Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1099

 GRECIAN AND MODERN VILLA FURNITURE. 1075 unity requires that this cloth, and that of the window curtains, should be the same both in kind and colour. Fig. 1977 is another drawingroom curtain, m which muslin hangings are shown beneath the damask ones. The use of curtains in living-rooms is chiefly confined to 1977 cold and temperate climates ; and, even in these, they are found to convey the idea of too great warmth in summer. We except, however, muslin curtains, the use of which is to exclude insects, and in some degree to soften the direct light of the sun. In warm climates, and during the heat of summer in the temperate regions, when it is desirable to exclude heat, and, consequently, to a certain extent, light, the means which are most ef- fective are the use of outside luffer-blinds ; the glass of the windows being either altogether removed, and replaced by wire gauze or fine muslin curtains ; or, as is commonly the case in England, the sashes of the window being kept open at bottom and top. In all houses whatever, it is a matter of considerable importance to moderate the light of the sun in the hottest days of summer. The advantages of this are, coolness, the almost total exclusion of insects, and the retention of colour in the different articles of furniture in the room. For this reason, as it is very desirable, in every house, whether of the poor man or of the rich, to preserve the colour of such expensive articles as window curtains and carpets, and to exclude flies, which totally destroy gilt picture-frames, and gnats, which are a personal annoyance, all houses that can afiord it ought to have either shutter-blinds, or some description of outside blinds, such as those mentioned, § 2002.