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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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 https://archive.org/details/yourhomeinteriorO0fsch — 
 
The “Home with ‘Personality 
 “Depends on ‘Taste Not &oney 
 
 HARM is an elusive quality. It may escape the most 
 
 complete and expensively carried out Louis Quatorze 
 Salon, to be captured by some cottage sitting room 
 with rockers and rag rugs! It is something which is 
 almost impossible to translate or define, for it has to 
 do with personality. That is why we are so often 
 chilled by the very splendor of houses that we feel are 
 
 ‘* 2 lacking in individuality; while others that we know, 
 Pence few Fines of real intrinsic value, fill us with joy every time we cross 
 the threshold. 
 
 Yet the delightful touches which give a room charm and distinction are 
 seldom achieved by happy accident. They are rather the outgrowth of culti 
 vated taste. Money alone is helpless. It is far more likely to betray than to 
 bless any interior planned without the aid of some well-trained appreciation 
 of what constitutes a successful room. 
 
 Creating a lovely, livable room is a matter of trained judgment. That 
 subtle impression of good taste which makes itself felt in certain homes is not 
 the result of chance. That sense of “rightness” which comes in a living room 
 you know, is not accidental. 
 
 If you are aware of a feeling of beauty and repose, it is because the room 
 was composed as expertly as a piece of music, with everything suited to its 
 use and in its own proper scale. 
 
 {3} 
 
The Economy of a ‘Trained Fudgment 
 to Solve Your “Decorative “Problems 
 
 HEN you analyze the magic of delightful rooms, you find it is the es- 
 sential harmony of all the details which pleases you. It is not the 
 beauty of the individual pieces—of splendid cabinets, seductive chairs 
 
 and admirable little tables; nor of the room itself—its proportions, its walls, 
 its fireplace and fixtures. All these details, however lovely in themselves, fail 
 to create a pleasing impression unless they are all related as parts of a well 
 planned whole. 
 
 Confronted by some decorative problem, the woman of the house quite 
 frequently attempts to make her own changes without really analyzing the ne- 
 cessity for them. As a result, she incurs an outlay of time and expense which 
 a little expert guidance will enable her readily to avoid. It is as discouraging 
 as it is wasteful to proceed without a clearly developed plan or with a plan 
 that is not quite right. 
 
 RSS con 
 
 Beautiful fabrics offer the skillful decorator possibilities for contrasts of color, 
 or of texture as in the case of this lustrous velvet and rich printed linen 
 
 {4} 
 
The trained decorator knowing how people lived in those splendid days of the Renaissance when fabrics were 
 in great favor, knows how to make the most of this stately Schumacher damask of crimson and gold 
 
 For very few of us can, by ourselves, realize the full possibilities of even 
 one room because we have not been trained to do so. It requires not only 
 sure taste but experience, combined with the knowledge of decorative crafts 
 and values. It is not only that we have to know how to live and how peo- 
 ple have lived in great and beautiful times in the past, but we must be able to 
 translate our way of life into the terms of a room and its furnishings, even to 
 the upholstery of a sofa, or the finish of a curtain. 
 
 Those who have this knowledge and taste often are able to develop 
 
 {5} 
 
charmingly decorated homes. But it 
 takes so much time, so much worry 
 that most women prefer to consult a 
 specialist on their decorating problems 
 as they do on the other technical ques- 
 tions of dress and living. Your deco- 
 rator offers you expert advice and 
 service at no additional cost over what 
 you would spend if you were to super- 
 vise all the details yourself. Contrary 
 to general opinion, it usually costs less 
 to work with the help of a specialist 
 in home furnishings than to make one’s 
 plans and purchase independently. 
 
 It is always a pleasure to consult 
 with interior decorators, those men 
 and women whose forte is the crea- 
 tion of beauty in our homes. Experi- 
 ence and training enables the decorator 
 to quickly appreciate your problems 
 and offer many resourceful ways of 
 
 The decorator knows how to make your small room 
 
 solving them. He (or she) knows how look larger, how to turn a puzzling corner into a 
 delightful feature of the room. Just as the archi- 
 to make your small room look larger— tect helps you with your building plans, the deco- 
 
 how to turn a puzzling corner into a rator will help with your furnishings 
 
 delightful feature of the room. A slight rearrangement or the omission of one or 
 two pieces not in keeping with the general effect may be all that is necessary to 
 put your living room or bedroom into the key of perfect taste. 
 
