I often wonder, when I grope my way through drawing-rooms crowded and
jammed with chairs and sofas, why more women do not realize the
advantages of stools and benches. A well-made stool is doubly useful: it
may be used to sit upon or it may be used to hold a tray, or whatever
you please. It is really preferable to a small table because it is not
always full of a nondescript collection of ornaments, which seems to be
the fate of all small tables. It has also the advantage of being low
enough to push under a large table, when need be, and it occupies much
less space than a chair apparently (not actually) because it has no
back. I have stools, or benches, or both in all my rooms, because I find
them convenient and easily moved about, but I have noticed an amusing
thing: Whenever a fat man comes to see me, he always sits on the
smallest stool in the room. I have many fat friends, and many stools,
but invariably the fattest man gravitates to the smallest stool.
The stools I like best for the drawing-room are the fine old ones,
covered with needlework or brocade, but there are many simpler ones of
plain wood with cane insets that are very good for other rooms. Then
there are the long _banquettes_, or benches, which are so nice in
drawing-rooms and hallways and nicest of all in a ballroom. Indeed, a
ballroom needs no other movable furniture; given plenty of these long
benches. They may be of the very simplest description, but when used in
a fine room should be covered with a good damask or velvet or some rich
fabric.
I have a fine Eighteenth Century _banquette_ in my drawing-room, the
frame being carved and gilded and the seat covered with Venetian red
velvet. You will find these gilded stools all over England. There are a
number at Hampton Court Palace. At Hardwick there are both long and
short stools, carved with the dolphin's scroll and covered with
elaborate stuffs. The older the English house, the more stools are in
evidence. In the early Sixteenth Century joint stools were used in every
room. In the bedrooms they served the purposes of small tables and
chairs as well. There are ever so many fine old walnut stools and the
lower stools used for bed-steps to be bought in London shops that make a
specialty of old English furniture, and reproductions of them may be
bought in the better American shops. I often wonder why we do not see
more bedside stools. They are so convenient, even though the bed be only
moderately high from the floor. Many of mine are only six inches high,
about the height of a fat floor cushion.
[Illustration: A CREAM-COLORED PORCELAIN STOVE IN A NEW YORK HOUSE]
Which reminds me: the floor cushion, made of the same velvet made for
carpeting, is a modern luxury we can't afford to ignore. Lately I have
seen such beautiful ones, about three feet long and one foot wide,
covered with tapestry, with great gold tassels at the corners. The
possibilities of the floor cushion idea are limitless. They take the
place of the usual footstool in front of the boudoir easy chair, or
beside the day bed or _chaise-longue_, or beside the large bed, for that
matter. They are no longer unsanitary, because with vacuum cleaners they
may be kept as clean as chair cushions. They may be made to fit into
almost any room. I saw a half dozen of them in a dining-room, recently,
small square hard ones, covered with the gold colored velvet of the
carpet. They were not more than four or five inches thick, but that is
the ideal height for an under-the-table cushion. Try it.