shop you can select
picture moulding used for making picture frames,
and order a frame put on your glass. The man
who does this for you will also secure your mirror
to the wall wherever you wish it “hung.”
The character of your room will dictate the
type of frame you select. It can be gilt, silver,
hard wood or painted. We know an apartment
210 -
MIRRORS 211
furnished with Empire furniture in which all the
mirrors have been made in this way. Empire,
gilded (very dull) mouldings surround the glass
and make the mirrors a part of the decorative
scheme. One of these mirrors hung above the
mantel and reflected too much of the light ceiling,
so the upper half of the glass was covered with
a painting on canvas, also Empire in character.
Be very careful about what your mirrors reflect.
A mirror can improve a room and it can spoil it.
If you have inherited (or bought) an old-fash-
ioned pier-glass, the sort that our grandparents
or great-grandparents hung between windows—
reaching from floor to ceiling, you can remove a
too ornamental frame and get a simpler one which
suits your home.
If you are so fortunate as to own one of these
old pier glasses with a simple gilt frame, the same
all around, try hanging it the long way. If on
a wall facing windows it will bring light into your
room, giving the appearance of other windows.
Antique shops, the little ones around the corner,
away from main streets, are excellent places to
find old mirrors of the kind we have described.
In rooms having old furniture, the old style of
mirrors look best. Unless you want to use your
old mirror to dress before, do not have the quaint
old glass taken out and modern glass put in its
place. Very old glass has a character of its own
and collectors value it highly. But do not let any
212 MIRRORs
dealer sell you a mirror which is an imitation of
an old glass, with discolorings made by man, not
time! Better by far a modern glass.
Mirrors, like open fires and books, humanize
any room.
CHAPTER XXVII
Your PICTURES—DECIDING WHAT TO BUY, FRAMING
THEM, HANGING THEM. JoDLY HOUBS SPENT
IN SECOND-HAND SHOPS. BUYING Good PICTURES
WIEIICH ONCE HUNG IN MANSIONS.
IF you own no pictures and know nothing about
them yet want some to hang in your new home
the safe thing to do is to buy good photographs
of fine “old masters,”—pictures you are familiar
with and like. Have these framed with no margin
showing, in the passepartout method—glass with
narrow black tape binding.
Colored prints look best with narrow black
binding, but if you own black and white prints
that you have inherited or bought in some old
shop or at an auction, have a colored binding,
rather wide, to match the color predominating in
your room.
If you own family portraits which are not im-
possibly bad as paintings, take off the heavy, or-
nate gilt frames, usually so massive that they
eclipse everything else in your room, and use a
narrow, simple wooden frame. You will find that
to aim at expressing simplicity in your home is
the quickest and surest way to give it the stamp
of distinction.
213
214 YOUR PICTURES
Never try to buy oil paintings if you know noth-
ing about them, for you are apt to get misled
and burden yourself with some valueless “white
elephant” to be sent to the first rummage sale.
Educate yourself by buying one picture at a time
and after consulting some one who really knows
pictures. -
If you find that a picture does not suit the room
it hangs in take it out. Better to have bare walls
than to have wrong pictures.
A rule to remember in buying pictures for your
home is that the subject of each picture should
be appropriate to the room in which it hangs.
Naturally “collectors” of pictures are not re-
stricted.
If the picture has color be sure that it har-
monizes with the other colors used in your room.
Your intention being to decorate, pictures and
everything else should have decorative value.
One really beautiful and choice picture “deco-
rates’’ far more than a number of unimportant
pictures.
We have seen an unattractive, disturbing room
given an air of charm and restfulness by taking
every picture off the walls! In such a case the
wrong pictures were the whole trouble.
In selecting picture frames keep in mind the
style of your furniture. If you select a “period”
frame never buy an ornate expression of that
period. Since it is pictures you are considering,
let the picture count and do not swamp it with
YOUR PICTURES 215
a frame of too great importance. A narrow, per-
fectly simple moulding of black, mahogany, gilt,
silver or white, as the case may be, will be far
more successful than fancy frames and prove that
you understand this important principle of deco-
ration. *
If you own a good engraving, woodcut or etch-
ing with a white mat showing, hang it in a room
where the other pictures have white mats. Other-
wise the one white mat makes an ugly white spot
in your harmonious scheme of dark tones.
When you hang your pictures see to it that they
are on a line with the eye, and if the pictures you
plan to hang on the same wall space vary slightly
in size, be sure that either the tops or the bot-
toms—preferably the tops—are on a line.
If you own miniatures and silhouettes, hang
them in groups, the miniatures together and the
silhouettes together, and on different walls of
your room.
Preserve the balance of your rooms by hanging
the picture which occupies any space in the middle
of that space. When there are several pictures
on one wall the largest one occupies the center
of the space.
JOLLY EIOUBS SPENT IN SECOND-HAND SEIOPS–BUYING
GOOD PICTURES WHICH ONCE HUNG IN MANSIONS
Be quite certain before you start out to buy
pictures for your rooms that you know the sort
216 YOUR PICTURES
that are going to best fit in with the scheme of
decoration you have chosen. Do you want colors
or black and white pictures,-engravings, etch-
ings or prints? Is the need, so far as color goes,
for a few old paintings dark in tone? In any
case the subject must suit the character of your
I'OOIſl.