 But before you eliminate the old or add the new, avail yourself of a guide. 
 Consult your decorator. Just as the architect helps you with your building 
 plans, the decorator will help with your furnishings. Whatever the size or the 
 elaborateness of your house, your interior decorator can help you with it. In 
 reality, the more modest the house and the more necessary the practice of 
 economy in spending, the more valuable competent decorators can be. Under 
 their expert guidance there are no false starts, no doing over of the job once 
 done. The decorator not only knows by experience what to avoid but also 
 how to obtain the desired effect in the most economical manner 
 
 diGaE 
 
“Why a “Decorator Makes “No 
 (-harge for his Services 
 
 T IS quite possible to give your home just the look you have always wanted 
 it to have. You may not know what is wrong with it as it now is; you 
 may not know exactly how to go about building a new scheme that more 
 
 charmingly expresses yourself, but your decorator does. The aid and advice of 
 an expert are at your command for no greater outlay than would be necessary 
 if you were doing your own planning. 
 
 The decorator asks no fee for his services. Every business establishment 
 renders you a certain amount of service in its dealings with you. Whether it 
 be automobiles or banking, expert advice and knowledge are available for your 
 guidance. Thus when you call in a decorator to help you in furnishing your 
 home or any single room in it, he places at your disposal the experience and 
 skill that are the integral parts of his profession. 
 
 At the same time you are purchasing draperies and furnishings, you are 
 
 Among the patterns being reproduced today from the famous Toiles de Jouy, exe- 
 
 cuted at the end of the 18th century, there are none more delightful than this rather 
 
 typical design reminiscent of Marie Antoinette and her life at the Petit Trianon. 
 Such interesting prints usually are obtainable only through the decorator 
 
 {7} 
 
receiving the most up-to-date suggestions for their use. Correct making and 
 hanging are just as important for successful curtains as good tailoring is to 
 clothes. Either, without the professional touch, is apt to look home-made, and 
 
 fine fabrics deserve better than that. 
 
 HE primary function of the decorator is not to spend more of your 
 
 money, but to see that for every dollar spent you get the utmost in value. 
 
 You yourself may buy certain things that you will eventually discard or 
 
 want to discard. The experienced decorator will avoid such experiments, and 
 totals of just such things reach astonishingly large amounts. 
 
 Through his experience the decorator knows just where and how to 
 
 distribute expense——what proportion to allow for each detail. He will submit 
 
 The soft rich hues of this typical Schumacher chair 
 covering show that tapestry can use color more pro- 
 fusely than textiles of any other kind 
 
 an estimate of the cost of a given 
 plan before making any expenditures. 
 The cost of the entire scheme is 
 subject to your approval. If he has 
 a clear field and can purchase every- 
 thing new from the start, the advan- 
 tage is obvious. If, on the other 
 hand, his task is to make new rooms 
 from old, to eliminate what has lived 
 past its usefulness and restore the 
 beauty of the best things by a care- 
 fully planned setting, his aid is even 
 more necessary. 
 
 And he knows where to buy 
 and how much things should cost. 
 Through your decorator you can 
 obtain draperies, furniture and ac- 
 cessories you could not find else- 
 where. Because of these services the 
 time has come when the interior 
 decorator is no longer in the luxury 
 class but is generally regarded as a 
 necessity. That is why so many 
 delightful homes today are done 
 with the assistance of a decorator. 
 
ANY of the finest fabric designs found in museums and great private collections 
 are today being reproduced at prices that bring them within reach. Splendid 
 tapestries, lovely brocades and damasks, fascinating printed linens—rarely found 
 when you are doing your own shopping—are easily procured through your decorator 
 
 {9 } 
 
The “Decorator Knows ‘Where to 
 ind Fust the “Right ‘Thing 
 
 HE good.decorator does not impose his (or her) own ideas upon you 
 
 but works with you to create a background of taste and individuality. 
 
