Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1884-01-30

The door, which Is so frequently o
source of anxiety to the ornamentist
and decorator. might be made the means
of greatly enhancing the artistic com
pleteness of a room. Much of the diff
Guilty experienced in its treatment
arises from the desire to disguise its
functions. For this reason doors having
their panels covered-I cannos say dec
orated-with wall papers, ETC., no mat
ter how beautiful or costly, fail to
please, and the palpable effort at dis
guse is not only bad but reprehensible,
aud whenever the position or purpose
OF door Is thus sought to be hidden,
the result IS failure. In nodern-buIls
houses the architects arc devot;ng uore
care and thought to the design and pre-
portion, and the cabinet maker to the
construction, than hitherto, and 1t IL
now. fortunately not uncommon to find
doors so original. thoughtfully propo--
toned. and broken up into panels. that
they are in themselves perfect and, as a
piece of decorative work, charming. An
attempt to still further decorate such
doors as these would be objectionable
and piece Of vanity on the part of the
artist; but, on the other hand, there are
thousands of houses-many of a supe-
rior kind If We take the rental as cri-
terion--the rooms of which are positive
ly disfgured by doors out OF all pro-
portion TO their position. many being too
Snort and wide, too high and narrow,
or in al intermediate state, which Is
more aggrsvating than either, effsGsu-
ally preventing successful treatment
of the room as whole. Such doors
form a stumbling block and eyesoye to
many otherwise comprehensive schemes
CT decoration. Tle establishment be-
comes a necessity, the difficulty IS what
to do? 1t may be only necessary to
decorate It slightly to harmonize 1t with
the rest of the room, or ii may require
much more substantial and heavy treat
ment, both in ornament and color, the
surroundings will, OF necessity, deter
mine this point. A most satisfactory
and effective treatment is to be Oh
tanned by outlining the design in warm
browns, allowing the figure of the wood
to show through; bat the door must be
q new one, and capable OF such treat
ment. IL, on the contrary, as is far
more likely, it be an old and Dadly
painted door, then some such treatment
as 1 lately saw would prove effective.
The dimensions of the panels were
taken from an existing door divided into
four, those shown me being the upper
ones. This door being disproportion-
ate, and the panels consequently so, 1t
has been sought 10 make it apoear wider
by running the flower spray behind the
centre stile into the other panel. Had
the panels been too wide, contrary
treatment would have been followed.
The desire to elongate panels may bs
realized by each having separate de-
sign OF some upward growth, and, If
found necessary, marginal lines to still
further help the illusion. We might
advantageously make our doors an OBJ
iect of interest by using them as an op-
portunity for displaying decorative or
naments. In such positions there IS
more latitude allowed, aud a greater
freedom to the srrlstic fancy; thus, rep
resentations of the figure, birds, AMI
mails, etc.. are here permissible, all OF
which are out of place and uafit for the
walls of our dwelling rooms, owing to
the necessary repetition becoming OBJ
lectionable and devoid of beauty. and
to the accessories hiding and mutIating
their parts. The subjects for such pan
els should bear the impress of having
been designed to fit the place they o.
cupy, and for no other purpose. Th ire
Is plenty of scope for our selection. the
panels of doors Offering not oaly val
liable and legitimate means for the dis
play of the wood-carver's art, but for
porcelain painting, inlay, hand-painted
or stenciled ornaments, needlework,
painted silk or tapestry, the latter being
sometimes particularly pleasing and Ell
fective