Part 1

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_A_ BOOK _of_

DISTINCTIVE INTERIORS

_EDITED BY_

WILLIAM A. VOLLMER

NEW YORK McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY 1912

COPYRIGHT, 1910, 1911, 1912, BY McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY

_Published November, 1912_

Contents PAGE

PLANNING THE LIVING-ROOM 5

By _A. Raymond Ellis_

DESIGNING THE DINING-ROOM 47

By _A. Raymond Ellis_

DECORATING AND FURNISHING THE BEDROOM 69

By _Margaret Greenleaf_

THE PROBLEM OF THE BATHROOM 87

By _A. Raymond Ellis_

THE PROPER TREATMENT FOR THE NURSERY 99

By _Sarah Leyburn Coe_

CHARACTERISTIC HALLS AND STAIRWAY TYPES 108

PLANNING THE KITCHEN 116

By _James Earle Miller_

Planning the Living-room

After the method of modern planning, the living-room is treated as the principal room in the house. I do not mean to say that this room should be overdone, or given undue prominence to the exclusion of the other rooms, but it is essential that this room be treated differently from the old-fashioned way we formerly treated our living-rooms, then generally a front and back parlor. These two rooms have now been superseded by one large room, as our mode of living and entertaining makes it more desirable than the two small, stuffy rooms, then used only occasionally. To-day we plan to give pleasure and comfort to the family, rather than the occasional guest.

There are probably two or three dozen ways that the living-room can be planned and decorated and at the same time be comfortable and attractive. I have chosen to illustrate this with a type of living-room that adapts itself to almost any house and offers the greatest amount of free space when the room is properly furnished. The room is 15 ft. × 29 ft. 6 in., with a ceiling height of 9 feet, these dimensions giving a well-proportioned room. The fireplace is in the center of the west wall, flanked on each side by two French doors which open out on a piazza. At each end of the room are two windows, balancing one another. On the east wall a wide opening with French doors permits access to the main hall. The most prominent feature of the room is the fireplace, which is accentuated and made a natural center. This is an important consideration when planning a natural grouping of the family or its guests.

The treatment of the room is Colonial. A low wainscot, 2 ft. 6 in. high, comprising a base, panel, and cap, is carried around the room. The ceiling is beamed with four substantial beams and a half beam to form a cornice around the room at the junction of the wall and ceiling. Over the heads of the doors and windows there is a wide wooden frieze with a cap which ties them, one might say, to the bottom of the cornice, and makes them more completely an integral part of the woodwork. The window stools form a part of the wainscot cap.

The finish of the room is white wood, given four coats of lead and oil paint, with a fifth coat of white enamel, rubbed down, and a sixth and final finishing coat of enamel of an ivory shade that dries out with a very dull satin-like luster that is very durable and not easily marred. Above the wainscot the walls are covered with a heavy background paper having a body color almost of a putty shade, enlivened in certain lights with a pinkish caste. This is accented by the panels, between the windows and doors, of a delicately hued fabric with a foliated striped design. A flat molding covers the edge of the fabric and forms the panel. In order to balance these and add character to the room, the draperies at the windows and doors are of soft blue velour, without which the scheme would be lifeless and flat. The facing of the fireplace is of Sienna marble surmounted with a simple mantel, consisting merely of a heavy classical architrave, with a shelf above and a large plate glass mirror over it. One must not lose sight of the fact that the colors of this room, while light and delicate, are all very rich and warm, due to the predominating ivory color of the woodwork, enlivened and strengthened by the richer and heavier color used in the panels and curtains.

The ceiling is sand-finished and tinted to match the walls. The floor is of quartered oak, filled and given two coats of a finish which produces a durable even surface with a dull luster that is not so slippery as a waxed floor. The disposition of the rugs over this floor is a matter of personal taste and the amount one can afford for rugs. The rugs should be Oriental and of light uniform coloring. The plans show probably the most economical way of covering the floor--using one large rug as a center and filling with smaller rugs. One large rug might be obtained that would extend from the piano to the pier glass, but it would have to be an odd shape or specially made. Two large rugs might be used, one in each end of the room, with a small rug to fill in before the fireplace. The approximate positions and proper design for the various pieces of furniture used in the room are indicated.

In order to obtain the real benefit of the fireplace, it is necessary to have a broad comfortable sofa or an upholstered mahogany seat in front of it. In back of this should be a small mahogany table on which an ornamental lamp may stand. On each side of the table can be drawn up large comfortable chairs. This arrangement permits the light of the lamp to fall in the correct position for anyone wishing to read in the chairs or on the seat in front of the fireplace. At one side of the fireplace a large wing-chair would be well placed. The bookcases would, of course, be unnecessary if there were a library in the house, but where the living-room is to answer the general purposes of the family, the book-shelves would be found very useful, and could be movable or built in as part of the finish. Between the northern windows a fine position is obtained for the piano, on the right of which is a good place for a davenport.

The disposition of the minor pieces of furniture need not be mentioned, except the fact that a pier glass at the opposite end of the room, between the two southern windows is a very decorative treatment, and that the corner at the left affords a place for a tea table or a Colonial pie-crust table.

In addition the electric lights are provided with switches, and in the baseboard around the room are two plugs for attaching portable table lamps. There must also be a bell registering its signal on an annunciator in the kitchen,--one ring for a maid--two rings for tea, or as the housewife may arrange.

The cost of the furniture used in this room, covered in cotton, made from the architect's drawings, would be as follows: 18th century sofa, rolled ends, $90; and it requires 3-1/6 yards of 50-inch goods to cover it. Low-boy with drawers, $90--size 2 ft. 6 in. × 4 ft. 6 in. Tip-top tea table, 38 in. in diameter, $60. Martha Washington wing-chair, $54, in cotton; requires 5 yards of 50-inch goods to cover. Martha Washington armchair, $40, in cotton; requires 2 yards of 50-inch goods to cover. The crown ladder-back side chairs would cost about $35 each in cotton, and the armchair to match, $40.

The beamed ceiling, door and window casings, mantel and wainscot in the room would cost about $450. If the wainscot were omitted about $75 would be saved--the mantel and marble facing cost about $100 separately.

A. RAYMOND ELLIS

Designing the Dining-room

We have a habit, generally, of making the dining-room either English or Colonial in style, I suppose for the reason that we have so many good types of furniture in these two styles that their use makes it easier to obtain an attractive dining-room. The room of Flemish character is probably more unusual and I have, therefore, chosen to offer a design in this style.

The room is 15 × 16 feet in size, opening from a broad hall from which it is shut off with glass doors. The morning sun, a very essential feature in any dining-room, is obtained through the eastern window and through the southern windows in the summer, while the after-glow of the summer sunset comes through the west window, thus insuring a pleasant dining-room at all times. There is nothing so cheerless as a breakfast-room which is cut off from the sun in the winter, by being isolated in the north or northeastern part of the house; it continually exerts a depressing influence on the family at meals.