 By expressing your character in terms of wood and glass and textiles, he 
 creates an interior that is distinctive of you alone. With his knowledge and 
 discernment, he is usually able to picture a charming setting for your person- 
 ality better than you yourself can. The very intimacy of your attachment 
 may blind you to the possibilities your home offers. He avoids the stereotyped 
 and seeks the unusual—the something different that makes your room utterly 
 your own. To do this he must know the entire wholesale market. He must 
 keep in mind all kinds of information pertaining to furnishings. Where you 
 know a few places from which to buy, he knows literally hundreds. The deco- 
 rator is in constant touch with the best ideas both in this country and abroad 
 and is able to apply them to the needs of your home. The new art movements 
 are as familiar to him as the classic styles of the past. 
 
 Your decorator has textiles at his fingers’ ends. The splendid tapestries, 
 the lovely brocades and damasks which will give color and distinction to your 
 living room, the fascinating printed linens to transform your bedroom—so 
 rarely found when you are doing your own shopping—are easily procured: 
 through your decorator. Many of the finest designs in museums and great 
 private collections are being reproduced today at prices which bring them 
 within your reach. You can call him in to help you with your entire home, 
 a single room, or just the curtaining of a difficult window. No part of making 
 a delightful interior is too small to interest a decorator. His knowledge of 
 shops and materials is all at your disposal. 
 
 The decorator avoids 
 the stereotyped and 
 seeks the unusual — 
 
 the something differ- 
 ent that gives a room 
 marked individuality 
 
The Important “Part (olor “Plays 
 in the “Decorative Scheme 
 
 LET OLOR, one of the most important features of a 
 
 Tho ee room, is one that is too often neglected. Not that 
 color itself is neglected, but rather its purpose as a 
 decorative element in a room. 
 
 Color endows a room with brightness, har- 
 mony, a sense of sheltered brilliance or vivacity. 
 The effects attained by the skillful use of color are 
 not dependent upon richness of material; printed fabrics may contribute color 
 as effectively as rare brocades. 
 
 Any room, however simple, can have the charm and loveliness of color. 
 When deciding on the colors to be used in a room, the first question is whether 
 the room is to be bright or somber, gayly stimulating or quietly restful. 
 
 There are many ways in which color can be brought out. The draperies, 
 carpets, furniture coverings, pictures and lampshades—all stand ready to accent 
 the desired note. A room may have the richness and elegance of the Italian 
 Renaissance, or be monastic in its simplicity, and yet have color expressed in 
 great masses or in a few deft touches, as its dominant note. 
 
 Every decorator takes into consideration the psychological effect of the 
 color scheme he is using but the woman who decorates for herself is apt to be 
 carried away by her emotions when she chooses. Because she “just loves” 
 blue, she does not stop to think of its effect upon the size, the lighting, the 
 whole atmosphere of her room! 
 
 Yet she is entitled to the colors she likes. Every woman has the right to 
 be pretty in her own home. So the decorator first of all plans a color scheme 
 as a background for the mistress of the house. Rooms may be rich in color— 
 calmly dignified or brilliant with contrasts—but the colors must be becoming. 
 
 Textiles play an important part in the problem of color. The same color 
 has different qualities depending upon the material in which it is found. 
 Velvets, satins, taffetas and rep dyed the same hue, have very different 
 values in the color scheme. Contrasts of materials may be happily employed as 
 well as contrasts of color. 
 
 {11} 
 
This velours de Genes is a happy example of contrasts of texture developed in a single 
 fabric. Here the beautiful pattern in rich blue and harmonizing shades of rose 
 velvet contrasts delightfully with the soft, warm, cream satin ground 
 
 The competent decorator understands and thinks in the language of color. 
 Hues, shades, textures—to him—they all are important, for he understands 
 and makes use of them all when occasion requires. Talk over your color 
 problems with him. With his knowledge, his subtle appreciation and sensi- 
 tiveness to color, he quickly corrects the colors that are out of key and helps 
 you to develop to completion the color scheme that you timidly or uncon- 
 sciously fail to carry out. 
 
 { 12} 
 
“Planning ‘Your S#ouse So It Will 
 Not ‘Be Out-moded in a few Years 
 
 F you are an expert on color and form, and have been able to keep up with 
 decorative modes, you will have every reason to feel complacent about 
 your home. But perhaps the things you are so used to seem a little out of 
 
 date to other people? Do the draperies, or the walls, or the whole ensemble 
 proclaim the year when you last decorated? 
 
