32 
House & Garden 
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Harting 
A man’s dressing room, in a New York home of distinction, contains an old wrought-iron console with a carved top. 
A mirror with a beautifully carved frame surmounts this. At one side is a curious, three-legged chair, at the other an 
antique chaise longue. Walker & Gillette, architects 
SUGGESTIONS FOR DRESSING ROOMS 
The W ise Hostess Does Not Miss This Opportunity for Thoughtful 
Hospitality and Interesting Decoration 
T HE dressing room of today is lineal de¬ 
scendant of the powder room of yesterday. 
In the Georgian era, when wigs and patches 
were in vogue, guests retired to these little 
powder rooms for the occasional touch to com¬ 
plexion and coiffure. The coiffures have 
changed, but the complexions are still with us. 
And so are the dressing rooms. Oddly enough, 
the same sort of furniture that was used in the 
old times will suffice today. 
A console or shelf, a generous mirror, one 
or two chairs, these are enough. But the sort 
of furniture and the treatment of the walls 
will decide the character of the room. While 
a great deal of thought should go into its cre¬ 
ation, the room should look as though it had 
been done with a gesture. It should be light, 
quaint, unusual. 
One little dressing room flashes through the 
memory. Its walls were papered in a Chinese 
Vermillion design with quaint yellow and green 
Oriental figures. The furniture, consisting of 
dressing table, stool and chair, was black 
lacquer. The curtains were net dyed the green 
of the paper design and bound with yellow 
and Vermillion. It was a tiny room, and the 
colors made it all the more intimate. 
Of quite different character are the two 
dressing rooms shown on this page. They are 
in a New York residence of which the general 
The other dressing room in the same resi¬ 
dence has Venetian painted consoles and 
mirrors and rush-seated chairs. A small 
painted table before the boxed-in radiator 
bears an old lamp 
design is Italian. Consequently the dressing 
rooms have taken atmosphere from the rest of 
the house. 
At one side of the entrance hallway is found 
a small dressing room appointed with painted 
Venetian consoles and mirrors and rush-seated 
chairs. The plaster walls are tinted salmon 
pink. The radiator at one end is boxed in, 
forming a wide sill. Before it stands a little 
painted table with an old lamp of curious 
design. The curtains are sheer silk finished 
with a narrow fringe. 
The other room, which is for men, is fur¬ 
nished with a wrought iron console surmounted 
by a carved mirror. A three-legged chair 
stands at one side and an antique chaise longue 
of diminutive size at the other. 
The average coat and wash room under the 
stairs, which is generally provided in modern 
small houses, offers a chance for this miniature 
decoration. Finish the walls in an interesting 
way—either rough tinted plaster or an old- 
fashioned paper. Pick up a console of quaint 
design, an old mirror and an unusual painted 
chair. Place the mirror in a good light and 
see that the console shelf is provided with the 
necessary cosmetics and brushes. With these 
few, simple pieces the room will take on char¬ 
acter and add one more note of distinction to 
the house. 
