FURNISHING TRENDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27390, 16 May 1950, Page 2

FURNISHING TRENDS

NOTES FOR WOMEN

Simpler Styles Within More Elaborate Settings

Two rriain trends appear in interior decoration today. On the one hand, furniture in natural colours, made in simple well-proportioned styles, and utilising much of the technical knowledge gained in the construction of aircraft to produce light yet strong surfaces, is growing in popularity. Elsewhere, seen principally in pictures of celebrities’ homes, there seems to be a feeling for more. elaboration and ornamentation. This is not really seen in the furniture, which is often Regency or the Sheraton style; it is shown in the (choice of wallpaper, and in elaborate hangings or massed pictures, where formerly a single painting would have adorned a wall.

Light colours, with a preponderance of beiges and off whites, have dominated English interior decoration for some 30 years or so. At one time uniform cream walls and paint, with the occasional well-placed picture, were almost obligatory for the smart English home. Furniture, too, was supposed to be functional, simple and severe, except for sumptuous comfort in armchairs. Under the influence of the Swedish designers, however, and urged on hy the Council for Industrial Design, manufacturers are now producing furniture which -is not only functional but pleasing to the eye and made with superb craftsmanship. But its setting is altering. Patterned wallpapers used throughout a room or perhaps on one wall only, break the flat appearance; ornate mirrors or a group of Victoriana set off a plain fire-place. The subdued simple room, with cream coloured rugs, a map and a Cezanne print is now as badly dated as the bobbled mantelshelf curtain, screens and the aspidistra. The aspidistra, incidentally, may be due for a revival. For some time the

energetic housewife in America has cherished indoor plants; now they are reputed to be the fashion in England. Placed in white or yellow pots, trails of ivy make their way along walls or window curtains; masses of ferns bloom in the old jardiniere, dressed up in white painted ' wrought iron. To some, it will sound gay and entrancing; to others it brings back dreadful memories of looking after the plants and washing with soapy water the spreading green leaves of the aspidestra! Fortunately, perhaps, there are a good many people who pay no .attention to furniture and interior decoration changes. For the next 50 years or so “ autumn tonings ” will probably be the most popular furnishing shades shown in the shops in New Zealand. It takes a good deal of money to go over an entire room, so that changes come slowly. On the other hand, more and more people are buying antique furniture, realising that it is an investment and that it has the happy knack of looking well in almost any scheme of decoration.