For men's rooms good colored sporting prints
are cheerful and interesting. For women’s rooms
engravings with attractive subjects, dainty, old-
fashioned colored prints of women in quaint cos-
tumes of the picturesque past, and paintings of
flowers—charming arrangements against dark
backgrounds,-are appropriate and now very pop-
ular.
For your halls, library, dining-room or man’s
room handsomely furnished, use some of the now
fashionable “architectural” old paintings. These
show buildings, usually ruined buildings, as they
were painted in foreign countries where pictur-
esque ruins abound, hence the name they go by.
Reproductions of this style of picture are often
well painted, and of course much cheaper than
originals. -
Remember that most estates are settled by turn-
ing some if not all the household furnishings into
money for the benefit of heirs. It is only natural
therefore that some good pictures should escape
the very watchful dealers. Be as clever as they
are and so save the middle man’s price! You can
learn to do this.
YOUR PICTURES 217
The beginner buys because the picture looks
attractive as to color and subject. If you have
no knowledge of pictures take some one with you
when buying, some one who really knows a little
about pictures.
You will sometimes find modern pictures in old
shops. It is more dangerous to buy modern paint-
ings of an inferior quality than it is to buy in-
ferior old pictures for the reason that Time
softens colors and gives a certain attractive qual-
ity, whereas the new picture seems to shout at
one in a loud voice, telling every one of its faults!
One does well to avoid modern paintings found
in second-hand shops unless the artist is known
to be good. This advice is of course for begin-
IlêTS. -
We have elsewhere suggested framing photo-
graphs of your favorite great masters. These are
appropriate in almost any room if the subjects
are carefully chosen.
Family portraits, if well painted, look well in
living-rooms, libraries, dining-rooms and halls.
If bedrooms are small they are apt to give a
crowded appearance. Keep the walls of your
bedrooms as light and airy looking as possible.
CHAPTER XXVIII
ON THE SELECTING OF CHINTZEs AND CR£ToNNES FOR
CERTAIN ROOMS
CoLoRED, stamped cotton and linen showing deco-
rative patterns suitable for use in house furnish-
ing are called both chintzes and crètonnes. Cor-
rectly speaking, chintzes have the smaller pat-
terns, usually floral, on the thinner, lighter weight
materials. Crétonnes are the thicker, heavier
weight material. You will find that the large
manufacturers and importers make the above dis-
tinction, but some of the small dealers will tell
you that they have no chintz; only crêtonnes, and
when the goods is brought out you will find that
they have kept the word “chintz” to designate the
more expensive quality, using “crétonne” for the
thinnest, lightest and least expensive. So when
shopping in small places, if they say they have
no chintz, ask for “crétonnes” and see what hap-
pens.
We get the word crétonne from France, where
it is used to mean all printed cottons and linens
for house decoration. The word chint2 comes to
us from England, and the English got it from
India. Hunter, in his book on “Decorative Tex-
tiles” (J. B. Lippincott & Co.), tells us that
218
CHINTZES AND CRFTONNES 219
‘‘chint” means “painted Indian calico.”
“Chintz” is said to be the plural. It is a Hindoo
word from the Sanskrit “chitra,” meaning
“many-colored.” The English got the word with
the Indian painted cottons and linens they im-
ported in the 18th century. -
The French also got their first ideas of this
material from specimens brought from India and
Persia, and at one time called them indiennes and
persiennes (Indians and Persians). The ancients
painted their chintzes. .
Glazed chintz is a specialty of England, where
the re-glazing of it is understood and a matter
of no great expense. The process of glazing is
called “calendering.” We are told that ma-
chinery for doing this was brought to the United
States from England several years ago, but re-
sults were not satisfactory. The glazed variety
of chintz has a charm all its own, and it is to be
hoped the time will soon come when its use here
will become practical for those with small means.
We are now designing and manufacturing
chintzes and crètonnes in our own country. They
are to be had in beautiful and harmonious colors
and interesting patterns to suit every taste and
style of furnishing. We are, however, by no
means independent of the French and English
goods of this class, as the reader will find when
shopping.
It is interesting to know that in England and
France the original wood blocks and copper plates
220 CHINTZES AND CRETONNES
used in the 18th and early 19th centuries by the
giant artists in this field are still in use. It is
because great artists were designers of the most
beautiful textiles in those days that we go on
reproducing them and encourage our own young
designers to get their inspiration from these
“classics.” There is no getting away from what
is termed “foreign” because artists require mod-
els or standards to work by. It has always been
so, as we have seen in the case of styles in furni-
ture. It will always be so. Our Early American
furniture, before the Revolutionary War, reflected
the styles prevailing in England at the time be-
cause the makers of our early furniture were
Englishmen who had settled in New England. So
did our Colonial chintzes echo English designs.
Trade is the snow plow which opens up routes
by which the arts move from country to country
—and when once this interchange of art is started
there are endless influences which find expression,
but these seldom destroy the “classic” standards
of beauty either in shapes or designs. Color
schemes seem equally classic, the wild interludes
of startling effects in color being used with un-
conventional and unclassified shapes and there-
fore not in any way upsetting the traditions of
art.
