October, 1911 
this Department. 
Repainting and Repapering Color Scheme for a Dining-Room— 
Made-Over Bedrooms 
By MABEL TUKE PRIESTMAN 
CORRESPONDENT asks _ advice 
A as to the best way of doing over 
her house. “It is an old-fashioned 
six-roomed house and needs repapering and 
painting, the floors being old will have to be 
painted; must the old paint be removed? 
The kitchen and sitting-room are 16x14. I 
use the kitchen as a dining-room, doing the 
work in a large buttery, all the rooms are 
very dark, as we live in a grove. The walls 
of the kitchen are wainscoted and the furni- 
ture is mission. The sitting-room is very 
dark, the furniture is mahogany and mis- 
sion, curtains écru, rug in shades of tan 
with touches of pink. There is a small 
room opening into the sitting-room which 
we must use as a bedroom. Upstairs we 
have one large bedroom; the other two are 
very small. The woodwork of the large 
bedroom is pale blue, and this will not be 
changed.” 
The entire color scheme of your house 
must be influenced by the lack of light and 
the walls and paint must be as light as pos- 
sible so as to offset the gloomy surround- 
ings. If the trees come too close to the 
house it would be wiser to have some cut 
down, as air is essential to health, and trees 
too near are apt to make a house damp and 
dismal. In getting a contract for painting it 
would be wise to spend a little more now and 
include the burning off of all the old paint, 
for nothing will change the whole atmo- 
sphere as much as plenty of white paint, it 
is not extravagant in the long run, as one 
new coat may be added from time to time 
and it can be kept tidy much longer than 
pale colors, which are apt to fade, and when 
a room is repapered demand a new coat of 
paint to successfully go with a fresh paper. 
If your rugs and carpets are not out of 
date and dingy, I would suggest that all the 
floors have the paint burned off and be re- 
painted white, it gives such a sweet dainty 
appearance and will aid in giving a light 
effect to the whole house; if the bedrooms 
have carpets all over the floor they would 
not require painted floors. The shade of 
white chosen is important; a dead white 
does not go well with the average wall pa- 
per. It is best to have a creamy white; get 
a book of ceiling papers and choose a very 
pale cream white and give a sample to the 
painter, and thus avoid any chance of a 
mistake being made in the shade, also al- 
lowing you to have a definite choice for 
the tint of your ceilings. These papers 
being made to go with wall papers are har- 
monious to any scheme. Not knowing the 
aspect of your rooms, or how many win- 
dows each room is lighted by, I can only 
give a general scheme, with the chief 
thought in mind of cheerfulness and light. 
The combined kitchen and_ sitting-room 
should be treated as one in color scheme, 
as there is a wainscot in the kitchen that 
must be painted white. If there is space 
for paper above the wainscot have a quaint 
small patterned paper; one I have in mind 
has the pattern of a tub with a tree in it 
on a white ground; it is popular for din- 
ing-rooms and_ small sitting-rooms, it 
comes with a copper-colored orange with 
green, it comes in delft blue, also in blue 
and green. I would suggest the various 
colorings of this paper being tried with 
your rug, the pink is the only shade that 
could conflict. If the paper is suited to the 
room in other respects the pink touches in 
the rug could be changed by dabbing dye 
on the pink bits; orange to match the 
paper would seem a better color for a 
sitting-room that is used also as a kitchen. 
A coat of varnish after the paper is on the 
wall would make it more sanitary for such 
a combination room and give it a warmer 
tone than the white ground. The paper 
costs only fifteen cents a piece and can be 
ordered if your paper hanger has not got it 
in stock. If you have a great many pic- 
tures and bric-a-brac, I would advise a very 
pale tan felt paper that would blend with 
the tan rug rather than the figured paper, 
the small bedroom opening out of the sit- 
ting-room might have a ceiling paper with 
a tiny dainty pattern. There is one with 
just a rosebud tossed irregularly on the 
cream ground that is ideal for small rooms; 
it seems to make them appear larger than 
they really are. The same suggestion can 
be made use of for the upstairs bedrooms, 
choosing another pattern but one intended 
for a ceiling. The large bedroom upstairs 
with the old blue paint might have one of 
the English papers in green and blue; a new 
blue and white paper might make the blue 
paint look shabby, but the green would 
tend to obviate this. If the paint does not 
harmonize with papers you select, try a 
contrast—yellow with blue is beautiful and 
yellow brings sunlight into a_ cheerless 
room. 
FABRICS FOR FURNISHINGS. 
A reader who writes that she is about 
to do up the sitting-rooms and bedrooms 
of her house in cretonne, taffeta, and any 
other suitable cotton material, asks to be 
told at some length what she can do in 
order to have these very artistic, yet not 
too expensive. 
_ For a sitting-room there are several 
linens with tan grounds that are suited to 
rooms furnished in Mission style, and yet 
look well if the furniture happens to be 
mahogany. One I have in mind can be 
used for cushions in brown wicker chairs, 
or for sofa pillows and for hangings is 
very charming. The linen colored ground 
is partly covered with a strong design of 
brown Nasturtium leaves and copper flow- 
ers and is bold enough to go with neutral 
tan schemes or in a room that would be 
improved by strong touches of copper and 
browns. There are a good many stiff de- 
signs small in size with green leaves and 
the flower or fruit motif in one color. 
These are scattered on a linen ground and 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Cohn Est ONDENCE 
The Editor op AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS desires to extend an invitation to all its readers to send to the Correspond- 
ence 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 
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