456 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
December, 1909 
Monthly Comment 
Art and Household Decoration 
MNOUSEHOLD decoration is a very broad 
iL term that does not need to be exaggerated 
to include practically everything that helps 
to make the house interesting. If it does 
not include the structure and material of 
the walls, it at least embraces their color; 
it is concerned with carpets, rugs, hang- 
ings and draperies; the furniture forms an important prob- 
lem to be solved by its laws; in a word, it sums up every- 
thing that enters into the grace and beauty and interest of 
the interior. This being the case, it would seem a natural 
and orderly proceeding that this highly important matter 
should receive the utmost consideration from every house- 
holder, and should be treated with the same respect that is 
given to the exterior design, the arrangement of the plan 
or the hygienic character of the sanitation. As a matter 
of fact and of practise, it is either not considered at all, 
or it is left to individual ‘“‘taste,” or the whole dwelling is 
turned over to professional decorators, furnishers or up- 
holsterers, and the owner receives it ‘‘complete” from the 
hands of his contractors. 
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AND a very good way the last is, too, particularly if you 
do not happen to possess any idea of your own, or if those 
you have are absolutely untranslatable into the complex 
language of household art. It is the safest way, too, for 
many people, and undeniably the most profitable for the 
fortunate firm that receives the contract. Under the guise 
of real art the most expensive devices and the most costly 
materials are rolled, lugged and carried into the house, 
fastened to the walls, stood around the rooms and applied 
everywhere. The victim gazes in an awestricken manner 
at his bills for velvet and brocade, and is very certain that 
only the “realest” things in art can be supplied at such 
altitudinous prices. 
Ir 1s unfair, however, to suggest that the professional 
household decorator is undesirable and a person to be 
avoided. On the contrary, he fills a noble and useful pur- 
pose in the household art of to-day. He has, it is to be 
presumed, been trained in his profession; he has had ex- 
perience in the furnishing of houses and is able to 
distinguish between the good and the bad without any 
hesitation. In most cases he is able to do his work very 
much better than the owner of the house; he will give better 
results and yield better satisfaction. In very many cases 
he is not only worth what he costs, but is a positive economy. 
He has done much work, and much excellent work in creat- 
ing a true art character in the home, and has established 
himself as a member of an important, helpful, beneficial and 
admirable profession. 
But if he falls from grace, it is in the household of the 
rich. It seems impossible to resist the temptation of sup- 
plying the most costly things for the most costly houses. 
Often he cannot help himself, for this will be precisely 
what his wealthy client demands. Unable to exhibit his 
wealth by papering his walls with banknotes, stocks or 
bonds, he orders that a plentiful supply of these useful 
articles be translated into costly bronzes, marbles, velvets, 
brocades, rugs, furniture and bric-a-brac, and then tries to 
make himself as comfortable as he can amid these splendid 
surroundings. Often, no doubt, he can, for the man who 
wants these things, and can buy them, would not be happy 
without them, particularly if his neighbor across the road 
is similarly equipped. 
A GENUINE objection to his display is not its essential 
costliness, but the confusion of cost with art. There is 
nothing easier in the world than to buy a very poor work 
of art for a very great cost. It is being done every day, 
and doubtless will be done for many days to come. Now, 
art itself is costly, whether it be in the form of painting, 
sculpture, pottery, rugs, embroidery, furniture; and it must 
be costly, because, unless produced by a competent crafts- 
man with infinite toil, it must sink to the commonplace and 
cease to be art in any sense. But the price of the article 
has nothing to do with its art qualities, since the very poor- 
est art can, and alas! does, frequently command the highest 
prices. This, of course, happens, because the person pur- 
chasing the article has himself no idea of what art quality 
is nor, indeed, what art means nor of what it consists. 
AND yet, although art is costly, the artistic home need 
not be high-priced. A very excellent fundamental rule that 
should always be kept in mind is that nothing should seem 
to have cost more than it did. Abolish the thought of cost 
altogether from your proceedings and make art, not money, 
the criterion by which the furnishing of the house is meas- 
ured. And this rule is quite as admirable for persons of 
moderate means as for those who never stop to count the 
cost of anything they possess. For it is the art value alone 
that counts, and this is the only thing of importance. 
HovusEHOLD decoration having, therefore, no relation- 
ship with cost, it follows that the modest home may, in its 
way, be as artistic and as beautiful as the most expensive. 
There is no secret about it; it consists simply in knowing 
what to do and how to do it. Many people think they 
know how, and very awful are some of the results of 
their mental cogitations on this subject; others are fear- 
ful of paying people for doing what they think they can 
do themselves, or what they know their friends and 
acquaintances have done without outside assistance. Yet, for 
even a slight sickness it is better to call in a physician than 
to run the risk of a serious illness; why, then, take the 
risk of surrounding one’s daily life with impossible fur- 
nishings and decorations under the mistaken notion that 
one knows what one likes? 
Art blindness is one of the commonest of diseases. It 
is a strange disease that seems to leave the sufferer quite 
untouched. He never knows he has it, and may live a long 
and merry life with it in a most exaggerated form. ‘There 
are some physical diseases that affect humanity in the same 
way; but art blindness is a mental disease, a subjective 
disease, and, if not contagious, at least obnoxious in its 
effects, since it is the chief means of the support of the pur- 
veyors of bad art. ‘This is the real source of all the trouble. 
People do not know a good work of art when they see it. 
They do not know what it means nor what lesson it may 
have for them. ‘They are not interested in art and only 
know of it as one of the luxuries of life. Modern conditions 
are not conducive to the application of the most expensive 
forms of art to the average daily existence; but at least 
we may have good rugs and carpets on our floors; our chairs 
and tables may be of comfortable form and graceful aspect; 
our curtains and draperies may be pleasant if not expensive; 
and our wall coverings should be above criticism. All 
this we can have and at no greater cost than that we must 
pay for monstrosities if we but go about it in the right way. 
The artist who builds and furnishes his own home does not 
have to seek advice; but those who need it should lose no 
time in seeking it. 
