Besides those just beginning to furnish their houses, others have kept houses for some time and have a quantity of household gear but wish to add wisely to their stock. Then again, there are not a few that labor under a load of depressing furniture legacies inherited from mid-Victorian or centennial sources.
Their problem is gradually eliminating or regenerating these mysterious objects of quintessential ugliness, discarding some, and making the best they can of others until they can afford to weed them out too. Meanwhile, preserving a fairly presentable general effect on all the above classes.
Please find helpful suggestions on the following pages.
The question of house furnishing and decoration would be of easy solution if one could wave a wand, murmur abracadabra, and have the desired objects fetched by magic hands and set in the place where they are to go being mere ordinary mortals without fairy godmothers or obliging wizards at our beck and call most of us must reckon with the item of cost.
There comes the rub; though it is not without its practical side, it puts us on our mettle and makes us use our wits to develop. If one could wave a wand murmur abracadabra and have the de- sired objects fetched by magic hands and set in the place w t here they are to go being mere ordinary mortals without fairy godmothers or obliging wizards at our beck and call most of us must reckon with the item of cost.
There comes the rub the rub though is not without its useful side it puts us on our mettle makes us use our wits develops our resourcefulness and above all renders us practical in carrying out our ideas house furnishing ought to be both practical and decorative and must be if pleasing results are to be achieved at moderate cost both the practical and decorative sides are equally important and one ought not to be exalted at the expense of the other.
Doubtless we all wish to have charming drawing-rooms and dining-rooms but while we are getting them we must not neglect the little practical devices of convenience that make for labor saving and cleanliness in kitchen cellar and attic they make things easier for the servants and that being so one can more readily require order and good service of them then too when domestic upheavals occur and you are suddenly left without maids a predicament that may happen to any one these devices are a great help when one has to turn to and do their own work in the interim the severely practical side has been emphasized in the house furnishing tables.
In the back of the book where stress has been laid on the essentials as of first consideration where only a limited sum is available for outfitting an establishment the agreeable things are supposed to come afterwards by gradual purchase indeed when they come in this way the pleasure of acquisition and the appreciation are apt to be much greater it may seem in some cases that obvious things are explicitly stated unnecessarily caution in furnishing a guest-room to have mirrors hung so that one can get a good light on them or a hint to have a convenient hook in a guests bathroom for a razor strop people know of course that these things ought to be done.
But oftentimes do not think of them and have to be reminded if their houses are to be really comfortable lastly let it be borne in mind that furnishing means not only the equipping with and arranging of movables but also the treatment of floors walls and ceilings advice on all these points cannot be exhaustive within the limits of the present volume but enough indication has been given it is hoped to help substantially.
Those who cannot employ a decorator those also who can engage decorating advisers may find suggestions that will enable them to criticize intelligently and cooperate with those whom they retain in that capacity after all successful furnishing and decorating is really more a matter of discrimination in buying exclusive of good taste and of ingenuity in adapting available resources.
Our needs than of lavish expenditure the desire to make special acknowledgment for courteous permission extended to incorporate a large portion of his most valuable content on color value including many images in the color section of presentation of the subject is so admirable that they could not give their readers a clearer or more concise idea of the points involved than by availing themselves of the permission afforded them to make extensive quotations and excerpts.