April, 1919 
37 
The over-drapes with chintz shades 
may be bound with an interesting 
braid, but one questions the advisa¬ 
bility of looping them back 
In this the colors are bright red and 
green, and the curtains yellow case¬ 
ment cloth with a French heading 
valance. William Wallace, decorator 
ment cloth. Instead of a plain tassel, an 
old-fashioned wall tassel has been used. 
Another t}^e of valance is shown with 
a chintz shade. The group includes a 
Directoire chair and a Louis XVI 
placque—representing a period of re¬ 
straint—and a Victorian decorated table. 
The mantel is black marble. The shade 
is yellow glazed chintz in rich, subdued 
tones, showing birds in brilliant plumage 
circling around baskets of flowers and 
fruit. It is finished with a gay bouillon 
fringe and tassel which balances the dec¬ 
orative quality of the shade and the val¬ 
ance. For the valance is draped, of a 
figured damask, and finished with tas¬ 
sels. This grouping also shows the pos¬ 
sibilities of using a figured shade in a 
mixed period room. Such quaint fig¬ 
ured fabric shades form a pictured back¬ 
ground that the eye naturally seeks and 
that harmonizes well when judiciously 
used with the furniture grouped before it. 
The Rooms for Figured Shades 
The joyfulness of these shades makes 
them particularly adaptable to breakfast and 
dining room use, where they vie with light 
tinted furniture to give a touch of gaiety and 
charm. Take, for example, the first room 
illustrated here, which is in the Benjamin Pope 
house at Concord, Mass. The furniture is 
Colonial mahogany and painted cottage chairs. 
An old cretonne in delft blue and white is 
used and simple blue curtains of sheer fabric 
with a gathered valance. The white woodwork, 
the rag rug, the old mirror and clock—with 
all of these the colored shades harmonize per¬ 
fectly. 
fectly with the painted furniture and the 
table decorations, the whole giving a uni¬ 
fied group effect. 
Another example of the light, air>’^ 
grace of these shades is found in the one 
(at the bottom of this page) depicting 
an Italian villa, with large flowers and 
leaves in the foreground and at the side. 
The predominating colors are vivid or¬ 
ange, yellow and blue. The draperies 
on either side are yellow figured damask 
with a fitted, scalloped valance. This, 
incidentally, is a bedroom. 
A bright touch can be given by the 
use of braid or fringe on the over¬ 
drapery, thus showing a dividing line 
between them and the shade. It may be 
formal in design, or rich in coloring. It 
may be copied from the Oriental types, 
and may be done so carefully that it is 
almost impossible to detect the difference. 
An Italian villa is silhouetted against a blue 
sky in this bedroom shade. Overdrapes and 
valance are damask. Lee Porter, decorator 
Possibly you have considered the dining or 
breakfast room as the only suitable place for 
the use of these shades. They are equally ac¬ 
ceptable in any part of the house. Here is a 
living room—on the upper right comer of 
this page—in which a painted shade shows a 
Swiss scene picturesque in treatment and 
framed by yellow casement cloth curtains and 
a French heading valance. The bright reds 
and greens of the shade correspond per- 
The decorative quality of flowered 
fabrics has been assured and they are of 
such endless variety that they are available for 
any purpose. Unfortunately we are too apt to 
misunderstand their value, unless we have im¬ 
bibed definite principles and ideals to guide 
us in their selection. We should bear in mind 
that fully as effective treatment can be brought 
about through the use of the modern block- 
printed chintz. But doubly fortunate is she 
who has, stored away in her attic, ancestral 
bits that can be utilized for this purpose. They 
are especially attractive when treated with 
panel effects, that is, used with over-draperies, 
which break the surface and show them to 
the best advantage. 
