Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-20
SIMPLE FURNISHINGS
Treatment of the Hall and the
Living Rooms.
PICTORES AND BOOKS WELL PLACED
How to Make the Parlor Attrac-
tive for the Family
AN ARTISTIC DINING ROOM
,ecial Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK. May is, 1899
1t is easy to say that one must not
have this or that, but it is better, too, to
add what one may have. So, for those who
care to hearken. here is plain tale of some
things which may go with propriety and
| beauty into the different rooms of the
| houses in which We spend so much of onr
| lives.
| The hall, which was once the center of
| the social life of whole Clans then of large
| families, has dwindled to a narrow, dark
| forbidding passage in city houses, to some
| thing too depressing to reflect upon in
| apartments, and to an attempt at sitting
! room in country houses which have any
| pretensions to comfort. The treatment of
| a country hail. which is square or oblong
with fireplace in it, does not offer many
| problems. If it is very light one may have
| dark wool, rich dark coloring on the walls
| and family portraits of formal scenes in
| engravings may adorn the walls. The fur
| niture should always be formal. This does
not at all mean that it should not be com
| Portable. But rocking chairs, such |
| have really seen in reception halls, are
! quite out of place. If there is a divan or
| lounge of any sort, the lines should be plain
| Somewhere about the hall, on the landing
of the stairs, if one is lucky enough to have
| such desirable angle, should be the old
| clock One Of them came over with every
| family which came over in the Mayflower,
| which, of course, means there are millions
| of them in the republic.
Keep the Hall Light.
The hall of city house is a far more I'M
| favorable place to furnish. The only light
which it usually has is from the panes in
| the hall door, and sometimes there is sky
| light which sheds feeble beams down over
| the stairs Ordinarily the hall doors are
| covered with something very dark, which
| excludes a great deal of the light, and the
Skylight if there is one, has ground glass
upon II. If yellow stained glass We're put
| in the skylght and in the hall doors mar
| velous change would at once result. The
walls should be done in plain cartridge pa
pers burapS printed with formal de
| signs. If there is only room for one piece
of furniture. let it be a settle of plain de
| sign, and add above 1t one two swords
| which will serve to hold hats and coats
| The scabbardlesS swords for coat and hat
| racks are especially good for one can only
| have several in a small hall and there is
no excuse to leave numberlesS hats and
coats in sight. Then there should be, of
| course an odd pottery jar for umbrellas.
| I know a hall with hardwood stairs I'M
carpeted. Up and down the stairs, on a
! level with the eye, are hung good photo
grains of outdoor scenes. And upon those
stairs every one fingers.
yellow or Red Hangings.
If the reception hall opens out of the hall
without door there should be a portiare
at the opening, the door should never be
closed SO that the casual visitor feels that
he or she must wait in the hall. If it is a
| dark room it is desirabl to have the walls
covered with yellow Of a good shade and
have the furniture of mahogany, or at least
of wood with a mahogany stain. If there
is any room in the house where the white
and red the white and gold treatment
is admissible it is in this too often ne
elected pace. If the light is good. one may
have red walls and crimson hangings, and a
floor covered with dark rugs goes well with
this scheme. But then have to have
spindle-legged chairs covered with brocades
in delicate shades.
Wherever the casual and not well-known
guest is received let there be some reading
matter. All of us have been the victims of
the few minutes in which we wait for an
unready hostess or are detained on an err
rand A book or magazine laid in some
convenient place is such a boon. One is
almost tempted in some bare spots to wish
that all places in which one waited were
furnished as are the waiting rooms of ply
sictans and other unwillingly visited folk
ParIOrs Rarely HOmeIike.
The sacrifices the only fairly well-to-do
make to their 'parlor floor are many
Usually the parlor or drawing room Is so
sparsely furnished and everything which
could be interesting and tend to occupa-
tons to pass the time is so carefully ex-
cluded from II that one would not wish to
stay there, preferrtng bed room. And the
habit of living in bed rooms is peculiar to
the citizens Of the United States. Better
by far would it be If houses could be built
with little rooms which would only contain
bed and chair, and thus leave room for
sitting and dressing room where the or
binary avocations of life could be pursued |
When drawing rooms are not bare of every
thing they are oyercrowded with orna-
ments. And ornaments are only good when
there are few of them and they are well
chosen.
A drawing room or parlor. whichever one |
chooses to call it, should be place where |
the family goes else it is a failure. In
deed, except in the houses of the very |
wealthy drawing rooms a nuisance. |
For few people have room to give up to |
the merely formal character which they |
have as they are usually furnished. 1t is |
by far better to have something comforta-
BILE and homelike in them and eSchew any
idea of living up to one design. For in |
stance the Indian hangings which our cold /
western eyes have only Just discovered in |
their entire beauty are said by experts on |
decorating to be suitable for libraries, liy- |
ing or smoking rooms, but not for draw
ing rooms Yet how much better to have a |
divan with oriental hanglngs, and the bare |
floors handsome rugs and gay hangiDss
which accompany it, in the room which is |
usually the only one in the house which |
can be spared for the purely ornamental |
than to have that room bare and formal /
and not interesting to the family.
A Model Near Home.
An excellent place to study good treat |
ments for house furnishing is at Mount 4
Vernon, which is so beautifully kept up /
1t is true that one would not want to have
every room bare as those rooms are
some of them. The home atmosphere must /
be given. But in studying such examples |
one acquires a liking for the plain line
and the usefulness of almost every piece /
of furniture. One learns that no object
is justified in being in evidence merely for /
show.
There is a room In the house where for