“Building Up” Your Room

Southland Times, Issue 23838, 8 June 1939, Page 14

“Building Up” Your Room

Showing Centre Of Interest

If you were an artist, you would not dream of beginning a picture without having made up your mind what you would make the central point of interest in it. Having made the decision, you would plan your lines to lead the eye irresistibly to that point, and your lighting to emphasise it. - When “building up” our rooms, we are in the position of artists for the time being. Indeed, unless we attack the question very much in the spirit of a painter with his canvas, we are likely to produce a result which is little more than a collection of details, for the most part unrelated, bringing confusion instead of order in consequence. If we are anxious to derive the maximum of good effect we must begin by deciding what we wish to make the centre of interest, and then take care that nothing else is allowed to dispute its right. Most women possess something to which they attach particular importance. It may be that you have inherited a fine family portrait, or acquired a handsome mirror or piece of brocade. By “featuring” something of the kind, you give the room distinction and style.

Say you have a specially beautiful picture. If it is the right size, the mantelpiece of the sitting-room will be. an excellent vantage point for it. There are various ways in which emphasis can be given to a canvas hung in this position. It can be framed in a moulding which will so accord with that of the mantel

surround as to appear to have been originally designed as part of it. Alternatively, it can be '’inked with a pair of swags of flowers and fruits which are now obtainable in natural wood or in coloured composition. Similar clusters are designed to go above the picture. Extremely decorative effects are also to be obtained by cutting a carved or twisted bed-post down the centre from top to bottom and using the two halves as side-pieces. The bases and capitals projecting beyond the columnar portion give much added dignity to the arrangement.

A really good mirror calls for a wall entirely to itself, and should not have its quality lowered by the proximity of a number of less attractive pieces. If placed facing a window, where it will reflect passing events and so derive from them a certain liveliness, so much the better. A mirror facing a fireplace has an advantage of the same kind.

In the bedroom the bedstead is the centre of interest and the coverlet deserves careful attention. A beautiful strip of brocade, even if modest in size, can be extended to the requisite proportions by additions of unpatterned satin or velvet attached under • metal galon or ribbon, and odd pieces can be worked up into pillows and bolster to go with the spread. By raising the bed on a platform, a dais-like effect can be secured which increases the attractive appearance of the room.