Look carefully at the best chintzes offered for
sale in the best shops, and, when buying, choose
as nearly like the best as can be found in the
quality you can afford. It is the habit of ob-
CHINTZES AND CRETONNES 221
serving and remembering colors and designs
which are unmistakably beautiful that makes the
“educated decorator.” And remember that if
some patterns were not really better as design
than others, they never would have survived the
passage of years and thousands of other efforts.
It is never lost time to look at beautiful things.
It is the men and women who have seen and un-
derstand the genuine art in the world who can
pick out the right cheap chintz from among many
in a country store and turn it into fascinating cur-
tains and other furnishings. Look at the best
art and you will gradually absorb the principles
of art. One of these is appropriateness.
If when shopping for cotton chintz or crêtonnes
you see linen which you admire but cannot afford,
ask if they have not got cotton crêtonne woven to
look like linen. It is beautiful material.
Do you admire the novelty of Batik effects? If
so you can now buy the same idea done in cotton
crêtonne for furnishings. It is suitable for stu-
dios and sun-parlors.
Are the chintzes you like appropriate for your
rooms? This is a question far more important
than the beginner in decorating realizes. A chintz
or a crêtonne which is in itself beautiful can be
utterly thrown away as far as beauty of effect
goes if used in the wrong room.
It is most entertaining to classify the lovely
materials according to their design and their
colors. (Their sex and their ages!) After get-
222 CHINTZES AND CR£TONNES
ting into one’s mind the character of the room
to be decorated, one feat in elimination is ac-
complished. If you are buying chintz or crêtonne
for a man’s room, it must be in a general way
masculine in gender, so wave aside all the dainty,
fussy, feminine patterns, and those which at a
glance suggest grandmother or the baby’s nur-
sery. We are talking about the average man,
the business type, when we say that for rooms
designed for his special use, whether as bed-room,
library, smoking-room, office or club, it is safe to
choose not too glaring colors, not little fussy pat-
terns and not fragile-looking material—fragile
in quality nor colors. A man’s crétonne or chintz
may have any colors, but subdued in tone so as
to be restful in effect to the eye. You can put
more color in a man’s bed-room than in his sit-
ting-room, and for library, study for serious work,
club or office two-colored, low-toned material is
often the most “masculine” and satisfactory, if
the design be sufficiently large and therefore im-
portant, for the size of the room.
The patterns and colors for grown-ups should
also look “grown-up.” The baby’s room must
have a chintz as jolly and young as he is. The
young girl will like something very “modern,”
or, at any rate, very different, because she has
not reached the age where change has terrors
for her. She adores the new and the untried,
and so for her is the passing novelty!
For the simple room in a dear, beloved old
PLATE XXI
ANALYSIS
THE SUN-PARLOR
There is very little difference between the so-called sun-
parlor and the furnished porch when it comes to furni-
ture. The porch is outside the house proper and the
sun-parlor a section of the inside of the house proper,
strictly speaking. As the sun-parlor is exposed to sun
and more fresh air than the rest of the house (owing
to the very desirable big windows so often thrown open
at all seasons), durable furniture, floor coverings and
upholstery are most essential here. A popular covering
for the floor of a sun-parlor is linoleum made in black
and white squares to imitate a marble floor. This is
easily kept clean and cannot be damagº d if one gets
water on it when caring for growing plants—one of the
essentials when decorating this part of your home.
To serve its purpose your sun-parlor must be on the
south or east side of your house.
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CHINTZES AND CRFTONNES 225
farmhouse with old-fashioned furnishings of no
particular style, just “not bad,” as to the effect
they produce, very dainty, inexpensive chintzes
with colors suggesting country flower gardens are
always safe as a choice and, because not expen-
sive, easily renewed. If in such a room you put
very striking hangings with brilliant colors and
dashing designs, the old and sometimes faded fur-
niture will be put in an awkward position; it will
be thrown entirely “out of the picture” and
everything will have to be changed unless you
take down the too “noisy” new hangings. Re-
member, it is harmony in effect you aim to get.
Reep your chintzes and crètonnes in the “key”
of your room.
One cannot over-emphasize the importance of
selecting figured materials with two points ever
in mind: for whom is the room intended, and
what shapes and colors are already in it? One
then goes farther and asks for what use is the
room being planned and what tones—shades of
colors are already in it?
In these days of economy, forced and “fash-
ionable”—crètonnes have been promoted to the
dignity of brocades, in a sense. That is, rooms
in which only brocades or heavy silks, satins and
velvets were formerly used are to-day very fre-
quently decorated with handsome but far less
expensive crêtonnes. Many of us can remember
when chintzes and crètonnes were kept to bed-
rooms. To-day, as after the French Revolution,
226 CHINTZES AND CRETONNES
printed cottons and linens are the fashion because
the “fashionables” no longer have unlimited
money to spend on their homes. The few who
have, as in the other post-war periods, refrain
from appearing reckless. So again printed cot-
tons and linens are to the fore and in such a pro-
fusion of lovely color schemes and patterns as
our forebears never dreamed of.
If you are arranging a tea room, restaurant,
country club or rooms in a private house, let
magnetic crêtonnes and chintzes assist in the
drawing power of the stage you are setting.
