I gave great attention to the details of this room.  Under the simple mantel shelf there is inset a small panel of blue and white Wedgwood.  On the mantel there are two jars of Chinese porcelain, and between them a bronze jardiniere of the Adam period; four figures holding a shallow, oblong tray, which is filled with flowers.  The lamp on the center-table is made of a hawthorn jar, with a flaring shade.  There are many low tables scattered through the room and beside every chair is a reading-lamp easily adjusted to any angle.  The fireplace fittings are simple old brasses of the Colonial period.  There is only one picture in this room, and that is the portrait of a long gone lady, framed in a carved gilt frame, and hung against the huge wall-mirror which is opposite the fireplace end of the room.

I believe, given plenty of light and air, that comfortable chairs and good tables go further toward making a living-room comfortable than anything else.  In the Harkness living-room you will see this theory proven.  There are chairs and tables of all sizes, from the great sofas to the little footstools, from the huge Italian tables to the little table especially made to hold a few flower pots.  Wherever there is a large table there is a long sofa or a few big chairs; wherever there is a lone chair there is a small table to hold a reading-light, or flowers, or what not.  The great size of the room, the fine English ceiling of modeled plaster, the generous fireplace with its paneled over-mantel, the groups of windows, all these architectural details go far toward making the room a success.  The comfortable chairs and sofas and the ever useful tables do the rest.

So many people ask me:  How shall I furnish my living-room?  What paper shall I use on the walls?  What woodwork and curtains—­and rugs?  One woman asked me what books she should buy!

Your living-room should grow out of the needs of your daily life.  There could be no two living-rooms exactly alike in scheme if they were lived in.  You will have to decide on the wall colors and such things, it is true, but the rest of the room should grow of itself.  You will not make the mistake of using a dark paper of heavy figures if you are going to use many pictures and books, for instance.  You will not use a gay bed-roomy paper covered with flowers and birds.  You will know without being told that your wall colors must be neutral:  that your woodwork must be stained and waxed, or painted some soft tone of your wall color.  Then, let the rugs and curtains and things go until you decide you have to have them.  The room will gradually find itself, though it may take years and heartache and a certain self-confession of inadequacy.  It will express your life, if you use it, so be careful of the life you live in it!

XII

SITTING-ROOM AND BOUDOIR