Milford chronicle., 1929-10-18
CLOSE DOORS-INSIDE AND OUT
By Margaret Harmon.

Dy UldIEdIGb
There is no skeleton in the closet
of the modern home. Every nook
and corner is as presentable to pry-
ing eyes as the living room itself.
The inside of a cupboard is no long
er private property" Its owner
filings the doors wide open and ex-
hibits its contents with justifiable
pride.
Brightly painted walls, dainty
shelf edging, rows of well-treed foot
wear, hats mounted on individual
stands-all indicate that interior
decoration has gone deeper than the
surface. But the doors of the closets
are most interesting of all for re-
decoration.
The paneled doors of double cup
board in one household were deco
rated so effectively that a detailed
description of their treatment is
worth reading. These doors meet at
the center when closed and lie fiat
against the wall when open. The
long panel on the inside of each door
has been lined with quaint flow
cred chintz. The sloped moulding
which frames the indented panel has
been lacquered red, while the door
itself is a soft blue-green. The
ground color of the door predomi-
mates in the chintz pattern, and the
red frame forms a delightful con-
trast. The general effect is that of
pair of rare floral panels which
have been fitted into the doors with
painstaking effort. AS the panels
already exist in most doors, and the
pasting of the material is a simple
matter, the effective result achieved
is all out of proportion to the labor
involved. The painting of the panel
moulding in a different shade is an
important touch.
The interest in the decoration of
closet doors is a recent one but is
growing rapidly. Concealed beds of
different types which emerge from
closets at night have helped to fos-
ter it. Naturally the door must re-
main open while the bed is in use,
and it should be as decorative as
possible. Sometimes the door pan
els are merely painted a different
tone from the remainder of the
woodwork. Or, again, the moulding
of the panel is colored a darker
shade of the same color.
Decalcomanias and stencils are Of
ten used either on the inside or out
side of a closet door. This is espe-
cially true of kitchenettes and serv-
ing pantries. If the kitchenette is
simply a cupboard at one end of the
room, the transfer design should
decorate the inside of the door as
this side is presented to the public
view whenever any cooking is being
done. If the kitchenette is a sepa-
rate room, stencils can be applied to
the outside of the cupboard and also
on such equipment as cannisters
and oilcloth.
One attractive kitchenette which
employed apple-green as its chief
color made use of red and green OIL
cloth in a tiny checked pattern. The
most effective touches in the room
were poppy transfer medallions ap-
piled to the panels of the china cup
board. Flower and fruit designs can
sometimes be found in Seeding cata-
logues. When decorations are ap-
piled to the wall, shellac will pre-
vent their edges from curling.
The usual type of dish closet in
apartment house kitchens has glass
doors in front of the upper shelves
and two cupboard doors below. This
built-in feature seldom has any
claim to beauty but it can be made
very decorative if it is painted a
'ght color and striped with a con-
trs. ting color along the cross pieces
of the glass doors and around the
edges of the two small doors under
meath. The lower cupboard is gen
orally devoted to such a miscellan-
eous collection of oil cans, tool
chests and other unsightly utilities
that it is rarely kept in orderly ar
rangement. Painting the inside OF
the doors with the stripping color will
serve to brighten up this gloomy
space and supply an incentive for
putting the articles in such shape
that they are more easily found.
deem Sfuff