Colors can cheer or depress. No one wants to
spend money if depressed, so in a room planned
especially to put in a good and generous mood
those who are “paying guests” it is an open
secret to cast a spell with winning and joy-making
colors and designs. For the would-be gay, large
birds and flowers, if not too “set,” give the at-
mosphere desired. -
CHAPTER XXIX
window OURTAINS-SOFA PILLOWS
WHAT your curtains shall be depends on what
your home is like, your own preferences and which
of these you can afford. Fashion, of course, plays
a large part in everyone’s choice and the shops
both make and reflect fashion. It takes the com-
bination of designer, factory, seller and buyer to
“create” the fashions from year to year. What
we prefer this year will not necessarily be what
we are going to insist on next! But more now
than formerly, every one, rich or poor, buys with
an eye to practical usefulness and what we call
‘‘permanent beauty.” -
There was a time when one could say with de-
cision, “These curtains are for winter, those for
summer, but limited incomes, the curtailing of
certain factory outputs (due to the war and en-
suing labor troubles), and fashion, which always
pretends to want what it can have—ignoring those
other things—have made crètonnes and chintzes
as well as sunprufs, desirable the year around.
For those who can afford them and prefer tra-
ditions of elegance, there are silks and satins,
plain and brocaded, and wonderful velvets both
domestic and foreign makes. But these are ap-
227
228 WINDOW CURTAINS
propriate only in those homes where a corre-
sponding elegance is maintained throughout the
entire scheme of furnishing.
SUMMER, CURTAINS
In summer when windows are open and dust
flying in, the housekeeper who watches her pennies
takes down her long, heavy curtains and net or
scrim used for sash curtains, and puts up instead,
short curtains of sunpruf or China silk in a color
which tempers the light for the eyes. Only one
set of these short curtains is required and they
are hung on rings so that it is easy to push them
back and let into the room any passing breeze.
Sometimes two sets of these short curtains are
hung one above the other, and since this enables
one to draw back one set and not disturb the other,
it will be seen that the arrangement is most con-
venient.
Sunpruf is for short, undraped curtains. It is
too thin to treat with any degree of formality.
This material comes in “shot taffeta” effects and
stripes of different colors. It is well-known in
plain pinks, greens, yellows and two-toned effects.
Taffeta is used for both winter and summer but
only in homes where expense is not a matter of
importance. It comes in lovely decorative shades
and is used for both short and long curtains. If
short, trim them with little dancing ruffles. They
are of all curtains the most feminine!
PLATE XXII
ANALYSIS
DIFFERENT WAYS OF DRAPING WINDOWS
Style 1 and 2 are suitable for cottages of a very simple
sort, bedrooms in apartments or nurseries.
Style 3 is more strictly “period” than the others
and suggests the time of Louis XVI when bow-knots
were among the favorite decorative motives. This sort
of drapery is best in a reception room done in the same
period, a woman’s room, or one used by a young girl.
It does not suggest the rooms most used by a family
nor a man's room. It is too “dressy.”
Style 4 is admirable for either a family sitting or
dining-room or a man’s room. In the drawings, the pro-
portions are not quite correct. It will be seen that the
valance is too deep for the length of curtain. This style
of drapery is always simple and comfortable. You can
really draw the heavy curtains at night and shut out the
cold winds.
Style 5 suggests a room used chiefly by a woman.
Two tiers of sash-curtains, one above the other, will
be found attractive in small houses and apartments where
economy is of first importance. If you make these of
colored China silk it is not necessary to have any other
set of curtains over them. Such curtains are fascinating
in silk gauze or pale shades of taffeta silk.
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SUGGESTIONS FOR DRAPING YOUR WINDOWS
WINDOW CURTAINS 231
When buying material for curtains be sure that
it is wide enough to allow for sufficient fullness.
If it is not extra lengths will be needed. Nothing
is more damaging to the appearance of a care-
fully planned room than wrong curtains.
SOFA PILLOWS
Make your own covers for sofa pillows. This
is the best way to insure simplicity. Most of the
very spotty or very shirred, puffed, ruffled or
trimmed “ready-made” pillows will spoil any
room they are used in.
Remember that primarily a sofa pillow is for
use, so in this day of fashionable simplicity it is
required that every sofa pillow look as if it could
be used as a rest for the head, back or some other
part of our anatomy.
Pillows give an opportunity to get lovely color
and fabrics into a room and you may make them
as beautiful as you will if you keep the materials
consistent with others used in the same room, and
remember that the back of a pillow may be differ-
ent in material and color but never different in
quality. That is, if your pillow is silk do not use
a cheap cotton or woolen material on reverse side.
Both sides must be of the same class of material.
We recently saw, at a much-discussed sale of rare
household furnishings, a velvet pillow with back
of linen in the same shade of red. Such a blunder
is difficult to understand.
232 WINDOW CURTAINS
Avoid novelties in shapes for your pillows. It
is good taste to cling to the normal squares, ob-
longs and round shapes.
Use variously colored, figured pillows on your
plain sofas and plain pillows on your chintz or
brocade sofas. By this method you make both
furniture and pillow count as decoration.
If you use chintz or brocade for pillows see that
it matches the other chintz, crêtonne or brocade
already used in room. This is an important point.
Summer sofa pillows should be washable as to
covers but embroidered linen and lace belong in
Women’s rooms.
