Miss Greenleaf will gladly answer questions pertaining to individual problems of interior decoration and furnishing. When an immediate reply is 
desired, please enclose a self-addressed envelope 
Readers’ Problems 
WALL TREATMENT 
You have been of such assistance to certain 
friends of mine that I am encouraged to write 
to this Department asking your aid for myself. I send you under sep¬ 
arate cover a set of blue prints showing the plan of my house. The 
house faces west and is painted white with green stained roof. The 
eaves, overhanging three feet, give a broad low appearance suggestive 
of the Dutch Colonial, and I would like to work in the Dutch effect in 
the interior wherever possible. I must tint the walls of the rooms down¬ 
stairs; perhaps you could suggest some way of decorating them in addi¬ 
tion to this which would not be too expensive. 
Woodwork in living-room is of walnut; the tiles about the fireplace 
are cream color, shot with black The floors are birch stained oak. 
I shall use ecru net curtains. I have mahogany furniture for this room. 
I also have two medium size rugs in tans and browns which I would like 
to have dyed to suit the room, or I might use one large brown rug with 
two small Orientals, retaining the other square rug for the hall. Kindly 
advise me. I should be glad to have advice and samples for inside cur¬ 
tains. We also have a large davenport in Bagdad covering; this I should 
like to have done over. I wish to use nasturtium shades for this room — 
deep brown leading up to some pieces in nasturtium red with tan and 
yellow between. 
I would favor a Dutch dining-room. For furniture we have a 
round table, chairs and plain buffet of dark oak. The woodwork of 
the room is of Circassian walnut. Could I have shelves over the 
doors and windows and do away with the plate-rail, and will window- 
seats look w r ell with this? How should I tint the room? What over¬ 
draperies? Also I would like suggestions for children’s room with 
samples of wall paper for bedrooms and bath. 
The ideas for decorating your house as outlined in your letter 
are good, and in the following suggestions we are keeping to 
them. 
The wall tint for the living-room should be a soft tan, neither 
yellow nor brown, like the sample we send you. The net cur¬ 
tains you now have should be hung next the glass reaching 
only to the sill. Over-draperies for these windows could be 
made from the tapestry fabric of which we send sample; these 
curtains should extend to the floor line. The red velour of which 
we send sample is recommended for door curtains; this, as you 
will see, is a double faced material, 50 inches in width, and 
may be purchased for $3.15 a yard. In working out this scheme 
we have had in mind the nasturtium shades you mentioned. 
Your woodwork of Circassian walnut will supply the darkest 
shade of brown. The tapestry fabric shows a combination of 
brownish tan and a little red; this should make a most attrac¬ 
tive room. 
The hall wall should be treated the same as the living-room. 
Your idea of using one brown rug in the living-room with two 
smaller Orientals would be a good plan. The other brown rug 
could be used in the hall. We send you the address of a firm who 
will dye rugs satisfactorily. 
For the dining-room we send two schemes, one showing the 
Dutch wind-mill frieze—this to be applied at the ceiling line, and 
the wall tinted either a soft green, the color of the sample we 
send, or dull cinnamon brown. The coarsely woven Arras cloth 
is advised for upholstering the window seats, and for door curtains. 
We like your idea of using shelves over doors and windows. The 
second scheme sent for this room shows a delft blue wall with 
ivory white ceiling. We send a figured madras for over-draperies 
and blue upholsterers’velveteen for door curtains. The figured 
blue and tan tapestry is suggested for covering the window seats. 
For the children’s room a frieze showing Dutch children is 
sent. The wall should be tinted soft gray-blue, like the back¬ 
ground of the frieze; the ceiling to be ivory. The small-figured 
linen is recommended for upholstering and for over-draperies. 
For the bedrooms we are sending a selection of floral papers. 
One shows yellow roses on a cream ground, the other the 
nasturtium design, since you favor these colors. In both of these 
rooms embroidered white muslin curtains should be used next 
the windows with over-draperies of plain colored linen — in the 
yellow room the yellow, in the nasturtium room dull red. 
These are intended to be banded with a border of cretonne 
showing yellow roses and nasturtiums respectively. 
For the rear room a plain rose paper is recommended; with 
this a figured cretonne or linen taffeta should be used. Since 
your woodwork will all be treated with white enamel these sug¬ 
gestions will be found harmonious. 
The question next of importance for you to settle is the style 
of rug to use in each room. You will find some helpful sugges¬ 
tions on this subject in an article on another page of this issue. 
We are selecting the mantels for our new home which 
: is rather Colonial in style, though I believe much modi¬ 
fied. The rooms are not very large. The woodwork is painted white 
and the doors are mahogany. We have seen a very good mantel for 
the dining-room in golden oak. As my furniture is oak I thought 
this would be a good choice, but the furniture unfortunately is much 
darker than golden (almost brown in fact). Would such a mantel be 
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