May, 1919 
19 
THE DECORATION of SUMMER CAMPS 
Suggestions for Wall, Floor and Window Treatments—The Use of Strong 
Colors—Convenience and Furnishing 
AGNES FOSTER WRIGHT 
I T is the hardest thing in the world to let a 
piece of work alone after one thinks it is 
finished. We ache to add a little touch here or 
a spot there and, in the end, we find we have 
lost the simple, perfect thing as it stood. 
How true this is of painting. The picture 
seems perfect. But we haven’t the will to stop 
there. We add a touch of rose. That seems 
too bright. So we go over it with blue, making 
it purple. Then it seems to attract the eye too 
much. Finally we neutralize it, and end by 
having a muddy mess. 
This is also true of house furnishing. We 
over-elaborate. We are possessed with the 
idea of purchasing, and we over-crowd or over- 
elaborate our rooms. 
To my mind this is the fault with many 
camps—not cottages or summer hotels. The 
charm of a camp should lie in its very crude¬ 
ness and simplicity. There should be a hardi¬ 
ness about it, something that looks well with 
rugged foliage. 
Nothing finicky 
and dressed up. The 
interior should be a 
background for 
camping c lo t h e s. 
The minute a camp 
is dressy it loses its 
appearance of good 
breeding. It is out 
of place, like an os¬ 
trich plume on a. 
picnic. 
A camp should be 
planned for views, 
not big, extensive 
views necessarily, 
just a view into a 
clump of trees or 
across a little stream. 
A view that is lik¬ 
able and intimate. 
For that reason the 
decoration and par¬ 
ticularly the curtain¬ 
ing should not de¬ 
tract from this view. 
Strong Colors 
In a camp I be¬ 
lieve primary colors 
should be used. 
There is something 
vigorous and 
strengthening in 
pure, flat color. Try a patch of crimson against 
pines, a bit of yellow reflecting in water or a 
snatch of brilliant blue against silver birch. 
They go! 
Try a dining room with white, smooth walls, 
and put in emerald green furniture, possibly 
touched here and there with black, and with a 
black rug of Belgian rush or flat weave. Over the 
mantel set into the plaster a large Chinese lac¬ 
quer tray of the most brilliant red. Paint a band 
of red on the edge of the window shades, and a 
small bold design in the middle, just enough to 
bring the colors beyond the window into con¬ 
trast. On the mantel put a pair of brilliant green 
glass vases—decorative and useful for flowers. 
Camp Walls 
One should never attempt to paper or panel 
camp walls. Avoid this formality of treat¬ 
ment by using rough plaster in the rooms down¬ 
stairs and smooth upstairs. This does not mean 
that the rooms must necessarily be cold or 
barren. One. bedroom could have pink cham- 
bray bed and chair covers, and pink chambray 
curtains with stiff little valances and tie-backs. 
The fabric can be a print with bright, fresh 
roses scattered over it. A draped dressing 
table completes this picture of crisp freshness. 
Besides, the fabrics can easily be laundered. 
There is something distinctly ugly about 
matched board walls. This is due partly to 
the glossy varnish with which matched boards 
are generally finished. It is better to stain the 
boards a more neutral tone or, if they are in a 
bad condition, linen gauze can be sewed up 
and stretched over the walls. This provides a 
good neutral background and will not hold 
moisture and dust as burlap does. 
Rough plaster usually takes on a soft color 
after a little while, or, if one is impatient, a 
coat of water color can be applied. A clear 
bluish green is a good tint, or a soft yellow. 
The finest finish 
for a camp living 
room wall that I 
have seen was a 
wainscot of old fence 
slabs. These were 
gathered up in the 
country for miles 
around — gray with 
age and with little 
patches of moss here 
and there. They were 
set up vertically. The 
woodwork matched, 
and the rough plaster 
above was stained 
gray. 
The Rugs 
Camp floors are 
the place for fur 
rugs and skins. Nev¬ 
er mind whether or 
not you did the kill¬ 
ing. The man whose 
floors are covered 
with the spoils of his 
own hunts is gen¬ 
erally a bore — he 
has constantly and 
irresistibly before 
him a topic of con¬ 
versation of his own 
/ the Whalen camp at Raquette Lake, linen gauze curtains with worsted fringe 
I table wrought iron with black glass top. Agnes Foster Wright, decorator 
prowess! 
There is a variety 
