FURNITURE Furniture should be chosen for sim plicity and durability. The most simple designs are usually the most artistic, and the most durable arti cles are likely to be the most san itary. Quiet and subdued colors and dull finishes are the most restful and generally satisfactory, although the high polish of such furniture as ma hogany is preferred by many people. To produce a soothing and restful ef fect all the colors in a given room should be in harmony. The artistic quality that makes an article of fur niture an object of beauty as well as of use should be sought in the lines of the design itself, rather than in additions by way of decoration. Cheap furniture stamped with scrolls and other designs in imitation of carving or the torturing of the natural lines of a piece of furniture into various fanciful knobs, curves, and scrolls, sometimes facetiously called " ginger bread," have little to recommend them. The modern Craftsman and Mission styles of furniture indicate a change in the right direction. Not all of these designs are of equal value; but for the most part they are simple, durable, and derive their beauty from their appropriateness and the natural lines on which they are constructed. Dainty white and gold spider-legged furniture has no place except in draw ing-rooms of wealth and extreme con ventionality.
Antique Furnitnre.—The craze for second-hand or antique furniture is, on the whole, rather absurd. Very few persons indeed are able to distin guish a real antique from an imita tion. Dealers in these goods may not only willfully deceive, but are often deceived themselves by persons who have so-called antiques, manufactured in America, shipped abroad and re shipped to this country. The wood is not infrequently given the appearance of age by being buried in the ground, eaten with acids, or riddled with fine shot in imitation of worm holes.
Even the cloth or leather in which the goods are upholstered may be given the effect of wear by mechan ical means, and the whole may be placed on the market by fraud in such a way as to suggest that the articles are heirlooms.
Modern furniture, made on the same models, can be obtained at much low er prices, and is much more satisfac tory than these supposed antiques.
But, as a rule, antique pieces are not desirable unless a room can be fur nished with them and can have all its appointments in harmony with the antique style.
Furnishing.—William Morris says: " Have nothing in your home that, you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." It is a good rule in furnishing a new home to buy first only what is absolutely necessary, and not to buy an article that is not im mediately required because it is beau tiful or cheap, or for any other rea son. After living for a while with only the few articles that are abso lutely necessary, it will be easier to see j ust wha,t is required that will harmonize with the articles already purchased and their surroundings and help to make a satisfactory whole.
Moreover, the longer one lives with out unnecessary furnishings the more he is likely to appreciate the wisdom of simplicity. Every new article pur chased is a new care, and a few ob jects of good quality in a room give a much more elegant effect than a large number of less desirable pieces. Hence there is no reason why any family, whether in the city or the country, cannot furnish their home in a thoroughly modern way that will always be in good taste and will be in good style for many years to come.
Refurnishing.—It would, of course, very rarely happen that a family could afford or would wish to discard serv iceable articles because they are not in good style or good taste according to present fashion. But as such arti cles wear out and have to be replaced, or as additions are made from time to time, it is quite possible to refurnish in such a way that in comparatively few years the entire contents of the home will be modernized. Hence the importance of some knowledge of the subjects of harmony and color, sim plicity, design, and durability in ma terial and in modes.