A living room in an apartment had a most distressing look when first beheld by its prospective tenants. The apartment was in an old-fashioned house which had been made over. The doors and trim were of heavy solid oak with a yellow grained varnish finish—very expensive and very ugly. Nothing could look well against such a background.
This was entirely refinished and painted a soft dull green with a gold line on the smaller mouldings. The walls were tinted a greenish grey, the ceiling a soft, dull browny gold. At the windows were hung, only to the sill, filet net curtains, with old gold silk pushed back at the sides, both curtains hanging flat against the window pane to give full value to the deep embrasure of the window and do justice to the panelling and architectural detail.
In this room a lovely English glazed chintz was used to cover the large davenport and large winged chair. Pleated valances were used on these pieces. The chintz had a very soft pinky tan background with flowers in red pink and blue and yellow, producing a very old mellow effect. The other odd pieces of furniture were covered in a dull dark old blue. Built-in sunken book-cases flush with the wall were filled with books whose bindings reflected again the colors in the chintz. A fireplace of Italian design in dull green and gold composition with a pair of very quaint andirons of Italian reproduction and fixtures of the same style made another note in the room.
A very beautiful old Sheraton table was pulled up to the left of the guest as he sat on the davenport, which was placed at right angles to the fireplace, and held magazines, books and a large reading lamp with a gold colored shade. A room which was a mixture of English, Italian and Colonial, yet the effect of which was warm, soft and most sympathetic—all of which would have been impossible with the yellow varnished oak background originally in the room.
In every one of the rooms described, extraordinary results were produced by paint and color at small expense.
Arrangement is most important and furniture should be shifted and changed about until, by the very sense of balance you get, suddenly you know you have hit it.
It is right. The light falls in just the right way over your shoulder as you read, write or sew. The chairs are grouped in the living room in such a way that friends dropping in for tea find a cozy spot at once. It is not a question of vast expense. With the right touch and the right color it can be done with most satisfactory results and really marvellous things can be done with paint. Every room herein described has actually been done.