THE HOME BEAUTIFUL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 795, 16 October 1929, Page 14

THE HOME BEAUTIFUL

Modernise your present home ! Bring your house up-to-date ! Domestic science has made great strides in recent years—enjoy the advantages—increase the value of your property and make yours the Home Beautiful.

( By

(“PEMATES”)

Fabrics for Spring

BRINGING SEASON INDOORS

Some Joyful New Cretonnes

BEFORE tlie_appearan.ee of real spring weather it is almost impossible for a woman .to set out in search of spring clothes, though, we may be quite certain that they will be needed. In the same way it is only when spring sunshine pours through the windows of our room that the need for new curtains and chair coverings becomes insistent and immediate.

LEATHER CUSHIONS EFFECT OF SQUARES The using-up o£ small pieces of | leather for cushions is no longer an ; end in itself. Cushions are preferred which are made of small pieces, cut | so that the final result is rather like mosaic. I Leather takes colour with peculiar depth, and both the whites and the 1 blacks are almost as bright as if they were in stone or china. This, no , doubt, is responsible for the cutting of leather into very small squares, and arranging it so that it really appears to be mosaic. Old colourings , are used, such as white, black and red i of the Egyptian figure, or the terracotta and black of the Etruscan vase. ! Generally, the pattern does not aspire jto anything more complicated than ! angles and checks. Here and there, j however, simple figures are introj duced, and flowers are also made in | tiny squares of leather, and look ; rather like cross-stltc-h. The merit of j the cushion depends almost as much j on the excellence of the joining as on the pattern itself. A development from the angular de- } signs of the leather cushion is the | curious shaping of the cushion itself. This is also made in the oddest forms, j - NO longer does the square or the j round satisfy the designer. Rather are ! they both reserved for the surface of the cushion. The cushion itself may be a square as to two of its sides. The others are broken up into steplike outlines or simply zig-zagged to give them variety. Sometimes part ot the surface is coloured in squares or zig-zags, and the outline of the pattern is then repeated on perhaps two of the edges. The effect is curious, and the cushion looks as though it were made to fit into a complicated chair-seat or a corner with manv angles. There is, of course, no real reason why cushions should have continuous edges, and the odd cutting of them gives a certain amount of variety and enhances whatever cclorrm"there may be.

Cretonnes comprise such a variety of designs and colourings, says a writer in “Homes and Gardens,” that there is no type of decoration, no past or modern period, no shade of colour, unrepresented in the printed cottons or linens that are covered by that single word. In some ways so wide a field of choice makes the right selection more difficult than in the case of carpets or damasks, where patterns and colourings are more restricted. To look through innumerable pattern books with no clear idea of the type of design that is most suited to one’s needs makes for confusion and weariness of mind, and generally ends with a choice, one never ceases to regret. So, before setting out to find the perfect curtain material or chair cover, one should at any rate have formulated a definite notion, not only of the most desirable colour (almost everyone thinks she knows that!, but also of the scale of pattern suited to the purpose the cretonne is to fulfil, and the natural or conventional type of design most appropriate to the style of the rest of the room. Strictly “period” furniture will, naturally, be best suited with “period” designs, and this narrowing of the range of possible, patterns will make decision easier. DECIDING FACTORS It is the nondescript room with comfortable furniture of no particular style that needs more particular consideration. Hess the purpose for which the new cretonne is to be used may be the deciding factor. A small all-over design with a trellis of leaves a.nd berries, admirably suited in colour and simplicity of pattern for the loosecovers of small, upholstered armchairs in some cheerful morning-room, would look out of scale on a large chesterfield. This asks for a large design, or else a pattern so small as not io be remarked at all. Not every pattern is equally satisfactory for curtains and covers; indeed, there are very few which can so be used. And fabrics that are to be seen in folds should, never bs chosen from a fiat ’ pattern. The ideal method is to try a length of at least one and a-hal£ yards in the position in which it is to be used, draped so that the effect of the design when broken up by the folds can be noted. If this is impossible, one can at least gather up a smaller pattern in the hand and see whether the effect is. on the whole, satisfactory. A welldesigned pattern should be improved by draping. Similarly,- when chair covers are j

