May, 1917 
19 
of delightful memories 
is a quaint room of 
floral paper and black 
painted furniture of 
slender lines which dup¬ 
licated in a conventional 
decoration the nosegays 
on the wall. 
The decorations of a 
breakfast porch may al¬ 
most be built around the 
china one chooses to use 
there. Imagine what can 
be done with a set of 
Italian peasant ware. 
The background is 
cream—paint the walls 
cream. The figures are 
red, blue, yellow and 
green—this easily leads 
to yellow curtains with 
a piping of blue, and 
bright blue flower-boxes 
beneath. The plants will 
contribute green, and the 
rug may be of green or 
blue fibre, while a com¬ 
plete resume is found in 
a stout little set of peas¬ 
ant furniture painted 
pale green with flower decorations in 
suitable shades of red, yellow and blue. 
Of course, the architecture of the 
room will, in a large measure, decide 
the type of furnishings used. The little 
French breakfast room shown on these 
pages would be spoiled by a rag rug. 
while an Aubusson would be anathema 
to the farmhouse porch. 
Types Illustrated 
One of the rooms shown here is thor¬ 
oughly French in spirit. Another is a 
country house room of dignified sim¬ 
plicity well carried out in its decoration. 
The third, a porch breakfast room, was 
well adapted to decorated furniture of 
farmhouse lines, and the fourth, the 
Colonial kitchen, demanded Colonial 
furnishings and accessories. 
Consider these rooms in detail. The 
Louis XVI room, deco¬ 
rated in rose and grey, 
represents the extreme to 
which formality can be 
carried in a room of this 
sort. Despite paneling, 
circumspect curtaining 
and furniture of the 
royal boudoir atmos¬ 
phere, this room draws 
from its small dimen¬ 
sions, its many windows 
and growing plants, a 
daintiness and freshness 
that give it individuality. 
Probably never a very 
popular type of break¬ 
fast room, it is undoubt¬ 
edly well suited to cer¬ 
tain homes and tastes. 
In spite of its digni¬ 
fied lines, the country 
house breakfast room 
scarcely escapes the ac¬ 
cusation of naivete. 
There is something of 
the cottage atmosphere 
in the straightness of the 
chairs and the long con¬ 
sole with its two candle¬ 
Simple in line and Chinese in decoration is this breakfast room. The lacquered 
furniture is decorated in Chinese pattern, and the rug and porcelains are Chi¬ 
nese. Courtesy of Hampton Shops 
The breakfast porch in the home of Hon. Phil¬ 
ander C. Knox pleasantly embodies the tra¬ 
ditions of a Pennsylvania farmhouse 
This Colonial breakfast room shows the su,ccessful utilization of an odd corner. 
The architecture of the room was conducive to a delightful bit of restoration. 
Duhring, Okie & Ziegler, architects 
sticks. There has been 
a blessed knowledge of 
what and how much to 
omit, which largely ac¬ 
counts for the charm of 
the room. As a matter 
of fact, it is Chinese in 
decoration — porcelains, 
rug, lacquered furniture, 
and even small tasseled 
chair cushions of Chi¬ 
nese silk. The combina¬ 
tion is full of attractive 
possibilities. 
The predominating at¬ 
tributes of the break¬ 
fast porch in the home 
of Philander C. Knox, 
Esq., at Valley Forge, 
Pa., are simplicity and 
cheerfulness. Walls and 
ceiling are of white 
painted boards, the floor 
is of grey stones, and 
the fireplace has a plain 
wooden mantel and a 
chimney breast of white¬ 
washed stone. One en¬ 
tire wall of the porch is 
glazed, its long case¬ 
ments opening on a terrace that over¬ 
looks the garden. Particularly appro¬ 
priate in this setting are the sturdy 
gate-leg table and the ladder-back rush- 
bottom chairs, painted in a warm grey- 
brown with bright floral conceits. 
A Colonial Room 
In the converted Colonial kitchen, 
everything has been subordinated to the 
oldtime spirit. The walls are painted 
white above a low white wainscot, and 
the ceiling is of white boarding with 
brown stained rafters. Smooth grey 
stones laid in white bond compose the 
floor. In line the furniture is straight 
and austere. There are two capacious 
cupboards, the corner one showing 
glimpses of fine old lustre ware. The 
fireplace is furnished with rigorous sim¬ 
plicity, and the hardware is of black 
iron. Old china is 
ranged along the high 
shallow mantel, where it 
is thoroughly in keeping. 
One of the best things 
about the breakfast room 
is that, in spite of the 
apparently limited class 
to which it belongs, it is 
susceptible of a wide 
variety of treatments, a 
fact clearl}^ shown even 
in this brief discussion. 
It offers an excellent 
opportunity for a dis¬ 
play of individuality. It 
may represent a con¬ 
sistent development of 
the scheme of your 
house, or a welcome and 
diverting sport from its 
type. In any event, its 
possibilities and attrac¬ 
tions are endless, and the 
problem holds as many 
charms for the novice in 
creating unusual and ar¬ 
tistic interiors as it does 
for the decorator of long 
experience. 
