September, 1918 
23 
legs against the triangular shadow. A three- 
cornered table with a drop front leaf would 
obviate this to a degree, but I think the cup¬ 
board idea is more graceful providing the legs 
are short enough to hide the view of the corner 
itself and the dust thereof. 
In a dining room or hall an effective scheme 
could be worked out with wrought iron quarter- 
circle corner tables. They should have a. mar- 
bleized top and a deep enough apron to be sub¬ 
stantial and an interesting treatment of the legs 
or cross stretchers. They have the same con¬ 
struction lines as a console table. The wrought 
iron may be foliated and worked out in an¬ 
tiqued gold and colors. 
Little decorated corner cabinets are always 
adorable in a dining room. Yellow lacquer 
cabinets give a bright spot of joy in a room. 
Be sure there is something of interest to see in 
the little triangular drawers or on the shelves, 
because people are possessed to open any curi¬ 
ous or unusual piece of furniture. You may be 
sure your corners will come into their own if 
some bright, interesting bits of furniture like 
these occupy them. 
The Placing of the Desk 
I find there are two types of people who dis¬ 
close themselves by the placing of their desks. 
The contemplative put their chair with its back 
against the corner and the desk in front, and 
from that vantage point survey the room. The 
others are the easily distracted who put their 
desks in the corner flat against the wall and 
the chair before it, and find in the bare un¬ 
sympathetic wall before them an aid to con¬ 
centration. There is something very human 
about a desk in a corner. Try the “looking in’’ 
and the “looking out,” and see in which posi- 
(Continued on page 64) 
Various Cupboards 
There are little low 
corner cupboards, made 
a little above the height 
of a table, with a cir¬ 
cular front and short legs, that may be made to 
match the furniture. If the furniture is ma¬ 
hogany and the room needs lightening the cup¬ 
board can be painted some soft clear color and 
lined and decorated. In a gray dining room 
with mahogany furniture the cupboards could 
be gray with lines of green and a stiff, old- 
fashioned basket of flowers in bright clear col¬ 
ors, rose and mulberry predominating. Or the 
design could be an open dish of fruit to match 
the pattern of the glazed chintz curtains and 
valances. A black and jade green room could 
be worked out well, using the black chintz on 
chairs and shaped valances, and the furniture 
black set off by a blue green rug. The corner 
cupboard would be black with the front panel 
of green on which was the open dish fruit de¬ 
sign. The shelves could be so cleverly arranged 
as to take care of the usual table glassware. If 
the circular front runs into too much money a 
diagonal front could carry the same design, but 
by all means avoid having a glass door. On 
top of each place a decorated jar or glass vase, 
or, if the cupboard is oak or walnut, a copper 
or brass piece of interest would look well. 
Corner tables can be used, of course, but 
there is always an unpleasant look about the 
Mirrors set in the 
walls at the corner 
add to the apparent 
size of the room, re¬ 
flect the furniture 
and afford a silhou¬ 
ette background 
In the living room a 
cosy fireside corner 
can be made by ex¬ 
tending a seat on 
two sides of the wall 
into a built-in settee 
Corner cupboards 
have justly been pre¬ 
served through the 
storm of protest against 
china closets. A long 
Colonial dining room 
with white corner cup¬ 
boards housing a collec¬ 
tion of china is certain¬ 
ly not to be easily dis¬ 
proved. Repeating, as 
they often do, the archi¬ 
tectural features of the 
fireplace, they are one 
of the happiest of Col¬ 
onial traditions. When 
the architect has failed 
to provide them, they 
can readily be added as 
a movable piece, but 
they absolutely must 
conform to the lines of 
the room, related not to 
the furniture but to the 
architecture of the room. 
In a large room, 
such as a dining or 
living room, little 
quarter-circle cabi¬ 
nets will give a fine 
balance to the cor¬ 
ners and lend the 
room dignity 
