August, 1 9 10 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



IX 



CORRESPONDENCE 



The Editor of Americsin Homes And Gardens desiies to extend an invitation to all its readers to send to the Correspondence Department inquiries on any matter 

 pertaining to the decorating and furnishing of the home and to the developing of the home grounds. 



All letters accompanied by return postage will be answered promptly by mail. Replies that are of general benefit will be published in this Department. 



Problems in Home Furnishing 



CRETONNE BED SPREADS 



A CORRESPONDENT living in Wil- 

 mington, Delaware, has had her at- 

 tention called to bed spreads. "I 

 have always used white jMarseilles spreads 

 and tucked them inside of the wooden rail. 

 Lately, I have noticed that cretonne and 

 chintz are made into spreads and, on the 

 metal beds, they hang over the rail. I am 

 fitting up a guest room in a very unexpen- 

 sive way, and would like your advice about 

 spreads for the two single iron beds. The 

 wall-paper is printed in two tones of light 

 yellow. The windows are both to the 

 north, so I am using a madras in yellow 

 and white for the curtains. The rugs (as 

 suggested some time ago in your corre- 

 spondence department) are placed at the 

 sides and foot of the beds. They are mixed 

 colors with green predominating. The dress- 

 ing table is a home-made affair with a mir- 

 ror framed in white enamel. There is a 

 chiffonier and night stand of white enamel, 

 and a willow rocker like the one illustrated 

 in your June article on Decorations and 

 Furnishings for the Home, page 229. 

 Would it be better in this room to keep the 

 beds with white spreads? Or shall I have 

 cretonne?" — A. E. 



The color scheme of this room is excel- 

 lent as far as it has been carried. Cretonne 

 on the beds and also for a valance for the 

 dressing table and a cover for the rocker 

 cushion will further the good effect, if the 

 right selection is made. Yellow poppies 

 with green leaves printed on a cream-white 

 ground should not be a difficult pattern to 

 find. A valance may be attached to each 

 bed and the spread allowed to hang over 

 the top a few inches. One width should 

 make the center of the spread, with a half 

 width sewed on each side. A separate cover 

 is usually made to lay over the pillows. The 

 edge may be finished with a hem an inch 

 and a-half wide. 



WALl^PAPERS FOR AN OLD FARM- 

 HOUSE 



"The remodeling of an old house in 

 Massachusetts has necessitated changing 

 the wall-papers," writes Mrs. K. S. H. 

 '"While we cannot dignify the place by call- 

 ing it Colonial, it dates to the early years 

 of the Nineteenth Century, and has much of 

 the simplicity of early times. The hall runs 

 through the center of the house, with a sit- 

 ting-room on one side and a dining-room 

 on the other. Upstairs on the second floor 

 there are four chambers and we are intro- 

 ducing two bathrooms. Besides giving 

 some ideas for the wall-papers, will you tell 

 me what to do with the floors to make them 

 in keeping with the rest of the house. 

 Could I use white muslin curtains in the 

 living-rooms? Another disturbing question 

 is the stairway. Shall this be carpeted?" 



If the floors are in condition to be treated 

 to floor paint, the halls, sitting- and dining- 

 rooms may be covered with yellow paint, 

 and a warm gray used in the bedrooms and 

 bathrooms. If this plan is unpractical, 



green ingrain filling may be laid over the 

 first floor, with the same material in gray 

 for the bedrooms. The color scheme for 

 the dining- and sitting-room may combine 

 yellow (or tan) with green and blue, for 

 the bedrooms, the chintz papers, combining 

 a variety of colors in small patterns, may be 

 chosen. The hall throughout may have a 

 gray foliage or picture paper. The stairs 

 will look better laid with a two-toned green 

 carpet in Brussels or velvet than left uncov- 

 ered. 



The sitting-room walls may be covered 

 with a light green oatmeal paper, and the 

 dining-room decoration mav be a gray 

 paper with the pattern printed in blue and 

 green. If the bathroom walls are to be 

 covered, the new sanitary materials printed 

 like a texture would be a good choice. 



The question of muslin curtains through- 

 out the house may be determined by the 

 outlay to be made for this item. It would 

 be preferable to use a white grenadine em- 

 broidered in a lattice design in the living- 

 rooms and hall, with the cheaper muslin for 

 the bedrooms. 



