The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-18
v. ARTISTIC FURNISHING.
(Concluded.)

v. ARTISTIC FURNISHING.
-(Concluded-)
If the general principles laid down in
the last paper be applied to the details
necessary to vary frequently from COM
mon practices. The first effort of a
good housekeeper is to keep dirt out of
| the house, the second to get 1t out.
From either point of view carpets are
unsanitary, while they have the addi-
tional disadvantage that they involve
that periodic bugbear. housekeeping.
| cheaply obtained: if properly painted
or preferably finished with oil and
wax they form the best foundation for
sanitary and tasteful housekeeping.
Even when the floors are old and rather
defective the space around the edge of
the rug may be puttied and painted so
as to look very WELL Often the price
of a handsome carpet would better be
spent in laying a new floor on top of
the old one. BY rugs 1 do not mean
several little rugs, placed like GASES on
slippery floor or at a doorway to trip
| the unwary, but good, generous sized
rugs which will just escape the edges
of the stationary furniture around the
sides of the room. rugs which are sub
stantial enough not to kick up and
yet small and light enough to be ham
died by any person. Rugs Of this sort
have the warmth and stability of car
pets combined with all the hygienic ad
I vantages which carpets lack. No such
terrible upheavaf as the semi
housekeeping is necessary il now and
then the woodwork and pictures be
wiped with a damp cloth. the windows
washed, the floors busted and the rugs
hAa %ax, &c y. h 4
| in all sorts of materials ready made -or
may be made to order from various
carpetings. Among the varieties may
| be mentioned Japanese cotton and jute,
| ingram, Brussels, Smyrna, Administer,
! Wilton, moquette and oriental rugs of
many kinds. The least expensive, the
Japanese rugs. fade rapidly, though
they are substantial and come in
charming designs: ingram, though more
durable. is almost too fiimsy to be used
as a rug; but anything from Brussels
up will generally give satisfaction in
proportion to the amount of money in.
vested.
If. however. the floor be too old and
poor to be made presentable and new
one cannot be laid on top of it. 1t must
be wholly covered. If one still wishes
to use large rugs the floor may be COW
cred with denim or burlap in neutral
tints. or with mating or wooden filling.
These should be lined with carpet or
building paper for warmth and soft
ness. If the rug be of proper sizGthe
floor covering need show only about
eighteen inches around the sides. This
device, however. and regularly laid car.
pets are only alternate evils.
All furniture that is intended to be
moved-that is. which is not actually
built into or fastened to the walls and
f1oors-should be easily movable and
easily cleaned. This at once precludes
the purchase of large upholstered
chairs, heavy sofas and tables. Wicker
and rattan furniture. though not so ar
tistic, is lighter and much less costly
than antique wood. With good remov-
able hair cushions it can be made quite
as comfortable and far more .cleanly
than upholstered plush and damask.
The cushions may be beaten at the
same time as the rugs, and the dust
thus taken out of the house. For bed
rooms white enamel and brass bed
steads and washstands are rapidly SUI
perseding the old heavy wooden bed
room sets. Curiously enough. many
house furnishers still buy chairs by the
set. without reference to the fact that
the persons who are to sit upon them
are of various ages and sizes. Fairly
well designed chairs in hardwoods and
rattan are now to be found in the shops
in great variety, yet the prime test of
a chair is whether it is comfortable not
whether it is ornamental. 1t is not
we'll designed unless it be really COM
Portable for somebody TO sit upon. Din
ing rooms and reception rooms may
have rather formal, straight chairs. The
dining room chairs should have rather
high backs for support. but the tops
should never have any kind of pro-
jecting ornamentation which may i'm
q fIln tnt-'c T,,
viding chairs, cushioned window seats
and small sofas for sitting rooms one
cannot go. amiss in choosing such de-
signs as will secure ease.
If furniture be chosen with these sim
pie principles in mind. e., freedom
from dust, minimum of labor for the
housewife and ease for those who are
to use it-there remains only one other
way in which to go astray. 1t may still
be superlatively ugly. 1t should be dec
orative by its graceful form, its color
ing or by the charm of the design upon
it. Nowhere is the principle of subor-
dination more applicable than in dec
grafton; all ornament must be wholly
subordinate to the use of the object
which it adorns. For instance. win
dows are for two purposes. to light the
house and TO see out of; if a window
opens on an unpleasant prospect sash
curtains of muslin or silk are both
useful and decorative since they shut
off the view and yet admit light. But
II you wish to see from the window
sash curtains are an absurdity rather
than a decoration. In the ordinary pri-
vate house elaborate heavy curtain
draperies are out of place, bott. for ar
tistic and hygienic reasons. Wherever
cleanliness is an important requisite
draperieS should be easily moved and
cleaned. Silk, wool and velvet hang
ings are only to be tolerated when
there is ample service to keep them
clean.
The facility and cheapness of mill
work and lathe work in wood has vi
tiated the taste of Americans to a ter
rible degree. Nearly all ready-made
furniture is grooved, machine carved
and ornamented in way to violate not
only the principles of beauty, but of
strength and cleanliness as we'll. Orna-
ment that is meaningless Is vulgar. In
the room where l sit there are four
chairs of different patterns. costing
from so to SIS: all of them have legs
Now, legs are intended as support,
yet all of these are grooved and bead
ed and followed out in spots, so that
twice as much material as is necessary
to insure support has been used. The
ornamentation is not pretty. the depres-
sions are inevita bly, full of dust, and
the whole design means absolutely
nothing to any one who see it. By
way of ornament there is glued on the
front crOsspiece of one large chair a
design in oak leaves. If these had been
carved upon a beautiful strip of wood
by the hand of a cunning workman
they would have expressed a mans |
thought and skill As they are they |