November, 1909 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Xiil 
mm CORRESPONDENCE 
The Editor of American Homes and Gardens desires 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 retum postage will be answered promptly by mail. 
_ Problems in Home Furnishing 
By Alice M. Kellogg 
Author of ‘Home Furnishing: Practical and Artistic ” 
ACCESSORIES FOR OLD-FASHIONED 
FURNITURE 
NEW JERSEY subscriber, D. F. G., 
has lately awakened to the fact that she 
possesses some really interesting, valu- 
able old furniture. Her letter tells the story: 
“IT have inherited from time to time certain 
pieces of mahogany furniture that I have kept 
in use In my own bedroom, without thinking 
very much about them. I have been reading 
so much in the magazines, and have also been 
studying the illustrations, until I am con- 
vinced that my furniture is worth owning 
and also worth showing to the best advantage. 
I hesitate, however, about making my sleep- 
ing-room a museum of antiques, as it would 
certainly become if I kept literally to the 
period in which my furniture belongs—the 
latter part of the eighteenth century. Now, 
would you advise my making a_ strictly 
Colonial chamber of my room? Or, can I 
still keep something of the old-time charm 
without destroying the individuality of my 
four-poster bed, high-boy, drop-leaf writing- 
desk, and Heppelwhite card table?” 
If a strict return were to be made to the 
furnishings of the period to which this furni- 
ture belongs, it would exclude many of our 
modern comforts. Historic correctness ap- 
plied to home furnishing is suggestive, as this 
correspondent says, of the museum. ‘The 
distinction which antique furniture of good 
design lends to a room need not be lost if the 
accessories are carefully and harmoniously 
assembled. 
In the matter of floor coverings, for ex- 
ample, the hand-woven cotton rug of Colonial 
times may be adopted, yet chosen from among 
the artistic dyes that are now in the market. 
For the bed-hangings one of the daintily 
colored Scotch cretonnes may contrast with 
a small-figured wall-paper. The woodwork 
would be painted white, in the egg-shell finish. 
The window-curtains may be of white grena- 
dine edged with lace. If the room is occupied 
in the winter months, some over-curtains to 
draw in the evening may be added. If there 
is an open fireplace, the andirons may be of 
Colonial pattern, with a low fender to outline 
the hearth. If the wall-paper is not too 
decorative for showing pictures, the colored 
engravings from old English paintings would 
be attractive. 
BEDSTEADS FOR SMALL ROOMS 
“T notice in the illustrations in the maga- 
zines that wooden beds are again being used. 
We are about to furnish a hall-room and 
would like to have it up-to-date, but a wooden 
bed will fill up the contracted space (or seem 
to do so), and we would like very much to 
know if there is anything besides the white 
iron or brass beds that we can adopt?’—R. 
D. E., of Vermont. 
The metal beds have certainly 
the ad- 
vantage of giving a feeling of space in a small 
room. ‘This is most apparent in the new de- 
signs in which there are very low, square 
posts at the head and foot, finished in old 
brass. In a good quality this bed costs $27.00 
in the three-foot size. It is especially liked 
in boys’ rooms. 
HOLDERS FOR PLANTS 
“A Flower Lover” inquires about suitable 
holders for plants which she likes to distribute 
through the house. 
Some jardinieres in white porcelain with a 
little decoration in color that are made in 
Germany are attractive in bedrooms. A 
green jar, if not too vivid in tone, is gen- 
erally acceptable in any part of the home. 
Hammered brass or copper gives a touch of 
color that is not too obtrusive to be artistic. 
Some of the Japanese pots are now covered 
with brown wickerwork, and these may be 
had in pairs, on a pulley, like hanging baskets. 
WHITE ENAMEL FURNITURE 
The choice between maple and white enamel 
furniture has puzzled a reader in South Caro- 
lina, Mrs. T. R. W. ‘Two of my bedrooms 
are fitted up with mahogany and I do not 
wish another with this wood. Would you 
advise me to adopt white enamel or maple? 
They both seem very colorless, and I do not 
know what to combine with either to make an 
attractive chamber for my young daughter.” 
