The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-01
EVENING CHAT
BIZ RUTH CAMERON.

sentence uttered by woman who
mas made great success as an interior
decorator has impressed me much. 1t
was we not only try to furnish with
taste, but we try to fit the room to the
person who is to occupy it, and make it
characteristic and desirable setting for
the personality of the owner
How many rooms one enters. in which It
IS evident that no such effort to embody
the individuality of the occupant in the
furnishings of the ROOM has beer. made
Little after touches, such as the pres
ence OF magazines or music the lavish
olstf1out1on of embroideries, the nature
OF the rows of books on the book-shelves
may suggest and depict to u.s. the charac-
Ter or the persons who inhabit the ROOM
put IN the actual furnishings themselves
mere is frequently no relation to those
persons. Mission was in STYLE when this
room was furnished, and So the room
consists of so many set pieces of mission
Clrcass1an walnut was all the rage when
mat couple married, and therefore their
slender purse had to be stretched to pur-
chase few inferior and inartistic pieces
of the reigning wood.
The woman who blindly follows the
oictates Of fashion in gowning herself,
with complete indifference as to vvheth-
el the particular style is becoming or not
IS quite generally censured. believe
that the woman who furnishes her home
for 1t usually is the woman who has the
most time, the most interest, and hence
the deciding voice in this matter-with
IKE OeVOOOn to fashion and indifference
TO individuality, is equally at fault
There are becoming rooms as well as
becoming gowns. A successful living
room is an appropriate setting for the
people who inhabit it. / refer especially
to the living room. because that is the
center Of the home-the room in which
the largest proportion of it's Inhabitants
waking time is apt to be spent. and the
room where there is most opportunity for
individuality. The furnishings of a din
ing room, q bedroom, a kitchen, must be
a md
must contain certain stated articles of
furniture, but there are absolutely no
particular appointments which have to
appear in a living room.
Now, very few of us afford to en-
ploy interior decorators, but we can all
employ taste and individuality in fur
nishing our homes. We can choose the
color or colors which are to prevail in
our rooms with reference to ourselves.
Everyone, I believe, has a color which
peculiarly belongs to him.
Again, we can choose the style of fur
nlsh1ngs just as carefully. Don't sub
scribe to mission lust because mission Is
to certain people as tailored shirtwaists
and stiff collars. Don't get mahogany
exquisite granting and coloring of golden
oak might be thought more beautiful
than mahogany, If it had CHANGED to be
more costly. Don't buy Oblong table
and a davenport, just because these are
the style, il in your heart you really like
a round table and couch better. Re
will go during the years you will probably
live with that furniture.
Don't stock up with old fashioned fur
niture, Just because you know that is
considered artistic. There are people 10
whom old fashioned furniture naturally
belongs, and people to whom it does not.
just as there are girls who look charm
ing in quaint floWered muslins and
fichus and other old time styles, and
other girls whom such styles look in
congruous and irrelevant.
Don't try to get everything at once and
lower your standard of quality in order
to encompass quantity. Have the essen |
tials just as you want them. and be will
ing to wait for the films. Far better
that your home should be a bit bare q II
first than that it should be we'll stocked
with cheap and meaningless furniture.
Don't try to furnish a home in a week. !
year. Home buiiding-I don't mean |
house bIulding-should be the dream and |
labor of a lifetime. I wish our girls |
might be taught the technique of home |
furnishing in the public schools, and from /
then on might each plan and dream about |
her home until the time to make the /
dream a reality should come
Some of the homes. OF course, would |
never materallze. But think OF the bene- 1
fit accruing to those which really did |
come true. And surely no beautiful |
learning can ever be a loss even II the
reality never follows the dream.