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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



April, 1908 



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



Problems in Home Furnishing 



By Alice M. Kellogg 

 FURNISHING SMALL SPACES 



A PREVAILING distaste for overcrowding the home with too- 

 profuse decoration and a multiplicity of furnishings is inti- 

 . mated by the various inquiries that come to this department in 

 relation to the furnishing of small rooms, apartments and 

 houses so they will have an appearance at least of space. 



The "tiny new house in a Boston suburb," about which a reader 

 asks advice, is, fortunately, not already spoiled by mistakes either in 

 the selection of wall coverings or of the movable pieces of furni- 

 ture. The treatment of the walls and woodwork is a first considera- 

 tion. The rooms on the first floor and the hall upstairs and down 

 may carry a tone of deep buff, using a striped paper on the hall walls 

 and a plain paper in the connecting dining and sitting-rooms. A light 

 buff, or cream, may be the color for the kitchen and pantry walls. 



Painting all of the woodwork white, with the exception of that in 

 the kitchen^ will be another means for contributing a feeling of space 

 to these rooms. The walls in the bedrooms may be light tones of 

 pink, green, yellow and blue, either put on as a tint or by hanging 

 plain colored papers. For the floor coverings a solid color or two 

 tones of one color is advised. If mixed colors are used the design may 

 be one that is small and closely set. It would be well to have the 

 dining-room and sitting-room rugs alike, and each one of a size large 

 enough to cover the entire floor with only an eighteen inch margin 

 of the floor showing. Small rugs may be laid in the hall and the 

 bedrooms. 



For the large openings, without sliding doors, from the hall into 

 the sitting-room and from the sitting-room into the dining-room, a 

 straight curtain in two parts of plain brown, double-faced velour may 

 be chosen. Straight lines may be observed also with the window cur- 

 tains, but a decorative note may be admitted here by selecting a fancy 

 madras or a light-weight material in a pretty design. These curtains 

 may hang to the sill. 



In buying the furniture a consideration of the spaces of the dif- 

 ferent rooms must take precedence of any conventional notion for 

 buying a dining-room set or "parlor pieces." A general rule worth 

 remembering is not to buy what other people have in their houses 

 as each family has its individual requirements. 



A careful disposition of pictures and restraint in buying mantel 

 bric-a-brac are necessary to complete the good effect accomplished by 

 the larger furnishings. 



A SUN PARLOR TO FURNISH 



"I have had my southwest veranda inclosed in glass and steam 

 heaters introduced," writes a Pennsylvania correspondent, "and I 

 would like to have some suggestions for fitting it up for winter as 

 well as summer comfort." 



To mitigate a too-intense supply of sunlight, the Japanese rattan 

 screens that are adjusted with side cords may be installed. Usually 

 these come in the natural color, varnished, but they may be painted to 

 match the inside woodwork of the sun-parlor. A large rug to cover 

 the major portion of the floor will furnish more than small rugs 

 distributed unevenly about. An India drugget in browns and greens 

 is appropriate, if the cost is not prohibitive. In the nine by twelve 

 size the price is forty-two dollars. (As an alternative a grass matting 

 rug may be used.) A round table with a lower shelf, to stand in the 

 center of the room, should be thirty-six inches in diameter. One of 

 weathered oak may be bought from seven dollars up, according to the 

 quality. A drop-leaf table, also of dark oak (price eighteen dollars), 

 may be placed against the wall, to be ready for serving tea or refresh- 

 ments. A willow stand with drawers and side pockets (twelve dol- 

 lars) may hold sewing work, games or toys. 



Instead of a hammock as a means for lounging, a long chair made 

 of rattan or willow will be more suitable in the sun-parlor. If there 

 ( Continued on Page xii ) 



Garden Work About the Home 



By Charles Downing Lay 

 A GARDEN FOR A SMALL PLACE 



I 



THINK a study of the little plan above will be of service as 

 an answer to many inquiries about planting flower gardens, and 

 as a reply to people who say, "Yes; I'd like to have a garden, 

 but my place is not large enough." 

 The plan shows a place in a small city where nothing has been 

 done in the way of gardening. The surrounding houses are similar 

 in size and cost. All have unfenced yards, a shrub or two, and some 

 fine elm trees. It is like the newer parts of a hundred other New 

 England towns ; there is plenty of shade in summer, but no patches 

 of brilliant color such as a garden shows, and no privacy, no feeling 

 for the homely, quiet pleasures. In winter it is cold in color and un- 

 attractive — leafless trees, gray road, brown grass, and each house 

 as bare as a peg stuck in a board. 



So much gardening can be done on a small place if one will but 

 try, and so much can be done by planting shrubs to soften the hard 

 lines, to make the distance to one's neighbor's back door seem greater, 

 even if it is less than a stone's throw. It is partly because we do not 

 plant enough about our houses, partly because there are no fences, 

 that our towns lack the picturesqueness we admire abroad. 



The American idea of having no fences is vulgar in principle, and 

 must be carried out with the greatest skill, on places of some size, to 

 ( Continued on Page xv) 



