Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-31
MAKING A HOME FLAT
Possibilities When Room Was
Limited.
ONES BOOKS AND CHINA
HOW A WOMAN OF TASTE MAN
AGED THE PROBLEM.
Floor Space jealousy Guarded, but
Familiar Treasures Are
About.
ONES BOOKS AND CHINA

goods.
These she felt she must set up somewhere,
| and so she spent the first days after her re-
| turn in "fat-hunting," which has come to
| be an occupation consuming much time In
| these latter days, with results which no
foresight can predict.
At last she considered herself fortunate in
finding three rooms and a BATH which
suited her as to size and location, and she
proceeded to build her home on these foun-
dations, knowing well that time would re-
veal the various adverse conditions which
always develop when one is not mistress of
the whole situation, with an entire house at
ones disposal and the underlings of ones
own choosing
To deal with owners, agents. janitors.
managers of cafes, and still preserve any
feei1ng of independence or much confidence
in human kindness, WAS still a problem to
be solved, and did not enter into the first
state of mind with which the heroine of
this tale took possession of her small do
main and proceeded to make it as hOmelike
as might be from the fact that the belong
ings of her former home would still be
about her.
AS she was alone, there was no question
of suiting any one but herself, but that re-
quires consideration and time to carry out
ideas and readjustment of those ideas, in
deed, when ones environment is of neces-
looks as in other surroundings.
The Flat Bed Room.
A bed room must inevitably be on similar
lines, whatever its situation, SO that was
most easily arranged, and being of good
size as apartments go, was very satisfac-
tory when completed.
The little sitting ROOM or parlor, was also
very good, with the degree of formality
yxhn vic
usually has in its furnishing and arrange
ment, and then there was still a hall bed
room to dispose of which was of fair size,
as hall bed rooms go, and had a connecting
door INTO the sitting room, well as one
into the hall ~
This the occupant wished to make into a
little book room, as it was too tiny to be
dlgnited by the name of library, but by
considerable thought and the exercise of
ingenuity and good taste she evolved a
really delightful little room, serving her
purpose quite completely and making a
charming adjunct to the adjoining paror.
A Book Corner.
Floor space being most desirable, the aim
from the first was to keep that as free as
possible. She closed the door into the hall
entirely, and the door into the other room
being just ten inches from the end wall, she
had shelves of nine inches in depth put
right across the end of the room, barring
the hall door, and rising to six feet in
height, making a large book case
On the opposite end was the window not
set exactly in the middle, and having
1our-coll radiator set at right angles with
1t in the corner. Here she put shelves up
the wider space next the window some
eighteen inches across Qetting the one gas
fixture come between two shelves) and
having them six feet high also, but put
ting more shelves in to serve for smaller
volumes.
On the other side of the window in a
space not more than nine inches across, she
started shelves just above the radiator,
running them up as high as on the other
side of the window.
The uprights. supporting three shelves
next the window on either side, she had
curved. something as settle end is shaped,
and between them shallow window seat
made, the cover lifting, making a repository
for magazines, the seat having a green
corduroy cushion attached and lifting with
it.
On the longer walls opposite the par1or
two shelves were put from end to end Of the
room, corresponding in height-a continual
ton, indeed, of the two upper shelves of
each end book case.
This made all the floor space available
under these long shelves, giving the full
width to the narrow room.
The Color Scheme.
After the carpenter had done his work
and the shelves were all fitted, the color
L.
Certain good pieces of black walnut furni-
ture, in the possession of the designer of
the room, made her determine to use them,
and have the shelves and window seat and
castings stained to correspond.
She selected Morris paper for the walls,
congratulating herself that so tiny a
room justified the expense, for Morris
papers-the real ones-are not to be gotten
for a song.
This one was a mingled green and bronze,
the design most beautiful and intricate
one, but the cooring was in so low a key
that the pattern was very unobtrusive, so
that it made an effective background for
any object placed against it.
The Chief Feature.
Under the high shelves and nearly oppo-
site the parlor door was placed a walnut
cabinet, low and long, with glass doors with
a fretwork of the wood over the glass.
This was filled with old blue china, the de-
light of the heart of its owner, but with
a Notwithstanding apartment it had
seemed a superiority in the establishment,
until this solution presented itself of max
ing it the decoration of the book room.
On top of the cabinet was placed two
rather large blue vases at each end, with
the largest piece of the collection in the
center an old English soup tureen, with
Scottish castle and park the subject of
it's ornamentation, the scenes running all
around the urn, ana no repeat made IN
the pattern; the color beautiful blue and
the urn in perfect condition, except for
a piece broken out of one side, which had
been skillfully replaced. however.
The history of it's requirement is an in
teresting one: Some years ago it was dis
played in the window of a local china re-
pairer who had gotten it from a man
offering it for sale at the place.
His story was that he belonged to an
oyster boat, and in dredging in an inlet
of Chesapeake bay in Westmoreland county
Va, this piece of china was brought up
covered with mud; whether thrown away
by Some careless servant who had broken
the piece out of the side or what it's pre-
vious history was. no one can say, but the
lady who owns it bought 1t, spent some
hours scrubbing the black mud from the
basket-work border, and from the lions
heads forming the handle, and ever since
has enjoyed its shape and color, and its
latest setting is all she could wish.
With memory of the Plautin Museum at
Antwerp she put two low pieces of china
between these three large ones, making a
row of five across the back of the cabinet
In the stiff and pleasing foreign style.
A Reading Lamp.
On the same side of the room, near the
window corner, she put small but strong
walnut table, and on it a drop-light de-
pending from the gaslight coming out from
the book shelves above. books filling the
~