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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



September, 1905 



The Household 



Household Decoration: The Man or the Woman — Which? 



!S THE man or the woman the better qualified 

 to design and arrange the matters commonly 

 included under the head of household deco- 

 ration ? The question is, perhaps, some- 

 what academic, since in practical affairs it 

 is not always the person who is best quali- 

 fied to perform the work who obtains it, but the person who 

 gets the job. Yet the matter has some aspects which deserve 

 a brief consideration. 



The plea of the woman as the household decorator by tem- 

 perament, understanding and general fitness is somewhat 

 urgent. It is quite apparent why this should be so. Women 

 live more in houses than men do; that is to say, the average 

 woman passes more of her time within her house than the 

 average man. The woman's affairs are, moreover, house- 

 hold affairs. She conducts the house; she keeps it in order; 

 she arranges the furniture and the decoration; she chooses 

 the bric-a-brac; she selects the colors; most of the objects 

 within the house belong to her or have been personally ac- 

 quired by her. If there is labor or thought involved in any 

 of these things she gives it gladly and naturally. The home 

 is her kingdom, where she reigns supreme — or tries to, which 

 is possibly the same thing. 



Her claim to be the household decorator par excellence 

 rests on these things and on what she regards as a natural 

 intuition to do just what is right, and in the right way, in 

 such matters. It is a claim that can not be roughly pushed 

 to one side. Women are concerned with household affairs, 

 and have more or less taste in such matters, but so few women 



are born household decorators that much study and training 

 are necessary to properly equip one for such work. 



This immediately clears up the whole situation. It is not 

 whether a person be a man or a woman that makes him or 

 her a competent household decorator, but the mental equip- 

 ment that has been gained for such work. It is not sex that 

 counts, but training. It is not a smattering of knowledge, 

 but a great deal of it. It is not intuition — although that 

 often helps, and helps vastly — but downright hard work that 

 has given the decorator adequate knowledge, trained and 

 cultivated his or her taste, and, in many ways, given adequate 

 preparation for the work to be done. 



The time has long since passed when women should com- 

 pete for work because they are women. It is true enough 

 that some women may do better work than some men, but 

 in the fierce competition that now surrounds every occupa- 

 tion of life the question as to whether the laborer is a man 

 or a woman counts, in most cases, for very little. 



The house owner, about to decorate and furnish his new 

 house, need not therefore ask himself if his decorator shall 

 be a man or a woman. The single problem, and the only 

 one to be considered, is whether the candidate for the work 

 is competent. If he regards a woman as likely to be more 

 competent than a man, obviously the woman will get the job, 

 and if she is competent she will give entire satisfaction. If 

 a man seems the better craftsman to employ he will assume 

 the work and await the judgment of his employer as to what 

 satisfaction he may have given. 



It is the workman that counts, not sex, and not nationality. 



Household Charm 



Household charm is the most precious of all household 

 qualities. It is an indefinable, elusive, delicate quality that 

 perhaps every householder seeks to have, and which every 

 one ought to wish to give to his house. It is a quality not 

 measured by cost, for, as a matter of fact, it is quite inde- 

 pendent of cost. Many costly houses, on which great sums 

 of money have been expended, are entirely without charm; 

 while many inexpensive dwellings are thoroughly charming 

 in every way. 



Do not, however, make the mistake of imagining that 

 charm only obtains in low cost houses and low cost rooms. 

 The comparatively inexpensive room on which thought and 

 care, love and interest, have been lavished is more apt to be 

 attractive than a high priced room simply because all these 

 things have gone into its furnishing and arrangement. Richly 

 furnished rooms can be as thoroughly charming as those 

 furnished at less cost, but their charm will be of a different 

 nature, since it will be produced by different materials and 

 in a different way. 



The whole question harks back to one of taste and in- 

 terest. If one has good taste, or consults with a person of 

 good taste, the results are more than likely to be interesting 

 and satisfying. And with good taste must go a complete 

 and very real interest in the work in hand. One must not 

 only know how to decorate, furnish and arrange a room, but 

 one must be deeply interested in the work in hand. 



It is, perhaps, because of this, more than from any other 

 reason, that the room of more moderate cost is more likely to 

 be charming and delightful than the one in which price has 



not been considered. The man or woman of good taste who is 

 about to furnish a house will carefully consider every item 

 of expenditure if the money is to be counted and made to go 

 as far as it can. With ample means there is likely to be a per- 

 sonal indifference to such things. There is always the possi- 

 bility and the ability of changing a room, of rejecting its or- 

 naments if one wearies of them, of altering the color and of 

 moving things about without regard to the money they have 

 cost. Carelessness is engendered, and real, definite personal 

 charm in a room entirely disappears. 



The charming room is the personal room, the room that 

 gives evidence of personal care and thought, in which every 

 object seems to have personal merit, in which the color 

 scheme, the walls, the curtains, the carpet or rugs give evi- 

 dence, as they are thoroughly capable of giving, of personal 

 selection and value. It is thought that produces results in 

 room arrangement, exactly as it brings results in other things ; 

 and unless a room gives evidence of thoughtful care, of in- 

 telligent study, of manifest intent to produce a harmonious 

 interior, it can have no charm, and, at the most, will have 

 only interest of a comparatively slight amount. 



But the effort given to one room must be applied to the 

 whole house. It is a good thing to have one charming room, 

 but the owner who has produced such a masterpiece will not 

 remain content with one achievement. One good room im- 

 plies many good rooms, and many good rooms mean a good 

 house, a house not good in parts alone, but good as an entity. 



This means, therefore, that the whole house must be con- 

 sidered as a single whole. 



