INSIDE THE 
HOUSE 
Timely Suggestions and 
Answers to Correspondents 
Up-to-Date Willow Furniture 
ILLOW furniture always suggests 
a welcome, an invitation to stop 
and rest awhile. And this furniture has 
wonderfully improved in style of late. In¬ 
tricate ornamentation and fancy basketry 
weaves are almost never seen now. Surely 
this is evidence of a fine artistic sense, that 
we are glad to get away from over-decora¬ 
tion to the things which suggest simple 
living. 
With her plans for refurnishing the 
summer home or the year-round home, 
happily outside the city, the housewife 
always associates these fittings. Willow 
has a quiet, reposeful individuality that 
can take its place along with mahogany 
or other massive woods. It is charming 
for a single room and even for an entire 
cottage if chintz or cretonne cushions and 
hangings supply the essential splashes of 
color. 
The pieces of willow furniture that are 
illustrated here are first of all useful, and 
their lines are artistic, simple and beautiful 
to the eye. They are distinctly practical 
in that each piece, separately or with 
others of like style, can be used in living- 
room or hall and then moved out to the 
veranda when warm summer davs brine 
their call for the outside. Those ease- 
loving ones who are not lured by the 
strenuousness of golf, tennis or such 
activity may just as surely live in the open 
with their favorite chair, book or sewing 
basket in a sheltered nook of the outdoor 
living-room. 
Such constant and wholesome use of the 
veranda was impressed on me by friends 
who have a commodious summer home in 
Maine. The unusually spacious veranda, 
not unlike the old-time “gallery” of 
Southern mansions, extends around four 
sides of the house. There are two full- 
size dining tables, built especially for this 
outside living-room, one on the north-side 
veranda and one on the south veranda, so 
that on whichever side the sun shines too 
directly or the wind blows too strongly the 
family may dine at the other table and 
not lose one bit of outdoor joy. This has 
always impressed me as being one of the 
best-laid summer plans I ever knew. Pic¬ 
ture the delight of having morning rolls 
and coffee surrounded by song birds and 
glistening dew, and the evening meal 
lighted by the glow of the setting sun! 
In a dignified hall containing a few 
handsome pieces the introduction of the 
circular, three-part hall seat, which is 
here illustrated, would soften the austerity 
of the heavy, darker wood. The cushions 
are of gay-flowered chintz. Each separ¬ 
able part is a generously comfortable seat 
for two and, being very light, is often ear¬ 
ned outside when the porch party receives 
chance additions about tea time. Many 
prefer to leave the willow unstained when 
it is used with mahogany. The contrast 
of the pale yellowish tone with that of the 
dark wood is far more effective than 
stained or painted willow in an attempted 
harmony. 
The sweeping curved back of' the arm¬ 
chair has the comforting width without 
the heavy looking height of the fireside 
wing chair. A brightly colored cretonne 
cushion lines the chair back, and another, 
deeper and softer, covers the seat. Inch¬ 
wide black and white striped linen or 
cretonne scattered over with bold futurist 
colored fruit and posies give handsome 
effects for cushions where the chairs are 
stained or painted and decided contrasts 
are desired. 
A refreshment taboret is one of the new 
accoutrements from which a hostess may 
The tea wagon is indispensable for porch living. Light 
in weight and easily moved about, it can be trundled 
even out on the lawn 
Porch chairs should be wide, deep and well cushioned. 
They should also be light enough to drag about and 
upholstered with a gay fabric 
The refreshment taboret is supplied with a stout handle, 
basket fashion. Stock it in the pantry and it can be 
readily carried to the veranda 
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