The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-08-04
FASHIONS In FURNISHINGS
An Evolution OfTaste in Widow Shades
Furnishes Study for Che Critics.
Tapestry and Other Heavy Wall-HaDgings
Pronounced Unsanitary and Unsatisfactory
Suggestions and Facts for Ladies'
Special TO the Indianapolis Journal


Special 20 the Indianapolis Journal
NEW YORK. Aug. 1.-The evolution of
taste in window shades affords the critic
study. From the green paper, still seen
well preserved in old farm-houses, the next
step was the buff Holland, now sacred TO
kitchen premises; the gray linen, and the
dazzling white roller blind. which still
puts the eyes ont with its high light in a
glazing room. Next fashion in the metrop-
oils took a daring flight, and red parlor
blinds shone down Fifth avenue for a sea-
sson. and vanished to quarters impossible to
polite acquaintance. They suited too we'll
the tastes of gambling dens and fortune
tellers- The sober elegance of the soft
! natural Holland, embroidered in Byzantine
co1ors on the lower border. was the best
style, and always will be good. This year
the striped linen blinds reflect foreign
taste, and are very pretty for country
houses in the leaf-green and flax stripe,
the cool, bright blue and white or
crimson and mixed white, beside the
.1willed tame stripes in unbleached
gray and white. The color stripes give a
subdued liveliness to long, dim summer
&
furnish room we'll. Instead of hemming
the sides, narrow silk binding is stitched
on and pressed very fiat, which adds a fin
ish and runs better the roller. Plain
hens for the lower edge are preferred to
! fringe, which curls and looks shabby.
These heavy linen blinds are not supposed
to need washing renewal under eight or
item years. A pair of unbleached linen
which had been hanging in windows for
five years, showed no need of refreshing
Practically. with the attentive care due
good furnishings. they never call for reno
waiting. A sOiled curtain or chair, or
broken furniture is a witness against the
breeding of family. In English country
houses, suits of furniture three hundred
years old are shown in good keeping, and
pieces exhibited at the Centennial festival,
quite as old. were in better case than mod
ern sets after six years use. Perhaps.
ewhen we can afford things in really good
finish and design, we will perforce learn to
preserve them.
The taste for tapestry and luxurious wall
hangings is upon this country. extravagant
and unsanitary and unsatisfactory as such
things are. In one of those artist dens of
the bric-a-brac shops which educate people
into this sort of bastard luxury, heard an
ambitious lad. looking at the velvet-lined
walls. say to his mother: why can't we
have our house like thiss" Why, indeed,
can't people ON ST. 500 to 5000 year cover
S13 a yardl What should they want it for
if they could afford it7 House decorators
do not recommend fabrics of any kind for
walls on any ground except that of expense
and show. Velvet and tapestry harbor no
end of dust, and dust invites in
sects. Heavy fabric deadens sound SO
that it is next to impossible to have
good music in these padded rooms, and it
makes the air stutfy, dead and depressing
Common houses are well nigh intolerable
with their turcoman curtains and portieres.
which hold stale air of yesterday in their
folds. and forbid the free passage of fresh
hangs its walls with panels of Bohemian
tapestry, woven of dyed cotton in the pam
els of old designs, hawking parties, battles
or court scenes, very well represented in
rich. dark coloring. which would drive a
sensitive person to suicide with its sombre
effect, however, after our cheerful home
surroundings. The cotton tapestry is not
prey to moths. does not cost over $50
panel, or require a man to watch it all sum
mer for fear of injury by damp. mold or
buffalo bug. as wool or velvet does,
In the large houses of New York trusty
men. EMPLOYED by upholsterers. go the
rounds every week. open the rugs, curtains
and tapestry, and lift the chair covers to
brush and beat for moth. Your butler at
$40 week. and housekeeper at $50. can't
be expected to look after such matters or
see that any of the twenty house servants
do 1T.
The new artistic sense rejects these cum
brous follies for simple homes. Tapestry
would do for facing coarse brick and NOR
tar walls, in times when people of degree
did not mind being overrun with vermin un-
der their magnlhcence. Modern taste fills
Its panels with painted tapestry. which
closely resembles the woven, and is free
from it's disabilities. The demand is for
IN
crusta with its sprawly decorations. then
the tile finished paper, which washes with
sponge. or, painted plaster In deli.
fruit. blossoms. reeds and flying birds. or at
least wallpaper of quality which will bear
coat of white shellac varnish, like egg
shell finish. The finest finish to any wall,
and most lasting is given by white of egg
In which the Italian masters painted their
great frescoes, and found their own eggs
when popes and princes were too stingy to
pay for them. The summer cottages are
falling out with the tesSelated hardwood
carpets. they are called. In our dry,
hot air the blocks shrink. warp. and in dog
days swell again till they are out of place.
Then ridgets treatment does not agree
with wood, and the general antique effect
and 1t is not always easy to get a man from
town to do the floors every week. So mod
crate, sagacious folk fall back on well-laid,
painted toors. in Oak-brown, chestnut.
NO biOMu Vi COttd, uOuo III
oil. with a coating of thin shellac
after the last of paint, for glow.
This gives floor which will wear and look
as well as waxed floor, unless special
pains are taken with the latter. The check
mating In tea colors and terra Gotta or
oiive check, are favored rather than the
large Inquired mattings, and bamboo. rattan
and spiint or rush furniture supersedes all
pther for summer, though people acquire n
liking for these springy. clean. light chairs
and lounges through the year. The gay
NIennese tables and cabinets. in light color,
painted with bouquets and vanished like
lacquer. go well with rattan. for of all incon-
venient, "wobbly" things, the rattan and
other woven tables are the worst. Bright
blue and red linen. twilled or plain finish
is the material for cushions, enriched with
floss embroideries and short tassel fringes
OF colors of the work. Portieres are of lin
en-. crash, gay with many colored cross
stitches as a Bagdad hanging and tasseled
In Spanish taste. But the bamboo fringe
hangings are preferred for warm weather.
as they let the air through and make
picturesque variety. Then. everywhere
You turn in the new cottages the new