INTERIOR DECORATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16169, 4 March 1916, Page 6 (Supplement)

INTERIOR DECORATION.

A new school of interior decoration has arisen which is making it a point to avoid period decoration and to uso instead pieces from any and every period which harmonise well and make an agreeablo effect. Japanese and Chinese ideas are mingled with old English and French designs. In fact, there is nothing which is deemed impossible for use in a room because it happens to have been invented at a time of the world's history long before or long after tho other pieces selected for the same apartment were designed. Neither time nor place is permitted to enter into the calculations of this school of decoration.. The only points considered are line, colour, and quality. If these are all that they should be nothing else matters.

One of the most attractive of the apartments which have been furnished along these lines is a dining-room which combines perfect harmony of line and colour with individuality and modernity. Japanese in some degree as is the decoration of tho room, modern pieces from; some of the best London workshops have entered into its furnishings. This diningroom also has the advnntago of having been ' designed for a small house or,, an apartment. Therefore the pieces are not massive and impressive, as are so many of the diningroom sots which have been copied from those meant for enormous rooms, but, instead, are charmingly proportioned so as not to crowd a room of average size,

The walls of this room arc panelled in black wood marked off by narrow lines of Japanese red. The panelling is in block design and the Japanese red is used at the sides of the panels so that one gets the suggestion of colour rattier, than a hard outline put on in squares.. Tho upper part of the walls to the depth of a frieze is coloured a warm straw colour. The floor covering is a plain rug in this same tone of warn; atttw with a wide plain black border. The dining table, most of the ftiairs. and the sideboard are in straw-coloured enamelled wood decorated with carved, flower designs in red, black, and several harmonising shades. The top of tho dining-room table is covered with heavy glass under which there is a piece of Japanese red damask. One chair is entirely red, save for the decorations in colour, and tliero is also a black chair with the same decorations. The upholstery of all the furniture is corded black silk, heavy and dull. The hangings U3ed at the windows aro of gold diaphanous material for the curtains next the glass and of heavy black velour for the inner curtains. One of the noticeable features of the room is the pair oil lamps used on the sideboard. Between! these is a white dish and hanging on the wall back of the sideboard is an interesting mirror withj cross bars marking it offi in blocks. All of the nieces used in this dining-room were excellent in workmanship and the decoration scheme was carried out in rich and expensive materials, but, it is possible to glean many ideas from, the room which may be carried out inj less expensive fashion. Tim panelled wall, for instance, may be suggested by a painted wall or one papered in plain, colour with the panelling marked off with, picture moulding, which should be of the, same colour as the wall, with the Japanese red used at the side of the panelling just as in the original. While the carved, and painted furniture is bound to.be expensive, for the carving is done by hand, furniture painted in the same fashion; with flat decorations instead of carved, ones would carry out the general idea at much less expense. It is not, however, possible to carry out this scheme oP decoration in too economical a manner. The black upholstery and hangings, for instance, must be of good quality,. Shabby black in furnishings as in costuming is quite impossible. Nor is poorlypainted furniture desirable. Unless one is prepared to spend a fair amount for the decoration of such a room it is better, to use another combination of colours, such as rose, ivory and blue, instead, of; the black, straw, and red combination/ and to use plain enamelled furniture instead of that decorated with flounces.