Avoid using on your walls as mere decorations articles such as rugs or priests' vestments primarily intended for other purposes.
Avoid the misuse of anything in furnishing. It needs only knowledge and patience to find the correct thing for each need. Better do without than employ a makeshift in decorating.
Inappropriateness and elaboration can defeat artistic beauty—but intelligent elimination never can.
Beware of having about too many vases, or china meant for domestic use. The proper place for table china, no matter how rare it is, is in the dining-room. If very valuable, one can keep it in cabinets.
Useless bric-à-brac in a dining-room looks worse than it does anywhere else.
Your dining-room is the best place for any brasses, copper or pewter you may own.
If sitting-room and dining-room connect by a wide opening, keep the same colour scheme in both, or, in any case, the same depth of colour. This gives an effect of space. It is not uncommon when a house is very small, to keep all of the walls and woodwork, and all of the carpets, in exactly the same colour and tone. If variety in the colour-scheme is desired, it may be introduced by means of cretonnes or silks used for hangings and furniture covers.
Avoid the use of thin, old silks on sofas or chair seats.
Avoid too cheap materials for curtains or chair covers, as they will surely fade.
Avoid too many small rugs in a room. This gives an impression of restless disorder and interferes with the architect's lines. Do not place your rugs at strange angles; but let them follow the lines of the walls.