Valance boards across the tops of the windows often will give a room just that touch of distinction necessary to raise it above the commonplace (Figs. 14 and 15). The advantage of a wooden or wallboard valance is that it is easily cleaned, the colors may be retouched, and it outwears a textile valance. It also conceals unsightly curtain rods.

Fig.14.-A graceful painted board in the early American character la shown at the left; curved corners are the distinguishing feature of the other design.

The sketches in Fig. 16 will suggest ways of varying the designs of any valances you make so that they will express your own taste in line, mass, and color, and give the individuality that is of paramount importance in all matters of home decoration.

Fig. 15. - Both the valance and draperies in this charming room are matched in respect to their background color.

These valances are just as effective in houses and apartments in our country today as they were in the Colonial mansions of the early Eighteenth Century. One of the most charming customs was the use of painted valances for windows and for four-poster beds.

A bedroom with original Eighteenth Century furnishings was exhibited recently. It had graceful, colorful wooden valances for the windows and also a four-poster bed valance to match. The color scheme was rose and gray-blue and yellow on an old ivory background tone. Music was the motif, or idea, for the center design of the window valances an oblong medallion formed of a group of three musical instruments combined with an open book of music. The end boards of the valances, which were fastened against the wall at either side of the windows, were made with graceful curved surfaces. The window and four-poster bed draperies were of block-printed muslin in a light and dark red on an ivory white background similar to the very popular toile de Jouey handprinted cloth.

The valance boards give a crowning touch of elegance to modern rooms and heighten the charm and color of window draperies, whether used in living rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, or breakfast rooms.

Fig. 16. - Eight valances that suggest the man; ways in which designs may be developed. The first two motifs are in raised gesso work ; the other boards are textile covered, painted, or decorated with transfers.

A wooden valance does not need to be exactly the color of the woodwork of a room, but its background tone should harmonize either with the drapery color scheme or with the walls.

First find the exact over-all width of your windows. To this add 1½ in. to allow ¾in.on each end for the bracket or end pieces, which are screwed against the outside of the casing (Fig. 17). These valances are usually about 9 in. deep. "When more than one valance board from the same pattern is required, always start with the broadest window and diminish the pattern for the smaller windows.

Fig. 17. - Rear view of a wooden valance board with the curtain rod in place.

Woods that are good for these valances are white pine, gum, yellow poplar, maple and birch. Thoroughly seasoned and kiln dried stock should be obtained from a lumber company or your carpenter or cabinetmaker. White pine is especially good for staining in an antique tone and waxing; it is a wood much associated with Colonial interiors.

Fiber wall board is readily adaptable to the making of window valances or cornices and has the advantage of being light and very easy to cut. The edges must be sandpapered and treated with shellac to insure a neat appearance when finished.

The tools necessary, if you use wood, are a keyhole or compass saw (or a turning saw), an ordinary handsaw, a small plane, a rasp or wood file, and plenty of sandpaper. A spokeshave also is an aid for smoothing curves, and often several large sized auger bits or an expansive bit can be used to advantage.

Cut your board first in a rectangular shape the length and depth desired. It is a good plan to allow about 1/8 in. extra all around for planing and sandpapering.

Find the center of your board and place the pattern on the center line. Working toward the right-hand end, thumb-tack your pattern to the board and trace it carefully. Then remove your pattern, reverse it and mark the other half of the board.

In sawing keep about 1/8 in. outside the outline. Use a wood file or spokeshave to remove the rough edges and finish with sandpaper.

Two end pieces are required for each valance board; these usually are 4 in. in depth. These are nailed or screwed to each end of the valance boards and the whole is then ready to be screwed to the upper outside trim of the window after finishing. A rod for curtains may be screwed to the inside of the end pieces 2 in. above the lower edge.

An attractive guest bedroom in one English style suburban home has wooden window valances used with an especially finished effect. They hold a group of two windows on opposite sides of the room in harmony, one valance being used over each group. The shape is a plain rectangle with a raised molding - a triple line of gesso - slightly gilded. The background color is old ivory, on which are painted flat flower designs, one in the center and one toward each end.

Making valance boards is something women can do as well as men. Two examples of what can be accomplished in this way by women came recently to the writer's attention. In the first case, a bride had desired a window valance of wood painted to match her breakfast room. She copied an early American valance with a slightly curved lower edge. After the valance board had gone through the preliminary process of sawing and preparation for painting, she painted the background with peacock blue lacquer. Then, after using two coats of lacquer and allowing the last to dry overnight, she transferred a floral design by coating the back of her tracing paper with white chalk and tracing over the lines with a medium hard lead pencil.

The design formed an oval medallion, 10 in. long.

In the second case, a pair of valances was made by a girl of sixteen for her room. She planned her boards for two single windows on opposite walls, one window being narrower than the other, thus requiring different sized boards. She painted the background tone a light gray-blue enamel to match the background of her draperies. She used three thin coats of enamel, after having first applied a good liquid filler or varnish. As enamels are apt to become marked unless perfectly dry, she waited a day for each coat to dry, and then several days after the last before she transferred her design on the board and painted it in gay colors.

Pictures of distinguished people mentioned in the early history of our country may be cut out, silhouette fashion, and painted black with opaque water-color paints, or may be traced from old papers and painted black. These paper designs are glued to the center of the valance boards after a background tone has been painted. Then a decorative border of black may be painted around them so that the effect is like an old miniature medallion painted on wood. The whole surface of the valance should receive a flat coat of white shellac or of transparent varnish afterward.

One charming French wood valance in a blue-and-ivory bedroom has rounded corners representing the Greek acanthus leaf; this is carved and gilded in relief. Five-sided oblongs are repeated with a notched effect along the lower edge of the valance. Light blue-green silk over-draperies fall in graceful folds to the floor.

Gay colored birds may be cut from wall paper or curtain material and applied as a decoration.

Designs worked out with a keyhole saw are quite effective, as their height above one's eye level in a room makes them resemble open lacelike patterns in old architectural wood carvings. A stock molding may often be used for the upper edge of the valance as a good decorative finish. If one has skill as a craftsman and cares to make his wood valance a more elaborate affair, he may carve and stain it, using gumwood, oak or white pine.