January 01, 1931

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

Detroit, Michigan, United States

A Beauty in the Home column describing a home and kitchen shelves.

Beauty in the Home
By Edith Crumb
This department seeks to give assistance to all who are interested in beautifying their homes and will be glad to answer questions pertaining to interior decoration. In order to serve all who seek advice promptly no more than three problems will be discussed in any one reply. Readers are invited to write to this department as often as thy wish, but limit each letter to three questions. State your questions clearly, write only on one side of the paper, enclosing a self addressed stamped envelope and address Beauty in the Home Department, Detroit News. Letters with their answers will be published for the benefit of all homemakers, but names and addresses will not be made public.

The vogue for Colonial atmosphere in the typical home of today calls for much care in the selection of furnishings if the simple charm of the early American fireside is to be achieved.

The choice of the major furnishings has been much simplified. A gate leg table or a butterfly, a ladder chair or a Windsor, a secretary or a spinet desk may be selected from well styled and authentic reproductions and will be quite at home with any treasured antiques.

It rests with the accessories, however, to achieve the final touch. They must be consistent throughout, or the entire effect of the room is lost. Pewter vessels and blue Willow ward on the shelves, hooked ruffs, a banjo clock, a fared sampler will all help the achieve an interior of distinction.

Pictures must be carefully chosen. The shops are now showing excellent copies and the rare Currier and Ives prints and one of these, framed in dark wood or maple, may be hung to advantage. Silhouettes in square or oval frames, are also good.
Curtains constitute an insisted problem of the colonial Home. Recently there have appeared new patterns in lace curtains designed to carry out the simple Colonial home. Recently there have appeared new patters in lace curtains designed to carry our simple Colonial home atmosphere. An authority on early American antiques is said to have created the designs from his own recollection of old samplers.

They are all in natural color suggestively of the real unbleached linens, of old, and combine effectively with over draperies of chintz, cretonne, or toile. Chintz, however, is just a bit smarter, particularly in the new semi glazed finish.

Kitchen Shelves
A friend of mine gave me a three tiered book shelf for Christmas, but it is not in a color which can be used in the living room. It really is just the right shade for the kitchen, but I do not know what to put on it if I use it out there. What would you suggest?
Mrs. O.K.M

By all means put that shelf in the kitchen, and you will wonders how you ever got along without it. It will not only be very handy, but very attractive.

If you have wall space over the kitchen table place it there and on one shelf put your cook books, an another shelf a row of spice cans and on the top one the clock and a small pair of candlesticks. IF you do not have enough books to fill one shelf, some gay bits of pottery may be placed with these.

Hall Carpet
Do you think it would be practical to have our hallway covered entirely with Wilton carpeting, or do you think that small sized Oriental rugs would be a wiser choice?
There is a vestibule which leads into this hall so there is not so much wear on the floor covering as in a house where the front steps lead directly into the hall.
Mrs. L.M.F

If your hallway is small and you wish it to have a more spacious appearance, covering the floor to the baseboard will give it this effect, and inasmuch as you have a vestibule the carper will be saved somewhat.
However, it would be wise to select a plain carpet in a color which would make a good background for a small sized Oriental rug to have directly in front to the door, for this may be cleaned and replaced very easily, thus saving the large floor covering a great deal of wear.

Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.