30 
House 
Garden 
& 
CHEERFUL, COLOR IN THE DINING ROOM 
Four Color Schemes for Small Dining Rooms of Distinguished Individuality 
T HE four color schemes chronicled in this 
article have been used with pleasing re¬ 
sults in town and country houses. The 
first described as the Simple Dining Room that 
suggests continual sunshine and old-fashioned 
flowers is a charming arrangement for the fur¬ 
nisher of moderate means. Such a room with 
windows showing a garden vista becomes almost 
a place of enchantment. For the dining room 
in the middle of the apartment with no windows 
or sunlight this color scheme holds a faint 
echo of the country—a certain bucolic atmos¬ 
phere that can battle with any lack or sordidness. 
The Colonial Governor’s Dining Room that 
suggests an old-world hospitality can go the 
length of any purse, but if one has inherited 
old maple furniture, or collected it in a district 
unknown to Fashion, it should not cost any 
more than the average well planned dining 
room. If old maple furniture is unobtainable, 
modern Queen Anne furniture of common wood 
stained an orange yellow will be found almost 
Created by WEYMER MILLS 
as effective, and not at all expensive. 
The Room in Peach Color after a W histler 
interpretation of a dining room makes one of 
the most alluring backgrounds for feminine 
beauty that it is possible to conceive. Such a 
room depends entirely on its color scheme, and 
although the furniture in the original creation 
followed Stuart models, pieces of any period, 
providing they harmonize, can be repainted 
and silvered. 
The Dutch Dining Room in Blue and White 
is a room for gaiety. A certain cheerfulness is 
sure to emanate from blue and white striped 
curtains whether the material is expensive taf¬ 
feta or the cheap fabric of the window awning, 
especially if they are used in conjunction with 
a pair of scarlet lacquer cupboards filled with 
blue and white Delft. The cupboards could be 
Oriental, Dutch, English or Italian but if old 
lacquer proves too rare and expensive a cup¬ 
board made after some quaint model painted 
with the home-grown paint brush will become 
a thing of beauty after a slight forced aging. 
The reader who is furnishing a dining room 
and decides to adopt one of the suggested ef¬ 
fects asks immediately what will such a room 
cost. This is a very difficult question to an¬ 
swer, for much depends on the strength of the 
artistic impulse and the careful thought and 
time that can be expended hunting for inexpen¬ 
sive labor, the furniture makers of cheap repro¬ 
ductions or the searching of second hand shops. 
The simple dining room suggesting continual 
sunshine and old-fashioned flowers was created 
originally for something like two hundred dol¬ 
lars. Such a small expenditure was the result 
of great luck and untiring effort—a process of 
months. The things used were all old, even the 
chintz. To create such a room in haste to-day 
would cost over seven hundred dollars. A fair 
estimate for any of the four rooms would be one 
thousand dollars—exclusive of the table silver. 
Beautiful examples of old furniture and exqui- 
si te detail work would double and triple this sum. 
A SIMPLE DINING ROOM SUGGESTING CONTINUAL 
SUNSHINE AND OLD-FASHIONED FLOWERS 
Walls, very pale yellow, alffiost cream. 
Woodwork, apple green. 
Table, original Sheraton or after a Sheraton design painted a 
deeper apple green. 
Chairs, the same (Wheat Sheaf back suggested—the spirals of wheat 
the color of the walls). 
Curtains, pale mauve glazed chintz bearing a pattern of yellow roses, 
white tulips and touches of pink and blue. 
Table Centrepiece, a cream-colored urn holding the flowers shown 
in the chintz. 
China, reproductions of Queen’s Ware, cream Wedgwood. 
Table Silver, the knives and forks have bone handles stained 
apple green. 
In the four corners of the room are four Georgian China cabinets 
of very simple design holding pieces of apple green Bristo 
glass. If the cupboards are not obtainable, triangular shelves 
built after a Chippendale design are almost as charming. 
Floor, stained black and covered with an old Chinese rug of 
varying shades of mauve. 
Chimneypiece, simple Georgian, marbleized wood in green and white. 
Over the chimneypiece, hangs a painting, old or modern, of old- 
fashioned flowers. 
THE COLONIAL GOVERNORS DINING ROOM THAT 
SUGGESTS AN OLD-WORLD HOSPITALITY 
Walls, hydrangea blue. 
Woodwork, the same. 
Table, a circular maplewood table, old or modern, with the Queen 
Anne leg. 
Chairs, of the same (the Fiddleback suggested). 
Curtains, blue unglazed chintz or blue damask the shade of the 
walls. Their edges are bound with red silk cord or red tape. 
Table Centrepiece, a large Queen Anne punch bowl, silver or china, 
piled high with red apples. 
China, copies of blue and white Spode Chinese taste. 
The sideboard and serving tables are of maplewood of Queen Anne 
character. 
The chairs are covered with the material of the curtains. They 
have scalloped valances bound with the silk cord or tape. 
Floor, covered by an old Indian or Turkish carpet in faded reds 
and blues. 
Chimneypiece, simple Queen Anne design in black marble or 
marbleized wood. 
Over the chimneypiece hangs a portrait of a man in a red coat 
of the Oueen Anne or Georgian period. The portrait is hung 
from a heavy red silk cord. 
Additional interest can be obtained by a row of 18th Century 
portraits facing the chimneypiece. 
A ROOM IN PEACH COLOR—AFTER A WHISTLER 
INTERPRETATION OF A DINING ROOM 
Walls, color of Japanese peach blossoms. 
Woodwork, the same. 
Table, an oval gate-leg table lacquered a dull silver. 
Chairs, high-backed Charles II, or after the Stuart model. They 
are the same silver tone and their covering in old velvet or 
modern velvet is a slightly deeper tone of the walls. 
Curtains, pcach-cclored net in very full folds. 
Serving Tables, two tables that harmonize with the other furni¬ 
ture and having grey marble tops of a very pale shade. 
Table Centrepiece, a large flat glass dish holding water lilies. 
Dinner Service is entirely of silver or silver lustre china. 
Floor, covered by a heavy pile carpet in pale grey. There are no 
pictures in the room and no chimneypiece. 
Fireplace is tiled with old Spanish tiles in black and white designs. 
Further interest can be obtained by adding two tall Chinese puts with 
large hydrangea trees with pink and blue flowers. These can 
be placed effectively after serious study of the size and the 
shape of the room. 
A DUTCH DINING ROOM TO BE DONE IN 
BLUE AND WHITE 
Walls, white. 
Woodwork, white. 
Table, Louis XVI shape, square, the same color as the walls. 
Chairs, Louis XVI chairs with the Dutch urn-shaped back. 
Curtains, taffeta or window awning material in broad Holland blue 
and white stripes. 
Two red lacquered Chinese cabinets or cupboards or copies of old 
pieces painted scarlet. 
Table Centrepiece, a large Dutch silver windmill, old or modern. 
China, Delft ware. 
Chimneypiece, simple Louis XVI with blue and white Delft tiled 
hearth. 
Picture over the chimneypiece, a still life (in blue and white bowls 
of cherries or other red fruit suggested). 
Floor, painted or stained a deep blue. Before the hearth a white 
bearskin rug. 
Narrow red serving tables after a Louis XVI model, painted red 
and holding rows of blue and white pots containing geranium 
plants with red flowers, would be an amusing feature. 
