The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1924-06-12
HOmemakers' Task
a Fascinating One
The Planning of Building and Furnish
ing Compared with Exhil-
arating Game.
By CHARLOTTE voGE

So much is being said and written
about the proper furnishing of the
home in good taste" that the prospec-
tive owner of that home feels over
whelmed by deluge of "don'ts" and
what to avoid"
Building home and being ones own
decorator should not be a worrisome
task, but an celebrating and delight
full as favorite game. If, as the
books tell us, it is necessary to have
a knowledge of the various furniture
periods, there are many good works
copiously illustrated to present the
information interestingly. Textiles,
rugs, wall decorations and lighting fix
lures all have their particular prob
lens, and one is usually well repaid
for the effort of delving into the lore
on these subjects.
However, if you are seeking for
mula for furnishing your house, you
will not find it. There is no set Of
rules guaranteed to give perfect en-
semble by combining so and so, and
emitting thus and SO, and if there were
such perfect room, assembled by such
school-book methods, | am sure 1T
would be most embarrassing and univ
able looking. The perfect period room
and the correct antique atmosphere
are for the historic castle and the mu-
scum, perhaps for public building;
they are not for living in.
The most charming and livable rooms
are not those in which the eternal
varieties have been too rigidly OBJ
served, but where various appropriate
styles are combined. You probably
cannot express your personality IN
your home decorations" That is a
catch phrase, which means really moth
ing. You can, however, be yourself in
your furnishings, have things which
you like and enjoy about you and which
are suitable to your circumstances and
your manner of living. A little power
of observing and comparing, standard
of taste, and some sense of color can
see a safe course through many pit
falls if time and thought are expend-
ed in making purchases.
If one does not employ professional
decorator, little first-hand knowledge
is essential to confidence in selection,
but appropriateness is the keynote and
the final test of the successful living
room. The furnishings must look as
though they really belonged there and
must have lived-in appearance; it
is human contact which, gives the spar
kle, the furnishings are only setting.
Furniture in store display can never
be really homehke or inviting, for it
is only after they have really been in
use that mere things acquire character.
Living Room Essentials.
A good davenport, roomy and as
comfortable as possible, but not two
large for the size of the room; two
comfortable chairs, one at least mans
chair for reading or idle smoking; a
table or table desk; smaller table
for lamp or magazines; provision for
books and music if these are not taken
care of in other rooms Of the house.
These are the essentials of comfort
able living room, and with nothing
more one might be quite we'll furnish
ed. Other chairs of varying degrees
Of formality might be added, cabinet
and there is a wide selection of oc-
casional pieces which give charm and
interest to room.
Having selected the number and the
shapes of the main pieces required,
careful thought should be given to the
coverings, their color and their tex
ture. They should not be too, pretent-
ious in type, nor too snowy in coloring,
but it is not necessary either to have
them all drab neutral and unintereStz
ing looking. Considering together sew
eral pieces to be used in the same
room, it is possible to have the quiet
richness of plain effects in some pieces
with an interesting contrast of figure
and color in others.