OF DOORS, AND WINDOWS, AND CHINTZ


What a sense of intimacy, of security, encompasses one when ushered into
a living room in which the door opens and _closes_! Who that has read
Henry James's remarkable article on the vistas dear to the American
hostess, our portiere-hung spaces, guiltless of doors and open to every
draft, can fail to feel how much better our conversation might be were
we not forever conscious that between our guests and the greedy ears of
our servants there is nothing but a curtain! All that curtains ever were
used for in the Eighteenth Century was as a means of shutting out drafts
in large rooms inadequately heated by wood fires.

How often do we see masses of draperies looped back and arranged with
elaborate dust-catching tassels and fringes that mean nothing. These
curtains do not even draw! I am sure that a good, well-designed door
with a simple box-lock and hinges would be much less costly than velvet
hangings. A door is not an ugly object, to be concealed for very shame,
but a fine architectural detail of great value. Consider the French and
Italian doors with their architraves. How fine they are, how imposing,
how honest, and how well they compose!

Of course, if your house has been built with open archways, you will
need heavy curtains for them, but there are curtains _and_ curtains. If
you need portieres at all, you need them to cut off one room from
another, and so they should hang in straight folds. They should be just
what they pretend to be--honest curtains with a duty to fulfil. For the
simple house they may be made of velvet or velveteen in some neutral
tone that is in harmony with the rugs and furnishings of the rooms that