Modern Comfort Without Fires

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23067, 18 June 1938, Page 6 (Supplement)

Modern Comfort Without Fires

AT a recent London exhibition one of the newest furnishing ideas was the modern treatment of a hearth, where the absence of an open fire, inevitable in present-day blocks of flats, was compensated for by luxuriously comfortable settees and rugs. A very low settee, well sprung and deep, was arranged right round the hearth, with its electric fire, and within the space enclosed a rug of sheepskins was spread on a mattress of sponge-like rubber, so that there was every excuse for elegant lounging. Colours in this room were interesting. The settee was upholstered in a delicate yellow, the windows were hung with white silk curtains vertically striped in green, one chair was covered in red, another in bearskins, furniture was made of a newly treated mahogany that was pale pink in colour, the sheepskin rug by the fire was a chestnut brown, another one, by the desk, was white, and a shelf near the settee was painted blue —a mixture, perhaps, but somehow it all seemed to harmonise. Another very new idea is for one wall to be painted grey and tho others white. We are told that a single grey wall sets off other shades admirably. Furs and skins are considered immensely ■' smart for upholstery, and white skins are particularly in demand for spreading on darkly polished floors.