3J 
September, 1918 
Contrast—The delicacy of painted Hep- 
plewhite chairs and rattan settee con¬ 
trasts well with the classical dignity of 
the architectural background 
OF WROUGHT IRON 
AND OAK 
Their Points of Contrast 
T HE dining room to the left pre¬ 
sents some interesting points of con¬ 
trast, points that are responsible for the 
individuality of the room. 
The walls, as background of the 
room;, are simple—rough white plaster 
with heavy but simple door, window 
and fireplace facings. The floor is tile. 
The furniture is oak and the accessories are 
wrought iron. Between each of these is har¬ 
mony and the two together are in keeping with 
the background. Perhaps the fireplace could 
well dispose of the wrought iron frame which 
now stands on the hearth and serves no osten¬ 
sible purpose, but that is a minor point easily 
remedied. 
To complete the feeling of the room and to 
soften it are such details as portraits on the 
walls, simple casement cloth at the windows and 
tassels tied on cushions to the Lancashire chairs. 
The long refectory table and the heavy Jacob¬ 
ean chest used for sideboard give the room its 
fine, sturdy Elizabethan atmosphere. 
This room, together with the two above, 
shows the possibilities for drawing out prac¬ 
tical ideas from a photograph if one will only 
study closely. In every issue of House & 
Garden there are dozens of interiors in which 
equal possibilities can be found. That is why 
it claims to be a magazine of service. 
WHEN ARCHITECTURE 
COMES FIRST 
A Principle of Decoration 
Harmony—In this instance, the Adam 
chairs, knife urns and console are in 
harmony with the Adam overdoor and 
pilaster decorations 
THE SPIRIT 
Wrought iron and oak are both sturdy 
and hard of texture. They have been 
used against a plain plastered wall. 
Casement cloth curtains maintain the 
simplicity 
I N the decoration of any room, there are two 
necessary factors to be reckoned with— 
(1) the permanent or architectural features 
(2) the mobiliary features or furnishings. 
An understanding of this principle is so funda¬ 
mental that it cannot be repeated too often. 
Misunderstanding of it or complete neglect of 
the architectural background is responsible for 
much poor decoration. 
The architecture may “come through the 
walls,” as it often does in Colonial houses, or it 
may be a separate creation for the individual 
room. Complete decorative harmony is possible 
only when the two elements are in keeping. In 
the case of the period room, architecture often 
preceded furnishing, i.e., the motifs and scale 
of the furniture were taken from the architec¬ 
tural background. In much modern reproduc¬ 
tion of period work the nice harmony of de¬ 
tails between these two elements is over¬ 
looked — with the usual results! On the 
other hand, harmony can be gained by 
contrast, and since we are not chained 
to the strict interpretation of the periods, 
contrast is a better choice. 
The two rooms illustrated here are re¬ 
markable for the dignity of their archi¬ 
tectural backgrounds. In each case it is 
so pronounced as to dominate the room. 
The overdoor carvings of the simple 
paneling of the walls gives an atmos¬ 
phere at once ornate and restful. Period 
feeling has been observed in the selection 
of the furniture and the colors used are 
in keeping with the color of the back¬ 
grounds. In both cases, however, the 
architecture comes first. 
