48 
House & Garden 
BLACK and GRAY 
IN A BEDROOM 
A Composition In Which 
Livableness Predominates 
WINNIFRED FALES 
T HAT a little knowledge is a dangerous 
thing will be granted without argument by 
all who witnessed the wholesale perpetration of 
gloomy horrors in the name of decorative art, in 
the early stages of the “craze for black” which 
threatened to become epidemic a year or two 
ago. Fortunately, the very virulence of the 
attack hastened the crisis and brought about a 
speedy convalescence; but it had served its pur¬ 
pose, not only by demonstrating the viciousness 
of an unrestricted use of mourning hues, but 
also by arousing an appreciation of the incal¬ 
culable value, in a decorative composition, of 
the black note properly subordinated. As a 
result, innumerable interiors are now being pro¬ 
duced whose extreme effectiveness is due in no 
small degree to the skilful introduction of bl^ick 
in limited and broken areas, instead of in the 
solid and forbidding masses earlier employed. 
Where Black is Well Used 
The walls, ceiling and woodwork, with the 
exception of the black door frames, are 
gray white. Panels of the doors have been 
given decorative designs in gray, white and 
orange on a black ground. The same sort 
of motif has been used on the bed. The 
coverlet is black taffeta with bands of the 
drapery silk. Fixtures are wrought iron 
One of the happiest results achieved by this 
means is shown in the accompanying illustra¬ 
tions of a bedroom in a Massachusetts home, 
wherein the black elements have been handled 
with the utmost restraint and yet in a manner 
which gives life and brilliancy to the whole. 
The walls, ceiling and woodwork of the room 
—with the exception of the door frames—are 
painted an austere gray white, and the entire 
floor is covered with a velvet carpet in a tile 
pattern of grayish white and black. The glass 
curtains are of thin, shimmering white silk 
edged with narrow black and white fringe, and 
over them fall draperies of a heavier silk of 
soft gray covered with a large floral pattern in 
blue, dull purple and green with a touch of 
orange yellow. These are bordered with inch¬ 
wide folds of black taffeta. 
Northend 
Floral motifs in blue, didl purple and green taken from the draperies, were applied 
to the black painted panels of the dressing table and other furniture. The black is intro¬ 
duced only in limited and broken areas, as in the gray and black carpet and the black 
taffeta bindings of the over-drapes. Glass curtains are white silk edged with narrow 
black and white fringe 
silk. Above it hangs a small oval mirror in a 
black and silver frame. Even the radiator is 
concealed by a metal grille enameled gray and 
black. The lighting fixtures are simple wall 
brackets of wrought iron that serve to carry the 
eye upward from the furniture to the black 
painted door frames. 
The Door Treatment 
The doors themselves constitute the most 
original and decorative feature of the entire 
room. They are enameled gray and each has 
five molded panels of equal dimensions, painted 
black and lined with white. The first and fifth 
panels are filled with elaborate floral designs 
composed of the same units as those used in the 
decoration of the furniture and, like those, 
adapted from the pattern of the window hang¬ 
ings. In each center panel is painted a large 
rosette in gray, white and orange—also an 
adaptation of a drapery motif—with four small 
ones in the corners. The second and fourth 
panels are left plain for the sake of contrast. 
Taken as a whole, this unusual bedroom fur¬ 
nishes a valuable object lesson in decorative 
economy. In the average room, enough deco¬ 
rative themes are jumbled together to supply 
an entire house if intelligently separated and 
developed. Here is an example which proves 
the ease with which a single rug, a roll of 
wall paper, or a length of fabric may be made 
to yield sufficient inspiration for the decoration 
of an entire room, without monotony, and with 
a marked gain in distinction. 
I'lie room contains one large easy chair up¬ 
holstered with sable velvet, which seems to 
draw to a focus all the smaller areas of black 
and prevent an effect of “spottiness.” The rest 
of the furniture is finished in gray enamel of 
a medium tone, the chairs upholstered with the 
drapery material, and the bed, dressing table, 
mirror frame and chiffonier paneled and striped 
with black, and painted with motifs borrowed 
from the silk. The bed, of a most graceful de¬ 
sign, has a counterpane and valance of black 
taffeta embellished with bands of the drapery 
Northend 
