CHAPTER VI: SOME HINTS ANENT PERIOD FURNITURE
Period furniture is a means to a decorative end. It is a part of the decoration of a room, and must be adapted to its lines and proportions. Halls for instance, call for tall chairs and cabinets and long and narrow wall tables. Pictures and bric-a-brac are out of place in the hall. In the living room, where spaciousness and repose are wanted, substantial, comfortable chairs, long, low sofas, cabinets and tables, and no fussy furniture adjuncts are demanded. Similarly in the dining room, the furniture lines should make the room a more comfortable and restful one in which to eat; and bedroom furniture must in all decorative ways carry out the idea of rest and sleeping. If period furniture is used, the drawing room usually gives the dominant note, which should be carried out (in more or less modified form) throughout the other rooms. Do not make too abrupt contrasts in using period furniture. Late Louis XVI and Early Empire have much in common. But it is a shock to find Louis XV and Late Empire in the same room. Sheraton and Rococo, Early Jacobean oak and late eighteenth century English mahogany do not mix. If your rooms are Colonial use Colonial or Georgian styles of furniture. For ball rooms, small reception rooms, and the boudoirs of blooming young beauty—not those of dignified old age—Louis XV is to be commended. Formal dining rooms stand Louis XV and Louis XVI styles very well. On the other hand the simple beauty of line of Adam, Sheraton, Heppelwhite and Chippendale are better suited to simpler rooms—though they may be quite as subtly and perfectly finished. In general, the choice of all furniture—chairs, tables, beds, mirrors—should be influenced by the size of the house and rooms, individual circumstances and individual taste, where the last does not conflict with established laws of decoration.
CONCLUSION
Interior Decoration is a very extensive and complicated subject. What we have here attempted to do has been to give an idea of the general principles underlying it, together with as many direct and practical hints and suggestions as has been possible within the limits allotted. It is hoped that they may lead the reader to take a more personal interest in a fascinating subject of study. If this be the case, a large number of specialized works which treat every least phase of “Interior Decoration” in exhaustive detail, are available.