HOME DECORATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15884, 3 April 1915, Page 6 (Supplement)

HOME DECORATIONS

IDEAS FROM ABROAD. Many delightful ideas for homo decoration , come from abroad. An Englishwoman, 1 writing of a visit to Holland, says: "Every ( Dutch woman, from the humblest to the < Queen herself, keeps her tea-things always in her sitting-room or drawing-room as the case may be. , "A round polished table stands in tho , corner of the room, and on this is laid i out a pretty teaset, cups and saucers, tea- ' pot, milk-basin, sugar pot, and all. When tho hour for tea drinking arrives the ser- , vant brings an urn and lights it, and her mistress forthwith boils the water and makes the tea. " As soon as the meal is over the servant carries in a cedar-wood pail rilled with warm water and some soft cloths. "It is the mistress and not the maid who washes up the tea-things, which she neatly replaces upon ' the table as they were before p For my part I think the custom as charming as it is a homely one. And, you see, if a choice china teaset is broken, why, it is ths mistress's own fault! In the. Italian towns I saw that the housewives dyed .their net window curtains, and dyed them at home, too, in colours to match the furnituro in their rooms. ".Since returning home, n6 you see, 1 have used smooth red tiles, after the Italian fashion for my new floor in the dining-room. 'Trie result seems to me quite satisfactory, and my friends find that the room looks very pretty. " This tiling has the unique quality of looking cool in summer and warm in winter. It is casly kept clean, and is an ex- J cellent background for rugs, and, moreover, it seems, somehow, to require fewer rugs than does a polished floor, Unusual Curtains. "We came home by way of France. Staying at an hotel in Normandy I was lost in admiration of the furnishing of my bedroom. The floors were of polished pitch pine, immaculately clean, and the bedhangings, sofa, and chair covere, etc., were of pure white dimity. It was the curtains that I most admired. The usual order of things was reversed. The coloured curtains were next the windows, and white hung over them, the former of Turkey red twill, which could be drawn instantly by some ingenious device. The curtains over them, of line point d'esprit, were lefthan?"ing straight down over the windows all the day, whilst the red twill ones behind them were only let down for the night. " An unsightly view of a backyard from a window, at the hotel was cleverly hidden in this way. A screen-trellis of white woodwork was' set a foot or two in front of the window, and over tho screen trails of ivy were trained to grow.

" And, apropos of windows, here is another story. In a hall in a French chateau were-* windows not made to open. The open door was thought to.give sufficient air to tho house. Well, the inventive chatelaine had had some shelves in tiers in these windows, beginning at the bottom and reaching to the top.

"On the shelves she stood pots of flowers, roses, geraniums, white and red marguerites and cornflowers, in white china pots; the flowers to be replaced in time by hyacinths, tulips, narcissi, and daffodils The effect of the flowers silhouetted against the light was fascinating. Distinctly an idea to adopt.

"One word more. In every sitting room abroad they have invariably a de canter with water and a couple of tumbler! Bet upon a side table. A very scnsiblo ar rangcment."