_HOUSE FURNISHING AND DECORATION_
House furnishings do not exist for themselves, but as a background for
the people who live among them. Just as the trees, rocks, fields and
animals have for their setting the green earth and the blue sky, and as
pictures have a background, a middle distance and a foreground, so human
beings have their setting. If the setting be more striking or more
elegant than the people for whom it exists, they are made uncomfortable
and overshadowed by it; if meaner and uglier than they, the people are
belittled by it. How many houses there are whose furnishings are much
more attractive than their inhabitants! A woman of superficial education
and trivial character has the distinction of having the most beautiful
library in her state; rows on rows of the best books, in beautiful
bindings, in a room of the most artistic design, and nobody to read
them. The contrast between the woman and her environment is pitiful.
The house and its contents should be an outgrowth of the tastes, habits
and occupation of its owners. Farm life in its best aspect is a synonym
for breadth, generosity, simplicity, cleanliness, abundance of sunlight,
fresh air and good food, the beauty of nature, freedom from stiff
formality--these are the things which the city dweller envies the
farmer. The equipment of the house should express this breadth, beauty,
and freedom of life. It follows from this that many pieces of furniture
and some kinds of decoration which are offered in the shops are quite
out of place in a country house. Imitation is, therefore, a dangerous
principle, for it is likely to lead to the choice and purchase of
articles which, however suitable for some other family and pretty in
themselves, are wholly inappropriate in the case of the purchaser.
There are three main considerations which should always be taken into
account in house-furnishing: health, suitability, and beauty. The order
of these is often reversed to the permanent injury of the housewife. The
first law of hygiene is that nothing can be suitable which is not
wholesome for those who are to use it; the first law of decorative art
is that nothing is beautiful which is not wholly suitable. If these
principles should be applied to the furnishing of country houses, they
would taboo dark, thick window draperies, nearly all bric-a-brac, heavy
upholstered furniture, parlor tea-tables filled with delicate (and
generally dusty) china, and many other things which have been copied
from the unwholesome and perhaps necessary customs of city life.
Taste is a matter of cultivation, as much as efficiency or honesty; the
habitual application of its fundamental principles in one’s own
household, and the seeing of beautiful things elsewhere, are the chief
means of its development. Man obtained his first conception of beauty
from the form and color which he saw in the world about him, and we have
only to apply the principles which are there apparent, in order to
develop good taste. Nature provides an immense and comparatively neutral
background; Nature always makes curves, never angles; Nature blends the
most sharply contrasting colors together in the butterfly’s wing, in the
poppies in a meadow, and in the feathers of the robin’s breast. The
greater part of the world is in soft colors, browns and grays, dull
greens and dull blues; the brilliant yellows, reds, pinks, purples and
blues are always in very small quantities against this very large,
neutral background. Since the furnishings of a house are the setting of
the people, none of them should be more conspicuous than the people.
Whatever brilliant color there is must be in relatively small
quantities against a soft background. Nothing either in form or color
should “stick out.”
If the general principles just laid down be applied to the details of
house furnishing, we shall find that many matters must be changed. Since
the housewife must usually do her own work with very little or, at most,
inadequate help, everything should be planned to save her strength. If
we remember, also, that the first effort of good housekeeping is to keep
dirt out of the house, and the second to get it out at once, it will
appear that carpets are unsanitary. It has already been shown that good
floors are now to be had easily and cheaply. If properly painted or
finished with oil and wax, they form the best foundation for tasteful
and cleanly housekeeping. Carpets not only keep the dirt in the house,
but they involve that annual bugbear, house-cleaning. Even when the
floors are old and poor, the space around the edge of a rug may be
puttied and painted so as to look very well when the rug is put down. By
rugs, I do not mean several little rugs, like oases in the slippery
surface, or at the doorways to trip the unwary, but a good,
generous-sized rug which just escapes the edges of the heavier furniture
around the sides of the room; which is substantial enough not to roll
up, and which is yet small enough to be carried in and out by one
person. If the woodwork and pictures be wiped with a damp cloth, the
windows washed, the floor dusted, and the rug beaten out of doors, now
and then, no such terrible upheaval as house-cleaning usually implies,
is necessary. Rugs may be had ready-made of ingrain, Japanese cotton,
and jute, Brussels, and more expensive materials, but should always be
heavy enough to lie flat without fastening and large enough to cover the
entire portion of the floor which is to be walked upon. The uncovered
space should usually not be wider than one and one-half feet.
All furniture that is not actually built into or fastened to the wall
and floors should be easily movable and easily cleaned. This at once
precludes the purchase of heavy, upholstered chairs and large sofas.
Wicker and rattan furniture, though not so artistic and costly as
antique wood, is very light, and with good removable hair cushions, may
be made quite as comfortable and far more cleanly than upholstered plush
and damask. The cushions may be beaten at the same time as the rugs, and
the dust thus taken out of the house. White enameled bedsteads and
washstands are rapidly superseding the heavy wooden ones. It is a
curious fact that although the persons of a family are of various sizes
and ages, chairs are still bought by the half dozen, without reference
to the people who are to sit upon them. Even in such minor matters as
chairs and tea-cups, some account should be taken of individuality.
