THE SALT OF DECORATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23044, 21 November 1936, Page 26

THE SALT OF DECORATION

ROOMS REQUIRE ACCESSORIES Have you a room that lets you down? Is it the same kind of feeling that you have when the cook forgets to salt the soup? Maybe the room has just been freshly painted and newly papered; and the new draperies are just what you hoped they would be. Maybe the rug is new and the furniture has just been reupholstered, yet, when it is all put together, it is frankly disappointing. Like the soup, it needs seasoning, something to give it snap. Well, for one thing, you might look to your accessories (says an expert in an overseas journal). A famous decorator once told us that his idea of a livable room was one that was “all there.” And that deep and cryptic statement meant that the room had everything—but not too much of it—fot physical comfort. A pleasing colour-scheme, gracious draperies, wellproportioned chairs, lamps that you really see by, no knick-knacks, and plenty of small tables. The latter, he said, have become a formula for comfort and convenience in the modern living room. So, take another look. Maybe it is small tables that your room needs. We use the word in the plural for a reason. In a newly-decorated room that we have just seen, moderately sized and very well done, we counted seven occasional tables. There were a pair of console tables, one on either side of the fireplace. Facing the fireplace on the opposite side of the room was a davenport; before it a low coffee table; at either end there were matched tables holding lamps. A closed nest of tables —three-in-one —stood beside a comfortable reading chair. Between two other chairs and forming them into a unit group was a small drop-leaf table. It was an admirable room for conversation, for reading, for knitting, for hand sewing, for bridge: and, when you analysed it, you saw that a large part of its comfort and charm centred right around those small occasional tables. Of course you can go wrong in selecting these tables if you do not watch out. There are so many of them. Select the style 'in which your room is furnished. The type of table chosen should depend upon the use to which it is to be put—higher tables for lamps, books, and larger flower arrangements, low tables, if you want them to hold a cigarette tray, a glass, or teacup. End tables should be about as high as the arm of the chair and scaled in size; that is. big heavy chairs, sturdy table; delicate, graceful chair, similar characteristics in table. A pair of tables creates a perfectly-balanced group, formal in feeling. Tables approximate in size and sympathetic in style can be equally effective, but are less formal. But why not study them for yourself? If it is not a table or a lamp or both that you need, maybe a screen will do it. Decoratively. screens are not half, even one-third, appreciated. Most people buy them only when they have something to hide or cover up. They have so much more value than that. They are a real opportunity for a distinguished bit of decoration. Recently we saw a pair used in a wide doorway between a living -room and a dining room in place of the usual draperies. There was nothing trick about them: just a pair of shutter screens painted the same colqur as the woodwork, yet it was effective, interesting. and refreshing. And we know that the two screens did not cosl as much as the pair of good draperies. Against dark colour of a wall, a light or brightly-coloured wallpaper screen is positively striking. The best wallpaper screen is not to be found readily: it is far too individual a decorative item. But choose your wallpaper, and any good screen department will have the work done for you.