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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1908 



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 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 



Author of "Home Furnishing: Practical and Artistic" 

 A SUITABLE TELEPHONE TABLE 



I 



HAVE had an unsuccess- 

 ful hunt," writes R. C. 

 B., a New England cor- 

 respondent, "for an at- 

 tractive looking, convenient shaped 

 table to use in connection with my 

 telephone. Something that could 

 stand in the hall — which is rather 

 small — and hold the telephone di- 

 rectory and, perhaps, the card tray. 

 The Mission style I do not care 

 for, and carved mahogany is too 

 expensive ; golden oak is too com- 

 mon. What else is there?" 



As this query expresses quite a 

 specific need of the times, an illus- 

 tration is given of a pretty little 

 stand in actual use below a tele- 

 phone. This is made of Chinese 

 teakwood, stained black, and costs 

 eight dollars. It is seventeen inches 

 across the front, twelve inches 

 deep and thirty-two inches high. 

 In shape, size and price it seems 

 to exactly suit the conditions de- 

 scribed by this correspondent. 



O 



U 



A Hall and Telephone Table 



A SCREEN FOR A BEDROOM 



A Southern reader, L. M., of Memphis, writes: "I want to buy 

 a new screen for my guest-room, but everything I see seems to be 

 too heavy in style for a sleeping-room. What kind of screens are 

 used in such a room, with white-painted woodwork and dainty wall 

 paper?" 



For a bedroom of this kind the prettiest screen would be of white- 

 enameled wood for the frame, with the panels covered with chintz 

 to match the wall paper. If it is not possible to match the paper, the 

 screen may be covered with a plain linen taffeta, in the most prom- 

 inent color in the wall paper. Or, if a pattern is preferred, a distinct 

 contrast to the surrounding design may be chosen. Some new Japanese 

 chintzes, thirty-one inches wide, at fifty cents a yard, are interesting 

 for screen coverings. 



FURNISHING A MAN'S ROOM 



"How should the trim be painted in a bedroom where the furniture 

 is heavy oak and the rug a dark olive green? The ceiling is nine 

 and a half feet high, and the size of the room is about fifteen feet by 

 sixteen feet. How to make this room, which belongs to the man of 

 the house, dignified and, at the same time, attractive is perplexing 

 one of your readers. — R. J. G." 



To uphold the heavy lines of the furniture in this room, and also 

 to do away with the idea of feminine decoration, the walls may be 

 papered with a set pattern in greens, blues and yellows, painting the 

 woodwork a dark olive green. The ceiling may be tinted with cream- 

 white water color paint. For window curtains the lace now in use 

 may be put aside and a thick yellow madras hung instead. The bed- 

 cover may be of heavy linen, white, embroidered and hemstitched, 



( Continued on Page x) 



Garden Work About the Home 



By Charles Downing Lay 

 DECORATION OF THE SUN PARLOR IN WINTER 



(. 1 



W 



HAT plants can be used in a sun parlor?" writes C. M., 

 from Long Island. "It is not a conservatory with a glass 

 roof, but an inclosed piazza, lighted only at the sides. 

 There is steam heat, but sometimes in cold weather the 

 temperature gets as low as 28 or 30 degrees, so that I can not grow 

 the ordinary house plants, such as geraniums, primroses and calla 

 lilies. Palms and other decorative greenhouse plants are, of course, 

 quite out of the question." 



The great difficulty about growing plants in such a room, aside 

 from the occasional freezing, is the dry air. If the door to the house 

 is open in the day time, the air will be as dry, or nearly so, as that 

 of the house, and dry air is very hard for plants to endure. 



If the sun room has a tile floor it will be easy to keep the air moist 

 by frequent spraying and watering, but otherwise there should be 

 open pans of water on the steam pipes and the evaporation from these 

 will make a considerable difference. 



There are many evergreen plants, as beautiful as palms though not 

 in the same way, 'that can be used in such a room. They will not 

 bloom perhaps until February or March, but they will at any rate 

 take away the ordinary dismal bareness of the sun parlor in winter. 



Standard or pyramid box trees in tubs are pleasing and will keep 

 green and flourishing if properly watered. 



Small rhododendrons and evergreen azaleas can be grown in pots 

 and in the moist atmosphere should not lose their leaves, as they do 

 so quickly in the house. 



They should be potted in September and put in a shady, sheltered 

 spot with leaves banked around the pots to prevent freezing, until 

 December, when they are brought in the house and kept at the back 

 of the room until the days begin to grow noticeably longer, say, the 

 middle of February, when they can be moved near the windows. 

 In a short time they should flower. 



Of course, plants which are well set with flower buds must be 

 selected, and if there is a cold pit to put them in before they are 

 brought into the house that will be better and easier than the pro- 

 tection of leaves. 



Almost any broad-leaved evergreen can be used in this way. Holly, 

 any of the heath family, the evergreen thorn, evergreen roses and 

 many others. 



Other early flowering shrubs, such as the deutzia, lilac and for- 

 sythia can be treated in the same way, but will not be brought into 

 the house so early in the year, as the light in December is hardly 

 sufficient to make them grow well. 



Evergreen ferns and other things can be collected in the woods 

 in October, potted and brought into the house in December or Janu- 

 ary. They will not do well if they are brought in before that, as 

 every plant must have some time for rest, which is only to be secured 

 by keeping them outdoors or in the cold pit. 



Bulbs grown in pans or flat boxes do excellently in a sun room, 

 because they can endure much freezing after growth begins. Tulips, 

 narcissi, hyacinths, crocus, etc., should be potted in early October 

 and kept in a cool, damp cellar until December, when the earliest 

 tulips are brought up. Every week or ten days a few more are 

 brought to the light to give a succession of bloom. 



If your cellar is warm and you have no pit or any place to bury 

 the pans outdoors, they may be put on the cellar floor and covered 

 with coal ashes, which will prevent their drying out. 



It is a convenience to have all the bulbs in boxes of the same size, 

 so that they can be changed about without trouble as the growth of 

 the bulbs may require. 



{Continued on Page xi) 