Of the two finishes, the white enamel will 
be more pleasing, if the furniture is of simple, 
straight lines, without the exaggerated curves 
that are introduced in the wood by so many 
manufacturers. If the occupant of the room 
is fond of blue, this color may be used in a 
soft antique shade, with other colors showing 
in rugs and furniture coverings to give the 
warmth that blue lacks. Or, if pink is the 
favorite color, this will help to make the 
white enamel furniture less severe looking. 
A charming room was lately contrived for a 
girl who was very fond of heliotrope as a 
color, but who was wise enough not to de- 
mand this for the wall-covering. A paper 
was chosen in which gray, green, yellow and 
heliotrope were combined, and each of the 
colors was repeated in the furnishings—the rug 
showing two shades of moss-green, a wicker 
settle being fitted with cushions covered with 
yellow and green cretonne, and the window 
curtains were made of heliotrope-colored linen 
trimmed with bands of the cretonne. ‘The 
furniture of white enamel was so relieved by 
this combination of color that it did not at all 
strike the attention for its colorlessness. 
WALL COVERING FOR A HALL 
“Ts there anything better than burlap for 
covering the walls of my hall? We have 
only one stairway and it receives all the pass- 
ing of the family and servants, besides the 
trunks and furniture that must be taken from 
one floor to another from time to time.’”—O. 
L., Albany, N. Y. 
Burlap has long been in favor, and its use- 
(Continued on page xv) 
Replies that are of general benefit will be published in this Department. 
< 
Home 
Garden Work About the 
By Charles Downing Lay 
A SUBSTITUTE FOR BOX EDGING 
oe HAT can we use as a substitute for 
Vf box edging, which is not reliably 
hardy here?” asks E. F. 
This is a difficult question, because no 
other plant is so good as box where that is 
hardy. Any substitute is likely to be an un- 
satisfactory makeshift, unless it be an ever- 
green of good color, slow growing, and easy 
to keep within bounds when it is clipped. 
The dwarf syringa, Philadelphus nanus, is 
low and perfectly hardy, but its leaves are out 
of scale and the whole plant seems coarse in 
the flower-garden. 
Japanese barberry, Berberis Thunbergii, is 
often used, but it grows too rapidly when 
clipped, and the changes in color and appear- 
ance before and after clipping are too great. 
It cannot be kept much below fifteen to 
twenty inches in height and about a foot 
broad, which is too large for most gardens. 
The yews are probably the best substitute 
for box; they are evergreen, good in color and 
texture, and bear clipping better than any 
other plant. 
The American yew, Taxus Minor, is an 
excellent hardy shrub. It grows naturally in 
moist shady places, but does just as well in 
full sunlight in ordinary garden soil. It is 
easy to clip, and when grown as an edging 
makes a compact and uniform hedge. It 
grows more rapidly, perhaps, than box and 
seems never to be winter killed. Plants six 
to ten inches high can be planted four or five 
inches apart, and will soon touch. 
The Japanese yew, Taxus cuspidata, and 
its variety brevifolia, are also good, though, 
perhaps, not so hardy as JT. canadensis. 
Their leaves are a trifle larger and seem 
stiffer than those of the American yew. They 
grow larger than the American yew and may 
become good-sized trees. The English yew, 
which is used so much in England for hedges 
and for topiary work, is less hardy than the 
box, and is quite unreliable north of New 
York. 
MORE ABOUT INEXPENSIVE PLANTING 
“Please tell me more about inexpensive 
planting. The answer to a similar question 
last year was a great help to me. I have col- 
lected many wild things from the woods, 
spice bush, shad bush, viburnums, barberry, 
cedar trees and junipers, among others, but I 
have had poor luck in transplanting oaks, 
hickories and the pepperidge. Can I grow 
such things from seed? ‘The oaks are full of 
acorns this year.” —H. B. C. 
There are many inexpensive ways to get a 
good stock of shrubs and trees if one is willing 
to grow them in nursery rows for two or three 
years. 
Seeds of all our native trees and shrubs 
can be bought, and one can often collect seeds 
in the woods. ‘They should be gathered as 
