34 
House & Garden 
THE LEGENDS OF THE 
MODERN NURSERY 
AGNES FOSTER 
T he most disenchanting moment of 
one’s life comes when one goes back 
and visits his old nursery. 
How Time has shrunk it! The ceiling 
is not limitless after all, nor are the closets 
great, dark, mysterious holes. It is really 
a skimpy, homely little room. 
But pity be to the grown-up who cannot 
smile at the gouge on the window sill that 
he made with his first knife thirty years 
ago, or at the putty holes in the headboard 
he picked out with his finger-nail one early 
Sunday morning, or the bare front leg of 
the rattan chair he carefully unwound on an 
interminably rainy afternoon! 
Nurseries are planned with more care 
today than they used to be, and the man of 
thirty years hence will have a richer heri¬ 
tage in the legends of his nursery. 
WiiAT Nurseries Are For 
Happily it is now seldom that the nurs¬ 
ery must also serve as the children’s bed¬ 
room. When it must be used for a bedroom, 
the children should have their suppers in 
another room, because it is unpleasant for 
them to be fed and put directly to bed in 
the same room. Children never sleep as 
well due to the excitement of supper and 
the odors. It is an established psychologi¬ 
cal fact that playing and eating in one room 
and then being put to bed in another is con¬ 
ducive to the refreshing, restful sleep of 
children. If this arrangement is imprac¬ 
ticable, the nursery should be thoroughly 
aired and put in order while the children 
are supping elsewhere. 
The nursery should be considered the 
child’s inviolate domain. His playthings 
should be kept 
sacred and he 
should be permit¬ 
ted to have some 
say about their 
disposition. Chil¬ 
dren have queer 
fancies: they like 
to keep certain 
toys in certain 
corners a n d on 
certain shelves. 
Why shouldn’t 
they? We grown¬ 
ups have a favor¬ 
ite corner for our 
glove box and an- 
other for our 
handkerchiefs, 
and we wish them 
kept there. 
Thwarting a 
child’s fancies in 
these small mat¬ 
ters may make 
him w h i n y and 
broken-spirited. 
In the first 
planning of the 
room, provide 
sufficient shelv¬ 
ing, closet and 
play-box space to 
accommodate the 
toys and trap¬ 
pings of the shield. 
For the nursery or garden playhouse 
an iron-worker has made a "Cow-jump- 
ing-over-the-moon” weathervane. The 
outdoor size, 6 ' high and 3 ' wide, $ 65 . 
The smaller, 3 ' high and 18 " wide, $ 45 . 
The squirrel mud scraper, 12 " wide, 
$ 7.50 
And make it an unbroken rule that things 
are to be picked up and put in their places 
each night before bed-time. 
The best finish for a nursery wall is semi¬ 
gloss paint, which is easily washed. It 
should be of a cheerful cream or light yel¬ 
low tint. Avoid strong tones. 
How They Are Being Told 
in New Curtains, Paper 
and Tiny Furniture 
The walls should not be covered with 
brilliantly colored, grotescpie figured paper. 
It is exciting and soon becomes tiresome to 
the child. A child is easily impressed by 
surroundings and reacts to them. If the 
decoration is crude and grotesque, his men¬ 
tal conception cannot help but reflect some 
of that crudeness. If the walls have a plea¬ 
sant, refining line with a border of delicate 
fairy tale pictures, he is equally sure to be 
affected by them. 
When a frieze is used it should be placed 
high enough to be a mysterious decoration 
to the child. It should be well designed, 
preferably of some fairy tale subject. A 
black silhouette border of fairies is to my 
mind the most charming nursery decora¬ 
tion. It has a mysteriousness about it and 
possibilities around which the child’s own 
imagination can weave a story. Moreover, 
it is really decorative. If, on the other 
hand, one wishes a pictorial paper, nothing 
could be better than the Kate Greenaway 
paper of "The Months.” The colors are 
soft and the figures are quaint and charm¬ 
ing, with a direct child appeal. 
W.4LL Colors and Mirrors 
It is well to have the nursery walls wash¬ 
able, because in the case of a diptheritic 
throat or a semi-contagious sickness, the 
walls may be washed down with a disin¬ 
fectant. Then, too, young artists’ strivings 
may be more easily washed, than rubbed 
away from wallpapers, as they are usually 
penciletl with a strong, heavy line which 
was intended to “stay put.” 
Soft rose and blue are nice, suitable 
colors to use, though children sometimes 
have a f u n n y 
prejudice against 
these colors, 
whereas they in¬ 
variably like yel¬ 
low. Grey, dark 
red or dark blue 
or the eternally 
neutral buff are 
bad nursery col¬ 
ors as they have 
no response for 
childhood. 
It is well to 
have a low mir¬ 
ror on the wall 
for two reasons, 
and perhaps for 
as many reasons 
it is well not to; 
but we must not 
anticipate our 
children being 
vain or priggish. 
If a nursery has 
a mirror, a soli¬ 
tary child is not 
so apt to be lone¬ 
some. There is 
always another 
dancing, jumping 
little child just on 
the other side of 
that looking- 
glass frame. 
Also, if a child 
W. & J. Sloane, Decorators Photograph by Gillies 
In the residence of Captain J. H. Poole of Detroit is a playroom especially designed to 
hold plenty of toys. Low benches circle the room and all the furniture is diminutive. 
The small table is just the thing for teas and fine crayon tcork! 
