Budget Home Decorating

Budget Home Decorating

The non-essentials on which we can base an economical style of interior decorating are the things that are either transitory or that are not of real importance or for which the market offers excellent substitutes.

Expensive wall papers are an addition to a room, but they are never an essential, as well designed papers of good stock can be purchased at a very low price. Simple papers are, in the majority of cases, better than those elaborately designed.

Woodwork should be of a sufficiently good design and well painted, but it is never necessary to have a trim of elaborately turned moldings and multitudinous coats of paint. If woodwork is old, it must have sufficient coats of paint to cover the undercolor or imperfections. There is always much satisfaction, especially with men, in well painted woodwork and well finished floors. These are the things men concern themselves with more than the design on a silk curtain. When they are attended to, they feel that the main, underlying foundation of a room has been adequately providedarid they are quite right.

Many essentials have their more economical alternative. There are the curtains. Cretonne, which requires no lining, may be substituted for lined linen or velvet curtains. Silk curtains that reach only to the sill, thus economizing on material and overcoming the necessity of a glass curtainare always in good taste in any room, except one of great formality. Or again, sunfast mercerized may be substituted for silk.

Furniture can be economized on mainly by doing without the non-essential pieces. It is false economy to economize on the quality of a piece. Furniture, particularly upholstered pieces, should be of excellent stock, firmly constructed, upholstered in good South American hair and A i down. Mixed hair, silk floss and second rate down or feathers may cost less, but they give proportionately less wear and comfort. In this, more than in any other purchase for the house, one should bear in mind the advisability of getting the best material. When you buy furniture, go to a reliable store and buy for value. And by "value" I do not mean inflated prices that are caused by such minor accessories of finish as braids, fringe, brasses and inlaid bits of wood.

A boon to budget house furnishing is wicker. It is inexpensive, interchangeable, and can always be bought with the idea of substituting for it something handsome later on.

Buy the big, main pieces, first the large table, the upholstered couch and chairs for the living-room. Three or four little tables cost as much as one large one, and in the end you really have nothing valuable in furnishing qualities. For the bedroom get a well-designed bed with good finish and good mattress and springs. The bed may be mahoganized birch or painted cherry and the springs American wire-woven, but see that the mattress is superior. This is an expensive essential which should not have to be replaced in a decade; in fact, good hair has no wear-out and can always be made over. For the dining-room, get the table and the chairs, if only four, and get them good enough to last a lifetime, even if you have to do without a servant in the meantime. Or, if you have "prospects", buy a simple, inexpensive set that can be painted later on and used in the eating porch.

Economize in all the little things such as sofa cushions, scrap baskets, lamps and shades, bed and table covers. Before you are aware of it these non-essentials will eat up a fabulous sum of your budget. All such little things can be made at home by a sewing woman and you have the satisfaction not only of their inexpensiveness but of their exclusiveness.

Whatever other virtues these small things possess, they must be in keeping with the style of the room and the personality of the occupant. Silly, frumpery lace and silk-beflowered shades in a dignified bedroom where everything is simple, where everything is direct and unaffected, seem dowdy. These accessories must be carefully planned to bring out the color and finesse of a room, for they count as do the little points of etiquette in a personality.

Next Page: Room Color Ideas.