CHAPTER xxx
BEAUTY AND HOME-LIKE ATMOSPHERE MADE POSSIBLE
WITH CLEVER USE OF SUBSTITUTES
THose who saw it, will never forget a certain fas-
cinating little apartment belonging to a young
American couple who were living in Paris while
the husband completed his studies in architecture
at the greatest school for that profession in the
world—Ecole Des Beaux Arts.
There were three rooms and a kitchenette. One
of the three was a bed-room, one a combination
of sitting and dining-room and the third, next
kitchenette, a tiny room intended for the maid,
these Americans turned into a bath-room. Water
had to be carried from the kitchenette but no mat-
ter, there was the English tin tub to fill and com-
fort was there at small expense.
But it is beauty we are speaking of now and
how that was captured at Small expense, for these
young people needed their “all” for necessities.
The man was a Harvard graduate and he had
married a girl who, luckily for him, knew that to
work well one must be happy and that to be happy
one must be in an atmosphere of comfort. For
this more is needed than beds, chairs and tables.
It is necessary to make a “picture” or effect of
•. 233
234 HOME-LIKE ATMOSPHERE
comfort which is also beautiful. See what hap-
pened 1 Two days after they moved into the wee
apartment the young husband returned from his
lectures late in the afternoon and paused on the
threshold of his living-room thinking he had got
into the wrong place! The change was astound-
ing. What was it? He gradually took in the de-
tails. It was curtains and table covers that did
the “trick.” At the windows, before screened
with only thin muslin, hung sunshine-yellow cur-
tains over the white; curtains with dancing little
ruffles of the same yellow put on with a narrow
band of black that served as a patch does to set off
her beauty, on a pretty girl’s cheek. The black
emphasized the yellow. On the table that held the
lamp and books was a table cover of the same
lovely yellow. Around this, instead of the ruffle
a wider band of the black. Nothing could have
been smarter. The same black band held the cur-
tains back.
On the table was a large bowl of some cheap
kitchen ware (in blue and yellow), made for the
use of peasants in Brittany. This was filled with
inexpensive blue garden flowers bought in the
flower market. A smaller but similar bowl stood
on the mantel with the same flowers and was re-
flected by a mirror bought for a trifle at a second-
hand shop.
The bed-room was equally successful, done in
very bride-like pink and lavender. Window cur-
tains of pink with little ruffles of lavender; bed
HOME-LIKE ATMOSPHERE 235
covers the same as were bureau and table covers.
In the days which followed those honeymoon times,
the husband was given his rightful masculine set-
ting, but he cast no cloud over the charming
achievement of the bride in the early months.
His dressing-room was the bath-room where the
curtains were of apple-green over barred muslin.
In the kitchenette hung delft blue, straight cur-
tains at each side of the white muslin. These and
the blue and white oil cloth on the tables really
invited one to come in and make something! No
maid was kept in this little home.
It has seemed worth recording this tale of cur-
tains, etc., because the “textiles” were all of
crêpe paper! Curtains, bed covers, table covers,
and dancing ruffles, these by the way were made by
smoothing out the crêpe effect between two fin-
gers. You have all done this at one time or an-
other. “Not durable,” you will object. No, not
so durable as the far more expensive materials,
but more satisfactory in this way than one would
expect, and so easily replaced at any moment.
Paper curtains and paper bed and table covers
graced that exquisite little home for more than
a year. Then affairs brightened across the sea
and more money came to them, so crêtonnes were
used.
Finally student days ended and the architect
began his career in his own country, but as no
little ones arrived to fill the wife’s hours, she de-
cided to try her hand at making the homes of
236 HOME-LIKE ATMOSPHERE
others “home-like.” That industry, which in the
student days became a joyous habit, eventually
carried her into the great stream of women in-
terior decorators, and a very successful business
has resulted from her first efforts at creating a
home atmosphere for her young husband. Crêpe
paper curtains have found a place in cottage and
flats and single rooms of students in colleges.
Did you ever hear of stretching blue denim
over a floor as “filling” and then laying on it
attractive rugs? We know people who have done
this in cases where a small cottage or flat was
taken for a summer or winter and it was necessary
for the happiness of the occupants, to get an at-
tractive home-like effect at once.
Newspapers can be used as ‘‘padding” under
your filling and rugs placed where the most wear
comes makes this denim floor covering last much
longer than one would suppose.
Measure your floor, find out the width of dark
blue denim, calculate the length of strips needed,
cut the material and then sew the lengths together
with a machine or by hand, “over and over.” It
is important to draw the denim as tight as pos-
sible when tacking it in place.
One house in the country where this floor cover-
ing was used was a wee cottage in a mining dis-
trict. A young man and his wife were obliged
to use it as their home while he transacted busi-
ness in connection with the mines. The floors
were terrible. Rough uneven boards and with
PLATE XXIII
ANALYSIS
A SUGGESTION FOR A HALL
This hall is in a small house as you imagine. It is
large enough to serve as a sitting-room if a neighbor
calls when bridge is going on in the living-room. There
is a fireplace with a cheerful blaze and before it a small
Chesterfield just big enough for two to sit and have
a chat. A screen shuts off the draught from the stair-
way and a small table with a reading lamp and a maga-
zine and one or two books make any waiting visitor
Content.
