32 
House & Garden 1 
A PARLOR REMADE 
In a Little House of Old 
Philadelphia 
T HERE is a house indigenous to each : 
city. In Philadelphia it is a brick front I 
with white marble trimmings. The 1 
Philadelphian mind is much given to prece- I 
dent, consequently the interiors of the houses I 
are as uniform as the marble trimmings. The j 
inside arrangement consists of a long hall from 
which the stairs rise, a large front room gen¬ 
erally avoided but known as a “parlor” and 
back of this room the dining room. Variations 
of this plan have an open hall between these I 
two rooms. The mere mention of the word 
“parlor” conjures up spectres of Victorian j 
horrors—overdecoration, meaningless ornamen¬ 
tation, heavy, light-obstructing hangings, black 
walnut and ebony furniture of uninviting shape ! 
and much bric-a-brac and so-called handsome 
stuff. The weeding out of these rooms has in 
many cases been attended to by a younger gen- | 
eration without veneration for their parents’ 
wedding presents. However, the ground or 
rather background needs real turning over. 
Such a house with such a parlor room was 
the only reasonable offering “apres la guerre”. 
It had been modern in the other “befo’ the war” 
days. Xo structural changes were made in the 
interior unless built-in bookcases along one 
side and corner of the former parlor could be > 
so classed. These shelves are the same height j 
as the door frame, the molding of which is 
continued on them. The base of the shelves is 
a 2' 6" high cupboard which is divided into 
three compartments, one for overshoes and the 
others for china, since among the other evils ! 
of houses of the period is lack of closet room. > 
The New Color Schemes 
The woodwork throughout was painted 
white. Large figured wall paper was replaced 
uniformly downstairs and in the halls by putty 
color, rough cast paper. The ceilings are I 
cream white. A characteristic Victorian cornice 
in the living room is painted to match the wall 
paper. The floors are covered with plain j 
ground chocolate colored carpet and several 
hook rugs in which blue predominates. Sheer 
organdie window length curtains with inch¬ 
wide ruffles along the edge are placed at all 
the windows, with tie-backs of the same mate¬ 
rial edged on one side with the ruffle. The | 
virtue of such curtains is that they launder 
beautifully without stretching and in a city 
house that is important if they are to be kept 
fresh. At the two front windows Venetian 
blinds painted putty color are hung inside the 
room with the curtains between them and the 
glass. In order to give as much light as pos¬ 
sible no inside hangings are used and the color 
note of the room is secured at the windows by 
covering the tape on the blinds with a two- 
inch wide old-blue grosgrain ribbon with draw 
cords to match. In the dining room glazed ! 
chintz is used both for the window shade and j 
the covering for the four-fold screen placed 
(Continued on page 64) 
