In some strange way the word boudoir has lost its proper significance.  People generally think of it as a highfalutin’ name for the bedroom, or for a dressing-room, whereas really a proper boudoir is the small personal sitting-room of a woman of many interests.  It began in old France as the private sitting-room of the mistress of the house, a part of the bedroom suite, and it has evolved into a sort of office de luxe where the house mistress spends her precious mornings, plans the routine of her household for the day, writes her letters, interviews her servants, and so forth.  The boudoir has a certain suggestion of intimacy because it is a personal and not a general room, but while it may be used as a lounging-place occasionally, it is also a thoroughly dignified room where a woman may receive her chosen friends when she pleases.  Nothing more ridiculous has ever happened than the vogue of the so-called “boudoir cap,” which is really suited only to one’s bedroom or dressing-room.  Such misnomers lead to a mistaken idea of the real meaning of the word.

Some of the Eighteenth Century boudoirs were extremely small.  I recall one charming little room in an old French house that was barely eight feet by eleven, but it contained a fireplace, two windows, a day bed, one of those graceful desks known as a bonheur du jour, and two arm-chairs.  An extremely symmetrical arrangement of the room gave a sense of order, and order always suggests space.  One wall was broken by the fireplace, the wall spaces on each side of it being paneled with narrow moldings.  The space above the mantel was filled with a mirror.  On the wall opposite the fireplace there was a broad paneling of the same width filled with a mirror from baseboard to ceiling.  In front of this mirror was placed the charming desk.  On each side of the long mirror were two windows exactly opposite the two long panels of the mantel wall.  The two narrow end walls were treated as single panels, the day bed being placed flat against one of them, while the other was broken by a door which led to a little ante-chamber.  Old gilt appliques holding candles flanked both mantel mirror and desk mirror.  Two of those graceful chairs of the Louis Seize period and a small footstool completed the furnishing of this room.

[Illustration:  MISS ANNE MORGAN’S LOUIS XVI.  BOUDOIR]

The boudoir should always be a small room, because in no other way can you gain a sense of intimacy.  Here you may have all the luxury and elegance you like, you may stick to white paint and simple chintzes, or you may indulge your passion for pale-colored silks and lace frills.  Here, of all places, you have a right to express your sense of luxury and comfort.  The boudoir furnishings are borrowed from both bedroom and drawing-room traditions.  There are certain things that are used in the bedroom that would be ridiculous in the drawing-room, and yet are quite at home in the boudoir.  For instance, the chaise-longue is part of the bedroom furnishing in most modern houses, and it may also be used in the boudoir, but in the drawing-room it would be a violation of good taste, because the suggestion of intimacy is too evident.