18 
House & Garden 
With Which Are Mingled Some Practical Color and 
Furnishing Schemes—Building a Room Around China 
This Louis XYI breakfast room is piquantly attractive, albeit somewhat too 
fragile and formal in furnishings to suit most tastes. It is decorated in soft tones 
of rose and grey. Mrs. Lorraine Windsor, decorator 
very situation and architectural require¬ 
ments of the room throw it into the comfort¬ 
able class of morning-rooms and sunrooms 
—restful, refreshing spots of naive decora¬ 
tion, large window space, early sunlight. 
These are rooms in the house, yet not alto¬ 
gether of it, partakers, too, in the sights and 
sounds of the world outside. 
This is the room where you may indulge 
all sorts of quaintnesses and quiddities, 
where you may be coldly Colonial or frank¬ 
ly futuristic or anything else your taste di¬ 
rects. Here may be used that gay cottage 
chintz, that cunning painted furniture, 
which outrageously refuse to conform to 
the other seemly sad-colored rooms of the 
house. Whether the breakfast room is the 
adorable supplement to the comfort of your 
jolly little thatched cottage or the one hu¬ 
manizing note in the twenty rooms of a 
gingerbread encrusted castle-by-the-sea, it 
will justify its existence a thousand times. 
T he breakfast room is dedicated to that 
subtle meal which finds us in the 
most sensitive of moods, which may mean 
anything from a collation to a swallow, but 
wbich to all save the total abstainer has the 
power to make or mar the day. 
A tremendous responsibility rests upon 
this room—upon its location, its decoration 
and the manner of its furnishing. 
First of all the breakfast room should be 
situated in a part of the house where it will 
receive the full benefit of the morning sun. 
Better breakfast in the cellar or in a mid- 
Victorian dining-room of walnut and red 
damask than in a sunless breakfast room. 
If your house is not yet built, you have an 
enviable chance for selecting an easterly 
spot; if it must be a matter of adapting a 
house already erected, make the best possi¬ 
ble choice of a bright corner. Never lose 
sight of the fact that it is in this room that 
the real business of the day is to begin. 
Time was when break¬ 
fast was a highly solemn 
affair. The entire fam¬ 
ily had to be assembled, 
clothed in suitably de¬ 
corous garments, before 
an eggshell was cracked 
or a slice of bread 
toasted. This sacrosanct 
ceremony was performed 
in the room dedicated to 
the rites of dinner. 
Modern Informality 
An informal breakfast 
in an informal room 
may wmrk for the weak¬ 
ening of family discip¬ 
line in the eyes of an 
older generation, but it 
means that life has be¬ 
come immensely more 
livable. The tendency 
of modern architecture 
—directly concerned 
with expressing the 
needs of modern life— 
is to give a fitting di¬ 
versity to the hours and 
tasks of the day. There 
are bedrooms to sleep in 
and dressing rooms to 
dress in ; reception rooms 
to receive in, and living- 
rooms just to “live” in; 
and by no means least 
important dining-rooms 
to dine in and breakfast 
rooms to breakfast in. 
Informality will in¬ 
deed be for most of us 
the keynote of the break¬ 
fast room decorations. 
This is partly because 
breakfast has almost 
universally become a 
meal so informal that we 
could not revive the old 
dignified institution if 
w'e worffd. Then, the 
The cheeriest of backgrounds should be 
given the breakfast room. Yellow, light 
green and even light blue and white, used 
in combination with other tones, make an 
excellent setting. There are various papers 
on the market which show these colors in 
simple patterns. The Chinese designs in 
two tones of light blue and light grey are 
especially pleasing. With them the wood¬ 
work could be finished in a darker shade 
of grey or blue, and the furniture painted 
French grey with blue decorations. Cream 
sunfast curtains and blue willow pattern 
china on a linen cloth worked with blue 
crewel complete the scheme of a very 
charming and restful morning room. 
Then there is the plaster wall which per¬ 
mits a variety of treatments. It may be 
painted in warm yellow, ivory, pale blue or 
green. If you like, it may have stenciled 
designs in a not too obvious color. I have 
long been partial to Italian silhouettes in 
black—a frieze of danc¬ 
ing boys and girls. With 
such a background the 
furniture might be paint¬ 
ed a shade lighter than 
the walls, wdth curtains 
of blue or green silk 
piped wdth yellow—like 
a streak of sunlight. 
Various Treatments 
Another suggestion in 
Italian decoration is em¬ 
bodied in a small square 
room of creamy plas¬ 
tered walls and pale 
blue-painted Italian 
peasant furniture. The 
focal point is a low 
mantel of severely sim¬ 
ple lines, surmounted by 
a blue and white Della 
Robbia relief of Ma¬ 
donna and Child. On 
the cream-painted floor 
is a rush mat, and the 
china is plain pottery of 
a deep cream color. Al¬ 
ways filled with white or 
pale-tinted flowers, this 
is a room for those rare 
souls who like to begin 
the day quietly and go 
to their day’s work wdth 
a lasting sense of peace 
upon them. 
For a gayer taste was 
planned a very effective 
breakfast room of faded 
orange w'alls and a set 
of willow^ in green-blue. 
The cretonne combined 
these colors with a stripe 
of black and a black rug 
w^as used on the floor. 
A Dutch blue room 
wdth a small tulip mo¬ 
tive on plates and fur¬ 
niture was very appeal¬ 
ing, wdiile not the least 
