House and Garden 
covered with the velvet caught in with buttons. 
Some golden-brown and yellow covered cushions of raw 
silk can be used on this also. The velveteen or Marl¬ 
borough velvet costs $1.90 a yard and is 50 inches wide. 
It wears extremely well. The den, I am afraid, will not 
be so easy to make attractive. Your greatest mistake 
has been in using a different wall covering from that in 
the living-room. There seems but one thing to do here, 
and that is to use the same paper on the wall as is used 
in the living-room. The draperies also should be the 
same; otherwise the room seems very attractive. Also 
in your dining-room the wall covering must be changed. 
These many colored, large figured papers in a room the 
dimensions of yours, are quite hopeless. A two-toned 
golden-brown paper of excellent design, suggestive of 
the Colonial, is advised here. This paper costs 40 cents 
a roll. The ceiling should be tinted in a shade of cafe 
au lait to the picture rail. I would not advise linen 
taffetas in this room, unless it were self-colored and plain. 
Your best choice would be pongee curtains, made simply, 
and to hang straight to the sill. These should be run 
on a rod by a casing at the top, set close to the glass. 
No lace or net curtains are required. The expenditure 
for this room will, you see, be small, and you will find 
the improvement infinite. This treatment will feature 
your golden oak furniture, and make it extremely attrac¬ 
tive as part of the color scheme. The two-toned tan 
Brussels rug will also be entirely harmonious. The bay 
window which you have not utilized for seats, could have 
a wide shelf built around to hold growing plants. Small 
Chinese blue and white pots, which sell for forty cents 
each, could be used for these, and add to the color effect 
of the room. 
I will be very glad to furnish you with the addresses of 
afiy of the firms carrying materials that I have mentioned, 
should you be unable to locate them for yourself. 
Margaret Greenleaf 
FURNISHING THE LIVING-ROOM OF AN 
OLD FARMHOUSE 
1 have $175 to spend on the decoration and furnishing 
of the living-room of an old farmhouse, which I have 
taken for my summer home. The room in question is 
14 feet by 18 feet; has four small square-paned win¬ 
dows, two glass doors, one single door, and a Colonial 
mantel of simple design. It fronts south, and the doors 
are on the west side. The woodwork has been painted 
an ugly stone grey. I have some attractive pieces of 
mahogany, a sofa, three chairs, all to be recovered, 
and a very beautiful small table in mahogany. Also 
I have a large winged chair. The floor is not good, 
and must be covered. The walls must be repapered; 
I have no rugs or curtains. Please give me a color 
scheme for this room, which will be a little out of the 
usual, and yet have the characteristics of a country 
“best room.” Country 
Have the grey painted woodwork sand-papered and 
treated with flat lead and ivory egg-shell white. This 
will give you a fine egg-shell gloss, and the cost, using 
the best materials and labor, should not exceed $25. 
Choose a dull cold green fibre paper at 30 cents a roll 
for your side wall covering. Tint the ceiling to the 
picture rail (which should be in line with the tops of 
windows) the same shade of ivory as the woodwork 
shows. Hang sheer white dotted muslin curtains, run 
on small brass rods, next the glass of your windows. 
These curtains should reach only to the sill. They 
should be trimmed up the front edge with three inch 
ruffles, and tied back midway with smart bows made 
from the muslin. The strips for these should be about 
three-quarters of a yard in length, and four inches wide. 
Glazed chintz, showing clusters of gillyflowers and 
peonies in crimson and pink on a white ground, will cost 
75 cents a yard, and is a yard wide. This should be used 
for straight over-draperies at the windows. These 
curtains should fall straight to the sill on either side of 
the window, coming from under an eight-inch valance of 
the glazed chintz. This makes a quaint and attractive 
window dressing. The French windows or glass doors 
of which you speak, should be curtained with the muslin; 
small brass rods fastened at top and bottom of the door 
should hold the muslin tautly in place. No chintz 
should be used. 
Upholster your mahogany furniture in dull green vel¬ 
veteen, a few shades darker than the side wall, or with 
two-toned English taffetas in shades of green. The old 
mahogany table of which you speak should be placed 
near the winged chair; this latter to be covered with the 
glazed chintz. A great bowl of roses should find a place 
on the table. Some chairs of willow should be carefully 
chosen—large easy ones, and one or two low stools. 
This willow furniture should be treated with bright 
crimson enamelacq; the chairs supplied with square 
cushions, seat and back; these cushions to be covered 
with the glazed chintz, caught in with buttons; the crim¬ 
son flowers in the design exactly matching the color of 
the enamelacq. Over the mantel a low Colonial mirror 
should be set. If you are not fortunate enough to find 
this within your price, your carpenter can place four 
sections of mirror over the mantel, the framing and 
divisions of this to be treated as the woodwork of the 
room. Your best choice of floor covering will be white 
Japanese matting. Two, or perhaps three, two-toned 
green Wilton velvet rugs, will relieve this floor treatment. 
A quaint lamp of Colonial design, some old brasses and 
some brass bowls to hold roses and gillyflowers will 
complete an exceedingly attractive room, and leave you 
with money to spend for some bits of plaster frieze, and 
quaint prints of Reynolds and Gainsborough ladies in 
oval frames, to hang upon your dull green walls. 
If you will carefully carry out the above instructions, 
I am sure you will be pleased. 
Margaret Greenleaf 
102 
