For the Dining-Room

Linoleum is truly the logical floor for the dining-room. Every practical consideration persuades its use. In the dining-room, cheerfulness and individuality are the prime requisites. A thoughtful selection of the floor in relation to the furnishings may be made to contribute not a little to the charm of a room. The newer linoleum designs offer many interesting suggestions; for instance, a marble tile, with contrasting interliners, or one of the carpet inlaids of all-over pattern, permits out-of-the-ordinary floor treatment. Pattern No. 201, a little three-inch tile of alternating black and gray blocks, is reminiscent of Italian influence. In the woods, Parquetry No. 600 is particularly good. Or, for the average home, nothing is better than the jaspes in browns and grays, or a plain linoleum in appropriate coloring.

In any room, a nice balance in the use of figured and plain surfaces is always desirable. For instance, if a plain coloring or a jaspe linoleum is used for the floor, figured rugs and wall coverings may well be chosen. If, however, a patterned linoleum floor is employed, the fabric rugs and wall coverings should be plainer, or of small all-over pattern. Avoid overemphasis of pattern or, conversely, too much monotony of plain surfaces.

The cheerful tile designs in Armstrong’s Linoleum are particularly appropriate for the breakfast alcove or sun porch now found in many homes. In a recent issue of The Delineator, Martha Hill Cutler, writing on “Linoleum Floors—Durable, Smart,” after saying that “linoleum has now ‘arrived’ as an artistic as well as a practical possibility for every room in the house,” speaks particularly of the use of linoleum in the breakfast-room.

She says, “In a breakfast-room or sun-parlor one can do daring things. There are fascinating possibilities in a linoleum design of brilliant colorings, the black-and-orange, for instance, the green-and-white, green-and-black, or blue-and-green.

“Breakfast-rooms are almost always so small that rugs are not absolutely essential, but plain rugs against these brilliant tiles as backgrounds are very effective. Brilliantly colored curtains to harmonize, an unusual chintz or cretonne, and painted furniture can be combined with them with colorful results.”

For a Group of Rooms

By using the same linoleum floor through a series of rooms, it is possible to gain unity and a feeling of spaciousness. On the second floor, not infrequently the rooms open from a central hall or top stair landing. There are a number of colors and designs in Armstrong’s Linoleum that are specially suitable for groups of rooms because they lend themselves as a background for the draperies in each room, and yet bind all the rooms together as a unit. The gray jaspe, plain dark gray, and light gray linoleums are particularly appropriate with old Colonial painted woodwork in white, ivory, or soft gray; the brown jaspe, plain dark brown or tan, the parquetries, and certain carpet patterns are equally appropriate with oak, cypress, gum, or chestnut woodwork in the natural finish or painted woodwork in buff and tan.

For the Bedroom

For the bedroom, no floor is so sanitary and so easily cared for as linoleum. It appeals to the most fastidious. And linoleum is not a cold floor—in fact, it is as warm as any wood surface. We have said that linoleum is made largely of cork and linseed oil. Cork is widely used for heat insulating purposes. Engineers regard it as good, if not a better heat retainer than wood. And a linoleum floor has certain advantages over wood floors. There are no cracks or crevices to catch dust or harbor germs. The oxidized linseed oil, moreover, has known germicidal powers that actually tend to destroy bacteria.