SUGGESTION FOR A HALL IN A SMALL HOUSE
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HOME-LIKE ATMOSPHERE 239
stains beyond redemption. The couple were
young and had just begun home-making and did
not want to spend their money on a “temporary”
home. The denim was perfectly satisfactory for
their need at that moment in their careers.
Have you ever tried using celluloid instead of
glass over pictures? It does not break, is much
lighter and therefore requires only a very small
frame which reduces the cost. The slightly
“toned” effect to the picture, resulting from the
creamy tinge of the celluloid is in some cases an
advantage.
The sheets of celluloid come as large as 25
inches.
If you are fond of carrying some of your pet
pictures about with you when traveling it is not
a bad idea to use celluloid instead of glass.
This idea occurred to some one who had seen
old maps preserved in this way. Architects and
other draftsmen often use celluloid over drawings
on account of its lightness for handling by them
and their assistants.
Have you ever had the problem to face of so
arranging your bed-room that it could serve as a
sitting-room in which to receive friends? This
can be done in an inexpensive and most attrac-
tive way if one knows how to go about it. Let
us Suppose that you want to use the furniture you
have but are willing to spend a little money “to
freshen up” the general appearance of the room.
You recognize good interior decoration when you
240 HOME-LIKE ATMOSPHERE
see it and it is a little of this sort of thing that
you long to get into your own particular corner
of the house you live in.
You say that you can entertain your friends
in the family sitting-room but that being one of
a large household, there are times when it would
be very nice to be able to take your young women
friends to a place quite your own and indulge in
an intimate “chat.” A wee sitting-room of your
own, that is what you long for Very well, you
shall have it by so furnishing the bed-room that it
serves the double purpose.
You now own a brass bed, several arm chairs
of different styles, a chest of drawers and an old
fashioned, not interesting, but rather ugly bureau
which is a distinct blot—one you can not draw the
attention away from.
Let us begin on that bureau. Call in an inex-
pensive carpenter and have him remove the mir-
ror from the bureau proper and then take the
glass out of its too fancy frame. Have the mirror
framed very simply and hang it above the bureau.
The frame of the mirror must of course match
bureau in color. Be sure that you do not mix
painted furniture and natural wood. Keep all in
the same color. Hang mirror long ways.
Now for the brass bed! You tell us that noth-
ing can be done to make it look less bedlike. But
we can help you here. In the first place if there
happens to be another bed exactly like yours you
can do what we saw done in an hotel room. That
HOME-LIKE ATMOSPHERE 241
is, two foot boards were used in the room to be
converted into a sitting-room, while the two head
boards did very well for one who used the room
only for sleeping and dressing. This exchange
gave the bed the appearance of a “day-bed” or
couch and with some chintz, the transformation
was complete. Slip covers were fitted over the
brass ends of the bed, a bed cover was made of the
same material and a flounce arranged to extend
from box-spring to floor. Most ingenious of all
were the two large rolls, one at each end of couch,
into which the pillows used at night were put !
You may know that these rolls are for sale in the
shops and that you can cover them with material
to suit your rooms. In the case we speak of the
clever young woman made her own rolls' She
took two very large pie-plates and some heavy
card-board, fastened these together, leaving the
space at the back of the rolls for inserting pillows
during the day, and covered the whole so neatly
with the crêtonne that one was certain some ex-
pert upholsterer had done the job!
Even her choice of crêtonne is worth quoting be-
cause it was both beautiful and serviceable. The
ground was black and the design of foliage and
birds, in pinkish violets and grays. The wall
paper was gray with a pink cast—no design—and
the floor covered with a carpet of midnight blue.
The chairs were made to look the same shape,
more or less, by using the crêtonne slip covers and
rep curtains of the pinkish-violet hung at the win-
242 HOME-LIKE ATMOSPHERE
dows over white net. The lamp shades were a
lovely pink and the flowers used in the room were
pink and jonquil yellows and forget-me-not blues
which enlivened the whole effect.
Should you be unable to get a foot board in
exchange for your higher head board, another idea
is to have feet put on your boa;-spring and with the
mattress on it, to treat it as a divan, which in fact
it is 1 In this case you would use sofa pillows in-
stead of the rolls.
CHAPTER XXXI
PEwTER As DECORATION; FACTs of INTEREST TO THose
WHO OWN OLD PEW TER
THE foundation of pewter is pure tin and most of
it has some lead combined with it. Other alloys
are copper, bismuth, antimony and even silver.
The French word for pewter—étain—means tin.
Now that interest in pewter for practical uses has
been revived and modern pewter in beautiful, sim-
ple shapes offered for sale, we find much discus-
sion of the story of pewter as ware for domestic
purposes as well as rare specimens for collections.
If you are so fortunate as to own old pewter do
not make the mistake of trying to have it count as
decoration in a room where other objects of more
fragile character are displayed. If allowed to
make its own effect in an appropriate setting,
nothing is more lovely than the soft, gleaming,
gray color of old tankards, plaques, candlesticks,
porringers, tea and coffee sets, etc. We recall an
interesting collection of old pewter seen in quaint
Chelsea, London. The owners had arranged a
Jacobean dining-room to frame their pewter, and
because allowed to serve as the only decoration of
the room, the lines, color and “texture” counted
to great advantage.
