HOUSE AND GARDEN 
228 
There is hardly an ornament in this room, yet the balance of paneling 
is such that the room is very attractive. This form of Colonial 
Sheraton chair is serviceable and fitting 
October, 1913 
A simple striped paper in two toned grays forms a background for the 
Jacobean furniture and Windsor chairs. The combination of dif¬ 
ferent periods is permissible on account of color 
floors throughout the house had the cracks filled and were stained 
and varnished. The woodwork was painted ivory white with egg¬ 
shell finish, although some of the rooms required a slight varia¬ 
tion of tone. The wall-papers were carefully chosen, and, so, 
when the backgrounds were ready, the furniture made over and 
refurbished, and the new curtains 
finished, they were put in and 
made a house whose charm was 
undeniable. 
Some of the problems met and 
overcome, besides those men¬ 
tioned, were the lighting of the 
house, the making-over and re¬ 
covering of the furniture, and the 
judicious mingling of new pieces 
with the old so that harmony and 
balance were kept. All questions 
of period styles naturally were 
not considered at all; the aim was 
to make the house charming and 
homelike in a nondescript fashion. 
A black walnut table was used in 
the hall with a mirror over it 
which had been a part of a bu¬ 
reau. The curves and bunches of 
grapes which had flourished on the 
top were planed off by a carpen¬ 
ter and the whole refinished and 
rubbed down. A brocade cover 
hid the marble top of the table 
from view, and a large pottery jar 
was always kept full of greenery, 
with old brass candlesticks on 
each side. There were two black 
walnut chairs with seats covered 
with a soft tone of green frieze, and the rugs and stair carpet 
were two tones darker than the plain tan walls. The hall was 
long and narrow, so across the back a screen of rich soft colors 
was put to hide the service door and make the hall seem of better 
proportion. The woodwork was ivory white, the hand-rail left 
dark, and the curtains were plain cream white net with little silk 
side curtains of the tone of the rug looped back in the daytime 
and dropped at night. 
The living-room was a large, pleasant room with the alluring 
charm which comfortable chairs and cheerful chintz give. The 
fireplace was roomy, with a simple Colonial mantel and a large, 
inviting stuffed sofa drawn up before it, backed by a big library 
table with two good reading lamps placed on it. There were 
several other centers of interest in the room, one formed by the 
piano, one by a table with books 
and lamp and armchairs drawn up 
beside it. Some of the chairs had 
been upholstered in chintz and 
some in a plain harmonizing color, 
and what were necessary in the 
way of new chairs were wisely 
chosen of wicker, stained, not 
painted, a soft brown. There were 
no top or ceiling lights left in the 
house, for all had been replaced 
by side lights and plenty of floor 
outlets so lamps could be used. 
There was no concealing the 
sad fact that the dining-room fur¬ 
niture was not beautiful, so it 
was made to fit closely into the 
color scheme and in that way lose 
some of its ugliness which a dif¬ 
ferent treatment would have em¬ 
phasized. The dark woodwork 
was kept, the only change being a 
better designed mantel, on which 
some pieces of fine old blue and 
white Chinese porcelain were for¬ 
mally placed. The wall-paper was 
a soft two-toned tan, the design 
so close together in color value 
that it was almost one-toned, the 
rug soft blues and browns, with 
plain blue velours side curtains and chair seats. The sideboard 
had its towering superstructure removed and a mirror framed 
with dull gold hung over it. There were some good colored 
sporting prints in the house, and these were used, and their dark 
frames looked very well. 
There were three bookcases of the “secretary” type in the 
house, two luckily alike. The applied ornament was planed off, 
and they were refinished and placed side by side against a blank 
wall in the library, the middle one being used as a desk, the other 
Nothing is more fitting for the bedroom than various sorts of 
painted and enameled chairs. Here are two of the Colonial 
style that are effective 
