HOW WE MADE A COMMONPLACE HOUSE 
ATTRACTIVE 
By H. Hanley Parker 
A BOUT four years ago I confronted the 
^ problem of giving to the interior dec¬ 
orations and furnishing of a rented house in 
Philadelphia some character reflective of 
the taste of its tenant. In the first place I 
was fortunate in finding a house on which 
to begin operations. It was built about 
thirty-five years ago, and happened to suit 
some varied requirements of my own with 
respect to space and light. I he large rooms 
were simply trimmed and devoid of those 
horrors of wood detail to be found in many 
of the Philadelphia building operations of 
more recent years. This, together with the 
bad condition in which the property then 
was, afforded some opportunity of arrange¬ 
ment in a distinctly modern way. 
I had the owner agree to make me his 
allowance for papering, and I can assure 
you it was small; then after removing every 
vestige of the old papering and repairing some 
broken plastering, we 
started in. 
I be long saloon 
parlor we did not 
need for such a pur¬ 
pose as its name and 
the Philadelphia tra¬ 
ditions implied, and 
so we made it a li¬ 
brary. The scheme 
was kept quiet and 
solid. I he floor was 
covered with Amer¬ 
ican grass matting 
with black and brown 
warp. The walls, to 
a height of eight feet, 
were painted in a 
manner to which I 
gave the name 
“FI uxill e.” The 
colors being applied 
over the ground tone 
in glazes, flowed on 
and worked together 
THE TRANSFORMED HALL 
while flowing. There was a desire for 
some slight variety of color over the sur¬ 
face, yet not the annoying repetition of a 
pattern in paper or fabric. The color 
adopted is a warm gray in effect, yet it 
varies from purple to brown and green tones 
with misty silver waves running through it. 
Above the wide picture moulding the four 
feet of wall coving into the ceiling is covered 
by a paper of cream tone, on which I have 
painted a frieze with a large leaf flowing 
motive in water color. 
The woodwork of the room had formerly 
been grained walnut and covered with a 
varnish, making it look not unlike molasses 
candy. Our furniture being fumed oak of a 
grayish brown, we over-grained the other 
woodwork with solid color and produced the 
effect of the new dull-finished oak which 
could not as well have been obtained had we 
burned off the old paint and varnish and 
regrained it in the 
usual way. 
The large double 
doors on the long 
side of the room we 
removed, and headed 
in the opening on a 
line level with the 
picture moulding, 
filling the space left 
above with slatting 
so as to correspond 
with the treatment in 
the backs of our 
chairs. This is shown 
in the view of the 
hallway. The por¬ 
tieres are woven on 
the principle of rag 
carpet, of colors, 
purple, brown and 
green, and with a 
brown warp. We 
dyed some of the 
goods ourselves in 
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