FOR A COUNTRY HOME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 January 1939, Page 8

FOR A COUNTRY HOME

SOME USEFUL SUGGESTIONS. It is significant that those countries —Germany, Sweden, Finland—which set the tone in contemporary interior decoration are all countries where the tradition of peasant craftsmanship is still very strong. There is thus a great fund of natural good taste and practical, widespread interest in arts and. crafts which, serving as the foundation on which most of the work of professional interior architects is built, has the effect of imposing a salutary restraint.

The average tourist has not an opportunity to enter the houses of peasants and to study there original examples of peasant handiwork. But in every town there will be at least one resort where natives and strangers in search of a spot of local colour may enjoy refreshment in surroundings that speak plainly of local taste and character and tradition.

The materials employed in peasant interiors are of the simplest. Planks of plain varnished wood serve for walls and ceiling. The same wood will do for table and chairs, and if your husband has skill to saw out the comely, lively backs of the chairs,, and to adorn them with a simple painted pattern of flowers and leaves, a legitimate joy and pride in the result will be increased.

A most practical, as well as pleasing, arrangement is that of a solid bench against the wall and enclosing one end and one side of the table. The table itself, if the right air of solid ru,stic ;'comfort is to be achieved, should be massive, with a gosd thick slab of wood for its top and an equally thick, sturdy support, suitably shaped, at either end instead of the customary pair of legs. Colour is lively and unsophisticated, and is evident mainly in hangings and tablecloths —for which a bright check pattern in blues and reds or other striking colours is most pleasing—-and in bright crockery. Apart from the chinaware in common use, bowls and platters and jugs luminous in rich browns, reds, greens, and blues —might serve as ornaments on a narrow shelf at about the height of the ordinary picture rail, or formally arranged (if platters only are used) in a rack above one end of the table. Burnished copper utensils will also fit aptly into the general bright scheme. n

A thing that is all too little appreciated in these dayse is the beauty of scrubbed wood. No one who has dined in a peasant’s cottage or in an ancient tavern in Northern or Central Europe will easily forget the charm of silvery table tops which for years have been scrubbed daily with a hard brush and much sand or sandsoap. Here, then, is another suggestion for your peasant corner (this kind of arrangement will be found to fit best into an alcove, especially one with a wide window on one side).

Even if you prefer to use a cloth for meals, the clean, scrubbed brightness of a plain table top will greatly increase the charm of the picture and also its verisimilitude at other times. For this purpose it is best to choose a light wood—pine is excellent —for only thus can the right silvery sheen be obtained.