140 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
April, 1914 
WITHIN THE HOUSE 
SUGGESTIONS ON INTERIOR DECORATING 
AND NOTES OF INTEREST TO ALL 
WHO DESIRE TO MAKE THE HOUSE 
MORE BEAUTIFUL AND MORE HOMELIKE 
TKe Editor of ihU Department will be glad to answer all queries 
from subscribers pertaining to Home Decoration. Stamps 
should be enclos^ when a direct personal reply is desired 
THE GUESTROOM 
By George Crane 
r is the home without a guestroom? 
j might answer this by saying that a 
le is for the use of the family, where 
lily tastes and individuality are to be 
t as in a strong box, where nothing but 
admiration of one’s friends may look in. 
This, one admits, is quite true, but what family is there that 
does not enjoy the pleasure of friendship, and to show 
friendship one must needs throw open the home where 
what is dear to one may be shared with another. 
Open your door and let your friends enter, provide a 
bed and let them sleep therein. No matter how tiny the 
home may be, provide a guestroom and fill it with hos- 
pitality and cheer and friendship will grow the stronger, 
for what is more delightful than to have one’s friends under 
one’s own roof, sharing in the joys that make the home a 
sacred part of one’s life? 
The guestroom should show the individuality of the 
master or mistress, but should not contain bits of too per- 
sonal interest to the members of the family, for, after all, 
what might greatly interest the folk of the household might 
in no degree interest a guest, though the ties of friendship 
might be the strongest. So, then, fill the guestroom with 
things that will, before all else, gladden the heart of your 
guest and stimulate the desire to return and make another 
visit in a room so full of sunshine and gladness. 
One cannot be too careful in arranging a guestroom, 
for this room is a sort of stimulant and must be of the 
best mixture, or the effect may be sad indeed, as one knows 
by frequent experience. 
To be bright and full of life, the guestroom should 
preferably have a southern exposure with plenty of win- 
dows, one of them being a French window opening on to a 
little balcony, where early morning plunges into the fresh 
air might be enjoyed, and where a sleepless night within 
might be turned into a joyous one without. Let the room 
be of good size and moderately high ceiled, so that good 
air circulation is always possible, an indispensable thing to 
the comfort of the occupant. So far, then, we have ex- 
posure, light, size and ventilation. 
Color next claims our attention, and careful must we be 
in our decision and choice, since so much depends on color 
and its effect upon the general surroundings and on one’s 
peace of mind. A guestroom with a southern exposure 
will not require such bright or warm colors as one with a 
northern exposure. All the same, brightness and happy 
combinations of color can be indulged in. To illustrate an 
appropriate treatment for a guestroom ideal in its color 
scheme, furnishing and other equipment, the writer cannot 
do better than describe the guestroom he recently visited. 
The floor is of hard wood with a very simple inlaid bor- 
der, so bear in mind the foundation upon which the rest 
of the scheme is built. The walls are papered in a gray 
paper with a narrow stripe of sage green, and between 
this fine stripe and the gray ground is a hairline of silver, 
so that the effect is most pleasing, especially when the light 
causes the silver stripes to glisten, thus relieving the other- 
wise dull surface. 
This paper runs up to the ceiling angle, where a simple 
picture molding in cream white separates it from a cream 
ceiling papered in semi-glossy eggshell paper, making a very 
satisfactory combination with the treatment of the walls. 
With unusually simple woodwork, not wrought out in fussy 
moldings and panels, but with large, flat surfaces done in 
cream white paint and rubbed to a dull satin finish, the 
guestroom had an excellent foundation or background for 
further interior decoration. 
A very charming floor covering of a warm gray with 
a tiny powder design in sage green was put down to see 
what the result would be. Needless to say, it was never 
returned to the shop when it had been sent on approval, 
but remained as a constant reminder of a happy thought 
in color harmony. The inlaid border of the floor frames 
this rug and keeps it in place. 
The curtains at two of the windows are of cream col- 
ored “sun dure,” with a narrow edging of silk fringe, and 
are weighted so that straight folds are always visible — a 
great relief from the ever flimsy hanging curtains that an- 
noy one with an eye for straight lines, such as curtains 
always should have unless, of course, when they are prop- 
erly draped. 
At the French window, opening on to the little balcony, 
cream silk curtains are hung on little brass rods both at the 
top and bottom, thus allowing the window to be opened 
without causing disastrous results to the curtains. The light 
coming through this silk is like sunshine on a dull day, and 
when the sun is really out it makes the room such a cheerful 
spot that one is almost envious of its capacity to gladden 
the room’s whole aspect. 
Beneath one of the other windows, and screened by a 
white iron lattice, is the radiator, an object that is so often 
an eyesore but very essential, indeed, to one’s comfort in 
Winter. The successful concealing of steam radiators has 
been accomplished with skill and good taste in many of the 
German houses, and in America the practice of hiding them 
from view is growing in favor, so that, ere long, one’s home 
may be kept warm without the radiator being visible as a 
constant reminder of its function in the make-up of the 
house. 
Inside curtains of a soft gray crepe, lined with cream 
silk, dress the windows from within and give a note of dis- 
tinction that is most charming. They also go exceptionally 
well with the rest of the appointments of the room. The 
