Evening star., 1928-11-04
Fireplace Motif Dominates Room


always seems to be some one
Il problem of furnishing which
takes her thoughts and attention
for the time being. At one time she
preoccupied with the problem of window
draperies. She notices the windows and
their draperies In other houses sne
visits. she catches interesting gllmpees
of window draperies as she walks
| through residential streets. she goes to
the window drapery departments in the
stores when she has little time to
spare. Thus more or less saturated with
window drapery, she Il able to come TO
a satisfactory solution of the problem
of her own windows.
At another time she may be absorbed
in the problem of bedspreadS and for
the time being she never enters bed
room without first observing the way
| the bed is covered Sometimes table
later she becomes especially interested
in floors.
Sooner or later / think almost every
home lover with taste for furnishings
and decorations becomes interested In
| the space of walt ever the fireplace.
| As D woman sits beside the hearth on
| the first cool days of Autumn when the
| fire has been kindled to take the chill
away, her eyes are more apt to focus
inquiringly at this space than In SUM
ner time. Then the question OF the
treatment of the wall above the nantel
becomes absorbingly interesting. She
may seek far before she finds precisely
what she wants to use in this way.
The conventional large mirror has
much to be said In its favor only there
are rooms where 1t doesn't seem to be-
long. Usually 1t looks appropriate In
the room furnished with colonial ma
hogar1y and white woodwork. With q
middle or late colonial setting it is quite
in period. But with the earlier type
OF colonial furniture the large gilt
framed mirror Ia somewhat out Of place.
So would it be with the room furnished
in old Spanish style. In the sort of
nondeScript rooms with which most of
us have to content ourselves it frequent
ly takes considerable searching and
scheming to get just the right arrange
ment That wouldn't do at all In
room furnished In the colonial spirit.
And often q mirror isn't the thing
needed.
large picture or number of smaller
ones may answer the question. Some
times the solution consists of some lines
written in large letters over the mantel
and these may be quoted from a
fAvorite author. quaint proverb or
adage or lines composed by the owner
of the room.
In reading the recently published
biography of Gene Stratton Porter, en-
| titled 1.-THE Lady of the Limberlost"-
written by Jeannete Porter Mehan, the
daughter Of the author-1 came across
q reference to the way the Limberlost
Lady had solved this mantelpiece prob
lem. 1t was In O letter TO correspon~
dent, to whom she was sending her
nhntnorafAh ~
published book. She wrote;
II am going to tell you the lines
that I have fashioned for over the
am building out In the Santa Monica
hills on tiny baby mountain, with
little canyon of its own running down
each side, six miles from the ocean,
which is close enough to see the waves
breaking white at the feet of the Pail.
sades and, on clear days, Catalina
Island, where am going to have
Summer workshop"
Then she gives the lines she had
composed for the space over the fire.
place
Mother Mary, seek the King,
Ask OF Him wondrous thing;
SEND to this my working place.
wealth of wings and flower grace"
Sometimes large framed picture is
attractive in that position. An old
family portrait if really good enough
to please your guests as well as your
selves may occupy this place of honor
That is the sort of thing that one looks |
for in the stately Jacobean room. IL
have seen large landscape and sea-
scapes that left nothing to be desired in
this location.
One woman I know pondered and
pondered and tried firet one thing and
French railway poster that friend had
got for the asking In her European
travels, ana this proved to be precisely
what was needed.
Sometimes coIorful map makes an
excellent decoration for the space over
the rnantel. In the library or bookish
living room you might like to place
one OF those charming new maps show
Ing the sites famous In literature and
romance. A strip OF batik or Persian
print may solve your problem or you
may even find that strip of printed
silk or cretonne does precisely what you
want to have done TO that bit of wall
space.
One woman that I know has ar
ranged what I think is very inter.
esting mantel decoration. The shelf
itself IL OF oak, plain, heavy board,
set rather low over brick fireplace.
The walls are finished in a stippled
cream plaster. Along the wall, stand
ing on edge at the back of the mantei,
is a row of small photographs framed
in light brown wood frames They are
photographs of various place of interest
this woman has visited--Bermuda and
Paris, Marblehead and Canterbury.
Too small to hang effectively, but de-
The frames are all OF the same size, but
some of the photographs are wider than
high. some higher than wide, and this
difference of height gives sufficient va
riety to the decoration.
(Copyrisht. ia38)