256 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1905 



Massachusetts Bay in " American 

 Notes.") 



It is, therefore, with some grate- 

 ful sense one turns to the out-and- 

 out American dining-room exempli- 

 fied in Fig. 3. Of course Fig. 9 is 

 our choice, by long odds ; but one 

 may tell when these dining-rooms 

 are clean, which is more than can 

 be said of Fig. 8. Even the artistic 

 woman will clean when she won't 

 cook, though she likes it no better. 

 The big drop light over the table 

 looks a bit terrifying, but it may 

 not be so in operation; and I have 

 seen much prettier door heads. 

 Beauty has no formula?, nor is the 

 word " simplicity " a safe word by 

 itself for the decoration of a home, 

 because there are so many people 

 who can not distinguish between 

 good simplicity and that which is 

 bad — in fact, positively ugly. Great 

 artists, architects and musicians are 

 often unable to distinguish between 

 inspiration and mediocrity in their 

 own work, hence all the disappoint- 

 ing productions of otherwise great 



talent. They can not tell the difference so easy to us who 

 receive the impressions. We marvel, but it is a fact. 



Now, the dining-room we present in Fig. 4 is an extremely 

 simple one, but not a pretty one, like we have in Fig. 9. It is 

 too like a cell in its proportions: the window sills are either 

 unduly elevated or else unduly depressed, while the room is 

 devoid of what we call, in architecture, " features." There 

 is neither chimney nor fireplace visible in the picture, although 

 there may be one, in which case the photographer is to blame. 

 There is no cornice, no chair rail, no wainscot — in a word, no 

 especial character but simplicity; and thus we see that sim- 

 plicity has a meaningless side which is worthless for art 



9 — The Gem of the Collection 



8 — The Hopeless Average Dining-Room 



purposes. We see good dining-room furniture in a poor 

 architectural setting. 



The dining-room shown in Fig. 5 is a much better design, 

 for it has wainscot and cornice and breadth, all unalienable 

 to the successful Colonial dining-room. Then the long win- 

 dow is charming, the mirror and wall painting all right, and 

 but for a few blemishes might rival No. 9. That hetero- 

 geneous collection of plates and placques is very disturbing 

 to the quiet and peace which otherwise reign. 



Be as original as you please in plotting your dining-room, 

 but the originality must be confined within the iron-bound 

 limits of historical precedent, and I have explained why in 



an earlier paper. Don't go in 

 for freaks, although the freaks 

 be, in a way, artistic successes. 

 (See the remarkable painted 

 dining-room from English 

 Country Life, Fig. 7). This is 

 very clever and well carried out, 

 but it is not a dining-room. 



Upon the other hand, don't 

 make your dining-room so 

 strictly a dining-room as to ap- 

 pear a solecism were one 

 to sit in it at other than meal 

 times. That is the " under- 

 done " way of it. Have a little 

 of the living-room atmosphere 

 — some silent invitation, I will 

 call it, to linger after the cloth 

 has been removed — such a very 

 comfortable, all around apart- 

 ment, indeed, that one might 

 wish to tarry at any time with 

 book or even writing materials. 

 Of course, if we were speak- 

 ing of state dining-rooms (from 

 English Country Life, Fig. 6), 

 why that is something else, 

 again; but these principles of 

 home decoration are for Amer- 

 icans of average means. 



