Linen room

“ Strikingly conspicuous was the contrast between buildings with such an appearance of solidity and seclusion, and the slight structures in which tradesfolk carried on their business: wooden edifices, generally of two storeys and occasionally of three, their front-room completely exposed to the street, or separated from it by a curtain formed of strips of linen, and their back-rooms opening, by means of paper-covered sliding-doors, on a miniature garden. ”

“ If your rooms are small, have your side curtains of coarse linen or raw silk in dull blue, orange, brown, or whatever color you choose as the key color of your room, and then select a dark chintz with your chosen color dominant in its design, and cover your one big chair with that.
The apartment hall is most difficult, usually long and narrow and uninteresting. Don't try to have furniture in a hall of this kind. A small table near the front door, a good tile for umbrellas, etc., a good mirror—that is all. ”

“ The benches and tables one sees in many foreign palaces to-day are covered with gorgeous lengths of velvet and brocade. This is a survival of the custom when furniture was merely so much baggage. With the early Eighteenth Century, however, there came into being les petits appartements, in which the larger space formerly accorded the bedroom was divided into ante-chamber, salon or sitting-room, and the bedroom. Very often the bed was placed in an alcove, and the heavy brocades and bullion embroideries were replaced by linen or cotton hangings. ”

“ The dark and heavy serge curtains that hang at the windows prevent us from distinguishing the furniture of the room very clearly; but we gradually make out the articles one by one. We note the splendid array of vases and beakers that adorn the wide mantelpiece, and also the top of the china cabinet of sacredaan wood, and the massive and richly carved, or deeply panelled, linen wardrobe, or kas. ”

“ No curtains are used, instead, boxes are planted with ivy which is trained to climb the green lattice and helps to temper the light, while the window shades themselves are of a fascinating glazed linen, having a soft yellow background and design of fruit and vines in brilliant colours.
Dining-room Furniture, Italian Renaissance
In planning your house after arranging for proper wall space for your various articles of furniture, keep in mind always that lights will be needed and must be at the same time conveniently placed and distinctly decorative. ”

“ We passed through an antechamber which led to my salon, the walls of which are covered with red damask, the curtains and furniture of the same; many beautiful modern pictures hang on the walls, and there are pretty vitrines filled with bric-à-brac. My dressing-room is entirely capitonné in blue satin from top to bottom—even the ceiling. It has long mirrors set in the walls, in which I am reflected and re-reflected ad infinitum. My bath-room is a dream with its tiled walls and marble bath. (My maid's room is next this.) My bedroom is as large as a ballroom ”

“ This is, in short, to say that although the plaster decoration of the “Globe Room” is fine, it is neither so intrinsically fine, nor so original above all others, that it deserves so great an honour. The really supremely fine feature of the room is the beautiful Jacobean panelling in oak, now almost coal-black with age, covering the walls from floor to ceiling, and designed and wrought in unusually thorough and bold style. ”

“ There is no mistake about their being interior. They are like furnished vaults. The red-tiled, polished floor in the drawing-room seems cold and clammy, the carved, cold furniture stands in its tomb, the air has been darkened and starved to death, it is perished. ”

“ In decorating the children’s playroom, a linoleum floor, chosen in pattern to harmonize with the color scheme, gives one an opportunity to work out a charming relationship between the floor, the furniture, and the draperies, to suit the playroom idea. In Armstrong’s Linoleum, there are a score of designs in pleasing matting and wood effects and carpet patterns especially appropriate for such a room. And the floor need not be expensive—Armstrong’s Printed Linoleum will last through childhood’s romp and play. ”

“ The shutters were closed, and the afternoon sun shot yellow shafts against floors and walls. There was a perfume of lavender, of rose leaves.
"Somewhere in one of these closets there is a roll of linen." She opened one after another, looking into each. "No; it is not here. Then it must be in there. Yes; here it is. This linen was spun and woven from flax grown on your great-great-grandfather's land. Look at it! It is beautifully made. Each generation of the family has inherited part and left the rest for generations yet to come. Half of it is yours, half is Dent's. ”

“ In fact a suitable floor-covering or appropriate draperies for these old rooms is rather a difficult point. Modern tastes demand comfort and brightness, and yet there is always the dread of too glaring contrasts, and an inharmonious groundwork. Quite lately I saw a fine old-time wainscotted room, whose walls and floor had taken a rich dark gloss from age, brightened immensely and harmoniously by four or five of those large Indian cotton rugs in dark blue and white, to be bought now-a-days cheaply enough in Regent [Pg 16] Street. ”

“ In a decorative sense, floor coverings are more important in the hall than in any other room, because the floor area is smaller in proportion to wall area, and there are fewer interesting pieces of furniture, and relatively fewer accessories. Here are some practical suggestions:
Linoleum is increasingly used for the hall since it permits the user to express her originality and good taste in many interesting forms. Plain or mottled linoleum with an attractive motif or monogram set into the center is both decorative and practical. ”

“ Broken lines give us a feeling of life and movement. But they should not be used for the permanent decorative lines of a room—the lines of the walls, openings, hangings, draperies, carpets, or large, immovable pieces of furniture which have a fixed place. In pillows which break the long back line of a couch, in cornice moldings, lambrequin bottoms, chair backs, screens, etc., they lend life. ”

“ My two rooms, and all the good bedrooms besides, are on the first floor, and the basement contains a drawing-room, a dining-room, a morning-room, a library, and a pretty little boudoir for Laura, all very nicely ornamented in the bright modern way, and all very elegantly furnished with the delightful modern luxuries. None of the rooms are anything like so large and airy as our rooms at Limmeridge, but they all look pleasant to live in. ”

