June, 1911 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
225 
Furnishing the Home 
Cretonne and Summer 
By Mary Edith Griswold 
Photographs by Helen D. Van Eaton 
proved for summer service by a touch 
of freshness and color with the addition 
of cretonne, the whitewash brush or the 
paint pot. 
The proper way to begin the making 
ready for summer is with an old-fash- 
ioned housecleaning. Let in the sunshine and the air, use 
plenty of soap and water, a good scrubbing brush and en- 
thusiasm. This is a task and one which must be done in a 
spirit of fun, gracefully, with the head working with the 
body. The only way to ease the inevitable work and to 
keep it from becoming drudgery, is by lightening the mental 
attitude. Fix the attention on the attainment of beauty, 
freshness, and 
comfort and 
they will all be 
easily at- 
tained. 
The whole 
house may be 
embellished with 
Cte 0 ne, 
but few house- 
wives are pos- 
sessed of suf- 
ficient enthusi- 
asm to reach all 
round in one 
season. If she 
has embellished 
the sitting- 
room last year, 
the same covers 
are good for 
this season if 
they have been 
cane fully 
washed and 
put away. 
When one 
has decided 
A sleeping-room furnished in good taste 
upon the use of cretonne for summer, freshness and com- 
fort are assured, but the attainment of beauty is entirely 
a question of taste, and the disposition for taking pains. A 
pretty pattern of cretonne which would go well in one place 
would look horrid in another. ‘The pattern and the color 
must harmonize to create a whole scheme. 
In selecting everything new for an old room one must 
consider the color, style and texture of the things which you 
have already. If this rule is regularly followed each room 
will always be in harmony. So before buying the summer 
cretonne you should consider the colors desired and the style 
of the pattern. After that measure exactly the amount of 
material needed. Do not buy twenty yards and then find 
you are two and a-half yards short and the piece is all sold 
before you go 
back to get the 
shortage, or do 
not have an 
extra yard left 
to go into the 
rag bag. If the 
material is ex- 
pensive, even a- 
Ingvar — \yehir al 
counts and any- 
how it is an in- 
eficient way of 
doing things. 
Buying _ cre- 
tonne for sum- 
mer is a pleas- 
ant task. The 
material is so 
pretty. New 
and tem- 
peramental pat- 
terns appear 
each year, but 
the dearly 
prized rose pat- 
tern of youth 
(probably there 
