May, 1913 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



187 



decorative in a long wall-space than a bookcase, or a set 

 of built-in bookshelves, filled with brightly bound volumes? 

 With a good brown photographic print hung low over the 

 bookcases, and perhaps a bit of brass or pottery on top of 

 it, one will find that the space has been successfully decorated 

 and needs no further adornment. An open fireplace with its 

 well-chosen andirons, shovel, tongs and other furnishings is 

 a thing of beauty, the very heart of a room, and requires 

 few other accessories to add to its attractiveness. The 

 library table with it sbook-ends, shaded reading-lamp and 

 writing paraphernalia is decorative enough when furnished 

 with only these necessary articles and requires little more. 

 I know of an architect who always makes a point of omit- 

 ting the mantelshelf in the interiors which he designs, be- 

 cause he has seen so many of his rooms spoiled by filling 

 the mantelshelf with family photographs and treating it 

 as a general catch-all. This, of course, is a case of extreme 

 treatment, as certain things properly belong on the shelf if 

 a room is not to have a formidably formal aspect. How- 

 ever, it is the abuse of the shelf to which we refer. 



Pictures and such objects as are purely decorative have 

 not been included in this article, as they are like one's books, 

 and it is rather difficult to state any definite rules governing 

 their selection. Our houses will be better places to live in, 

 if we will depend for our cheerful and homelike effects 

 upon the objects with which we must of necessity surround 

 ourselves. 



It must be understood that one's plea for an unconfused 

 arrangement of the lares and penates, one does not 



mean that all objects should be excluded except those which 

 create formal adornment. Uninteresting indeed would our 

 houses be if they were to depend wholly upon the principle 

 of maintaining the first aesthetic effect of convenience and 

 simple approving order planning. To make our house in- 

 teriors attractive we require more than ornamentation and 

 decoration applied by theory. We must gather around us 

 the things that stand for little informal surprises. But 

 such things should be chosen for their lasting qualities and 

 not as movable space fillers. In other words, every object 

 in our houses which is displayed, should possess some in- 

 trinsic interest, not only the interest of association which 

 may be brought forth by pointing it out, but the interest of 

 intrinsic beauty. Bearing this in mind, we will banish vases 

 of modern fabrication, turned out by potteries whose sole 

 existence is for dollars and cents brought by ceramic in- 

 dustry and in place of these obstacles to cultural progress, 

 we will have their place taken by things that are beautiful 

 in themselves, whether the products of yesterday's master- 

 crafts-man or the product of the sincere and earnest crafts- 

 man of to-day. It is not a large expenditure of money that 

 makes an artistic home. I have seen interiors furnished with 

 the simplest kind of chairs and tables, suggestive of the 

 Mission type, which possessed an air of distinction and good 

 breeding not found in more pretentious houses, because 

 artistic values had been appreciated and good taste governed 

 the selection of the furnishings. Our interiors should be 

 "honest" if we wish them to reflect the personalities of 

 the occupants and stand as a criterion of their culture. 



This apartment is an example of proper restraint in the selection of its decorative furnishings 