“ As a rule such a room has one rug straight along in front of the fireplace, another straight in front of the window or windows, while the rest are placed in the same painful positions by the door and by the wall opposite the fire, in a manner which makes me long, no matter where I may be, to oust the furniture on the instant, and to put those rugs myself in the manner in which they should most certainly go. ”

“ The white stone steps and window-sills and the white fan over the door gave a certain effect of clean linen that was singularly pleasing. The young doctor, unlike Doctor Johnson, had a passion for clean linen. The knocker, too, was of the graceful long oval shape he liked, and burnished to the last point of perfection, and the shining windows were so placed as to give an air of cheerful interrogation to the whole.
"I like that house!" said the young doctor again. "Tell me about the people!" ”

“ Everywhere through the house we find indications of the luxury introduced by the wealthy Royalists. All of the rooms are large, with high ceilings and wide windows showing inside shutters. The hand-carving is especially noticeable, being beautifully done and most original in design.
In the guest room, or marble chamber as it is generally known, cornices or moldings are exquisitely carved. There is one panelling over the fireplace that is three feet wide and five feet long, while the thickness of the walls is shown by the width of the window-seats. ”

“ It adds to the availability of the other floor space, affords additional light and ventilation. Nothing can be nicer than a grate fire in a bedroom. It should be surrounded with a wood mantel, with tile facing and hearth. Above the mantel it is useful to have a short plate-glass mirror. A dressing-case takes its proper place on the side wall between two windows, or in a corner with a window in each wall adjacent to it. Bedrooms are, for the most part, lighted with brackets rather than central lights. When attainable, a small dressing-room adds to the attractiveness of a chamber. ”

“ But having shown that certain rules are applicable to both, and indeed necessary to success in both, we may choose within these rules any tint or colour which is personally pleasing.
Rooms with an east or west light may carry successfully tones of any shade, without violating fundamental laws.
The first impression of a room depends upon the walls. In fact, rooms are good or bad, agreeable or ugly in exact accordance with the wall-quality and treatment. No richness of floor-covering, draperies, or furniture can minimise their influence. ”

“ The floors are made of marble and tiles—the carpet is only a large rug in the center of the room, upon each side of which are placed two rows of chairs, most of them being willow-work rocking chairs; also a center-table and sofa, with a willow back and seat, sometimes a piano, embrace the list of parlor fixtures. At night the doors and windows are thrown open for ventilation, the rooms being lighted by gas chandeliers—every thing can be seen, even to the beds on which the family sleep. ”

“ The severely paneled walls, the fine chimney-piece with an old master inset and framed by a Grinling Gibbons carving, the absence of the usual mantel shelf, the plain dining-table and the fine old lion chairs all go to make up a Georgian room of great distinction.
The woman who cannot afford such expensive simplicity might model a dining-room on this same plan and accomplish a beautiful room at reasonable expense. Paneled walls are always possible; if you can't afford wood paneling, paint the plastered wall white or cream and break it into panels by using a narrow molding of wood. ”

“ In this home of evident culture and refinement, linoleum floors were installed in every room, instead of wood. In the living-room, the plain floor, and the unobtrusive walls and curtains, are in pleasing balance with the figured Oriental rugs and upholsteries. ”

“ Again, I have been constantly visited by the same inexplicable sensation in a certain room at Golden End. The room in question is a great bare chamber at the top of the house: the walls are plastered, and covered in all directions by solid warped beams; through the closed and dusty window the sunlight filters sordidly into the room. ”

“ In some of the rooms there are valuable old pieces of furniture, a four-poster of the Sheraton type, and a highboy with details of the Queen Anne period. In another room modern white enamel furniture has been used, but it is so simple and straightforward in design that it harmonizes entirely with the atmosphere of the room engendered by the old fireplace and chimney cupboard, the thumb latches on the doors, rag rugs, and an old-time wall-paper figured with stripes of morning-glories and daintily poised humming-birds. ”

“ The consistent use of wide clapboarding is indeed a pleasing feature, and there is a touch of genuine originality in the roof treatment around the front dormer. The roominess of the wide veranda is a harmonizing part of the generous proportions of the whole.
A luxurious living room greets you as you enter from the vestibule. The dining room, just to the rear and on a corner gladdens you with its brightness. Your attention is also called to the plentiful light provided throughout—six windows in the living room, three in the dining room and three in the kitchen. ”

“ The library furniture was of plain, substantial oak, like the heavy woodwork of the room. Throughout the rest of the house, bedrooms, dining-rooms, and class-rooms were furnished with strong, neat, ash furniture. There were a few good engravings on the walls of the principal rooms, and the bookcases were about half-filled with literature of a harmless and interesting, if light quality. They had all agreed it would not be best to fill the shelves at first, but to watch the popular taste and to “leave room for improvement,” as Marion said.
The operatives were simply astonished at what they saw. ”

“ Ornaments, mirrors and pictures rarely form part of the decoration of this kind of a room on account of the accidents incidental to this game; and the walls are simply covered with large panelling.
“This billiard room leads into a room which in turn leads into a chambre en niche; it may be ornamented with tapestries above a wainscot. As for the chambre en niche, its walls should be covered with carpentry work all the way up. This will preserve it from the humidity it might have, being on the ground floor, and which always attacks apartments that are not constantly occupied. ”

“ Thick plush curtains can be drawn across the entrance to the hall; they are open at the moment. Windows, one on each side of the hall, with window-seats and net curtains beyond which can be glimpsed the pine-trees of the forest. In the left wall, upstage, a door leading to the kitchen. In the left wall, downstage, the fireplace; above it, a cretonne-covered sofa, next to a very solid cupboard built into the wall; below it a cane armchair. In the right wall, upstage, a door leading to _MRS. BRAMSON'S _bedroom. In the right wall, downstage, wide-open paned doors leading to the sun-room. ”