The Bedroom Beautiful

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 493, 24 October 1928, Page 7

The Bedroom Beautiful

INDICATION TO OCCUPANT

Some Charming Ideas

PERHAPS no other room in the whole house reveals more of the discrimination and fine feeling- of its occupant than does the bedroom. How often have we stepped across the threshold of a bedroom that charmed us with its chaste, cultivated refinement—and how often, too, have our finer sensibilities been rudely shocked by a slovenly room that stamped its occupant as gross and slatternly ?

The greatest fault with the average bedroom is that it contains so many unnecessary things—trifling articles and tinsel geegaws—that are of little use or beauty, and make order extremely difficult. Clear them out if you mean to make, a beautiful room. Remember always that a bedroom should be made to express the personality of its owner, and that each room should have a different appearance, instead of a hospital-like similarity. When arranging the room, the first thing is to select the colour scheme. As a general rule, if the room is small it should be decorated with light tones. Where the light is imperfect, the colour schemes which are especially effective are grey and white, blue and white, buff and white, pink and ivory, and and ivory. In rooms where there is an abundance of natural light, darker hues may be used. A usual fault is the lack of restful wall treatment. Here again, as a general rule, if the room is small the walls should be plain. Figured walls demand a bare scheme of furnishing, more adaptable to the spacious room. At the same time, if the walls are broken with many doors and windows, a plain paper should by all means be employed in the decorative treatment. It is needless to say that pictures against a figured wall are fatiguing and uninteresting—a condition very

unfair to the pictures, which deserve a fairer, more discriminating treatment. In rooms with an uneven ceiling, a narrow border may be used in lieu of picture moulding. Muslin, organdie, and madras may be used to advantage, for curtains, with a light coloured decorative treatment. Linens and cottons, printed, are very suitable for the bedroom draperies, for they are .easily washed, and always look so fresh and crisp and dainty, while their cost does not prohibit frequent changes. Net and lace should be used with more discrimination. . The bedroom beautiful should be light and cheering, and a great deal depends upon the materials used. A material that absorbs light, like woollens, may be dreary, while a silk or transparent material of the same colour may be friendly. An Indian silk may be darker in colour than a cretonne, but its sheerness, and the way it has of playing with light and shade, will make it feel correspondingly lighter. The bed itself, of course, is the most important part of the bedroom. It should be the best procurable. The mattress should be firm and springy, to give the sleeper the utmost rest, and the bed should he well made, well aired, and with a fresh, restful appearance.