REDECORATING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19143, 8 October 1925, Page 17

REDECORATING.

The one item in the British Pavilion at the Paris Exhibition which seems to have escaped adverse criticism is the work of a London woman, says a writer in an exchange. The : four modern rooms—a nursery, a bedroom, a room in a town house and another in a country house—have been designed by her, and Paris has been lavish in its praise of her work. With fine, straight, brown hair which she rolls in the nape o? her neck and passes across the crown where it is parted in the centre, she is quiet, almost serene, in manner. She is picturesque, toorather small and slim, with a preference for frocks of some exquisite material, plain as to bodice and long as to skirt, and frequently with a touch of blue, in the shape of a silk shawl; cream silk stockings, low-heeled Crorowellian . shoes, and no jewellery beyond her wedding ring. When she discusses business she wears 6 pair of horn-rimmed spectacles which do .not - hide her keen, blue-grey evea, and. somehow emphasise rather than detract from the old-world look she has. This is Mrg. Mawfe, who holds the position of chief designer to a big firm of house decorators. She had an early art training, and when she first went to this firm she specialised in carpet designing. Leaving her first love, she turned her attention to interior decoration, a course she has pursued ever sines and in which she has inade great success. Mrs. Mawfe is also a capable ana .interesting lecturer. She is well known in America. " Elimination of all unnecessary and ugly objects is my first word of advice to anyone about to redecorate or furnish, the told me. "With modern life and modern servant problems we must reorganise our homes." Picking up a book of prints she turned the pages until sho came to a picture of ft famous drawing room in a very famous house. _ " Look at this atrocity," he said, ' at the oddments scattered ail over the place. It may be all right from a working point Df view here, Winer's there are many servants, but in smaller houses or flats, fcrhare domestic he p is scarcer, such a foom would be a veritable dust-trap and fejdeous as well. . Shutting the book, she said: Broad lines, clear spaces and beautiful colour harmonies—these ate my ideas on fnrnisn lng." And certainly one could imagine Rtiople living more comfortably, more hapj'ily, seeing and thinking more clearly in one of this woman artist's rooms. Mrs. Mawfe has several exhibits tu the Victoria and Albert Museum, but in her niiet, almost reserved, way she seemed tmj pleased at the compliment that had fceen paid her and the laudatory _ comments showered on her from J aris. " It's a very hsgh honour, she remarked, "to 'choose me 11* represent Britain in that section. Alter getting fever mv surprise that they chose a woman it all "I was more surprised still that jhey selected one connected with a shop.