October, 1912 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
201 
The studio living-room is distinctive in that it is absolutely simple. The grays and white 
form a background for color which is restricted to the pictures and pillow covers 
This table is convertible into a settee by lifting up 
the top. Beneath this is a storing space 
Mullioned windows with leaded glass, curtained by simple sash 
curtains of dark cool green silk, furniture of heavy plain design 
in the same dull-finished oak, and upholstered in dark green 
leather carry out the idea of rich simplicity. Spots of subdued 
brightness are secured by lamps of bronze with shades of leaded 
glass, and a few jars of green, or of old copper always filled with 
flowers or bright-lined leaves give an effect of cheerful color 
without detracting from the solid, serious character of the dec¬ 
orative scheme, or putting to shame the faded tones of the six 
or seven portraits which lend such distinction and richness of 
tone to this very livable and 
homey room. 
Millicent Livermore 
A Stenciled 'HP'HE prob- 
Sitting-Room A lem laid 
before the dec¬ 
orator was to furnish and 
decorate a room for a young 
professional woman, making 
it a cheerful place to sit in of 
evenings, and a harmonious 
setting for its owner. Eco¬ 
nomical furnishing was a ne¬ 
cessity, with the utilization if 
possible of furniture already 
possessed. 
A fireplace, considered the 
best available dispenser of 
cheer, had been built at a cost 
of fifty dollars. A large 
closet with window was 
planned to serve partly as 
dressing-room. Since sleeping outdoors the year round is the 
young woman’s custom, the room could be treated as an indi¬ 
vidual sitting-room. 
The owner and her apparel were considered important factors 
in the color scheme. And since the gowns harmonized charm¬ 
ingly with their owner’s pale gold hair and rosy coloring, a spe¬ 
cial triumph of the dressmaker’s skill was taken as a guide in 
color effects. Pale gray, a soft rose-color, pastel blue and pale 
gold were thus selected as echoing or contrasting colors that 
formed a good background in perfect harmony of tints. 
The woodwork was painted in flat white, with doors of gum- 
wood, oiled. Pale gray ingrain paper was put on the walls, ton¬ 
ing with the gray brick fireplace. Wall stencils were done upon 
panels of pale gold. Furniture was painted in white enamel, or 
selected in gray wicker. A rug in gray green was chosen. 
Two old-fashioned chairs were re-painted and utilized, with an 
old chest of drawers and a stand. The new furniture included a 
desk, a gray wicker settle, and fireside chair. A wall cupboard 
for holding tea-set and books is designed, but not yet built. 
Wall stencils emphasizing 
the interesting features of the 
room were planned as decora¬ 
tions. Since dancing in its 
modern development is a fad 
of the room’s owner, who 
goes to see all the exponents 
of the art and has a collection 
of prints of them, the dance 
was chosen as subject. Two 
tall narrow panels on the 
chimney breast show conven¬ 
tionalized treatments of a 
fragment of the ballet in 
“Scheherezade” and of a pose 
of Russian dancers in 
“L’Oiseau de Feu.” The 
panel above the wicker couch 
has as motif ballet dancers, 
their skirts suggesting big 
flowers, in circles formed of 
wavy lines. Degas, the paint¬ 
er pre-eminent of the ballet 
girl, was levied upon for a model as were photographs of well- 
known dancers, but a decorative effect, with the spirit and “go” 
of the dance were the chief motives of the stencils, done simply 
with few lines. 
The colors used were fresco tints in powder form soluble in 
water. Yellow dextrine served as a binder. The colors were 
mixed thick, since if thin they run down a wall with disastrous 
ease. The stencils were cut in the ordinary manner. The pale 
gold backgrounds were put on with a stencil brush, in one stencil 
In this room with a single color scheme even the flowers are selected for 
a pink and white effect and the pots painted white 
