The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-11-12
BY ETHEL A. REEVE,
Written for NEA Service


NEW YORK, Nov. 12.-Books are
a decorative asset to any household
as well as concrete evidence of the
active mental life carried on there
in. Their disposition, as well as
their constant increase, is often a
problem.
Hardly a room in modern home
should be without them. Certainly
all the bedrooms and living rooms
should have their quota and every
kitchen and service quarters need
space for cook books, accounting
books and books on houshold sub
jects.
Libraries as such are becoming
increasingly rare. The living room
absorbs them, or the masters study,
or the books that would fill them
are disposed Of about the house
generally.
The bookishly inclined hunt avidly
for joys and corners and pounce
with JOY upon any that could be
converted into or house book
shelves.
Keep Room Balanced
In placing books, however, the
general balance of a room should
he considered. For instance, in an
jold-fashioned house where the fire.
place carries a rather heavy mantel,
book cases flanking it throw that
end of the room out Of proportion.
It would be better to balance that
fireplace with cases on the oppo-
site wall, not necessarily a single
unit, but possibly divided towards
the corners.
Sometimes a long room with a
group Of windows at the end can
achieve an amazingly dignified and
important effect by running the
book cases to the ceiling on either
side, with the top of the bookcase
continuing across the top. giving
ample space, in turn, for our mod
ern obnoxious radiators.
If CAe's impulse is to invest in
furniture rather than built-in fea-
lures, the type of eighteenth CEN
fury break-front book case with a
fat top desk incorporated in the
center and nicely loaded doors above
is a most decorative unit for any
living room or library in that period.
Bookcase inches Pleasing
II put on the opposite wall to
a mantel, it insures a splendid start
toward balance. These bookcases
may be had in different lengths,
from six to ten feet. The same idea
could be simply designed and built
in, in white wood, and painted with
the room.
inches cut in the thickness of the
wall, and sometimes, in old houses,
doorways no longer used, are pleas
ing, especially if they have nice
square or arched tops. A pair of
corner cupboards or possibly even
four might be built into a nicely
symmetrical room on square lines,
with evenly spaced window and
door openings.
A bedroom so arranged that one
can not read in bed is poor indeed.
Guest rooms should have the neces-
sary equipment. Many people, in
this hurried age, find their best time
for quiet and reposeful heading just
before sleeping.
Good in Bedroom
Two beds, with a table surmount-
ed by wall shelf. make as good
a group as one can get, often. The
pyramidal composition with the
shelf as the apex makes a pleasing
pattern and serves a useful pur-
pose to boot
Sometimes a pair of shelves over
the bed looks we'll but there is that
uncomfortable feeling that they
might fall and injure the sleeper.
Every complete menage should
have some suitable place for port
folios and diversified books, as well
as for music and records. The lat
ter can be nicely disposed in a high
boy, cheSt-on-chest or an orna-
mental chest of drawers suited to
living room use.
The commercially made modern
cabinets for these things often spoil
a room. Built-in bookcases can
have doors below the line of the
chair rail to take care of the big
books and portfolios that offend the
eye.