142 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Decorative Features 
April, 1909 
in the Small Home 
By Alice M. Kellogg 
N FITTING up the small home it is well 
to remember that its decorative features 
contribute the larger share toward its at- 
traction. This does not minimize the value 
of a practical equipment of the general 
furnishings, but opens the way for accom- 
plishing that most exacting problem of our 
times, the creation of beautiful homes. 
Although these ‘‘decorative features” are usually a com- 
bination of color, design and materials, it is the quality first 
named that makes the most forceful, direct and pleasing 
appeal, even to those untrained in artistic principles, for the 
eye, once arrested by a happy grouping of colors, will over- 
look or disregard the lack of perfection in other details. 
Relying on this, the professional decorator often achieves, in 
an interior hopelessly ugly, some element of charm. 
As the majority of the home makers must accomplish 
their results by the process of slow accumulation, it is of 
vital importance to keep a clear image of the prospective 
“color scheme” or “color harmony” to which each selection 
for covering the floor or furniture, for hanging the walls, 
curtaining the windows and shading the artificial lights will 
contribute. 
Rugs and carpets occupy such a prominently decorative 
part in a room that 
one is wise to de- 
liberate well before 
making a _ choice. 
There is still con- 
siderable discussion 
over the tea cups as 
to the relative ad- 
vantages and disad- 
vantages of rugs, 
but as the semi- 
annual cleaning 
miseries are elimi- 
nated by their use 
the question seems 
on the way to be 
settled. 
It has taken a 
long time for the 
American mind to 
assimilate the fact 
that Oriental rugs 
are an enduring and 
decorative feature 
for the home, but 
where only a moder- 
ate outlay may be 
made the domestic 
rug must be = ac- 
cepted. As a com- 
parison of prices is 
often helpful, one 
may reckon the Ori- 
ental rugs from ten 
dollars a square 
yard upward, and 
those made in this 
country from a dol- 
lar a yard upward. 
1—Over-curtains contribute to a cozy interior 
The smaller and often broken-up spaces of the hall floor 
give an opportunity for using the foreign rugs with the least 
expenditure, and for this place one may look among the 
heavier weaves, Kazak, Afghan or Mousoul, for bold pat- 
terns executed in deep colors. 
This year the copies made in this country of the Oriental 
rugs are more interesting than ever before, as the colors are 
on a softer scale. Carpet that is woven in a rug pattern is 
available when sizes must be made up to fit unusual shaped 
rooms, halls or stairways. 
A wool rug that formerly was only made in Scotland is 
now being manufactured in this country, and at three dollars 
a square yard gives genuine worth in coloring, design and 
fast dyes. 
Now that the Mission furniture has established itself as 
being a desirable type for our homes, there has come the 
necessity for floor coverings to accord with its severity of 
style. This need has been met by a heavy woolen rug, re- 
versible and made in all colors with the ends finished with 
narrow stripes of contrasting colors. 
A noteworthy part of the revival of interest in all handi- 
crafts is the rag carpet weaving that has been started up all 
over the country. In the small home the rag rug will suit 
almost any room where there is not a great amount of wear. 
There is a _pre- 
vailing idea that the 
acme of artistic 
taste is reached by 
adopting a rug ina 
solid color, yet the 
mass of color is 
sometimes too start- 
ling to be pleasing. 
A soft tone is the 
safest selection if 
the plain rug is to 
be used. 
In bedrooms the 
floor spaces are best 
laid with rugs that 
do not need to ex- 
tend underneath the 
heavy pieces of fur- 
niture. By this ar- 
rangement the dust 
that always accumu- 
lates under the bed 
and bureau does not 
become imbedded in 
a wool or cotton tex- 
ture, and it may be 
easily taken away 
with a soft cloth 
tied over an ordi- 
nary broom. 
In _living-rooms, 
on the contrary, the 
large rug that leaves 
only an_ eighteen- 
inch margin of 
flooring showing has 
special advantages 
in safety of foot- 