 Discerning women prefer to consult an interior decorator as the quickest, 
 most practical way of creating the modern background they desire. In this 
 way they avoid the passé and the “home-made” effects which can be brought 
 about by very slight errors. In planning your costumes you seek the most ex- 
 pert advice you can get because you wish particularly to know what is smart, 
 what is correct. A decorator bears the same relation to your house that the 
 
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 Old English crewel work aspired the design of this 
 embroidered linen gayly colored cretonne 
 
couturier does to your costumes—for styles in furnishings change much more 
 slowly but just as surely as they do in clothes! Yet the scheme that the deco- 
 rator builds for you rests upon solid foundations of good taste. The furniture 
 that is really beautiful today will still be beautiful after decades of use. From 
 year to year styles may change in the accessories, the supplementary details of 
 decoration—but the underlying plan of furnishing never “goes out”. 
 
 For it is only the superficial in decoration that is subject to the tyranny 
 of fashion. The competent decorator is quick to distinguish between the pass- 
 ing fad of the day and the significant new developments in modern art. You 
 need not fear that the effect achieved by the decorator this season will be out 
 of style next year or years later. For he will plan furnishings, not for a sea- 
 son, but for a lifetime, if you wish it. But do not confuse the collector and 
 the decorator! To the collector—like the museum—the age of a piece of 
 furniture may render it priceless. ‘To the decorator, it is of less importance. 
 For domestic purposes he considers primarily use and beauty! For daily use, 
 reproductions of beautiful fabrics and furniture are as satisfying as the origi 
 nals, if they faithfully adhere to the beauty of design and of workmanship. So 
 your decorator helps you to select those things which contribute to your 
 aesthetic enjoyment and grow more precious with the passage of time. 
 
 Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art 
 
 The scheme that a decorator builds for you rests upon solid foundations of good taste. 
 Beautiful furnishings will still be beautiful after long use as this room from the Powel 
 House (now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) bears witness 
 
 { 14} 
 
The Time and &oney That 
 
 a “Decorator Saves You in 
 (‘reating a “Beautiful SHtome 
 
 HERE 1s another great advantage to be gained from using a 
 
 decorator. You are spared the fatigue of shopping, the pos- 
 sible annoyance of paying more than the actual value of things, 
 the disappointment of not finding what you particularly want! 
 
 In selecting draperies, for example, instead of choosing from 
 thousands of different fabrics in a large importer’s stock, your 
 decorator does most of the eliminating for you, taking from your 
 shoulders the burden of weary searching for what you want. 
 He offers you perhaps a dozen samples, chosen with the skill of 
 long experience, which most nearly meet your requirements. Yet the actual 
 selection rests in your own hands. 
 
 In the same way when he is working out the furnishings of a room, the 
 decorator usually submits two or three different schemes. If you do not hap- 
 pen to like any of his suggestions, he tries to find out just what you do want 
 and presents still other schemes for your approval. 
 
 To interpret your own individuality and to translate your attitude 
 toward life into the fabrics and furniture of your daily life is the decorator’s 
 problem and privilege. 
 
 For the decorator most of all wants you to feel at home in your own 
 house. Every commission he undertakes becomes an advertisement of his 
 service. If you were not pleased with his work, it would be more unfortunate 
 for him than for you, for he would lose the future work that might come to 
 him from you and your friends. 
 
 It is quite illuminating and also somewhat terrifying to realize how much 
 there is of planning and detail to the furnishing of even the simplest room. 
 Why not substitute the suggestions of your decorator for the worry, the 
 wear and tear of shopping? For decorators know how to give your home 
 the finished look that usually is achieved only by the tedious and careful 
 selection of details. 
 
 { 15 } 
 
PPASE HULU MOME UE IN. Ge 16 ©) 
 
 Importers, Manufacturers and Distributors to the Trade only 
 of Decorative Drapery and Upholstery Fabrics 
 
 Printed in U.S. A. by: 
 
 Rosert L. Stittson Company 
 Color Engravings by: 
 
 TrIcHROMATIC ENGRAVING ComPANY 
 
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