One of my greatest pleasures, when I am planning the furnishing of a
house, is the selection and equipment of the necessary writing-tables.
Every room in every house has its own suggestion for an original
treatment, and I enjoy working out a plan for a writing-corner that will
offer maximum of convenience, and beauty and charm, for in these busy
days we need all these qualities for the inspiration of a pleasant note.
You see, I believe in proper writing-tables, just as I believe in proper
chairs. I have so many desks in my own house that are in constant use,
perhaps I can give you my theory best by recording my actual practice of
it.
I have spoken of the necessity of a desk in the hallway, and indeed, I
have said much of desks in other rooms, but I have still to emphasize my
belief in the importance of the equipment of desks.
Of course, one needs a desk in one's own room. Here there is infinite
latitude, for there are dozens of delightful possibilities. I always
place my desks near the windows. If the wall space is filled, I place an
oblong table at right angles to a window, and there you are. In my own
private sitting-room I have a long desk so placed, in my own house. In a
guest-room I furnished recently, I used a common oblong table of no
value, painting the legs a soft green and covering it with a piece of
sage-green damask. This is one of the nicest writing-tables I know, and
it could be copied for a song. The equipment of it is what counts. I
used two lamps, dull green jars with mauve silk shades, a dark green
leather rack for paper and envelopes, and a great blotter pad that will
save the damask from ink-spots. The small things are of green pottery
and crystal. In a young girl's bedroom I used a sweet little desk of
painted wood, a desk that has the naïve charm of innocence. I do hope it
inspires the proper love-letters.
I always make provision for writing in dressing-rooms--a sliding shelf
in the dressing-table, and a shallow drawer for pencils and paper--and I
have adequate writing facilities in the servants' quarters, so that
there may be no excuse for forgetting orders or messages. This seems to
me absolutely necessary in our modern domestic routine: it is part of
the business principle we borrow from the efficient office routine of
our men folk. The dining-room and the bathrooms are the only places
where the writing-table, in one form or another, isn't required.
I like the long flat tables or small desks much better than the huge
roll-top affairs or the heavy desks built after the fashion of the old
_armoire_. If the room is large enough, a secretary after an Eighteenth
Century model will be a beautiful and distinguished piece of furniture.
I have such a secretary in my own sitting-room, a chest of drawers
surmounted by a cabinet of shelves with glass doors, but I do not use it
as a desk. I use the shelves for my old china and porcelains, and the
drawers for pamphlets and the thousand and one things that are too
flimsily bound for bookshelves. Of course, if one has a large
correspondence and uses one's home as an office, it is better to have a
large desk with a top which closes. I prefer tables, and I have them
made big enough to hold all my papers, big enough to spread out on.
There are dozens of enchanting small desks that are exactly right for
guest-rooms, the extremely feminine desks that come from old France. One
of the most fascinating ones is copied from a _bureau de toilette_ that
belonged to Marie Antoinette. In those days the writing of letters and
the making of a toilet went together. This old desk has a drawer filled
with compartments for toilet things, powders and perfumes and patches,
and above this vanity-drawer there is the usual shelf for writing, and
compartments for paper and letters. The desk itself suggests brocade
flounces and powdered hair, so exquisitely is it constructed of
tulipwood and inlaid with other woods of many colors.
Then there are the small desks made by modern furniture-makers, just
large enough to hold a blotting-pad, a paper rack, and a pair of
candlesticks. There is always a shallow drawer for writing materials.
Such a desk may be decorated to match the chintzes of any small bedroom.
If it isn't possible for you to have a desk in each guest-room, there
should be a little writing-room somewhere apart from the family
living-room. If you live in one of those old-fashioned houses
intersected by great halls with much wasted space on the upper floors,
you may make a little writing-room of one of the hall-ends, and screen
it from the rest of the hall with a high standing screen. If you have a
house of the other extreme type, a city house with little hall bedrooms,
use one of these little rooms for a writing-room. You will require a
desk well stocked with stationery, and all the things the writer will
need; a shelf of address books and reference books--with a dictionary,
of course; many pens and pencils and fresh blotters, and so forth. Of
course, you may have ever so many more things, but it isn't necessary.
Better a quiet corner with one chair and a desk, than the elaborate
library with its superb fittings where people come and go.
Given the proper desk, the furnishing of it is most important. The
blotting-pad should be heavy enough to keep its place, and the
blotting-paper should be constantly renewed. I know of nothing more
offensive than dusty, ink-splotched blotting-paper. There are very good
sets to be had, now, made of brass, bronze, carved wood, porcelain,
silver or crystal, and there are leather boxes for holding stationery
and leather portfolios to be had in all colors. I always add to these
furnishings a good pair of scissors, stationery marked with the house
address or the monogram of the person to whom the desk especially
belongs, an almanac, and a _pincushion!_ My pincushions are as much a
part of the equipment of a desk as the writing things, and they aren't
frilly, ugly things. They are covered with brocade or damask or some
stuff used elsewhere in the room and I assure you they are most useful.
I find that pins are almost as necessary as pens in my correspondence;
they are much more expedient than pigeon-holes.
In country houses I think it shows forethought and adds greatly to the
comfort of the guests to have a small framed card showing the arrival
and departure of trains and of mails, especially if the house is a great
distance from the railway-station. This saves much inquiry and time. In
the paper rack there should be not only stamped paper bearing the
address of the house, telephone number, and so forth, but also telegraph
blanks, post cards, stamps, and so forth. Very often people who have
beautiful places have post cards made showing various views of the
house and garden.
Test the efficiency of your writing-tables occasionally by using them
yourself. This is the only way to be sure of the success of anything in
your house--try it yourself.