July, 1920 
169309 
17 
DECORATING THE SMALL HOUSE 
The Proper Scale in Furniture and the Right Colors Will Maintain the Semblance of 
Size and Give the Small House Great Distinction 
MARY WORTHINGTON 
I N furnishing a large, elaborate house there 
may be a few slip-ups which will pass un¬ 
noticed, simply because there is such a large 
and varied assortment of furniture that a few 
badly-chosen pieces or an inadequate back¬ 
ground will not offend the eye. If we are put¬ 
ting sixteen chairs into a room, two may have 
defects as to scale, design, covering or color, 
and still “get by,” carried along by an other¬ 
wise excellent selection. 
This is not true of the small house. We can¬ 
not afford a single mistake as to the need, size 
and excellence of design and color. We cannot 
afford a mistake, not only because mistakes are 
costly, but because we’ve no room for mistakes. 
There is a small house I know that has in 
its little living room two very large, handsome, 
early Venetian chairs with high backs, done in 
a large pattern red brocade. These were a 
matter of great extravagance to the owner and 
are the very apple of her eye. The rest of the 
room is simply, 
modernly furnished. 
These two chairs are 
so out of scale, so 
out of feeling, they 
so violate every rule 
of good taste, that 
they must spoil for 
many friends, as they 
do for me, an even¬ 
ing passed in that 
room. If there was 
only one, like Satan, 
we could put it be¬ 
hind us, but there 
are two-—and, to add 
to the mental agony, 
the room has many 
mirrors! 
I believe this to be 
an exaggerated ex¬ 
ample, but how many 
small, delicately fur¬ 
nished rooms boast 
a Mission easy chair! 
How many dining¬ 
rooms of moderate 
proportions show a 
massive, elaborately 
carved sideboard of 
American Empire ef¬ 
fulgence! These all 
should serve as a 
cudgel to us when 
we start our own furnishing. If it wasn’t so 
rude and snobbish 1 would suggest, as the 
first step toward furnishing our own small 
house or apartment, to make a round of our 
friends and relatives and see what not to do. 
May I add that this should be done surrepti¬ 
tiously ! 
The Color Range 
Of course, it is always safe to paint or paper 
your walls all the same color and to use the 
same tone carpet, varying the quality upstairs 
from down. However, it seems to me that this 
deprives us of a great deal of pleasure, particu¬ 
larly if we are fond of color. I feel that there 
should be a connecting color downstairs. For 
example: let your hall be fawn, introducing a 
little green and Vermillion in the furnishings; 
the living room light green with black and 
cherry; your tiny library marron, a deeper 
tone of fawn, and your dining room—if you 
must have one—in white plaster color with cur¬ 
tains, etc., in marron and yellow. You pick up 
from each succeeding room one color and carry 
it on, thus connecting each room by a color note. 
In a newly built house or an apartment of 
some architectural distinction a good color 
range is mauve, orchid, green and yellow. This 
being rather subtle and delicate, the details of 
the woodwork and the style of furnishing must 
be of excellent quality. Always use rather 
neutral, blending colors in doing over an old, 
shabby house or a cheaply constructed apart¬ 
ment, where woodwork must be covered rather 
than brought out. Tans, neutral greens, blue 
greens and the copper colors are kindly for re¬ 
modeling, while silver grays, yellow, rose lav¬ 
enders, blue lavenders, lettuce green and the 
varied rainbow colors can best be used where 
the architectural details form a flawless back¬ 
ground and all the furniture is to be new and 
fresh. These are details, but important. 
Furnishing a small 
house is not necessa¬ 
rily furnishing inex¬ 
pensively. We see 
more and more small, 
exquisite, expensive 
houses accommodat¬ 
ing themselves to the 
exigencies of service 
problems, building 
problems and the gen¬ 
eral inflated cost of 
maintenance. The 
rich man’s house in 
miniature has about 
the same problems to 
meet as the home of 
the indigent broker or 
the affluent artist. Oil, 
munitions and the 
movies have produced 
a throng of home- 
seekers, who want the 
best values that the 
market can give and, 
on account of the de¬ 
lay in deliver)' and the 
outlandish prices, do 
not know just how to 
create the home of 
their desire. These 
people should find a 
friend in the decora¬ 
tor whoknows, through 