243
244 PEWTER AS DECORATION
In looking from the frieze of large plaques on a
narrow ledge at the top of brownish-gray walls
to the rows and rows of plates in a big plate rack
over the low Jacobean sideboard, and then at sus-
pended tankards of varying shapes and sizes, this
pewter seemed to be a necessary part of the room
furnished with sturdy old black oak.
Those interested in pewter can find delightful
books on the subject which tell of the ancient Pew-
ter guilds of Paris, London, Flanders, Germany
and Switzerland, a story which actually goes back
to ancient Greece and Rome. In the Middle Ages
pewter became a chief industry, because then it
was a household necessity in the average home.
Silver, then hand-made, was used only by royal-
ties and the nobility. But pewter was made in all
of the beautiful shapes and decorated after the
manner of silver. In the 14th and 15th centuries
France led the pewter world. It was the famous
Paris Guild of Pewterers that set the standards
for the London, York, and Edinburgh guilds.
There were wardens who inspected the output of
the guilds and in quality some claim the London
guild led.
The American Pewter age was before the Revo-
lutionary War, and the center of that colonial
pewter industry was Boston.
The art of making pewter as it was made in the
great days of the guilds, may be counted as an
almost lost art, for only a few continue—in re-
mote corners of Europe—to carry on the classic
PEWTER AS DECORATION 245
traditions of this interesting trade. It was our
very good fortune to meet and really know, one of
these artist-pewterers the only one of which
Switzerland can boast. The creations and repro-
ductions of Charles Moriggi of Vevey (Switzer-
land) are known to collectors the world over and
if our readers visit Vevey we urge them to see him
in his diminutive foundry and shop, where from
morning till late in the evening he sits at his wheel
to trim and polish (after moulding) his beloved
pewter. -
Modern pewter, similar in alloy to the old ware,
is generally machine-made and known both here
and in England as ‘‘Britannia” ware.
Every museum has its collection of pewter from
various countries; this is very useful when study-
ing the subject. If you become familiar with the
different shapes and styles of decoration making
your own collection will not be difficult. In plac-
ing your pewter in your home remember to give
it an appropriate setting—a room furnished as
when the pewter was originally used but never try
to make pewter combine with other ornaments of a
more delicate character. This is fatal!
If you own old pewter you may want to know
how to care for it. We suggest removing spots
caused by neglect during a long period of time,
with a paste you can make by mixing cigar ashes
and whiting in equal parts, with ammonia. Apply
this with a rag, rub briskly and let it remain until
dry, then dust off with an ordinary brush such
246 pEWTER AS DECORATION
as is used when cleaning silver. Polish as one
does silver, with a chamois cloth. Pewter which
is in perfect condition may be rubbed off two or
three times a year with an oiled rag. At other
times merely dust. Modern, machine-made pewter
comes in beautiful, old-fashioned shapes. If you
collect old, pewter the “marks” stamped on it to
indicate quality and maker will interest you.
CHAPTER XXXII
TEIE ART OF SIEIOPPING
YoU know what you want to buy for your home
and you have the money required. You carefully
prepare a list of the articles needed and this seems
to you to be all the preparation for your shopping
expedition any one could ask. But the profes-
sional decorator will tell you that there are in this
“game” certain rules which if followed give the
buyer double the value for money spent. We
would give as the first and most important rule
for shopping the careful preparation of your list
and as the second rule a conscientious sticking to
your list until the articles on it have been bought.
It is by observing this second rule that the expert
shopper saves time and money. -
If you are buying crétonnes, chintzes or bro-
cades for your rooms wear imaginary “blinders”
and keep on walking past the counters which show
table linen. First get those things you came for;
this is good “technique,” there is something clean
cut about this method. If you still have time left
you can return to the linen counter, or making a
note of what you saw in passing, you can add linen
to the next day’s list. You may remind us that
the lovely thing not seized on the spot is often
247
248 THE ART OF SHOPPING
lost; that someone else gets it the moment you have
left! This sometimes does happen but on the
other hand, stop and think how many times the
“bargain” snatched up, the article bought in
haste and not on our list, turns out to be a “white
elephant” which goes with nothing else we own.
Never buy materials for curtains or furniture
covering without first trying at least a yard of the
goods in your room. Sometimes you will find
the design is not what you expected and very often
the color is altogether different when hanging at
the window, from the small bit examined or even
the whole piece as displayed in a strong light at
the shop. Be very sure that you know whether the
room you are furnishing requires something sheer
which allows the light to come through or a thicker
material. We have seen the mistake made more
than once, of buying sunpruf and making it into
curtains to find that when hanging at windows,
the lovely effect of color and lightness was com-
pletely lost because the room was a shaded one.
To look at its best, sunpruf should hang at win-
dows having a great deal of sunshine. We know
of two cases where pink and green proved com-
plete failures, though the sunpruf in the hand
was quite beautiful. So always try your textiles
in the room in which they are to be used. You
may have noticed that interior decorators work
with large samples—a yard or more—so as to
avoid the mistakes of the amateurs.
THE ART OF SHOPPING 249
If one gets the habit of carefully thought out
lists and sticking to them when shopping, it is not
long before the mind works this way. It is then
that you can claim to have mastered the art of
shopping ! And it is no exaggeration to say that
you will have doubled the value of your allowance
for house decoration or any other needs.
