May, i p i 6 
11 
A detail of the dressing table, 
part of ivhich is shotvn below. 
curtains are made by com¬ 
bining three ivory silk Japan¬ 
ese shawls. Dressing table 
sells for $155 and bench for 
$ 22.50 
INSIDE THE SUMMER HOUSE 
Never Have the Summer Fitments Been So Filled With the Individuality of the Modern 
Spirit, the New Colorings or the Real Conveniences of Thoughtful Construction 
HENRY BLACKMAN SELL 
S MART lines; bright, rich color; soft, brilliant contrasts 
and real convenience in every fitment of the home—that, 
in a sentence, is the spirit of modern decoration. It is as 
well the essential spirit of the artistic rejuvenation seen at 
every turning, for the dry dictates of precedent have become 
passe and a new conception of decorative beauty has come to 
guide us in their stead. 
That one must “know” before he can “do” may seem a trite, 
irrelevant statement, but in it lies the true reason for almost 
a century of “period decoration” in this country when count¬ 
less homes were furnished and fitted to the minutest detail 
with relic and copy of this period or that. And this was 
fundamentally necessary. How else could we have learned so 
well the use made by the great designers of other days of the 
limited materials at their command and of the beauties they 
wrought despite the restrictions imposed upon them by their 
royal and aristocratic patrons? How else could we have 
learned so well the great underlying principles of composi¬ 
tion, of arrangement, of ornament, of color—in a word—of 
“taste?” The answer stands unmasked in the very question 
itself—in no other way. 
But now, freed as we are by this long accumulating knowl¬ 
edge we have begun to work beyond the rudiments of our 
school books—“the periods”—and to find ourselves in the sheer 
joy of expressing beauty wherever we see it, combining at will 
the best of all the ages, creating new modes, reveling in joy¬ 
ous color, in choice, simple pattern; constructing, grouping 
and arranging as best fits our needs and our whims—this is 
A Japanese summer bedroom. Walls are sea green, carpet grey and black, the furniture celestial blue body, striped with 
pale green and dotted with coral. Bed covers are Japanese shawls. Beds, $ 100 ; bureau, $ 150 ; table, $ 47.50 
