R E G I 
T E R E D 
I N 
PATENT 
OFFICE 
Vol. XXVI—N 4 o . 4 
October, 1914 
The hallway before furnishing 
The hallway after furnishing 
Before and After Furnishing 
A STORY OF DECORATION IN THE PROCESS—CREATING AN INDIVIDUALITY FOR EACH ROOM- 
HOW OLD FURNITURE WAS ADAPTED TO A NEW HOUSE AND THE CONSEQUENT EFFECTS 
by Abbot McClure and Harold Donaldson Eberlein 
4 ^T)EFORE AND AFTER” pictures, exhibiting the marvel- 
X) ous potency of sundry hair restorers to grow luxuriant 
hirsute crops on bald heads or setting forth the instantaneous 
exhilaration produced by this or that potent tonic, have so long 
served as laugh provocatives in the comic press that the average 
reader is apt to overlook the real sterling value of “before and 
after" object lessons, with their fruitful opportunities for com¬ 
parison. 
Nothing could be more aptly illustrative or definitely convinc¬ 
ing of actual achievement in the case of furnishing a house than 
"before and after” pictures, and nothing can better indicate the 
latent possibilities of room treatment. A “before” picture is not 
unlike a land survey chart; it provides a working basis for the 
furnisher to construct a scheme upon and gives the bare physical 
features of a room that must be weighed and considered in any 
intelligent plan of furnishing be the decoration never so small. 
A systematic plan it is absolutely necessary to make and use 
in arranging a house if the result is to be satisfactory. A house 
furnished “by chance” may be decoratively successful, but the 
odds are strongly against it and the success will be purely acci¬ 
dental. In determining upon any preliminary scheme for the 
choice of papers and hangings and the placing of furniture in 
a house, it will be found helpful to use photographs of the empty 
rooms in conjunction with a floor plan giving exact measure¬ 
ments and dimensions. In default of such photographs, which 
are convenient but not indispensable, a careful study of the empty 
house ought to be made, taking into account the wall spaces, the 
location of fireplaces, doors and windows, and the way in which 
the light enters in the several rooms. The original plan will 
doubtless be modified from time to time, but it affords a valuable 
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