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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1906 



Principles of Home Decoration 



VII. — The Art of Placing Furniture 



By Joy Wheeler Dow 



ITHOUT good furniture and a good archi- 

 tectural setting for it all the art in the world 

 about placing our household goods will go 

 for naught. The two conditions must exist. 

 The furniture must be good, both in work- 

 manship and design, and the architecture of 

 the rooms must be good. 



In the accompanying illustrations, however, Figs. 1, 2, 3 

 and 4 are used to show what happens where one condition or 



I — Good Furniture in a Poor Architectural Setting 



memorable eve of Waterloo, but he was mistaken. But 

 Napoleon's was somewhat of an occult problem, while the 

 elements of good architecture and good furniture, combined 

 as we see them in Figs. 5 and 6, for instance, are quite 

 tangible and readily recognized and noted. Here are two 

 entirely different schemes for a dining-room where it would 

 be quite worth one's while to see whether the arrangement of 

 the furniture could be improved. Marble or onyx clocks 

 and gas-logs are two false notes which ought to be eliminated 



in Fig 6, and then whether we place 

 the chairs about the table or against 

 the wall, as shown, we shall find 

 matters extremely little changed. 

 Fig. 5 is a charming dining-room, 

 and the furniture is admirably 

 placed, with just enough of it; for 

 too much furniture, if Fig. 6 should 

 have too little, is a frequent cause of 

 disappointment in an otherwise 

 creditable interior. Fig. 7. 



Fig. 7 presents a most attractive 

 living-room. The first impression 

 from the picture, perhaps, shows a 

 little overcrowding in its furnish- 

 ings, but, in reality, it is not so, for 

 the room is a large one, is really de- 

 lightful, and is the expression of 

 good taste. The rugs, the uphols- 

 tery and wall-covering are to a de- 

 gree harmonious, and this is height- 

 ened by the white-enameled trim. 

 The two davenports are good, and 

 are well placed, the tables and 

 chairs are excellent, the pictures are 

 well hung, and the fireplace, which 



the other or both are absent. In 

 Fig. 1 we may see the effect of really 

 good, well-selected furniture in a 

 poor architectural setting. In Fig. 

 2 we have just the reverse condition 

 — poorly selected furniture in a 

 fairly good architectural setting; 

 and in Figs. 3 and 4 examples where 

 both furniture and architecture are 

 hopelessly bad. Now, it makes no 

 difference whether we place a sofa 

 here and a chair there in any of 

 these four interiors, there is no use 

 in bothering our heads about them, 

 in fact, other than as negative 

 object-lessons, for nothing we could 

 do now would make them success- 

 ful interiors. The premises are 

 wrong at the start, and the sooner 

 we begin all over again in such 

 cases the better. 



The elements must be in accord. 

 Victor Hugo says in "Les Mise- 

 rables" that Napoleon thought the 

 elements were in accord upon the 



2 — Poor Furniture in a Good Architectural Setting 



