September 14, 1943

Detroit News Quilt History Project; Michigan State University Museum; Susan Salser

Detroit, Michigan, United States

An Edith B. Crumb interior design column.

Ceiling and Walls Papered
Hand-Made Patch Quilts Are Uses ad Bedspreads​
White paper with a small rose and bud design is used for the walls and ceiling of this room which has white woodwork, soft rose ruffled curtains, maple furniture and hand-made quilts used as spreads.
By Edith B. Crumb

Drop ceilings and dormer windows sometimes present a problem in paper hanging. To do away with all questions about where to stop the sides wall paper, the method of covering the ceiling and drop to match the walls gives satisfactory results.

Care should be given to selection of paper, for it should be a design which has no definite direction, such as up and down stripes. A small scattered effect is an ideal choice for the treatment.

One charming room of this type has been covered with white paper with a delicate design of moss roses and buds in rose and green.

The woodwork is white to match the background of the paper and the curtains are of soft rose voile finished with ruffles and draped back with ruffled bands of the same material. These curtains match the softer tint of rose in the paper.

The furniture is maple and for spreads there are hand-made quilts in rose and white, the design being an adaptation of the Nine-Patch which was favorite among early quilters.

An upholstered chair with a covering of quilted rose chintz lends an interesting note to the scheme. The lamps have glass bases of the old oil-burning type, electrified and equipped with simple shades.

A room such as this is an ideal one in which to use quilts for spreads and they may be arranged over pillows or they may be brought up flat beneath the pillows and the pillows covered with shams of plain white percale or a fine quality of linen finished with a row of tucks, a wide hem and finally a ruffle of embroidered muslin or organdie.

In selecting a quilt, the traditional designs should be considered for they are often more in keeping with the scheme than some of the more recent ones.

Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.