January, 19 lo 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



29 



Furnishing the Flat 



By Lilie Hamilton French 

 I— THE HALL 



O ONE need expect to find in a flat, a hall 

 of any architectural importance. It is 

 generally a purely utilitarian affair, at its 

 worst when presenting a long, bare stretch 

 running from a parlor in front to a rear 

 dining-room. Such a hall is always awk- 

 ward, especially when dinners are given, 

 and in its arrangement are confronted the most difficult of 

 all decorative problems. In the halls here shown the passage- 

 way is dark and lighted 

 only from adjoining rooms. 

 The only advantage over 

 those which are oftenest 

 seen, lies in the lay-out of 

 the flat, with the dining- 

 room and parlor opening 

 into each other at one end, 

 the front door at the other. 

 This arrangement gives 

 one an opportunity for con- 

 sidering that most import- 

 ant question of vistas, an 

 impossibility in the narrow- 

 winding way of the every- 

 day flat. 



Vistas include not only 

 the approaches to an object, 

 but the character of that 

 object itself. The eye is 

 constantly at work, and 

 must never be shocked. 

 Not only must it be satis- 

 fied on the way, but it 

 must be made to rest agree- 

 ably on that to which it is 

 led. Take the illustration. 

 Figure 3, showing the 

 doors of the dining-room 

 as open, two front windows 

 facing these. Anyone en- 

 tering the apartment and 

 looking straight at these 

 windows, would experience 

 an uncomfortable sense. 

 The mistress, realizing this, 

 has endeavored to do two 

 things: first, to soften the 



light, not only by curtains but by flowers in the window, 

 changed for the different seasons and always studied in their 

 relation to surrounding colors. Secondly, to break up the 

 straight lines, grouping objects so that while one gets the 

 feeling of composition, one escapes that of a heavy mass- 

 ing. It will be seen that the fireplace breaks the line in the 

 dining-room, Figure 3, the subordinate lines being broken 

 by the uprights placed upon it. In the hall the divan is not 

 presented as an unbroken stretch, as a vase of flowers, on 



Figure 1 — A green and white striped paper covers the walls of this hall 

 and gives an air of refreshing coolness the same as the dining-room on 

 which it opens 



a pedestal, stands at its end. The table in the foreground 

 of the illustration, again, has upright objects on it, their 

 mutual relations having been well studied. Thus, the brass 

 hanging lamp, with its tassel, comes down to meet the palm 

 in the brass milk can, while around it books and flowers 

 break up the flat surfaces. In this way not only are straight 

 lines broken, but a vista is arranged, but without sacrificing 

 the light, as one would have done who used a screen in 

 place of the table, in order to provide privacy to the divan, 



otherwise in full view of 

 the front door. A screen, 

 too, at the end of a vista 

 would have accentuated the 

 upper light of the window, 

 which would be unpleasant 

 and make a special study of 

 that light a necessity. 



If objection is had to a 

 Dutch milk can for a draw- 

 ing-room table, its defence 

 can be urged in a plea for 

 its color, which harmon- 

 izes with the other brasses 

 in the room, especially 

 with the lamp over it, and 

 again in the fact that when 

 the flowers are placed near 

 by, white roses with their 

 green leaves, for instance, 

 the reflections are so pretty 

 that the can makes its own 

 excuses, which most people 

 are glad to accept. 



If one looks at the hall 

 shown in Figure 2, one will 

 see that the same general 

 laws have been observed. 

 As the plain door is ugly, 

 and yet must be confronted 

 by outgoing visitors, it is 

 hung with a picture framed 

 in brass. The picture it- 

 self has its high light accen- 

 tuated, so that the eye is 

 more or less allured. This 

 would not be the case were, 

 say, a photograph of 

 Rembrandt shown, which as a dark object would have no 

 place there. One would instantly feel, too, that the pic- 

 ture had been robbed of its proper dignity, being an object 

 to be studied in tranquility, not to be glanced at while mak- 

 ing an exit. Neither would a mirror do, since it would be 

 deceptive and cause embarrassment to near-sighted people. 

 Books do not rightfully belong to halls, and are only 

 excusable when limitations of space make them a necessity. 

 Here their shelves break up the long lines, and since they 



