The baseboard, 2' high, is silver paper or paint. Above that is a panel of Japanese children at play. The couch is in Vermillion. Blue, 
yellow and green gingham form the curtains and cushions, with a valance of gray wool elephants on a blue sateen ground. The 
furniture is kept close to the walls to leave plenty of play space 
THE PLAYROOM of the GOLDEN AGE 
Something Really New and Different in Nurseries Has Been 
Especially Designed for House iff Garden 
By KATHERINE S. DODGE 
I F we had a chance to be born again, we'd 
form a soviet and start a revolution against 
the sort of playroom and nursery we used to 
have. The nursery was dead white and the 
playroom had tan walls with glum looking 
Noah’s Ark animals doing a one-step around 
the walls—and all that sort of thing. We'd 
forbid mothers and fathers painting nurseries 
white. Somehow they don’t seem to under¬ 
stand that white hurts a baby’s eyes. In fact, 
if we had a say in that new nursery and play¬ 
room, we’d go in for a new order of things. 
None of these prophylactic toys or antiseptic 
furniture that old maid reformers try to foist 
on children nowadays because ‘‘it is good 
for them.” Never! We’d want something dif¬ 
ferent, something with style and character and 
interest, a playroom that would look like the 
rooms shown on this page. 
The Japanese room at the top of the page, 
for example. What an enchanting place it is! 
And so far removed from the usual banal 
nursery design. Start with the walls and see 
yourself how interesting it is in all its details. 
Set off by a base of silver, either paint or 
paper, which is used 2' up at the base of the 
wall, there are gaily attired Japanese children 
at play, painted on Japanese paper in tempora 
coated with a transparent varnish. 
The low, 6' square couch, which may be 
made a brilliant Vermillion, is modeled after a 
Chinese couch with a footstool shelf. 
Gingham in tones of blue, yellow and green 
is used at the windows and for window seat 
covering, while a solemn row of gray elephants 
applied with wool on a blue sateen ground 
forms the valance. 
This is not only an interesting and amusing 
suggestion, but it is a highly practical one, as 
the room has been planned with a view to 
leaving as much space in the center as pos¬ 
sible, building in a chest of drawers, for 
example, and setting all the big pieces of 
furniture against the walls so that there is 
plenty of room to play. Furniture such as this 
might be executed by a good cabinet-maker. 
Another room suitable for “The Golden 
Age”, in which even the grown-ups would for¬ 
get their stuffiness, has built-in waxed natural 
wood shelves, desk and chest of drawers with 
toned gold walls. The simple wooden movable 
furniture—bed, chairs, stools, etc.—is lac¬ 
quered in sepia tones, with the cushions and 
covers in Japanese cotton prints of tans and 
browns and gray. 
All the brilliancy of color, of which there is 
a great deal, has been concentrated on the 
walls, where one’s favorite birds find a pleas¬ 
ant meeting ground. With due regard to 
beauty and proportion, they have been painted 
on wall screens of Japanese paper in the same 
fashion as described before. 
One can imagine carrying out this idea very 
charmingly, despite the lack of an artist on the 
premises, by the use of carefully selected wall 
paper panels, or, better still, the cotton prints 
made in a series of bird scenes which come 
from Paris. These are purchasable, as are the 
Japanese cotton prints and the furniture. 
Some of the furniture of this room — shelves, desk and chest of drawers—is built-in; the other pieces are lacquered in sepia tones with 
covers and cushions in Japanese cotton prints of tans, browns, and gray. The walls are golden, and there meet one’s special pet birds. 
If these panels cannot be painted, bird scenes can be cut out from wall paper or chintz and lacquered on 
