Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-04-25
DECORATING THE HOME.


DECORATING THE HOME.
Some Of the Latest DEGREES of Fashion in
Furnishing and Adjoining the House.
From the Upho.sterer.
The subject of frieze decoration for a room
is no longer slurred by running q strip of
gaudy border around. 1t has attained char
acter We saw recently a very good frieze in
this form: The entire walls were covered with
a soft blush tint, with detached buttercup fig
ures in natural size and natural yellow A
two-foot deep, plain, soft blue paper was run
around as a frIeze and separated from the wall
treatment by two-inch railing or shelf, gold.
upon which different sized plates or plaques of
the buttercup color rested, tip tilted against
the wall and showing here and there around
the room at a distance of about foot or a foot
and half apart. These yellow bits standing
out from the blue background formed the
frieze design.
sMoKKRs DEN.
The same idea can be done for any other
room. Take parlor, for instance. and treat
the walls in one shade, bringing out bits of pot
terry all of one coloring, sharply outlined
against frieze background. The idea was
adapted with excellent effect by a chronic
smoker in the following way: His walls
he made Of an old brick red, washed out very
weak till the mere suggestion only of the red
was there-a grayish red. He arranged
shelf below his frieze line and crossed and
recrossed about one hundred and fifty long
stemmed brown clay pipes with plenty Of sharp
red tobacco jars resting also on the shelf. The
pipes and jars formed the design. They were
not permanently affixed to the shelf and wall,
but could be removed when needed. These
articles stood out in sharp contrast and made
an odd decoration.
WHY FASHIONS RAGE AND DIE.
The reason that fashions rage" for awhile
and then die out is not so much because they
are lacking in artistic value, but simply because
they have been found inadaptable to all condi-
TONS The white-and-gold room which is a
dream and delight to the woman of glowing ra-
dance and blsque daintiness of feature. be-
comes positively painful in its contrast to the
dull and colorless face of another occupant
Therefore that occupant soon tires of her
'white-and-gold' room, and encourages some
other style.
A pretty hat, at arms length. will please any
woman, but put that hat on her head and let
her see that it makes her nose look studied or
her chin look sharp, or her face too pudgy, or
her jaw too long, and the thing that was beau
tiful as a definitely apart detail, becomes now
perfectly repelient. The milliner who best
succeeds is she who improves ones looks 1t
is not the hat that is being worn. understand,
but the face. 1t is not the room which should
be on exhibition, but the occupant.
THE MASK IN DRAPERY DECORATIONS.
The mask is playing prominent part now
adays in drapery decoration. There are Japa-
nese masks sold made of carved wood. iuex-
pensive, nicely enameled, with the features
painted grotesquely. They are hung up on the
corner of an easel and the easel scarf or
length Of drapery silk is caught up from the
jaws. The ordinary 10-cent child's mask of
Fourth of July Renaissance we have also seen
utilized in quaint work to admirable effect
THE EXTREME IN BED DRAPERY.
Bed drapery is running today into extreme
styles. Two hundred years ago beds and
chiffonieres were profusely hung with fabrics
and today the fashion is returning with start
ling force, and bed valances, testers canopies
and paneled sides are now much in vogue
They are made to match" the window cur
tains and importers have for some time past
supplied demand for sets of shams, spreads,
chiffOniere covers and window draperies.
CORNER DECORATIONS
are becoming quite as much the feature of a
room nowadays as the folding doors or win
dows, which for long time were about the
only things one thought it worth while to
drape. We recently saw corner arranged
which provided for a wide divan, half hid by a
curtain. suspended from grille work traversing
the corner like the long line Of triangle The
same curtain treatment can half hide a cabinet
or . grouping Of bric-a-brac, with a faint lamp
glow shimmering through the folds of it, and.
moreover. this arrangement need take no more
room than ordinary corner table would oc-
cupy.
A FEW DoS'Ts AROUND THE HOUSE.
"Don't dust your furniture with a feather
duster; it's like cleaning an egg cup by stirring
the egg AROUND. Use cloth. II it is lightly
oiled so much the better for the woodwork.
Don't put furnishings with big designs in
small room, il will make the room look the
smaller. Keep in the rule OF proportion. It's
like little woman with . skinny face wearing
big foot ball Of . hat, which only accentuates
her sharp features the more.
Don't be vague in your furnishings and get
this and that and the other thing because each
by itself il pretty, but take the object OF q
room first into consideration and live up to it.
then take one color guide and select all
others in harmony With it
Don't let estheticism overwhelm common
sense to that degree that your windows are so
profusely got up" AZ TO make ventilation or
the washing Of them difficult job.
Don't forget that clever woman is not CON-
tent to be well gowned; she must also be well
placed and she will not be pleased with . room
which gives her blue background when blue
Il trying and unbecoming color to her.
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