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CHAPTER XXVI
TREATMENT OF AN INEXPENSIVE BEDROOM
The experience of the author is that the most attractive, inexpensive
furniture is that made by the Leavens factory in Boston. This
furniture is so popular with all interior decorators that it needs no
further advertising. Order for each single iron bed two foot boards,
instead of a head and a footboard. This the factory will supply upon
demand. Then have your bed painted one of the colours you have chosen
as in the colour scheme for your room. Say, the prevailing note of
your chintz. Have two rolls made, to use at the head and foot (which
are now of equal height) and cover these and the bed with chintz, or,
if preferred, with sun-proof material in one of the other colours in
your chintz. By this treatment your cheap iron bed of ungainly
proportions, has attained the quality of an interesting, as well as
unique, "day-bed."
PLATE XXII
Two designs for day-beds which are done in colours to suit the
scheme of any room.
These beds are fitted with box springs and a luxurious mattress
of feathers or down, covered with silk or chintz, coverlet and
cushions of similar material, in colours harmonising with beds.
If desired, these lounges can be made higher from the floor.
Two Styles of Day-beds
The most attractive cheap bureau is one ordered "in the plain" from
the factory, and painted like the bed. If you would entirely remove
the factory look, have the mirror taken off the bureau and hang it on
the wall over what, by your operation, has become a chest of drawers.
If you want a long mirror in your rooms, the cheapest variety is
mirror glass, fastened to the back of doors with picture moulding to
match woodwork. This is also the cheapest variety of over-mantel
mirrors. We have seen it used with great success, let into walls of
narrow halls and bedrooms and framed with a dull-gold moulding in the
style of room.
For chairs, use the straight wooden ones which are made to match the
bureau, and paint them like the bed and bureau.
For comfortable arm-chairs, wicker ones with chintz-covered pads for
seat and back are best for the price, and these can also be painted.
Cheap tables, which match the bureau, when painted will do nicely as a
small writing-table or a night-table for water, clock, book, etc.
If the floors are new and of hard wood, wax them and use a square of
plain velvet carpet in a dark tone of your dominant colour. Or if
economy is your aim, use attractive rag rugs which are very cheap and
will wash.
If your floors are old and you intend using a large velvet square,
paint the edges of the floor white, or some pale shade to match the
colour of the walls. Or, use filling all over the floor. If you cannot
afford either and must use small rugs, stain or paint your floors a
dark colour, to be practical, and use only necessary rugs; that is,
one before bed, bureau and fireplace.
Sofas are always expensive. That is one reason for advising that beds
be treated like "day-beds."
Wall papers, at ten cents a roll, come in charming colours and
designs, and with a few cheap French coloured prints, framed in
passepartout, your room is attractive at once.
If your prints are black and white use broad passepartout in same
colour as the wall paper, only a tone deeper. If you use favourite
photographs, suppress all margins and frame with narrow black
passepartout.
For curtains use one of the sixty-or seventy-cent chintzes which come
in attractive designs and colours, or what is still cheaper,
sun-proof material, fifty inches wide (from $1.10 to $1.50 a yard),
and split it in half for curtains, edging them with a narrow fringe of
a contrasting colour which appears in the chintz of chair-pads.
Another variety of cheap curtains is heavy cream scrim with straps
(for looping back) and valance of chintz. These come cheaper than all
chintz curtains and are very effective, suggesting the now popular and
expensive combination of plain toned taffetas combined with chintz.
Use for sash curtains plain scrim or marquesette.
Let your lamps be made of inexpensive one-toned pottery vases,
choosing for these still another colour which appears in the chintz.
The lamp shades can be made of a pretty near-silk, in a plain colour,
with a fringe made up of one, two or three of the colours in the
chintz.
If you happen to have your heart set on deep rose walls and your
bedroom furniture is mahogany, find a chintz with rose and French
blue, and then cover your arm-chair pads and bed with chintz, but make
your curtains of blue sun-proof material, having a narrow fringe of
rose, and use a deep rose carpet, or rugs, or if preferred, a dull
brown carpet to harmonise with the furniture. A plain red Wilton
carpet will dye an artistic deep mulberry brown. They are often bought
in the red and dyed to get this shade of brown.
For attractive cheap dining-room furniture, buy simple shapes,
unfinished, and have the table, sideboard and chairs painted dark or
light, as you prefer.
In your dining-room and halls, if the house is old and floors bad, and
economy necessary, use a solid dark linoleum, either deep blue or red,
and have it waxed, as an economical measure as well as to improve
its appearance.
In a small home, where no great formality is observed, well chosen
doilies may be used on all occasions, instead of table cloths. By this
expedient you suppress one large item on the laundry bill, the care of
the doilies in such cases falling to the waitress.
To make comfortable, convenient and therefore livable, a part of a
house, formerly an attic, or an extension with small rooms and low
ceilings, seems to be the special province of a certain type of mind,
which works best when there is a tax on the imagination.
When reclaiming attic rooms, one of the problems is how to get wall
space, especially if there are dormer windows and very slanting
ceilings. One way, is to place a dressing table in the dormer, under
windows, covering the sides of the dormer recess with mirror glass,
edged with narrow moulding. The dressing-table is not stationary,
therefore it can be easily moved by a maid, when the rooms are
cleaned.
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