Furnishing Flair

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 178, 26 April 1938, Page 5

Furnishing Flair

Tbe Duchess of Kent Has Artistic Rooms “Dominion” Special Service—By Airmail. London, April 1. QNE may be sure that anything new and decorative will appeal to the Duchess of Kent,, so it is not surprising to learn that she is attracted to glass furniture and is thinking of buying a set of glass bedroom furniture for her country home, The Coppins. If the Duchess has a flair for clothes, she has also a flair for home-making and in The Coppins, as well as in her Belgrave Square house, her artistic gifts have expressed themselves. The Duchess has just acquired some unusual but most attractive new cushions in brown velvet, edged all round with yellow braid, the latest vogue for furnishing “trimming.” These cushions are for her little study on the first 'floor of her Belgrave Square home, which she often calls ray “blonde room.” Everything here is of a soft golden tone. The walls are painted pale beige and the furniture is upholstered with fawn satin. Even the photograph frames and the lampshades have been gilded to match. In her antique Louis writing bureau, she keeps pale yellow notepaper on which to write to her personal friends. Two new furnishing additions have been made by the duchess to her children’s nursery. She believes in the educational value of nursery rhymes and fables and has had them woven into rugs. Prince Edward’s rug depicts in gaily coloured Scottish wools seven favourite English rhymes. Princess Alexandra’s rug is 'inscribed in French, the language of her mother’s childhood, and illustrates 3-1 of Lafontaine’s fables.

It is thought that these rugs are capable of three centuries of bard wear, so, one day, they will become heirlooms in the Royal family, lhe Scottish wool is woven on to a twisted Scottish linen basis of greater strength than that employed in many old English carpets still in use. Rugs woven to some particular design, which expresses some aspects of the owner’s personality, are in demand these days. Another family heirloom of this kind is being woven for a wellknown London hostess. It will record her tastes and hobbies. Motifs worked as a border depict ski-lug, mountaineering, reading, sculpture, painting, music, and pottery. The design of her draw-ing-room ceiling and tireplace form the centre of the rug, and at either side are little wool portraits of the owners town and country homes.