Such a staircase
adds much to the home-quality of a house.
X
THE DRAWING-ROOM
A drawing-room is the logical place for the elegancies of family life.
The ideal drawing-room, to my mind, contains many comfortable chairs and
sofas, many softly shaded lights by night, and plenty of sunshine by
day, well-balanced mirrors set in simple paneled walls, and any number
of small tables that may be brought out into the room if need be, and an
open fire.
The old idea of the drawing-room was a horrible apartment of stiffness
and formality and discomfort. No wonder it was used only for weddings
and funerals! The modern drawing-room is intended, primarily, as a place
where a hostess may entertain her friends, and it must not be chill and
uninviting, whatever else it may be. It should not be littered up with
personal things--magazines, books and work-baskets and objects that
belong in the living-room--but it welcomes flowers and _objets d'art_,
collections of fans, or miniatures, or graceful mirrors, or old French
prints, or enamels, or porcelains. It should be a place where people may
converse without interruption from the children.
Most houses, even of the smaller sort, have three day rooms--the
dining-room, the parlor and the sitting-room, as they are usually
called. People who appreciate more and more the joy of living have
pulled hall and sitting-room together into one great family meeting
place, leaving a small vestibule, decreased the size of the dining-room
and built in many windows, so that it becomes almost an outdoor room,
and given the parlor a little more dignity and serenity and its right
name--the drawing-room.
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