A STATE DRAWINGROOM

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20283, 5 December 1935, Page 12

A STATE DRAWINGROOM

No. 10 DOWNING STREET. TRANSFORMED What is the ideal furnishing scheme for the Prime Minister’s drawingroom? The Office of Works has hitherto assumed that the State drawingroom of No. 10 Downing Street, should look “official” at all costs. Mrs Baldwin however, has other views. She does not believe that it should be pompous or ornate, but bright and artistic. After years of furnishing in the Edwardian style, No. 10 Downing Street has undergone a transformation. The Office of Works has carried it out from Mrs Baldwin’s ideas. Periled Designs. Changes nave been made in most of the rooms that form the suite known to distinguished visitors throughout the world. They will no longer see the dignified red and gold upholstery of the chairs in the State drawing-room. Mrs Baldwin realised that it darkened the room. Most of the chairs are now gay in flowered material of an artistic period design. Others are covered in beige, with cushions in green and pink. Officials at the Office of Works have searched for modernist fabrics for the little dining-room, which Mr and Mrs Baldwin use when they are alone, and have discovered a material in which pastel shades are blended. This is used for the curtains. The oak panelling, which was dark, has been stripped, and Mrs Baldwin has had her wheel-back chairs taken there. She has collected them, with other antique furniture, ijr years. She will set a new fashion in mantelpiece decoration. In this room it is covered with pieces of old copper. Plans for modernising the State dining-room, scene of many historic occasions, have not yet been carried out, but as in the case of the other rooms the ivory walls have been washed down. Hostesses will be keenly interested in the new decorations at No. 10. Lady Crosfield, Lady Luke and Lady Ebbisham will be among the first to see them. They attended Mrs Baldwin’s committee meeting on October 22 for the bridge ball at Grosvenor House on December 5.