Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/729

 7or As to the lighting of a bedroom, directly over the toilet glass, or on a bracket on either side, there should be a very strong light, an electric lamp on the writing-table, and a light fixed immediately behind and above the head for reading in bed. No harm can ensue when the light is thrown on the page. A blue bedroom is by no means to be despised ; there is a freshness about it unobtainable in any other colour. I have seen delightful results with walls panelled to a certain height in very clear blue and white cretonne, with walls above the mould- ings and all woodwork in the room brown, and furniture, including the bookcase, a good imitation of Chippendale. The tiles on the hearth were blue and white ; the curtains, couch, and chair-covers, of course, matched the walls ; the bed placed in the corner, and draped with the same material, looked charm- ingly pretty. Still, I am not very fond of anything that cannot easily be removed for cleaning purposes. Of course, a built-in room, with a bookcase and table beneath close to the WOMAN'S HOMI are old prints ; but it is the individual note that gives the room its charm. A Sheraton bedroom is lovely — toilette table, wardrobe, washstand, writmg-burcau with bookcase above, oval mirror at)ovc Adams fireplace, all of that lovely wood with its smart gold beading. The couvre-pied, vallance, curtains, covers of couch and easy- chair are of a delicious white cretonne with Empire medallions of pink, white walls, polished floor, Persian rugs with pink in them, and a pink screen. The mantelpiece has quaint old English china, a high pedestal in the corner upholds a palm, there arc three or four choice colour-prints. A good result for a bedroom may be got with a vivid rose-coloured carpet all one colour, white walls, white furniture, chintz with a lot of green, and a vivid note of rose in it for curtains, couch and chair covers, and green plants everywhere. One can never have too many green things about any room. If I had to choose between green and flowers, I should unhesitatingly choose the former. A charming bedroom, the keynote of whose arrangement bed, washing arrangements shut in by a door, and a cosy-corner fireplace as a continuation of the recessed wall, is very dainty, and gives the sitting-room feeling that every real bed- room should possess. It is a great gain to the " table " happiness of a large family when every member of it has had his or her fill of him or her self — writing, reading, or dozing as he or she listeth. If isolation is an abso- lute necessity for the enjoyment of good furniture, it is still more so (at least occa- sionally) for a human being. I confess that I find a bedroom in which every bit is old, and picked up away from its fellows, very fascinating. I know one such, low and wide, with dull blue walls, where no two pieces of furniture match. The chest of drawers is walnut (Queen Anne), with the old brass drops, or earrings ; the toilet-table is of mahogany, and the sides fold over each other. There is a small old Chippendale writing-table, the curtains are of Liberty blue against leaded window-panes, and there is artistic simplicity, combined with comfort and daintiness A delicious Chippendale room has one of the old carved four-post bedsteads, upholstered with quaint, shiny black-and-white chintz sparingly touched with blue ; the couvre-pied matched, the carpet was blue, the long swing- glass Chippendale. It has the tiny toilette nest of drawers on table beside it, and on the white walls were priceless colour-prints. I must confess to a great liking for white- walled rooms, especially bedrooms — walls, for preference, upon which nothing is hung, especially in guest chambers. It is an out- rage to inflict your cousins and aunts on your guest ; they bring the pictures of those they love with them, as a rule, and give their own individual note to the room. A guest-chamber should be bare of everything but the necessaries for comfort ; these in- clude, of course, a vase or two of flowers. It should be, in truth : " A bower for us in which to sleep, Full of soft dreams, and health, and quiet breathing."