October, 1918 
WARTIME 
REFURBISHINGS FOR 
YOUR WALLS 
23 
Black and dull gold, ex¬ 
cellent for covering a 
screen. Single roll, $4.50 
Rose, blue, mauve and 
tan on linen colored 
ground; also tan, white 
and gray. 75 cents 
Chinese Chippendale de¬ 
sign in warm tan on 
cream. Single roll, $2.25 
It will fit any bedroom 
color scheme, white on 
gray ground. Priced at 
60 cents a roll 
The Uses of Wall Papers, and Some 
New Designs Especially Worthy 
of Consideration 
NANCY ASHTON 
O NE of the most important 
considerations in the re¬ 
decorating of the house is the wise 
selection of a background. This 
may very easily make or mar the 
rest of the furnishings. At this 
particular moment, when we are 
endeavoring to keep our homes 
fresh and attractive, despite war¬ 
time conditions, a simple method 
of renewing the youth of the 
house is to use wall papers. 
There should be no difficulty 
in the selection from the variety 
of new papers available. The 
magic of transforming dark rooms 
by means of light papers, decreas¬ 
ing the height of overgrown ones 
by a frieze, is only one among 
the many possibilities offered by 
the material. 
Among the most interesting 
papers on the market are the 
hand-blocked ones, often taken 
from an old chintz pattern or 
reproduced exactly from one of 
the old Colonial papers, which 
were so picturesque. The use of 
some of these scenic Colonial pa¬ 
pers has been noted in a former 
article, but the quaint old flower 
designs are now equally popular. 
We also note with great satis¬ 
faction that people are no longer 
afraid of color on their walls— 
really cheery, clean, bright colors 
far removed from the non-com¬ 
mittal shades of putty and tan. 
‘‘They are trying to make their 
surroundings as gay as possible to 
get away from the general gloom 
An unusually good Chinese design in old rose, gray green and 
white on putty color ground; or in orange, gold and gray on blue 
ground. Effective in a dining room with soft gray green wood¬ 
work. 30" wide, $3.15 
of the war,” was the public’s psy¬ 
chology as analyzed by the manu¬ 
facturer we questioned. Of 
course, with these bold patterned, 
bright designs, one must needs 
use plain hangings. This has 
become so much of a decorator’s 
axiom that we emphasize it here 
simply to impress it upon the 
minds of the forgetful. 
There is a variety of new de¬ 
signs as well as brilliant colors 
to be had in the new grass cloths. 
This is a picturesque fabric made 
in Japan of shredded honeysuckle 
mounted on rice paper. Fre¬ 
quently the patterns are stenciled 
by hand. The combination of 
colorings is unusually lovely, pea¬ 
cock blue on a gold background, 
opalescent shades on a gray 
ground, black on gold and any 
number of plain shades. This is 
a particularly strong material to 
use on walls. 
There has been a growing ten¬ 
dency to make screens of wall 
paper, and for this purpose there 
comes any number of excellent 
designs, many with a black back¬ 
ground. These screens when 
given a shellacked finish are fre¬ 
quently almost as effective as the 
lacquer screens of far more ex¬ 
travagant price. 
Still another treatment of shel¬ 
lacked wall paper, which has 
been very successful, is to set the 
paper into panels, shellac it and 
paint the rest of the wall a tone 
to harmonize. 
