Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-07-19

4 Cheerful Room.
The first essential for cheerful room Is
sunshine Without this, money, labor, taste.
are all thrown away. A dark room can not
be cheerful and it is as unwholesome as it
is gloomy. Flowers will not blossom in II
neither will people, Nobody knows, or ever
will know how many men and women have
been killed by dark rooms.
"Glorify the room Glorify the room ''
Sydney Smith used to say Of a morning,
when he ordered every blind thrown open,
every shade drawn up TO the top the win
dow Whoever is fortunate enough 10 have
a southeast or southwest corner room, may
if she chooses. live in such floods Of sunny
light that sickness will have hard work to
yet hold Of her; and as for the blues. they
will not dare 10 so much as knock at her door.
Second on my list of essentials for a cheer
ful room | put-color Many room that
would otherwise be charming. is expression
less and tame for want Of bright colors.
Don't be afraid Of red. Il j. the kindling
and inspiring Of colors. Noroom can be per
feet without good deal OF it. All the shades
Of scarlet or Of crimson are good. In an
autumn leaf. in curtain. iu a chair-cOver,
Ia apin-cushiou, in vase in the binding Of
a book everywhere you put il, it makes q
brilliant point and gives pleasure. The
blind say that they always think red must
be like the sound OF trumpet and think
there is q deep truth in their instinct. II is
the gladlcst. most triumphant color every
where.
Next to red comes yellow this must be
used very sparingly. No bouquet Of flowers
is complete without little touch of yellow
and no room is as gay without yellow as
with il. But a bouquet ia which yellow
predominates is ugly the colors Of all the
other flowers are killed by it and a room
which has one grain too much of yellow in
it is hopelessly ruined. J have seen the
whole expression of one side Of n room al
tered, improved, toned up, by the taking out
Of two or three bright yellow leaves from a
big sheaf Of sumac and ferns. The best and
safest color for walls is a delicate cream
color. When | say best aud safest mean
the best background for bright colors and
for pictures, and the color which is least in
danger Of disagreeing with anything you
may want TO put upon it. So also with
floors the safest and best tint is neutral
gray. II you can not have bare wooden
floor, either Of black walnut, or stained to
initiate it, then have plain gray felt car
pet. Above all things, avoid bright colors
in a carpet. In rugs to lay down on plain
gray, or on a dark-brown floor, the brighter
the colors the better. The rugs are only so
many distinct pictures thrown up into re-
lief here and there 10y the undertint of gray
or brown. But pattern, either set or other
wise, Of bright colors journeying up and
down, back and forth, breadth after breadth,
on floor, is always and forever ugly. II
one is so unfortunate as to enter on the pos
session Of a room with such carpet as this
or with wallpaper of a similar nature, the
first thing to be done, if possible, is to get
rid Of them or cover them up. Better have
a ten-cent paper of neutral tintS, and indis-
tinguishable figures on the wall, and have
bare floors painted brown or gray
Third on my list of essentials for making
rooms cosey, cheerful, and beautiful, come
books and pictures. Here some persons will
cry out But books aud pictures cost a
great deal Of money" Yes, books do cost
money, and so do pictures but books ac-
cumulate rapidly in most houses where
books are read at all and if people really
want books it is astonishing how many they
contrive 10 get together in a few years with
out pinching themselves very seriously in
other directions.
As for pictures costing money, how much
or how little they cost depends on what sort
of pictures YOU buy. As | said before, YOU
can buy for six shillings a good heliotype
(Which is TO all the intents and purposes as
good as an engraving), of one of Raphaels
or Correggio's Madonnas. But you can buy
pictures much cheaper than that A Jap
anese fan is picture; some of them are
exquisite pictures, and blazing with color
too. They cost anywhere from two to six
ole .taf,
printed on coarse paper, some two feet long
and one broad, to be bought for twenty-five
cents each with a dozen of these a dozen
or two of fans, and say four good heliotypes,
you can make the walls of small room so
gay that strangers first impression on en-
tering it will be that it is adorned for a fes-
tiyal. The fans can be pinned on the walls
in endessly picturesque combinations. One
of the most effective is to pin them across
the corners of the room, in overlapping rows,
like an old-fashioned card-rack.
Fourth on my list of essentials for cosey
cheerful room, put order. This is a dan.
gerous thing TO say, perhaps but it is my
honest conviction that sunlight color, books
and pictures come before order. Observe
1 however, that while it comes fourth on the
list, it is only fourth it is 10y no means
last am not making an exhaustive list
| | do not know where should stop if un.
dertook that. | am mentioning only few
of the first principles-the essentials. And
in regard to this very question of order,
am partly at loss to know how far it is
safe to permit it to lay down its law in a
room. think almost rs many rooms are
spoiled by being kept in too exact order, as
by being too disorderly. There is an appar-
ent disorder which is not disorderly and
there is an apparent order, which is only a
witness to the fact that things are never
used do not know how better TO state
the golden mean on this point than to tell
the story of an old temple which was once
discovered, bearing on three of its sides this
inscription " BE bold" On the fourth side
the inscription, BE not too bold"
think it would be well written on three
sides of room +" BE orderly" On the
fourth side " But don't be too orderly
| 81. Nicholas.