MOVABLE SCREENS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 September 1940, Page 8

MOVABLE SCREENS

FOR THE MODERN HOME. Movable screens, plain or fancy, are being used in big or small rooms for a variety of purposes. In low-priced homes, where the living room may at meal-time be used as a dining-room, a screen is used to separate the dining table and other dining pieces from the rest of the living room. If the dining area is in a dinette or alcove, the screen is even more successful as a wall to close off this view from the living room, when the dining area is not being used. In many of the older homes where a dining room opens off the living room, screens are displacing the old portieres. This is effective in’ the small five-room house. Both living room and dining room in this type are usually medium-sized or small. Thus when, the dining room is in use, the screen can be folded away to aid in giving increased space for diners. Another use for a screen is to carry out a colour scheme or period. Screens may be plain, in fabric or wood, or they may be exquisitely painted or “handcrafted.” This artistic use is a direct descendant of the function of a bamboo screen of a thousand years ago to give privacy to a Chinese Emperor at dinner. Two strictly utilitarian uses are: To reflect light in an otherwise dingy part of a room; and to hide some unblending feature of a room. Some very interesting four fold screens from the Philippines have become popular for country places, and for informal rooms of city homes. They are very light, yet substantial, for the frames are bamboo, and filled with plaited bamboo strips half an inch or more in width.