HOW TO REARRANGE A ROOM


Lucky is the man or woman of taste who has no inherited eyesores
which, because of association, must not be banished! When these exist
in large numbers one thing only remains to be done: look them over,
see to what period the majority belong, and proceed as if you _wanted_
a mid-Victorian, late Colonial or brass-bedstead room.

To rearrange a room successfully, begin by taking everything out of it
(in reality or in your mind), then decide how you want it to look, or
how, owing to what you own and must retain, you are obliged to have it
look. Design and colour of wall decorations, hangings, carpets,
lighting fixtures, lamps and ornaments on mantel, depend upon the
character of your furniture.

It is the mantel and its arrangement of ornaments that sound the
keynote upon first entering a room.

Conventional simplicity in number and arrangement of ornaments gives
balance and repose, hence dignity. Dignity once established, one can
afford to be individual, and introduce a riot of colours, provided
they are all in the same key. Luxurious cushions, soft rugs and a
hundred and one feminine touches will create atmosphere and knit
together the austere scheme of line--the anatomy of your room. Colour
and textiles are the flesh of interior decoration.

In furnishing a small room you can add greatly to its apparent size by
using plain paper and making the woodwork the same colour, or slightly
darker in tone. If you cannot find wall paper of exactly the colour