34 
House & Garden 
THE GROUP IN FURNITURE ARRANGEMENT 
Showing How Centers of Interest, Work and 
Play are Created and Space is Conserved 
H. D. EBERLEIN and ABBOTT McCLURE 
The group around this fireplace, as 
shown here and in the view opposite, is 
a loork. rest and. play center, the fu7-tii- 
ture being grouped hccording to its uses 
I T is . 
fall into groups as 
iust as natural for furniture to 
it is for human 
beings. The primary essentials are, in 
each case, that the groups be composed 
of the right units and that they be in the 
right place in the room. 
Since groups there will necessarily 
be either well or ill composed, either well 
01 ill placed, it behooves us to consider the 
principles of their successful formation and 
management, for success in the composing 
and placing of groups is not the result of 
chance but of the application of funda¬ 
mental rules. 
-A furniture group is a number of pieces 
of furniture brought together either because 
of some affinity of function that creates a 
bond of relationship between them or be¬ 
cause of some obvious fitness in creating an 
agreeable decorative composition. 
As an examiile of the former might be 
mentioned a tea table with several chairs 
and a “curate” or plate stand ; or, before a 
fireplace, a sofa with small tables at the 
ends or a long table in back to hold read¬ 
ing lamps, books and magazines. 
As a familiar example of the second sort 
might he named a console cabinet or table 
with a mirror hung on the wall above it. 
I As it stands, the grouping in the room above 
is on. axes. A — bookcase. B — chair, C — chest. 
D — table. E — sofa. F — credenza. G — fernbox. H 
—low backless form. I — stool, J — piano, K — 
piano bench, L — secretary, M—console 
The arrangement on axis is regular and 
balanced, giving the room the dignity befit¬ 
ting the tapestries, the fireplace hangings 
and the furniture, and conserving space 
sconces flanking the mirror and chairs 
flanking the console cabinet. 
The group need not be numerically 
large. Indeed, it may consist of only 
one piece. This sounds like an Hiber- 
nianism! The fact is that one often 
finds a piece of furniture, as, for in¬ 
stance. a coral red lacquer cabinet on a 
carved stand, that is so pronounced and con¬ 
centrated in the emphasis of its character¬ 
istics that its force would be impaired by 
the proximity of other pieces. Of itself 
such a piece is fully capable of supplying 
all the decorative interest that one section 
of a room can stand without muddling the 
effect and bewildering the eye. It may 
properly be considered, therefore, a group 
of one, which it is potentially. Nor need 
such a piece be large of bulk to entitle it 
to classification by itself. 
The units or individual members from 
which groups are formed may be classified, 
in the first place, as “wall furniture,” such 
as cabinets, cupboards, tall secretaries, book¬ 
cases, mirrors and similar objects which, 
from the nature of their shape, structure 
or size, must necessarily he placed against 
a wall. In the second place there is the 
classification of “floor furniture,” that is. 
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II Study the key above and the ai'rangement of 
this room in another manner on axis. Restful 
floor spaces are still preserved 
The grouping against the tcall opposite the fire¬ 
place consists of a credenza backed by a large 
tapestry and flanked by arm chairs 
III A third arrangement of this room gives the 
more accustomed treatment of davenport before 
the fire, tables at ends and long table behind 
