Drawing Room Furniture, Antique Drawing Rooms Since the drawing room (it originally was the withdrawing room) is used as a place of foregathering at evening parties, little furniture is required. It should be a background for decollete. It is a room of formality, and therefore a reasonably strict adherence to period in decoration and furniture is desirable. If French furniture of Louis XV or XVI period is used, carry out the spirit of that age in the over-mantel which can be a French pay-sanne or bouquet painting. The colorings and fabrics will, of course, be in the same period as the design of the chairs and tables. A Colonial drawing room may be both charmingly and inexpensively created. Gray walls paneled in large spaces with careful furniture arrangement accenting the straight lines gives a restful simplicity. Add a Colonial portrait, preferably of a dainty lady; simple, well wrought, silver lighting fixtures, shaded by rose and apricot silk shields to give the room color. The chairs would be in soft taupe and rose striped damask, and the cushions in rose and apricot. A soft colored Oriental rug of fine pattern and silky texture should lie before the hearth upon a gray carpeting. The fireplace should be of white marble with an inlay of black and apricot marble. This gives the needed strong color note and accents the fireplace. Such pictures as are in the room should have a tiny line of black inside their gray frames. There would be two mahogany tables and as many chairs. Opposite the fireplace, flanking the wide entrance, would be a pair of console tables in leaf green with a design picked out in apricot, rose and tiny lines of black. May it be added that the hostess herself has deep apricot hair and dresses in rose and yellow! I know of a tiny little drawing room in a New York residence that, through a well studied scheme, has been given unusual distinction. It opens from a hall done in plain putty color throughout and opens into a dining-room of green and mulberry, the green predominating. In this attractive drawing room the carpets, the velour hangings and also the furniture coverings are mulberry. The under-curtains are of thin gold gauze. The walls are covered with Japanese tea paper squares, and the woodwork is lacquered with touches of mulberry and gold. No other color is introduced; none is needed. Next Page: Reception Room Furniture. |
