The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 7, 1901, Page 10

STAIRS SITTING ROO M - TR HIS department, under theable leadership of Kate Greenleaf Locke, will be found of interest and benefit to all classes. ‘Whether rich or poor, there is no reason why your home should not be made beautiful by artistic arrangement and the proper outlay of time and energy more than by the expenditure Correspondence is invited. Just address your letters to Kate Greenleaf Locke, Sunday Call, and these questions on making the home artistic will be answered at length in subsequent columns of this department. T is one thing to furnish a home ideally when you can order in profes- elonal decorators: it is another thing when you can afford no ingenuity but never can be artistic, anyway.” ‘Which isn't.so. ‘It can always be the best you can make it, at any rate. you have homely conditions to overcome, it may take much time and study to bet- But in the end the time and study will tell. Perhaps pocket money is not plenty. Then the problem But a little money goes a long way in this day of cheap and effective materials. A ROOM HUNG WITH BURLAPS—-W. There are plenty of times when you want to give up in despair because you have to put up with dismally high cell- bareness of outline. Your house, perhaps, was built with no regard for beauty. like saying, dark rooms, more difficult. “There’s no use—it —3 L. D. writes ae follows: “We have just finished building a_house which is very artistic in desizn.” I will be very grateful for suggestions from you as to the fur- nishing of the living-rocm. This room is 18x20, the ceilings are low and heavily beamed with oak, the floor is polished oak finish and the side walls are in rough plaster. The windows, of which there are four, zre all casement style, with deep sills. One, a long one in the north, is of amber glass leaded in. The chimney breast is tiled with a deep shade of yel- low, and the mantel is a heavy oaken shelf supported by wrought-iron brackets. The hardware is a mingling of wrought iron and old silver, and I have a hand- some banquet lamp which corresponds in style. In fact, the fixtures n this room were made especially to match this lamY. It is a room which would furnish beautl- fully with Navajo blankets and Indian work, but as :ny den is decorated with these things I would like a different gcheme for this room. I have a large Turkish rug for the center of the floor which has 2 good deal of dull blue in it, but the general tone is orange. What color shall I paint the walls and what style of furniture shall I buy?” i would use gilded burlaps on the walls of this unique and beautiful room, run- ning it up to within two feet of the ceil- ing. Put a molding, or narrow candle T shelf of oak, st the top or the burlaps. Above this color your rough plaster a yellow corresponding with your tiling, amber glass, etc. At your windows hang two straight scarfs of this silk of a deepi golden vellow. Draw these back to fa‘:‘l to sill at one side (unlooped). On the other side hang a looped-back curtain nh dull blue brocade. In the archway whicl leads from the hall hang a single curtain of dull blue, lined on the parlor side Wit yellow satin brocade in the richest, warm- est shade of golden yellow. It would re; ay you to send all over “the United glates, If necessary, and wait patiently for just what you want in these thlng‘s. Your room will be simply deliclous h’; color if you secure exactly the rig shades. I would use furniture of heavily carved oak, and in the straight-backed, heavy ckeirs T would tie rather flat, hard cush- fons of orange corduroy. You will realize that before you start in in this work you must, of course, get together samples of al: the different stuffs in yellow and be sure that they correspond. Put a square of your yellow satin brocade, bound with old galloon, in the center of your large lemish oak table, and on this set your lamp with a yellow globe inside. Do not put any small pieces of bric-a-brac on this table. but use it as a resting vlace for HE SUNDAY CALL. handsome books, magazines, ete. ARTISTIC TOUCHES IN COLOR SCHEMES.—“Sausalito” writes: “I have 2 bedroom in white and yellow; would it be well to introduce a little color by hav- ing the toilette set of tinted green with gold trimmings? Also a plant in the room in a green pot? The sitting room has an easel with a pastel picture in blue and white In a gold frame, and I have a yellow gllk drape (lemon yellow) which does not seem to belong either to the picture or room. Would you advise a change in the color of this drape? The dining room has light woodwork and pale-blue paper, and the west window and glass door. hav white muslin curtains. The window seat is in blue and white denim. Would it not be better to haye it in something dark? Is it not more arfistic to introduce some- thing dark into very light rooms? I for- got to add that there Is a dark rug in this room. Perhaps I am asking too many questions, but one more before closing. My dining room has the same light blue pa- per. What color would you paint the woodwork? Please tell me what color to use in curtains for window which faces the east. I have an improvised couch in this room over which I wish to throw a cover and have pillows. What color shall T have them?’ o A touch of green in your white and yel- low bedroom will add to its freshness and beauty. I would,/by all means, remove the silk drape of lemon yellow: I think you will find that the picture, the easel and the room will look better without it. Tae enly instance in which a “drape,” as it is commonly called, adds anylhing to the value of a room is when the material draped is of intrinsic beauty and com- bines rare tones and an unusual