14 
House & Garden 
BEGIN the DAY in a BREAKFAST ROOM 
And See What Sunshine and Color and the Breath of Outdoors 
Will Do to that Proverbial Morning Grouch 
HARRIET P. DEAN 
Photographs by Northend 
T HE breakfast 
room, once only 
to be found in the 
houses of the 
wealthy, is fast be¬ 
coming recognized 
as a practical and 
desirable adjunct of 
the home of mod¬ 
erate cost. The rea¬ 
son for its popu¬ 
larity is largely 
psychological. 11 
has proved itself an 
invaluable aid in 
starting the day 
right. At the din¬ 
ner hour the formal 
dining room, stately, 
subdued, filled with 
a mellow radiance 
by becomingly tint¬ 
ed lights, forms an 
ideal background 
for the flash of jew¬ 
els and plate and 
scintillations of wit 
whose spontaneous 
brilliancy needs no 
extraneous aid. But 
in the strong, un¬ 
sparing light of 
morning, its low-toned color scheme seems dull 
and depressing; its note of dignified aloofness 
wholly out of key with the fresh, buoyant 
mood of the opening day. 
Then it is that the intimate, gay little 
breakfast room proves its worth, its cheery 
atmosphere defying grouchiness, routing the 
“blues,” and lending zest to the simplest fare. 
It shows a most accommodating disposition, 
too, by consenting to be tucked into any avail¬ 
able odd corner. In the small house, it may 
be no more than an alcove joined to the living 
room or even to the kitchen; or a sun parlor, 
in which at the breakfast hour a gate-leg or 
drop-leaf table is set up; or just a small side 
porch, screened in summer and glassed-in at 
the approach of winter, with an outdoor fire¬ 
place or portable heater to keep it warm and 
cheery in cold weather. 
The Gamut of Rooms 
Whatever its character or location, the 
process of developing it from a mere four- 
walled enclosure into an individual expres¬ 
sion of beauty and charm is a keen delight 
if approached, as it should be, in the spirit 
of play. For here one may be as uncon¬ 
ventional as one pleases and parade pet hob¬ 
bies which any other room in the house would 
refuse to tolerate. If the room is of the porch 
or sun parlor type, a penchant for the crystal¬ 
line twinkle of falling water may be gratified 
by the installation of a fountain, ranging all 
the way from an inexpensive wall basin of 
cement, to a pool of rare marble adorned with 
costly sculptures. Of course, the fountain may 
also be an aquarium with its cold, chaste 
beauty vivified by the living gold and ver¬ 
In summer it may be a corner of the porch that 
can serve for breakfast, a corner where the sun 
shines and the fragrance of the flowers blows 
The winter breakfast room should be light 
—light walls, cheery curtains. Use interest¬ 
ing china. In short, start the day with a 
mental and physical change 
milion of gliding fish, and the lush green of 
aquatic plants by way of contrast. 
Again, if one cherishes in secret a guilty 
passion for barbaric color, this passion also 
may find satisfaction in the decoration of the 
breakfast room, where shrieking primaries 
may be wrought into effects of sparkling 
freshness if broken into small areas and ju¬ 
diciously distributed over a neutral back¬ 
ground. A brilliant 
blue and intense 
orange were thus suc¬ 
cessfully combined in 
a suburban breakfast 
room paneled and 
furnished in silvery 
gray. The wall pan¬ 
els were outlined with 
orange bands an inch 
wide, bordered by 
narrow blue and 
black stripes, and 
near the center of 
each panel was sten¬ 
ciled in glowing 
orange a conventional 
floral motive. On a 
smaller scale, this 
motive was repeated 
on the backs of the 
gray enameled chairs, 
which were striped 
with black. A blue 
and orange striped 
taffeta was used for 
seat cushions and— 
with a narrow edging 
of black silk — for 
window draperies. 
The scheme as a 
whole was stimulat¬ 
ing and full of life, yet perfectly harmonious. 
The breakfast room is most satisfying when 
it overlooks a garden, and where this is the 
case the decoration may be so planned as to 
make it seem almost an integral part of the 
floral scheme. Even in a city apartment which 
commands only a vista of stone and mortar, an 
illusion of out of doors can be created with 
the aid of flowered fabrics, an abundance of 
ferns and blossoming plants, a singing bird 
or two, and panels of lattice on which ivy is 
trained. With this treatment the polished 
hardwood floor is not in keeping, and if al¬ 
ready installed should be given a suitable 
covering, as of Japanese rush mats or Chinese 
fiber rugs in the quaint patterns and strong 
colorings designed for use on porches and in 
country houses. Even rag rugs are preferable 
to the more conventional and costly weaves. 
As to Flooring Material 
If a choice of flooring material is possible, 
tile, brick and composition present nearly equal 
claims. The first two are more expensive than 
composition, and harder and noisier under 
foot. Tile is also brittle and hence more lia¬ 
ble to become chipped or cracked. On the 
other hand it offers the largest decorative 
possibilities, especially where two or more 
colors are laid in ornamental patterns. In 
one very attractive breakfast room the floor 
and wainscot were of square tiles in Pom¬ 
peiian red and had borders of black. Flat 
paint in a delicate buff finished the walls, on 
which a border was stenciled in black and 
red. The furniture was black, the chairs hav¬ 
ing cushions and back pads of red and buff 
striped linen with black pipings. The black 
