THE NEW FASHION IN FURNITURE.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 3130, 9 December 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE NEW FASHION IN FURNITURE.

Red the Favourite Colour. (New York Hun.) Red, running through the gamut of its rich dyes, from Morris scarlet to the deepest mulberry, is the favourite colour m house decoration this season. The steadily increasing popularity of mahogany m simple forms has brought this colour into fashion, and after long dalliance with French^ styles and a momentary fancy for delft blues, a lavish use of gilding and white paint, the whole inclination of interior ornamentation is toward the older, darker and severer English modes. Nothing looks better or richer for instance, than a library, a hall, or even an entire first floor, wholly decorated and -furnished after the best Jacobean models. In one New York house only recently completed, there is a small Jacobean library that affords a faultless model for any one desiring a. similar room to copy. The walls are hung m murrey coloured leather, and the woodwork is carved cedar, the floor is stained black, then waxed, highly polished, arid on it are laid red rugs. All the furniture and this motif m decoration come from an ancient manor house on the border between England and Scotland. Carved fumed oak. so called from being blacked by age and the smoke from slow peat fires, forms the presses that hold the books, and tho wooden portion of tne quaint, uncomfortable, long-legged, low-backed conversation chairs, the window stools and the settee*. Murrey coloured leather upholsters these, and m corners against the walls there are carved locked chests for holding valued manuscripts and family papers, and one long tapestry curtain hangs at each deeply recessed window. The effect of the Jacobean room is, m spite of its absence of mirrors, gilt and loose bric-a-brac, wonderfully rich, stately and cosy, and m those houses where no such liberal expenditure could be indulged, the decorators have pursued the King James style with wonderful cheapness and success. Deep, dull red is also the favourite colour for drawing-rooms, and it is said to be the most becoming background possible for women of all colourings, and especially when m evening dress. It appears that m draw-ing-room decoration, ais m the feminine wardrobe, fabrics go m and out of fashion about every five years, and now, after the braoides and damasks of the French influence, velvet has come to its own again. It is used as a wall hanging, for portieres and curtains, not draped but hanging straight, arras fashion. Modern silk velvet is not approved ; Venetian, Utrecht and Flanders velvet are the kinds employed for hangings and upholstery, and just now, no matter if your hall is colonial, your library Jacobean, and your dining-room of another period, your drawing-room must not be m any particular cut-and-dried fashion. One of its most important features is its chairs, which can be chosen from every period m history if you choose, provided they are all graceful and ornamental. In the newly-done-over reception salons there is sure to be a carved cedar gondola chair, inlaid with very pink pearl and bits of coral, and softened m its curved seat by a plump pillow covered with Venetian velvet and having heavy gold tassels at its four comers. On either side the drawing-room fireplace are also inevitably a pair of lofty backed court chairs. These have gilded frames, perfectly straight, solid wood backs, down the centre of which a strip of red velvet is fastened, velvet seats, and are occupied usually by the hostess and her most honoured feminine guest. A deep Dutch easy chair is another one of the new-comers m the American drawing-room, and a feature now noticeable is the increasing number of footstools. Women are just beginning to learn again not only that against a crimson velvet cushion their slender, delicately slippered feet show to wonderful advantage, but that there is no better means of resting tired feet than by the use of a footstool.