Unit X.—FURNISHING THE BEDROOM, SUNROOM, KITCHEN, AND BREAKFAST ROOM
FURNISHING THE BEDROOM
Many still think of the bedroom only as a place in which to sleep. In point of fact often it is used as a secluded sitting room where one may close the door and rest, shutting out the cares and activity of a busy day. It should more properly be called a relaxation room, and furnished with that thought in mind. To meet this trend toward more diversified bedrooms, the salesperson should organize his stock mentally on the basis of night stands, desks, boudoir chairs, chaise lounges, lamps, and bookshelves for use in the family bedroom or guest room, and equally suitable pieces for the nursery playroom and the individual bedrooms of young and older children. For years the magazines have been describing these double-function bedrooms, broadcasting their convenience and charm, creating in the minds of readers a widening interest and acceptance, and thus preparing a new field for selling effort.
Moreover, there are multitudes of homemakers who know little or nothing about this comfortable modern trend in bedroom decoration, and still consider that the only furniture essential or desirable is a 3-, 4-, or 5-piece suite and a slipper chair or two. Many of our old customers, who now regard their bedrooms as completely furnished, can be interested in the purchase of additional new merchandise by persistent educational and development work.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BEDROOM
The bedroom differs from the hall, living room, and dining room in that it is a personal room, not shared in common by all the members of the family. Individual tastes and preferences may be given free rein in its decoration. Hence, the salesperson who is able to help his customer express a distinctly personal quality in her room enjoys a great advantage over the salesperson who lacks this ability. In selling bedroom furnishings, the successful salesperson will require knowledge of various decorative accessories, including bedspreads, linens, pictures, ornamental glass toiletries, and pottery.
Many women have clear ideas as to the effect they want their bedrooms to reveal. One will want a restful room; a second, a gaily colorful and animated room; and a third, a dainty room. When such buyers fall into the hands of a skillful salesperson, price (within their economic limits) becomes a matter wholly of secondary importance, and competitive shopping is forgotten. Selling from this approach becomes largely a matter of giving studied expression to the decorative motif chosen for the room. If it is daintiness—furniture, walls, floor covering, draperies, and accessories must be selected and arranged to concur in creating an effect of daintiness. An ability to work out these decorative motifs and to talk about them interestingly in the course of a year's work will "save" dozens of orders.
THE WALLS
Bedroom walls may be tinted, painted, or papered depending upon the type of effect desired.