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.
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