The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-08-16
HESuMMER ROOMS.
How They Are Adapted for the Season to
 Achieve Cool Appearance.

THE SUMMER ROOMS.
 How They Are Adapted for the Season to
 Achieve Cool Appearance.
 All careful housekeepers, as we'll as people of taste arrange their rooms to suit the seasons, just in the same way as a well-dressed woman adopts diff ferent gowns for different occasions, says the Queen In the winter we want our surroundings to reflect warmth and comfort, therefore we have rich-colored heavy curtains and draperies, thick car-
 pets, and 1uXuriously upholstered chairs. with screens and portieres to keep out draughts but, with the advent of hot summer sunshine. we should ex- change this effect for one of coolness and freshness, which Is easily done by a httle encouragement of our lares and penates. The heavy curtains should be taken down, cleaned and slowed away, to give place to those of lighter texture and more delicate color; the thick carpets should be treated in like manner and few handsome rugs sub- stituted; the warmly upholstered chairs should be hidden under prettily loose covers, with frills made of light colored cretonne, while the portieres and screens may rest from their labors, and all un- necessary furniture may be put away There Is nowadays a decided tendency to overcrowded rooms, which not only spells a good effect, and prevents free movement, but is also bad from health point of view, as the air cannot circulate properly In room packed with furniture and draperies. Un- doubtedly the healthiest rooms are the least luxurious; still, it does not follow that we should adopt a Spartan-like simplicity
 We can have our houses both healthy and beautiful, only 1t is imperative to disabuse the mind of the idea that well-furnished room must necessarily have as many things in it as it will pos sibly hold. Especially is this over crowding applicable to bedrooms, where many useless items, such as hangings, curtains and cushions, ought never to find a place. The bedrooms should be the most aesthetic rooms of house. The furniture may be simple but good, the floor should never have a covering that harbors dust, or cannot be taken up almost every day, and the colors used should be bright and cheerful, with everything white about the bed it. self even to the bedspread, which is quite the daintiest if made of white Bol- ton sheeting, embroidered with gold silk.
 It is hardly necessary in these en- frightened days, when hygiene is so much considered, to say any word of warming against plugging up the chim- ney, which Is the best ventilator room can have, or to advise that the windows be left open all day long. In sitting | rooms, the furniture may be moved dur | ing the hot months near to the windows, easy chairs and lounges may find | places there, with little tables for
 books, work, and newspapers close at hand, while the seats usually by the | fireplace, can be used to make a cosy | corner, as no one will choose to sit op- | nosite an empty grate, however prettlly and ingeniously 1t may be decorated. Most English people have a decided l weakness for carpets, and cannot be | persuaded to be without them at any | time of the year. All the same, a stained polished floor, or better still,
 a. parquet foor is delightfully."- cool, and I keeps a room much freer from dust; or 8 Chinese or Japanese matting with
 rugs Is a sensible arrangement for sum- mer.
 | No room on the sunny side of house l can be kept cool without outside sun | blinds; they are an absolute necessity
 they not only keep out the sun much
 better than any inside blinds do, but I they do not darken a room in the same
 way, nor yet do they exclude the air. The windows can be open, and if win dow boxes, filled with gay colored flow
 CTS and such sweetscented plants as mignonette anr fixed outside, the bits of
 bright color show well in the room, and
 have quite an enlivening effect; indeed no room can be considered complete | without flowers, they are the best orna- | ments it can have, and the good house. keeper will not only have them, but will be sure never to leave them about after | they are faded, for nothing has a more | deiected look than vases of half-faded I flowers, or plants that have lost their | freshness. It is a simple matter, but one too often neglected.