Sash curtains of thin silk, in bright yellows, are always sun-producing, but if you intend using yellows in a room, be careful to do so in combination with browns, greens, greys, or carefully chosen blues, not with reds or magentas.

Try not to mix warm and cold colours when planning your walls.  Grey walls call for dull blue or green curtains; white walls for red or green curtains; cream walls for yellow, brown buff or apple green curtains.  If your room is too cold, warm it up by making your accessories, such as lamp shades, and sofa pillows, of rose or yellow material.

CHAPTER XXXV

SERVANTS’ ROOMS

Whether you expect to arrange for one servant or a dozen, keep in mind the fact that efficiency is dependent upon the conditions under which your manor maid-servant rests as well as works, and that it is as important that the bedroom be attractive as that it be comfortable.

For servants’ rooms it is advised that the matter of furnishing and decorating be a scheme which includes comfort, daintiness and effectiveness on the simplest, least expensive basis, no matter how elaborate the house.  There is a moral principle involved here.  In the case of more than one servant the colour scheme alone needs to be varied, for similar furniture will prevent jealousy among the servants, while at the same time the task of inventing is reduced to the mere multiplying of one room; even the wall paper and chintz being alike in pattern, if different in colour.

The simplest iron beds, or wooden furniture can be painted white or any colour which may be considered more durable.

In maids’ rooms for summer use, a vase provided for flowers is sometimes an incentive to personally contribute a touch of beauty.  That sense of beauty once awakened in a maid does far more than any words on the subject of order and daintiness in her own room or in those of her employer.

CHAPTER XXXVI

TABLE DECORATION

For the young and inexperienced we state a few rules for table decoration.  If you have furnished your dining-room to accord not only with your taste, but the scale upon which you intend living, be careful that the dining-table never strikes a false note, never “gets out of the picture” by becoming too important as to setting or menu.  You may live very formally in your town house and very simply, without any ostentation, in the country, but be sure that in all of your experimenting with table decoration you observe above all the law of appropriateness.