The record-union., 1897-04-21
.-INTERIOR DECORATION.
The WOman's Idea in Taking the
Home Beautiful.

Home Beautiful.
With the opening up of opportunities
for women to take part in the profess
sions. there is no movement more inter-
esting in its development than the
gradual increase of disposition on the
part of educated and refined women to
engage in the work of what is called
interior decoration, but which is less
imposing and disquieting when spoken
I of as home decoration
The mural treatment and designing
of furniture for public buildings will
properly remain in the hands of really
competent architects of taste, who may
with right claim that nothing shall be
added to their structures which might
tend TO interfere with their original
conception of the finished effect, but as
it is not secret that the decoration
and furnishing of the most successfully
| completed great houses of recent con-
struction have been absolutely dictated
and supervised by the women most in
terested. there seems no reason why the
woman decorator has not come to stay
She is dotted in pairs of girl bachelors
among the larger cities of the country
and though the firm is apt to dissolve
after a more or less brief existence. it
is not due to lack of business. but
rather to the quick opportunity which
seems to offer for the formation part
nerships under a consolidated firm
name.
There are those, too, whom reverses
of fortune have forced to use their taste
and talents in this most womanly of
occupations, and these, having once
found the pleasures of self help and in
dependence, are the pillars of the pro-
fession
When questioned on the subject Of
the Woman Decorator" Joseph p
McHugh, the authority on everything
in the line Of house decorations, said:
Just why women, with their quick
appreciation of what is good. their in
tuitive sersse of color and grasp of de-
| tail, should not have discovered long
before this that men We're unrightful-
~ occupying their places does not seem
quite clear, but it is certain that their
superior faculty of economical selection
has brought forward more things of
combined utility and beauty than could
have been thought possible in the brief
space of time since their opinions have
been asked for and compensated
TT is particularly at this season of
the year, when the country house
claims attention, that the stuffs of
homely origin and the furniture of sim
pie fashion best show the influence of
woman's direction.
THE cotton fabrics appear in ar
tistic colOrings and patterns, showing
the weaves of denim. once used only
for working clothes, and Cluny canvas,
formerly thought only good enough for
coffee sacking and bed ticking, turns up
in the daintiest possible striped and
Powered effects, not unlike the chintzes
and dimities of France.
Wall papers designed by women
present flowers and foliage in forms
and colorings SO natural that the result
of outdoor study is apparent while in
the more conventional and ornamental
patterns the woman's love of color has
quite overcome the faint half-tones of
the aesthetic art cult
In furniture the old English and Col
onial reproductions bear witness to the
industry and good taste of women in
collecting the pieces which point to the
times when simplicity and directness of
construction gave distinction to the art
of the cabnetmaker, before the use of
machinery made possible the addition
of superfiuous detail, without gain to
| the comfort or beauty of the piece.
Chairs and tables of graceful and
slender parts, but strong and good
withal, sideboards fair to the eye with
out and giving manifest proof of their
contents, wainscoting and mantel- pieces
of dignified and classic proportions,
| these are among the things which
women will have in preference to the
gorgeousness of modern carving and
Varnish as accessories in their schemes
and plans for the making of the house
beautiful, and fortunate are the men
| whose tastes and ideas are in line with
the new dispensation.'