Evening star., 1899-10-07
STYLE IN FURNITURE
Red is the Latest Color and Old Jacobean
Ideas Are Used
GondOla and Dutch Chairs Arc Com.
ing Novelties, as FOOtstOoIs Are
Growing Popular.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.


Red running through the gamut of it's
rich dyes. from Morris scarlet to the deep
est mulberry. is the favorite color in house
decoration this season. The steadily in
creasing popularity of mahogany in simple
colonial forms has brought this color into
fashion. and after long dallance with
French styles and momentary fancy for
Delft blues, a lavish use Of gliding and
white paint the whole inclination of inte-
rior ornamentation is toward the older,
darker and severer English modes Moth
ing is more fashionable, for instance than
a library, a hall, or even an entire first
floor wholly decorated and furnished after
the best Jacobean models left in England
Ireland and Scotland, and one of the
charms of a King James room is that it
can be done as lavish or moderate cost
as you please and it is like nothing seen
before in American homes.
In one Chicago mousse only recently COM
pleted. there is small Jacobean library
that would be a faultless model for any one
desiring similar room to copy. The walls
are hung in murrey-colored leather and
the woodwork Is carved cedar; the floor is
stained black, then Waxed. highly polished,
and on it are laid red rugs. All the furni-
ture and this scheme in decoration come
from an ancient manor house on the border
between England and Scotland.
Carved fumed oak, SO called from being
blacked by age and the smoke from slow
peat fires forms the presses that hold the
books, and the wooden portion of the
quaint, uncomfortable, 1ong-legged. low
backed conversation chairs. the window
stools and the settees Murrey-colored leath-
er uphosters these, and in corners against
the walls there are carved locked chests
for holding valued manuscripts and family
papers. and one long tapestry curtain hangs
at each deeply recessed window.
The effect OF the Jacobean room is, In
n al nf mi oil nd
bose bric-a-brac, wonderfully rich. stately
and cozy, and in those houses where no
such liberal expenditure could be indulged
the decorators have pursued the King
James style with wonderful cheapness and
success. They copy the quaint furniture
forms in carved black American walnut, or
use an oak to which art has given the
worn, dusky tone of greater age. Burlaps
is laid on walls and painted murrey red
and walnut is used for woodwork or door
facings. etc, painted black. Where in any
room this early sixteenth century idea of
decoration is followed the brc-a -brac is
carefully boarded up in open-fronted cup
boards. or shallow presses with half glass
doors. and the very newest idea in dining
rooms Is great plate sdeboard.
Sang de beOuf, or bulls blood red, is the
approved tint in which the drawing rooms
are being done over, and the decorators
say that 1t is the most becoming back
ground possible for women of all coiorings
and especially when in evening dress.
1t appears that in drawing room decora-
ton, as in the feminine wardrobe, fabrics
go in and out Of fashion about every five
years, and now, after the brocades and
damasks of the French influence, velvet
has come to its own again. 1t Is used as a
wall hanging. for portieres and curtains,
not draped. but hanging straight. arras
fashion. Modern silk velvet is not ap-
proved Venetian, Utrecht and Flanders
Veivets are the kinds employed for hangings
and upholstery, and just now no matter if
your hall is colonial, your library Jacobean
and your dining room of another period
your drawing room must not be in any par
ticular cut-and-dried fashion. One of its
most important features is it's chairs. that
can be chosen from every period in history
if you choose. provided they are all grace
full and ornamental.
In the newly done-over reception salons
there Is sure to be a curved cedar gondoa
chair nlaid with very pink pearl and bits
of coral, and softened In it's curved seat by
plump pillow covered with Venetian vel
vet and having heavy gold tassels ut it's
four corners. on either side of the draw
ing room fireplace are also Inevitably a
pair of lofty-backed court chairs These
have gided frames. perfectly straight. solid
wood backs, down the center of which a
strip of red velvet is fastened. velvet sea IS.
and are occupied usually by the hostess and
her most honored feminine guest.
A deep Dutch easy chair IS another one
of the newcomers in the American drawing
room. and a feature now noticeable is the
increasing number of fOotstoolS. Women
are just beginning to learn again not only
that against a crimson velvet cushion their
slender delicately slippered feet show to
wonderful advantage, but that there Is no
better means Of resting tired feet than by
the use of a footstool. and also there IL no
wiser precaution when weary or under the
weather. for escaping colds and neuralgia
than by propping the feet upon cushion.