, being chosen, it is important that a 1 length of the cretonne, which may look delightful hanging in folds in the j shop window, should be well tucked into the seat and arms of a sofa to | enable one to judge its effectiveness without the breaking up of the design j which draping brings about. The robust colouring and rounded forms of some design of fruit and | fiowers wilt be better suited to large, deep-sprung easy chairs or settees of generous size; while some rather meagre pattern of “Adam” inspiration may be just what is wanted for an upright seat of graceful proportions and more classic form. COLOUR OF IMPORTANCE Colour is of infinite importance, but it is just a.s well not to be too determined that only one particular colour will serve. If the right shade of mulberry or yellow is not made in a suitable design, it may be quite possible to get a fabric where the necessary colour is found in the pattern instead of in the ground. Anything is better than a green that is not quite the right green, or a cold slatygrey ground when the paint-work in the room is a soft dove colour. But though we may have decided that a blue-grounded cretonne is the best contrast with a fawn carpet for some sunny sitting-room, if the search for it yields no result, it is possible to turn our colour scheme another way about and to achieve an excellent result with a fabric having a mottled ground of beige, stone colour and brown, and a pattern of Chinese blue vases and Oriental fiowers that introduce the shade needed. With the plain wallpapers or soft distempered shades that are seen in so many interiors today, the relief cf well-patterned cretonnes in bold colourings is often the most important factor in the colour scheme. Sometimes they may form a strong contrast, as in a drawing-room panelled in white where gay Oriental patterns in vivid blues and reds contrast with the background; and sometimes they may echo the prevailing hues of wallpaper and paint, as in a room having an invisibly striped wallpaper in almond green and “flat” paint of the same shade, which may look charming with cretonne covers patterned in an old-fashioned design of pink moss roses strewn upon a ground of soft sea greeu. Walls of fawn-coloured distemper may set off the warm tones of old Spanish mahogany, and in such a scheme it would be effective to use cretonne hangings with a fawncoloured ground patterned in rose colour and mauve, and a plum-coloured carpet.

FIVE-DAY WEEK DRIFT IN U.S. BUILDING TRADE < “From an economic standpoint the i most important current development i in the building industry in this country ! is the rapid drift toward the five-day I week,” states an American firm, S. W. j Straus and Company, in a recent surj vey. “Following its recent-adoption by the 12,000 bricklayers in New York j City, evidence is at hand indicating the ; possibility of the entire industry in the ! metropolis quickly adopting the shortj week schedule.” 1 C. G. Norman, chairman of the board of directors of the New York Building | Trades Employers’ Association, states j that the 150.000 building craftsmen in j New York and immediate suburbs will be on the five-day schedule by January : 1, 1930. This he estimates will add ap- | proximately 40,000,000 dollars, or 4 per ! cent, to New York’s annual ouilding I bill. | It is estimated the adoption nationally of the 40-hour-week schedule would add close to a quarter of a billion dollars to the annual building programme unless greater labour efficiency through mechanical innovations can be developed, and it is the consensus of contractors and builders that this can be accomplished only in part. THE FAVOURITE PIECE

However wide the range of furniture designers, and however many new pieces of furniture they may produce, the popularity of th e gra n df atb e r clock is unassailable. Many of these have stolidly ticked their -way through considerably more than a century, and though a genuine o rand f ath e r is something of a rarity in New Zealand, there are designers who have been able to turn out quite pleasing imitations. The old clocks, however, are possessions to be richly prized. Not only is the appearance of the cases so impressive; the measured ticking adds a dignity all of its own to a cool well-furnished hall.

SEASON’S WALLPAPERS The new season’s English wallpapers, samples of which recently reached Auckland dealers, indicate that colours which for some time past have been anathema, more or less, are to be the vogue for the coming season at least, according to a writer in the “New Zealand Decorator.” Greens and lemons are conspicuous, but there are very few pinks to be seen. The designs also reveal a departure from what we are accustomed to at the. moment, tending more to spray open-pattern styles. Some of the papers @re wonderful in colouring and grouping, and generally the sets are most pleasing in effect.