If all furniture be selected with these simple principles in mind, i.
e., hygienic cleanliness, the minimum of labor for the housewife, and
the comfort of those who are to use it, there remains only one other way
in which to go astray: it may still be superlatively and positively
ugly; or it may be comfortable, sanitary, easily moved, and yet be
merely negatively ugly; or it may be made decorative by its graceful
form, the color of its covering, or the carving upon it. The first
principle of artistic decoration is that it must be wholly subordinated
to the use of the object which it adorns. For instance, windows are for
two purposes: to light the house and for seeing out. If a window opens
on a barnyard or some unpleasant prospect, you may put up a sash curtain
of light silk or muslin. Thus you obtain light but no view. But if you
wish to see out of the window, sash curtains are absurd. In the ordinary
private house, elaborate and heavy window curtains are out of place,
both for sanitary and artistic reasons. Whenever cleanliness is a prime
object, drapery should be movable and washable. Silk and velvet
draperies are only to be tolerated where there is a retinue of maids to
keep them clean.
The facility and cheapness of mill-work and lathe-work in wood has
vitiated the taste of Americans to a terrible degree. Nearly all
ready-made furniture is grooved, machine-carved, and ornamented in a way
to violate not only the principles of beauty, but of strength and
cleanliness as well. Ornament that does not _mean anything_ is not
merely commonplace but ugly. There are four chairs of different
patterns, and costing from $1.50 to $15, in the room where I sit; all of
them have legs. Now, legs are intended as a support, yet all these are
grooved and beaded and hollowed out in spots, so that twice as much
material as is necessary has been used to insure support. The
ornamentation is not pretty, the hollows are inevitably full of dust,
and they mean absolutely nothing to anybody who sees them. On the front
crosspiece of one large chair is glued a design of leaves in oak, by way
of ornament. If these had been carved out upon a beautiful strip of wood
by the hand of a cunning workman, they would at least have meant a man’s
thought and skill. As they are, they suggest merely a machine and a glue
pot, and thousands of others as hideous as they. Contrast with this
gingerbread furniture the plain, substantial colonial chairs and tables
and sideboards, made of beautiful wood, almost without ornamentation,
with shapely, slender, and strong legs and softly polished by hand.
Cheapness and quantity have been secured by machinery at the expense of
beauty and strength.
If the principle thus illustrated be true, then it follows that patterns
of any sort, whether in carpets, wall paper, china, or drapery, must be
very carefully used that they may not be more conspicuous than that
which they decorate. The floor and the wall are the basis both of
color-scheme and decoration. They are the background of the people who
are to live there; they should, therefore, be rather inconspicuous, soft
and indefinite in effect, and as becoming as possible to the human
figures. If the climate be sunny and the room well lighted, the walls
and floor may be dark and rich in effect; if the climate be uncertain
and often cloudy, or the room badly lighted, the effect should be light
and gay. Color is the chief means of producing this result: the walls
and floors of living rooms should be of soft, neutral brown, yellow,
red, green, or warm gray tints. Blue, though very lovely when carefully
used, is cold in effect, and seldom satisfactory for living rooms, while
the blue grays are positively chilling. Yellow in paler or richer
shades, depending on the lighting of the room, is uniformly cheerful
and satisfying; next to it rank the various terra cotta shades. Neither
rug nor wall-covering should have large, striking designs; if having
pattern at all, it should rather be of an indefinite, wandering design
like the Japanese jute rugs, or of small inconspicuous conventional
design, such as may be found in the best Brussels carpet.
If the floors, however, be poor and old they may be covered very
inexpensively with thick, strong building paper which comes in beautiful
tints and the rug may be laid on top of this; or with denim on top of
newspapers, which is only a little more expensive, and which may be had
in a variety of beautiful shades; or, best of all, with matting on top
of paper. Matting is especially desirable because the dust sifts through
below, and does not rise easily when swept. But the money spent to cover
up a poor floor would often serve to lay a good new one, and this should
be done whenever possible. For kitchen and, in some cases, for a dining
room floor as well, nothing is so satisfactory as linoleum. It is
impervious, warm, soft to the foot, easily kept in order by an
occasional coat of oil, and to be had in agreeable patterns. It may also
be used like denim, building paper, and matting, to cover up bad floors,
and as a basis for the rug; while more expensive, it is also much more
satisfactory than anything except a good hardwood floor. There is often
far too great contrast between the furnishings of the living room and
the parlor; between the “spare room” and the family bedrooms. The money
spent in elegance which is shut up in a room rarely used would serve to
add much to the comfort of the whole family. The guest will enjoy the
hospitality offered all the more if not treated too ceremoniously.
The furnishing of the living room should always include several easy
chairs, a good lounge, a place for books and magazines, and a thoroughly
good reading lamp. If it can be afforded, a small room off the sitting
room for writing and study is very desirable. It should contain book
shelves, a large writing table or desk, and a good lamp. But if the
extra room cannot be had, the desk and book shelves may be placed in the
parlor. There should certainly be some place where the children may
study or any member of the family may read and write uninterrupted. It
is as irksome to write without proper appliances as to bathe without
proper facilities.
The furniture and decorations of bedrooms can scarcely be too simple;
the walls may be lighter and gayer than those of living rooms. Blue and
white or pale green and white may be used as color-schemes for very
sunny bedrooms, yellow or pink and white for less sunny ones. One or two
single, white, enamelled iron bedsteads, a washstand, a bureau or a
chest of drawers with glass above, two or three low, light chairs, and a
table or desk at which one may write, is an ample furnishing, if there
be a good closet or wardrobe. The rug need be only large enough to cover
the space in front of the bed, bureau, and stand, if the floor be well
matched and painted or oiled. A bedroom should give the impression of
spotlessness and comfort; everything should be washable or cleanable;
unless used also as a sitting room, it should not have a superfluous
article in it. Mats, bric-a-brac, even many pictures, are quite out of
place.
Since cost, styles and tastes differ so widely in different localities,
no detailed directions can or should be given that will be generally
applicable. If the principles illustrated in this chapter be correct,
they will serve to guide and to develop the taste of many different
kinds of persons.