We give as another rule to follow when shop-
ping; that you should concentrate on the purchase
of the moment. By this we do not mean to dawdle
over your decisions for this method wastes your
time and the time of the salesman or woman.
Any shop encourages the patronage of those who
know how to shop because goods sold to them is
pretty apt not to be returned or exchanged.
Master the technique of shopping and your
room, flat or house will look immeasurably more
attractive than the home of the man or woman
who buys at random, the attractive but unrelated
treasures which beset the path of the one who has
time and money to use carelessly.
It is best to try lamp shades in your rooms be-
fore deciding on them. Pictures too are to be
tried before paid for. The light they must hang in
often quite changes their appearance and deco-
rative value.
As you gain in experience you will be able to
visualize your rooms (see them in your mind)
and soon you will shop with confidence and few
mistakes. That shopping for others has become
250 THE ART OF SHOPPING
a profession proves the truth of our claim, that
this human effort, like all others can become of
economic value.
In making lists it is not a bad idea to put in
one line necessities and in the other luxuries.
If you are buying furniture be sure that you
carefully measure the spaces you expect each
piece to occupy. And take samples with you for
colors and texture. It is often disastrous to trust
to memory.
Use your imagination when furnishing. By this
we mean sit down in the room you are furnishing
or refurnishing, and try to visualize it with the
new furniture and hangings you plan to have.
Imagine the room cleared of all objects and with
your imagination put into their places each piece
that you have decided to get. Acquire the habit
of mentally moving your things about in order
to place them so as to have a balanced room,
balanced by the distribution of large or permanent
pieces and a human room made to look lived in
by the sympathetic grouping of light and easily
moved chairs and tables. This is exactly how
your professional decorator goes to work. Use
the same method—imagine your room completed;
this gives you a plan for action and something to
hold you steady when shopping!
CHAPTER XXXIII
A SUMMING UP OF OUB SUBJECT
IF asked to name the leading characteristic of
house furnishing to-day any one who has given the
subject thought will promptly reply “It’s great
simplicity l’” -
If a second question is put “How does this
simplicity affect you?” Those with the power to
analyze their own sensations and express them in
words will say “The modern simplicity in house
furnishing rests and cheers me!” Restful it cer-
tainly is l Compare the straight lines or simple,
beautifully curving lines of draperies to-day with
those elaborately hung and draped Victorian win-
dow curtains of our grandparents. Look at the
quiet shades in our plain or very simply figured
carpets and recall the great medallions with their
glaring roses which sprang at one from the floors
some of us can remember!
Think of our soft, comfortable over-stuffed
sofas and then of those hard, slippery, unrelent-
ing affairs with contorted backs—the haircloth
variety. To be sure we still meet haircloth in at-
tractive colors used appropriately on dining-room
furniture, but the old black haircloth went to the
garret long ago with the immense cases of wax
vegetables and fruit and the stuffed birds !
251 -
252 SUMMING UP OF OUR SUBJECT
Life to-day is, for most of our men and women,
nervously active. This is why we long for bodily
comfort in our homes and colors which rest our
eyes and nerves. Doctors will tell you that colors
have a decided effect upon the nerves.
Clever men and women wishing to make a suc-
cess of places arranged for the entertainment of
the public have employed professional decorators
who understand how to produce the atmosphere of
cheer and “good times” and yet use the simplest
of simple furnishings, costing little money. It is
the work of these decorators we ask you to study
in passing. Our book explains what they have
worked out. Try it in your home. You will dis-
cover that our rules help you to get a winning
quality—a magnetism—never associated with the
more elaborate, formal or “set” house decoration
of our grandparents or should we say our great-
grandparents?
Simplicity in connection with house decoration
means getting an effect which is as “natural” as is
possible when one is dealing with “art” products.
To illustrate exactly what we mean, take the cur-
tains in the average modern home: these are
now allowed to fall in straight lines or, if looped
back, they are held with simple bands of the same
material or some contrasting color which appears
elsewhere in the room. Simplicity dictates that
these bands be left plain save for a rosette of the
same color or a decorative knob or “button” which
corresponds in style with the furniture you have
PLATE XXIV
ANALYSIS
SIMPLE CORNER CLOSETS
There are many styles of corner closet; we give two.
Have your carpenter build them into the room and your
painter make them the colcrº of the other wood-work.
Paint the inside of the closet some brilliant color used
In the color scheme of the room and varnish it. This
gives you a striking background for any china or glass
you keep in the closet. Now have the electrician put a
light in ceiling of the closet out of sight but so placed
that when you throw wide open the doors (painted to
match inside of closet) your decorative china is illumi-
nated and counts like a picture in your room. For this
decorative effect use china of solid colors, old-fashioned
luster ware, or old colored glass. White china with the
ordinary sorts of decoration will make no effect of color
and only give your dining-room the appearance of a
pantry. Some of the colored pottery now used for
tableware is decorative as to color. Experiment with
our suggestion and vou will soon be able to get an effect
you find sympathetic. Chinese red, deep Chinese blue
or an Oriental deep yellow make very smart back-
grounds. A green of the emerald sort if full of life is
“becoming” to some china and glass.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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