November, i p 1 5 
51 
INTERIOR 
DECORA¬ 
TIONS 
CONDUCTED BY 
AGNES FOSTER 
Questions on House Fur¬ 
nishing and Decoration will 
be answered promptly and 
without charge by this de¬ 
partment. Send self - ad¬ 
dressed stamped envelope. 
More fitting for the drawing-room are the 
French screens, gilded birch, hand carved, 
with rich fabric and etching panels. $60 
of distinct unconnected surfaces, unrelated as to 
general tone. These all may be pulled together, 
so to speak, by a uniform coat of paint, thus es¬ 
caping a too spotty effect of various toned grains. 
Another advantage in painted woodwork is that 
in a smallish room with several openings, entailing 
much trim, the cut-up effect is overcome by paint¬ 
ing the woodwork to match the wall surface. The 
doors and windows become less noticeable and 
melt into the wall surface. The room is more 
restful and looks twice the size. A small room 
I have in mind had three doors and two windows. 
The paper was an excellent medium-toned tan and 
the woodwork was black oak. The room looked 
a succession of openings and cross lines. Later 
the woodwork was painted to tone in exactly 
with the paper, shelves were put across one closed 
door to simulate a built-in bookcase. No heavy 
curtains were put at the windows to accent them, 
merely a soft, deep cream scrim. The room was 
transformed. 
If we wish to get an effect of color in wood¬ 
work, rather than the more general effect of a 
neutral tone, we must adhere strictly to several 
well-founded rules. 
There must be the same general value of color 
in the side wall and the woodwork. That is, if 
we paper our walls in a delicate shade of yellow, 
our painted woodwork must be of the same value 
in color in lavender. We cannot put with a 
deep-toned yellow a delicately-toned lavender, or 
vice versa. The value must be the same, else the 
effect will lack harmony. The deeper note of 
contrast may be in the rug or furniture or in a 
very deep accent of a small accessory. 
A rather dingy room with tan paper and dark 
stained woodwork was quite made over by doing 
the walls over with a grey striped paper in the 
lightest possible tones and painting the woodwork 
a light blue-green. The room became large and 
light in appearance. The old brown rug was dyed 
A rattan screen in the dining-room gives suffi¬ 
cient privacy and yet permits the maid to see 
the wants of the family and guests. $ I 22 
a deep green and the floor and furniture was 
painted black. There had to be much furniture 
in the room, and the black made the furniture 
appear small and the whitish wall seemed to ex¬ 
pand. A medium tone to hold the woodwork 
and floor covering together was had in the couch 
cover of a beautiful toned green velour. Black 
and white shades on the lamps and a curtain of 
chintz — white and black, with set flowers of green, 
blue, rose and yellow — gave the room the “punch” 
it needed. 
Tan and putty-colored walls are well set off by 
using moulding to form panels and painting these 
in interesting and unusual combinations. A putty- 
colored wall of rough plaster has panel moulding 
and rather simple window and door trim of dull 
blue with a double striping of dull orange. This 
color combination enriches the wall surface, and, 
on account of the turn of the moulding, one gets 
a variety of color. It enlivens an otherwise com¬ 
monplace wall surface. The orange and blue are 
repeated in hangings and upholstery. 
Screen and Their Uses 
A screen can mar or make a room. It should 
be the last thing chosen in an interior decoration 
scheme. It may lighten, it may darken, it pay 
pull a room up from a dreary slough of despond 
of color or it may act as a restraining, calthi'hg 
hand. It always gives a room a sense bt spacious¬ 
ness, of something beyond — or, more probable, 
behind! 
For the bedroom the screen should be light, 
movable and covered with a cheery chintz. A 
plain tone screen gives too much expanse of one 
color. Most rooms cannot stand it, unless it ;yere 
very neutral. Pretty wicker screens in .grey's.and 
ivories are attractive in a bedroom. Beahtifid 
screens of brocade and gilt for an elaborate 
room give at once a French feeling. ® 
For the dining-room, lacquered chintz screens 
finished with antique round-headed nails are in¬ 
expensive and easily made. The pattern of the 
chintz must be suitable to the dining-room. Cane 
screens are serviceable since they allow the maid 
to be watchful of the guests’ wants, and at the 
same time not be apparent in the room. Beauti¬ 
ful screens come in oak and cane suitable for a 
Jacobean room where cane furniture is used. 
These screens, of course, do not keep off the 
draft. Old screen frames may be successfully 
used by re-covering the panels. A black frame 
with the panels of black chintz, with peacocks 
and gorgeous flowers, give a great deal of life and 
a handsome effect to a dark-toned dining-room. 
Chinese lacquered screens are quite the most 
beautiful of all. The very lacquer itself has a 
rich lustrous effect. To judge by the minuteness 
of its detail, the painting is generally done by a 
skilful, artistic and, it would seem, loving hand. 
Suitable for the dining-room or living-room. 
This type is satinwood finished in tan and 
decorated with painted panels. $171.50 
Painted Woodwork 
T HE day has passed when to preserve the 
grain of the woodwork was an all important 
feature with architects and decorators. The 
distinct characteristic of each wood and its fine 
subtle difference in grain is appreciated and used 
to advantage; but it is no longer a crying sin 
and shame to cover up with well-applied paint 
the coarse grain of a cheap inferior wood. Time 
was when the grain of wood was so coveted that 
painters imitated it, not in its simple, fine grada¬ 
tions but in its coarsest crudity. Witness the 
finish of the door panels in many of the New 
England country houses. You can pick the re¬ 
splendent, omnipresent grain off with your finger 
nail. It must have been rather good fun to grain 
doors, for the work is done in such broad sweep¬ 
ing strokes as to have the look of being done 
with the keenest enthusiasm. 
The pendulum has swung. We now paint our 
woodwork not only in ivories, greys and tans, 
but we run the gamut of all colors. And it is 
surprising how generally successful we are — for 
not only do we achieve novelty, but restful, liv¬ 
able interiors. 
There are several cases where painted wood¬ 
work is distinctly preferable to stained. In mod¬ 
ern apartments where the finish is inferior, a 
room may be made more elegant and refined by 
well-painted woodwork. Take the case of the 
cheaply constructed black oak trim of a dining¬ 
room. The room may be made lighter—a feature 
generally to be desired in a modern apartment — 
and much more distinctive, with cream woodwork. 
Cheap oak always suggests arts and crafts and 
mission furnishings, and if we are the lucky pos¬ 
sessors of a dining-room set of good mahogany, 
the effect of our room is spoiled by putting it 
against black oak. It has been the style to panel 
an apartment dining-room up to the “stein rail” 
in oak. A scrimpy little dark-toned room, hope¬ 
less in its commonplaceness, was the result. Much 
could be done by painting this a good French 
grey, putting a plain grey paper above and in 
place of the thoroughly detestable stein put one 
or two good pieces of blue china and a piece of 
pewter to tone in with the woodwork. A plain 
green, blue or grey rug and mahogany or painted 
furniture would at once lift your room from the 
mediocre and at no great expense. Also the effect 
would be of a much larger, more airy, spacious 
and refined room. 
The same is true of the parlor or living-room. 
Cheaply finished woodwork has generally a sickly, 
yellow tone. It is neither “fish, fowl or good 
red herring” as to the decidedness of tone. The 
wood being carelessly selected each surface varies 
beyond the point of interest. The effect is given 