color ef- fect with a rich foreign weave. I aave seen In artists’ studios superb pieces of cld Venetian brocade which, through ages of exposure to the light, had caught in- describably mellow and- exquisite tones, and scarfs of Oriental weave in silk and gauze which held undertones of pink and gold that vied with the tints of ‘a sunset sky. Such stuffs as this, used in con- junctfon with a picture—that is, in har- mony with them—add much as a back- ground to_the value of the picture. I think the fashion of throwing silk scarfs on easels, mantels and tables has its ori- gin, perhaps, in this way. It may be that the realization of all this will explain to you your dissatisfaction with your lemon silk scarf. You would strengthen the coloring of our dining-room by using a dark, dull {lus for the window-seat and hanging un- der the white m of dark blue soft be carefully effect of carrying the coloring of the walls into darker tones. The very light blue and the quite dark of the same tone work up beautifully together. I would keeo the dining-room light and paint the woedwork a little darker—cold- er blue than the wa Blue woodwork in a dull pastel shade has a good effect with lighter walls. I wouid drape the windows with b'ue and white figured sil olene, ruffied and drawn away from white- dotted muslin sash curtains. Make all quite full and tie back with white cotton cords and tassels. If you could find some pretty bive and white cretonne you could make a couch cover and cushions of that. 1 “EPTION HALL—C. J.. San Fran: Sco, writes: ‘W would like to have suggestions regarding the furnishing of a reception in a new home of modern style. It is about 12x16, has a -small bay window, with window seat, and a six-foot arch opening into parlor. What will take the place of the hatrack (which we do not care for)? What shall I use for curtains for windows and glass in door?” As a reception hall represents a combi- nation of hall and receiving room, you are quite right not to wish to decorate it with the objectionable hat rack. As a compro- mise, I would advise a handsome Flem- ish oak table. If you can find one that is longer than it is wide, and is slightly (not elaborately) carved at the corners, it will appropriately and handsomely take the place of the hat rack. Above it hang a mirror framed in Flemish oak. Curtain your window with its leaded panes with thin slik the color of your walls, furnish- ing the front door in the same way. Two easy chairs (not rockers) and a foot stool of Flemish oak, with a rush seat, a teal. wood stool holding a small palm in a Chi. nese jar and two stralght-backed chairs matching stool will tastefully complete the furnishing of your room. I do not think wicker furniiure is exactly appro. priate for a city hall, although it often ooks well in country’ houses. Howeyer the rattan East Indian chair with cusn. fons of red and white flgured East Indian cotton is an artistic and agreeable addi. tion to any part of a house. The use of Tope portieres in Pullman cars has raiseq an insuperable objection to their use in private houses. AN ARTISTIC DINING ROOM ON SE- VERE LINES: L. T. R.—Your letter tells me that you have very, very little money and that you wish to furnish the dining room in your little house with clean. artis- ns AN ARTISTIC Muysic ROoOM tic lines and strong colors. I gather from what you say that you wish an effect strong enough to startle the beholder into forgetfulness of how small a sum has been spent on its furnishing. You have gray plaster walls In the rough and you cannot afford to color them, and two large casement windows. pe these windows get unbleached cotton (vou can buy it for 7 cents-a yard by the bolt) and Diamond dye in the exact S| ade of the plant or leaves of the Chinese ily. Dye your cotton this vivid green and 1ang It In full, straight breadths from a slender bamboo rod resfing In little brack- €ts over your window casing. With it hang cream white cheesecloth. In good quality this hangs very softly and sheer!y and if you put a broad, hemstitched hem at the bottom you will hate a curtain which is much more artistic in effect thar many expensive ones. Stain your wood- work with a dark brown stain: it will go beautifully with your rough gray walls and green and white window hangin Place a shelf wide enough for flower pots on a level with your window-sill and set a row of pots with Iilies and irises In them between yvour curtains. Use small red flower pots in the red earthenwars saucers; do not break the line with any variety if you wish the strong, artistic effect you speak of. Now buy a good- sized deal table, such as are bought for ordinary kitchen use, and paint it green, a shade darker than your curtains. Design your dining-room chairs in per- fectly straight Dutch lines and have them me first class reliable carpen- ter: then paint them green like the table. This is the first thing that will cost you any real outlay, but even this will not bs extravagant. Hang some plain wooden shelves, stained to match your woodwork, against the wall, and in it arrange blue and whits plates and cups and saucers. Cover & small table with a dark green denim cover hanglog almost to the floor, and on this place your chafing dish. Some small shelves over your doors and windows holding Indian baskets, or Zuni jars, a brass candlestick, ete., would do much toward furnishing this little room. A square of dara green terry, socketed at the corners and laid under the table, th> floor painted a dark brown and shellacked would be the best floor finish you could manage on the small income you have in hand. Do not use an room for a si any kind woul simple schema, ordinary lamp in this le commonplace piece of throw out the severely