Living, and Other Rooms 



163 



upon. At first, it became the drawing room and bedroom in common, which 

 again destroyed its privacy, until another concession was made, in its subdi- 

 vision, by a screen, into two separate rooms. Even this arrangement failed to 

 give the room the exclusiveness really required of it, but it was not until later 

 that it became dis- 

 tinctly a sleeping 

 room and nothing 

 more. 



Naturally the 

 early bedchamber, 

 being used as a 

 family room, was 

 decorated most 

 elaborately. The 

 bed itself was placed 

 in an alcove, and 

 heavy and rich 

 hangings were used 

 in abundance. This 

 liberal use of drap- 

 eries may have had 

 a practical side in 

 the difficulty o f 

 heating the high- 

 studded rooms of 

 the time. Be that 

 as it may, it is now 

 conceded that such 

 an arrangement is 

 anything but 

 healthy, and it is 

 also generally ad- 

 mitted that such 

 fabric as is used in 

 the sleeping room 

 should be of the 

 washable variety 

 rather than of velvet 

 or the like. Some 

 of the Eastern cot- 

 ton-print goods are 

 excellent in design 

 and stand washing 

 readily. 



In feudal days 



. . / A chamber alcove at Salem, Mass. ; one of the first rendering of the Colonial revival. 



people Slept On the Arthur Little, architect 



A simple chamber showing an excellent, though rather strong treatment of the walls. 

 Wm. and Walter Price, architects 



