Some Hints Anent Period Furniture

Period furniture is a means to a decorative end. It is a part of

the decoration of a room, and must be adapted to its lines and

proportions. Halls for instance, call for tall chairs and cabinets and

long and narrow wall tables. Pictures and bric-a-brac are out of place

in the hall. In the living room, where spaciousness and repose are

wanted, substantial, comfortable chairs, long, low sofas, cabinets and

tables, and n fussy furniture adjuncts are demanded. Similarly in the

dining room, the furniture lines should make the room a more

comfortable and restful one in which to eat; and bedroom furniture

must in all decorative ways carry out the idea of rest and sleeping. If

period furniture is used, the drawing room usually gives the dominant

note, which should be carried out (in more or less modified form)

throughout the other rooms. Do not make too abrupt contrasts in using

period furniture. Late Louis XVI and Early Empire have much in common.

But it is a shock to find Louis XV and Late Empire in the same room.

Sheraton and Rococo, Early Jacobean oak and late eighteenth century

English mahogany do not mix. If your rooms are Colonial use Colonial or

Georgian styles of furniture. For ball rooms, small reception rooms,

and the boudoirs of blooming young beauty--not those of dignified old

age--Louis XV is to be commended. Formal dining rooms stand Louis XV

and Louis XVI styles very well. On the other hand the simple beauty of

line of Adam, Sheraton, Heppelwhite and Chippendale are better suited

to simpler rooms--though they may be quite as subtly and perfectly

finished. In general, the choice of all furniture--chairs, tables,

beds, mirrors--should be influenced by the size of the house and

rooms, individual circumstances and individual taste, where the last

does not conflict with established laws of decoration.