Year: 1876

Cheerful Room.


The first essential for cheerful room i
t sunshine. Without this, money labor, taste
: are all thrown away. A dark room canno
J te cheerful and it is as unwholesome as i
, is gloomy. Flowers will not blossom in it
neither will people. Nobody knows, or evel
, will know. how many men and women have
, been killed by dark rooms.


/ 'Glorify the room Glorify the room ~
} Sydney Smith used to say of morning,


when he ordered every blind thrown open
every shade drawn up to the top of the win
dow. Whoever is fortunate enough to have
southeast or southwest corner room, may,
if she chooses, live in such floods of sunny
light that sickness will have hard work to
get hold of her; and as for the blues, they
will not dare to so much as knock at the
door.


Second on my list of essential for cheer
full room put color. Many room that
would otherwise be charming is expression
less and tame for want of bright color.
Don't be afraid of red 1t is the most kiLd-
ling ard inspiring of colors. No room can
be perfect without good deal of it. All the
shades of scarlet or Of crimson are good. IL
an autumn leaf, in curtain, in chair
cover, in a pin-cushion, in vase, in the
binding of book, everywhere you put it, it
makes brilliant point and gives pleasure.
| The blind say that they always think red
must be like the sound ola trumpet; and
think there is a deep truth in their instinct.
1t is the gladdest, most triumphant color
everywhere.


Next to red comes yellow this must be
used very sparingly. No bouquet of flowers
is complete without little touch of yellow
and no room is as gay without yellow as with
| It. But bouquet in which yellow predomi
mates is ugly; the colors of all the other flow
ers are killed by it and a room which has
one grain too much OF yellow in it is hope
| lessly ruined. have seen the whole express
of one side Of room altered. improved,
toned up, by the taking out of two or three
bright yellow leaves from big sheaf of su-
macs and ferns. The best and safest color
for walls is delicate cream color. When
say best aud safest, mean the best back
ground for bright colors and for pictures,
and the color which is least in danger of
disagreeing with anything you may want to
put upon it. So also with floors the safest
and best tint is a neutral gray. If you can
not have bare wooden floor, either of
back walnut, of stained to initiate it. then
have plain gray felt carpet. Above all
things, avoid bright eolors in carpet In
rugs. to lay down on a plain gray, or on
dark-brown floor, the brighter the colors the
better. The rugs are only many distinct
pictures thrown up into relief here and there
by the under-tint Of gray or brown. But
pattern, either set or otherwise, Of bright
colors journeying up and down, back and
forth, breadth alter breadth, on the door. is
always and forever ugly. If one is 50 unfor-
tunate as to enter on the possession of room
with such carpet as this, or with a wall
paper OF a similar nature, the first thing 10
be done, if possible. is to get rid of them or
cover them up. Better have ten-cent paper
of neutral tints, and indistinguishable fg-
ures on the wall and have bare floors painted
brown or gray.


Third on my list Of essentials for making
rooms cozy. cheerful, and beautiful, come
books and pictures. Here some persons will
cry out But books and pictures cost
great deal of money" Yes, books do cost
money, and 50 do pictures but books ac
eumulate rapidly in most houses where
books are read at all and if people really
want books, it is astonishing how many they
contriye to get together in few years with
out pinching themselves very seriously in
other directions.


As for pictures costing money, how much
or how little they cost depends on what sort
of pictures you buy. As said before, YOU
can buy for six shillings a good heliotype
(which is 10 all intents and proposes as
good as an engraving), of one of Raphael's
or Correggio's MadOnnas But YOU can
- - -,
japanese fan is picture some Of them are
exquisite pictures, and blazing with color,
too. They cost anywhere from two to six
cents. There are also japanese pictures.
printed on coarse paper some two feet long
and one broad, to be bought for twenty-five
cents each; with a dozen of these,a "a dozen
or two OF fans, and say four good heliotypes,
you can make the walls of small room 50
gay that strangers first impression on
entering it will that II Is adorned for
festival. The fans can be pinned on tn e
walls in endlessly picturesque combinations.
o ne of the most effective is to pin them
across the corners of the room, in overlap
ping rows, like an old-fashloned card
mack.


Fourth on my list of essentials for cosey,
cheerful room. put order, This Is dan
gernus thing to say, perhaps; but it Is my
honest conviction that sunlight, color, books
and pictures come before order. Observe,
however, that while it comes fourth on the
list, it Is only fourth it is by no means last
| am not making an exhaustive list. | do
not know where | should stop if | under
took that. am mentioning only few of
the first principles, the essentials. And in
regard to this very question of order, am
partly at a loss to know how far it Is safe to
permit it to lay down its law in room. |
think almost as many rooms are spoiled by
being kept in too exact order, as by being
too disorderly. There is an apparent dis
order which is not disorderly and there is
an apparent order, which is only a witness
to the fact that things are never used. do
not know how better to state the golden
mean on this point than to tell the story Of
an old temple which was once discovered,
bearing on three of its sides this inscription
BE bold" On the fourth side the in-erip-'
tion BE not too bold


| think it would be well written on three
sides of a room "Be orderly" On the
fourth side But don't be to orderly. -
From Talks 'eiM Girls, By II. H., an 81.
| Nicholas