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CHAPTER III
HOW TO DETERMINE CHARACTER OF HANGINGS AND FURNITURE-COVERING FOR A
GIVEN ROOM
In a measure, the materials for hangings and furniture-coverings are
determined more or less by the amount one wishes to spend in this
direction. For choice, one would say silk or velvet for formal rooms;
velvets, corduroys or chintz for living-rooms; leather and corduroy
with rep hangings for a man's study or smoking-room; thin silks and
chintz for bedrooms; chintz for nurseries, breakfast-rooms and
porches.
In England, slip-covers of chintz (glazed cretonne) appear, also, in
formal rooms; but are removed when the owner is entertaining. If the
permanent upholstery is of chintz, then at once your room becomes
informal. If you are planning the living-room for a small house or
apartment, which must serve as reception-room during the winter
months, far more dignity, and some elegance can be obtained for the
same expenditure, by using plain velveteen, modern silk brocades in
one colour, or some of the modern reps to be had in very smart shades
of all colours.
If your furniture is choice, rarely beautiful in quality, line and
colour, hangings and covers must accord. Genuine antiques demand
antique silks for hangings and table covers; but no decorator, if at
all practical, will cover a chair or sofa in the frail old silks, for
they go to pieces almost in the mounting. Waive sentiment in this
case, for the modern reproductions are satisfactory to the eye and
improve in tone with age.
If you own only a small piece of antique silk, make a square of it for
the centre of the table, or cleverly combine several small bits, if
these are all you have, into an interesting cover or cushion. Nothing
in the world gives such a note of distinction to a room as the use of
rare, old silks, properly placed.
The fashion for cretonne and chintz has led to their indiscriminate
use by professionals as well as amateurs, and this craze has caused a
prejudice against them. Chintz used with judgment can be most
attractive. In America the term chintz includes cretonne and stamped
linen. If you are planning for them, put together, for consideration,
all your bright coloured chintz, and in quite another part of your
room, or decorator's shop, the chintz of dull, faded colours, as they
require different treatment. A general rule for this material—bright
or dull—is that if you would have your chintz decorate, be careful
not to use it too lavishly. If it is intended for curtains, then cover
only one chair with it and cover the rest in a solid colour. If you
want chintz for all of your chairs and sofa, make your curtains, sofa
cushions and lamp shades of a solid colour, and be sure that you take
one of the leading colours in the chintz. Next indicate your intention
at harmony, by "bringing together" the plain curtains or chairs, and
your chintz, with a narrow fringe or border of still another colour,
which figures in the chintz. Let us suppose chintz to be black with a
design in greens, mulberry and buff. Make your curtains plain
mulberry, edged with narrow pale green fringe with black and buff
in it, or should your chintz be grey with a design in faded blues and
violets and a touch of black, make curtains of the chintz, and cover
one large chair, keeping the sofa and the remaining chairs grey, with
the bordering fringe, or gimp, in one or two of the other shades, sofa
cushions and the lamp shades in blues and violets (lining lamp shades
with thin pink silk), and use a little black in the bordering fringe.
PLATE VIII
Shows an ideal mantel arrangement, faultless as a composition and
beautiful and rare in detail. The exquisite white marble mantel
is Italian, not French, of the time of Louis XVI.
Though the designs of this period are almost identical, one
quickly learns to detect the difference in feeling between the
work of the two countries. The Italians are freer, broader in
their treatment, show more movement and in a way more grace,
where the French work is more detailed and precise, hence at
times, by contrast, seems stilted and rigid.
Enchantingly graceful are the two candelabra, also Louis XVI,
while the central ornament is ideally chosen for size and design.
The dull gold frame of the mirror is very beautiful, and the
painting above the glass interesting and unusual as to subject
and execution.
The chair is a good example of Italian Louis XV.
Example of a Perfect Mantel, Ornaments and Mirror
If you decide upon a very brilliant chintz use it only in one chair, a
screen, or in a valance over plain curtains with straps to hold them
back, or perhaps a sofa cushion. Whether a chintz is bright or dull,
its pattern is important. As with silks, brocaded in different
colours, therefore never use chintz where a chair or sofa calls for
tufting. A tufted piece of furniture always looks best done in plain
materials.
In using a chintz in which both colour and design are indefinite, the
kind which gives more or less an impression of faded tapestry, you
will find that the very indefiniteness of the pattern makes it
possible to use the chintz with more freedom, being always sure of a
harmonious background. The one thing to guard against is that on
entering a room you must not be conscious either of several colours,
or of any set design.
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