Furnishing the Home of Good Taste: A Brief Sketch of the Period Styles in Interior Decoration with Suggestions as to Their Employment in the Homes of TodayThroop, Lucy Abbot
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Furnishing the Home of Good Taste: A Brief Sketch of the Period Styles in Interior Decoration with Suggestions as to Their Employment in the Homes of Today
Throop, Lucy Abbot
Interior decoration
The height and size of a room must be taken into account in hanging
curtains, for with their aid, and also that of wallpaper, we can often
change a room of bad proportions to one of seemingly good ones. If a
room is very low, a stripe more or less marked in the design, and the
curtains straight to the floor, will make it seem higher. A high room
may have the curtains reach only to the sills with a valance across the
top. This style may be used in a fairly low room if the curtain material
is chosen with discretion and is not of a marked design. If the windows
are narrow they can be made to seem wider by having the rod for the side
curtains extend about eight inches on each side of the window, and the
curtain cover the frame and a part of the wall. This leaves all the
window for light and air. A valance connecting the side curtains and
covering the top of the net curtains will also make the window seem
broader. A group of three windows can be treated as one by using only
one pair of side curtains with a connecting ruffle, and a pair of net
curtains at each window. Curtains may hang in straight lines or be
simply looped back, but fancy festooning is not permissible. There is
another attractive method of dividing the curtains in halves, the upper
sections to hang so they just cover the brass rod for the lower
sections, which are pushed back at the sides. These lower sections may
have the rod on which they are run fastened to the window-sash if one
wishes. They will then go up with the window and of course keep clean
much longer, but to my mind it is not so alluring as a gently blowing
curtain on a hot day. I have seen a whole house curtained most
charmingly in this manner, with curtains of unbleached muslin edged with
a narrow little ruffle. They hung close to the glass and reached just to
the sill with the lower part pushed back at the sides. The outside view
was most attractive, and the inside curtains varied according to the
needs of each room.
[Illustration: A charming window treatment, in a room whose color scheme
is carried out in the garden, giving a unique and delightful touch.]
Casement windows should have the muslin curtains drawn back with a cord
or a muslin band, and the side curtains should hang straight, with a
little top ruffle; if the windows open into the room the curtains may be
hung on the frames. The muslin curtains may be left out entirely if one
wishes. Net curtains on French doors should be run on small brass rods
at top and bottom, and the heavy curtains that are drawn together at
night for privacy's sake should be so hung that they will not interfere
with the opening of the door. There should be plenty of room under all
ruffles or shaped valances where the curtains are to be drawn to allow
for easy working of the cords, otherwise tempers are liable to be
suddenly lost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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