Simplicity in Room Decorating and Furnishing 
THE VALUE OF SELECTING A METHODICAL SCHEME AND FOLLOWING IT CONSISTENTLY- 
UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES AND THEIR APPLICATION—A SUGGESTIVE CONCRETE EXAMPLE 
by Abbot McClure and 
H. D. Eberlein 
W HERE to begin, that’s the question. And a very puzzling 
question it is for most of us to answer. It must be an¬ 
swered differently in almost every case and a still further diffi¬ 
culty arises in the shape of the bugbear cost. It would be an 
easy thing enough for a good many people to furnish a room, 
or even a whole house, in at least passably good taste if they had 
a goose that laid a golden egg in their poultry yard, but since that 
creature is a rara avis indeed, most of us in our furnishing op¬ 
erations are obliged to keep a sharp eye on the nimble and elusive 
sixpence which has an annoying trick of skipping away and leav¬ 
ing no satisfac¬ 
tory or substan¬ 
tial substitute un¬ 
less we look well 
to its manner of 
getting out of our 
purses. 
This leads us to 
say that it is only 
by steadfastly re¬ 
fusing to be hap¬ 
hazard in our 
course, no matter 
what alluring 
temptations may 
arise, and stick¬ 
ing as closely as 
possible to some 
general scheme 
or method, that 
we have deter¬ 
mined upon be¬ 
forehand, that 
we shall arrive at 
results acceptable 
from either a 
decorative or a 
financial point of 
view. It may be 
worth while, 
therefore, at this point to set forth a few guiding principles which 
will, if properly heeded, supply a thread of system and materially 
help in the pleasurable task of furnishing. 
Let us begin by laying down a few principles that will apply 
to the whole house and then follow with those that apply more 
especially to dealing with the individual room. To begin with, 
if one has any regard for the eternal fitness of things, they will 
not do violence to architecture and decoration alike by trying to 
yoke two incongruous styles together in unequal union. That is 
to say, they will not furnish a Tudor Gothic house in the manner 
of Chippendale or the Brothers Adam, nor fill with elaborate and 
fussy Louis Quatorze furniture and decorations a dwelling that 
is distinctly Georgian or Colonial in character. One does not 
expect to find a medieval castle full of modern French fripperies 
nor a Queen Anne cottage stuffed with heavy, carved oak furni¬ 
ture that might have been made for an old baronial hall, and it is 
always a shock when one does happen upon such unseemly 
combinations. 
When your house is already made for you and you cannot alter 
its appearance, there is only one thing to do and that is suit the 
interior treatment to the outside as consistently as you can. Also, 
have a care to the number, size and location of rooms and their 
relation to each other in planning the general scheme you intend 
to carry out. Another point that concerns the whole house, and 
is altogether too often disregarded, is the proportional balance 
of cost. Being put into plain English, this means that we have a 
bad habit of very often skimping one room or one part of the 
house in order to splurge in some other part — a thing in exceed¬ 
ingly ill taste. If your house is to be furnished simply and in¬ 
expensively, keep 
it so throughout 
and don’t commit 
the solecism of 
appearing, so to 
speak, in a ging¬ 
ham frock, but 
wearing a collar 
and tiara of 
pearls or dia¬ 
monds. Lastly, 
concerning the 
color scheme for 
walls and wood¬ 
work, it is well to 
preserve through¬ 
out, as far as may 
be, a uniform 
treatment, making 
any departure 
from this uni¬ 
formity only after 
due consideration 
of its effect upon 
other parts of the 
house. 
Coming now to 
the individual 
room, we must 
first of all study 
carefully its exposure and dimensions to determine the tones of 
paper and paint and whether the height of the ceiling must be 
raised or lowered and the apparent size increased or diminished 
by the treatment we are going to give. It is always well to have 
some understood point from which to start our operations and 
we shall, therefore, follow the plan of beginning with the floor, 
taking next the walls and ceiling, then the curtains and hangings 
and last of all the selection and arrangement of the furniture. 
This order of procedure can be followed where the furniture is 
to be assembled when the house is ready for it. Where the fur¬ 
niture is a previous possession, however, the three preceding 
points must be considered with reference to its character. For 
instance, if your furniture is walnut or mahogany, it would be 
foolish to panel the room that is to hold it with oak or fumed 
chestnut. One wood would completely ruin the effect of the 
other. Neither would the walnut or mahogany appear to the best 
advantage against too dark a paper. 
In every case, both with the individual room and the house as 
a whole, study to preserve simplicity and restraint. It is so easy 
The built-in china closet has a certain architecturally decorative value which is well illustrated 
here. Especially in some Colonial rooms is this sort of closet desirable, for it supplies a spot of 
color in the white walls 