LIGHTING FIXTURES 



The renewing of the lighting fixtures in 

 a Pennsylvania home has brought up some 

 questions as to modern treatment for this 

 department of household art. "We intend 

 to use only electricity, and have begun to 

 look over some catalogues of fixtures. We 

 are very much puzzled, and would like some 

 help in deciding certain points. The ceil- 

 ings throughout the house are nine feet 

 high. Shall we have chandeliers in all of 

 the living-rooms? For the dining-room I 

 would like to use candles with pretty 

 shades, but do not wish to be entirely de- 

 pendent on this light. Still, I do not care 

 for the drop light over the table. Then the 

 hall light on the first floor is another prob- 

 lem. Should a lantern be used in the hall 

 or a chandelier? Or, would side-lights be 

 satisfactory? We have decided to have the 

 dull or old brass finish throughout the 

 house." — S. E. R., Altoona, Pa. 



As the lighting fixtures are a permanent 

 feature for both decoration and utility, their 

 selection should be made with great care. 

 Usually, in the large stores, samples are 

 shown, and a better understanding of their 

 construction is reached than from the illus- 

 trations of a catalogue. 



Chandeliers are not used now for elec- 

 tricity, but groups of two, three or more 

 lights are suspended from a centerpiece 

 which is attached close to the ceiling. In 

 the dining-room this ceiling light could 

 take the place of candles, when the latter 

 were not in use. Side lights should also be 

 installed in the dining-room. In the other 

 living-rooms on the first floor, side lights 

 could be used without ceiling lights, with 

 sockets for attaching a drop light let into 

 the baseboard. Both ceiling lights and lan- 

 terns are suitable for the hall, the choice 

 between the two depending on the space to 

 be illuminated and the furnishings. Some 

 of the newest ceiling lights for the hall re- 

 semble bell-shaped flowers in amber-toned 

 shades. 



Garden Work About the Home 



S. B. A., Norwich, asks for a fist of the 

 best peonies. 



The best peonies are difficult to name, 

 because all peonies are good and the en- 

 thusiast would like to have all varieties. 

 The following are good and will provide 

 continuous bloom for about three weeks. 



Single Japanese in several varieties. 



Peony officinalis in several varieties. 



Tree peonies (P. Moutan) get to be 

 large bushes. They are earlier than the 

 Chinese peonies and are mostly pink, either 

 single or double. 



Chinese Peonies. 



Ambroise Verschaffelt, crimson, full 

 fragrant. 



Beaute Francais, pink, fragrant, early. 



Bernard Palissy, white, full, fragrant. 



Charlemagne, white, very double, frag- 

 rant. 



Couronne d'Or, yellow, white, double, 

 very late. 



De Candolle, red, large. 

 Delicatissima, rose, large, fragrant. 

 Edulis, violet rose, full, fragrant. 

 Eugene Verdier, bluish, large, fragrant. 

 Festive maxima, large, white, early. 

 Henri Laurent, rosy pink, fragrant, late. 

 Humei, purple rose, one of the latest. 

 Louis Van Houtte, crimson, full, frag- 

 rant. 



These are all good and safe to start with. 

 Any nursery catalogue will give a hundred 

 varieties by name and although the descrip- 

 tions seem alike the flowers are quite dis- 

 tinct in color or fullness or time of bloom- 

 ing and all are desirable. 



Peonies can be raised from seed which 

 should be sown in the boxes as soon as it 

 ripens. It will take some years, however, 

 for the plant to get large enough to flower. 



Transplanting should be done in Septem- 

 ber. If it is done in the spring there will 

 be little bloom that year. 



Another correspondent (B. P. Boxwood) 

 asks for a list of lilacs to provide a succes- 

 sion of bloom, and to use in a tall hedge 

 to screen some unsightly buildings. 



He also wishes the names of the best new 

 hybrids. 



The following are all good hlacs. 

 Syringa pubescens, purple flowers, very 

 fragrant. 



S. persica, Persian lilac, small leaves, 

 purple flowers, one of the smallest plants. 



S. rothomagensis, Rouen Lilac, reddish 

 flowers in large panicles. 



S. Pekinensis Chinese Lilac, cream white 

 flowers. 



S. Josikaea, Josdika's Lilac, dark shining 

 leaves and purple flowers in June. 



S. villosa, flowers purple, changing to 

 white. 



S. Japonica, Tree lilac, dark green glossy 

 foliage, white odorless flowers. " The last to 

 bloom. 



