Where the architectural detail is of Georgian or some other distinct 
style it should set the key for the furnishing and decoration 
Where the wood trim is of unmolded and stained wood the walls 
are best kept plain and the color introduced in the hangings 
Individual Rooms vs. a Comprehensive 
Decorative Scheme 
SHALL WE HAVE A COLONIAL LIVING-ROOM, MISSION DINING-ROOM AND BLUE GUEST CHAMBER, 
OR SHALL INDIVIDUALITY BE MERGED IN A CONSISTENT SCHEME FOR THE WHOLE INTERIOR? 
by Margaret Greenleaf 
Photographs by Waldon Fawcett, J. T. Beals and others 
T HE relative treatment of adjoining rooms is a consideration 
which contributes largely to the success of the interior 
decorating and fitting of the house, particularly where the rooms 
of the first floor open together. For such rooms a complete and 
comprehensive scheme must be planned which will include them 
all in a way and yet permit certain essential characteristics to be 
brought out in each. 
In determining the color scheme and decorative treatment 
the arrangement of the floor plan, the dimensions of the rooms, 
the placing of doors, windows and fireplaces, and the character¬ 
istics expressed in the architectural detail must all have equal 
weight. 
We quote here from a letter received from a woman in a 
Western town, who, after her house was completed, felt there 
was something wrong in this newly furnished and expensive 
home. She wrote as follows and her letter voiced the disappoint¬ 
ments of many other women who have had similar ambitions: 
“ 1 have spent a great deal on my house and 1 left it in the hands 
of a decorator from the largest department store in —*——. 
My reception room is furnished correctly after the Louis XVI 
period. My hall is Colonial, my dining-room old English. The 
den and smoking room is l’Art Nouveau and,” she plaintively 
adds, “with all of this it is not satisfactory.” Such a description 
brings at once to the mind’s eye an effect that is cluttered and 
distracting and wholly inconsistent and unlivable. 
1 n giving this matter of interior decoration and house furnishing 
careful study, one realizes that the crux of the whole matter lies 
in selecting color schemes, materials and furniture which are 
consistent and suitable. To be consistent the scheme must be 
within the means and fit the requirements of the occupants, 
and to be beautiful the rooms must be relatively harmonious and 
wholly suited to the general environment, both of exterior and 
interior. 
In a hall which serves as the entrance to a house of Colonial 
design it is particularly desirable that the rooms on the left, the 
right, and the rear should be in harmony with its Colonial feeling. 
If one yearns for a French drawing-room in such a house, furnish¬ 
ings of the contemporary period of the French Empire may be 
appropriately introduced in this the most formal room of the 
house. The wood finish in the hall could appropriately be ivory 
white enamel with doors and hand-rail perhaps in softly polished 
mahogany. The standing woodwork of the French drawing¬ 
room should be treated with the same enamel. For the living- 
room on the opposite side of the hall a less formal treatment and 
Colonial furnishing could be indulged. The dining-room at the 
rear of the hall may hold either mahogany or oak wainscot or 
could be finished with white enamel. The dominant color appear¬ 
ing on the walls of the hall should show again in the living-room, 
and if the French drawing-room had walls of old rose or Empire 
green as its prevailing tone a suggestion of this color should be 
carried into the other rooms. 
In the vernacular house which is frequently built of cement, 
or shingles and siding, with casement windows and sunken doors 
suggestive of the English cottage, the interior trim should most 
appropriately be of wood stained to what is known as a natural 
tone, that is, showing such color as this particular wood might 
take from age, and long exposure to weather conditions. For 
instance, if chestnut is used for the standing woodwork through¬ 
out, this may be stained in shades of gray-brown gradually toning 
to silver-gray in the least lighted rooms of the house. The grada¬ 
tion of color in the woodwork from room to room is so slight as 
to be more felt than seen. The wall tones should be equally 
(22) 
