28 
House & Garden 
THE HIGH COST OF RUGGING 
The Floor and the Rugs 
to Place on It 
AGNES FOSTER WRIGHT 
T HI' High Cost of Rugging should come 
under A or B class in the schedule of 
the High Cost of Living. We can—not that 
we want to, but we can—substitute moss and 
floss for down and hair in our upholsery, or 
domestic fading cretonnes for hand-blocked 
English linens, or mercerized cottons for taf¬ 
fetas and satins, and jute for damask. We 
have to do it every day. But what can we 
substitute for Chenille and Axminster? 
I'unny people with imaginations say, “Oh, 
we'll tell our neighbors we’s leaving our 
library and living room floor uncarpeted for 
dancing and our bedroom floors rugless for 
sanitation. Do you think it will go down?” 
It may “go down,” but I am sorry for the 
poor children who hop out of a warm l^ed and 
put their warm little toes onto a cold shiny 
floor void of carpet, with perhaps one elusive 
slippery rag rug as an oasis in a desert of 
yellow varnish. 
Frankly, it is a jjroblem to meet this High 
Cost of Rugging. may give all manner 
of excuses Init we can’t avoid it. 
In the hall, porch or breakfast room the floor 
can be marbleized. It is first painted black 
and then the design traced in with green. Here 
the treatment is given a hall passage. .Agnes 
Foster Wright, decorator 
The extravagant prejudice against rugs 
made up from carpeting by the yard should 
be discouraged. If the carpet is well sewed 
and even and stretched and laid down by 
using pins and sockets, or tacks, the rug 
sliould be satisfactory, and the seams not 
wrinkled. Unattached to the floor, the seams 
are sure to contract and the rug wrinkles. 
Another thing is to choose a deep napped car¬ 
peting so that, when the seams are carefully 
brushed, the nap entirely covers the seaming. 
Seamless Carpets 
Seamless carpet is very expensive, although 
a good Chenille is the finest thing in the 
world for a hall, living room and dining room 
rug. The rugs are either made to order, with 
or without a border, or else they may Ite had 
in stock widths up to eighteen feet and cut 
any length. These, of course, have no bor¬ 
der. I advise a figured rug for a dining 
room, if there are children, or if there is little 
service in the house, as crumbs and spots 
show less on a figured surface. A good, sub¬ 
dued Oriental makes a fine dining-room rug, 
using a plain wall color and a striped cur¬ 
tain material so that the rug is well shown 
off. Beautiful Chenille rugs can be woven 
with a pattern to order to match the wood¬ 
work trim, that is, for example, the motif of 
an Adam room can be used as a rug border 
and centre. However, these are frightfully 
expensive, so I advise picking up an Ori- 
Linolenm makes a good surface for marbleiz- 
ing In this hall linoleum was laid down, a 
star painted on it and the background mar¬ 
bleized. It was then varnished and antiqued. 
Agnes Foster Wright, decorator 
