_Arrangement Follows Selection._--The problem of furnishing a home is
not fully settled when the questions of design have been answered and
the right selections made. After selection comes arrangement, or, to
speak more accurately, after a certain amount of selection a certain
amount of arrangement; for, as has already been suggested, there is
considerable dependence of one upon the other. It is not wise to drop
the arrangement till the selection is complete, for the simple reason
that the happiest choices are often the late ones, determined by the
disposition of the earlier ones. And yet in the main the order as
stated is the true one. It should be noted, too, that in arrangement
there is a larger field for the exercise of individuality and taste.
While artistic principles still hold sway, they yield more readily to
exceptional interpretation by the ruling spirit of the household, to
the demands of style, and to the larger number of possibilities for
pleasing effects when the question is one of the arrangement of things
already well chosen for their usefulness and for their artistic value.
[Illustration: A dainty bed in white maple]
_Utility the Controlling Principle._--The problems of arrangement,
however, are by no means vague and uncertain. The natural law of
adaptation to purpose is not difficult to follow. In some rooms
obedience to it has become a settled custom. No one, for example, would
think of placing the dining table in any other place than the centre
of the dining-room or, if the room be a long one, in the centre of one
end. The sideboard, serving table, and china closet likewise fall into
their natural places. So also the bedroom and the hall, though perhaps
to a less degree, present comparatively easy problems in furniture
arrangement when due regard is paid to the purposes for which such
rooms are designed.
_Importance of Appropriateness._--But it is in the library and the
living room that we find the most difficult and at the same time the
most interesting problems. And this is due to the operation of the
same law of adaptation to purpose. It is the variety of uses and the
diversity of useful objects that make the problem somewhat complex.
However refined and beautiful the different units may be, there
must be some arrangement of them into working groups. The important
elements should dominate and those of lesser importance should fall
naturally into related but subordinate places. The easy corner with
its couch, pillows, and its low seats, has a definite function to
perform. So also have the piano and the music rack, the bookcases and
library table, the Morris chairs and tabourettes, the window seats and
screens, the writing desk and its proper lighting by window or lamp,
the fireplace and all the accessories of comfort that may belong to
it. The various centres of interest should be accentuated by grouping
around them the most appropriate furnishings and the most suggestive
decorative features. It may be well to add one word of caution, and
that is that a proper balance should be maintained between the various
centres of arrangement in order that no part of the room may seem
neglected and bare.
_The Danger of Overcrowding._--Finally, the one great danger to
be avoided in meeting the requirements of good arrangement is the
temptation to overcrowding. Many otherwise excellently appointed living
rooms suffer from an embarrassment of riches. Such overcrowded rooms
are worse than an overloaded ship because they cannot topple over and
sink as one might well wish them to. To secure the right things and
just enough of them, arranged with a proper balance between utility
and beauty, is the true aim. It is as true to-day as it ever was in
the arrangement and beautifying of the home, and, for that matter, in
everything that concerns every-day life--just as true as it was in
ancient times when men wrote those famous inscriptions over the doors
of the temple at Delphi: over one, KNOW THYSELF, and over the other,
THE GOLDEN MEAN OF NOT TOO MUCH.