By Annette J. Warner

The home represents the most intimate environment of the individual. No matter how unconscious of their surroundings persons may seem, their tastes and ideas are affected by the things with which they live continually. Such being the case, the woman who makes it her task to provide for her family significant surroundings, thereby adds to the ordinary experiences of life a real factor of education and enjoyment.

Any rules or discussion on furnishing the home must necessarily be very general, and cannot be conclusive in deciding individual problems. The most that can be done is to review such features and considerations as enter into all questions of home furnishing, hoping thereby to point the way to the solution of the individual problem.

Even in the hands of an experienced person, matters of home furnishing and of decoration require a slow and thoughtful study. There are no shortcuts. No matter how long it takes to make a decision in furnishing, the time spent in so doing is insignificant when compared to the duration of the result. On account of this permanence of furnishings, also, an interior cannot afford to record passing fads, shams and imitations, but should rather express lasting, sincere, and dignified ideas.

The furnishings of the house should be consistent in character with the structural interior. Beamed ceilings, rough plaster walls, and sturdy woodwork are appropriate in a home of the Craftsman style. Such an interior would be a suitable background for mission furniture; it would be incongruous in a house of Colonial style, or as a setting for mahogany furniture.

The house should appear as though it were planned through-out by one person for one locality, one family, one purse. If the house is in a southern latitude, comfort is expressed by large spaces, long vistas, shadows, cool colors, light drapery, few and light-weight rugs and light furniture. If the house is in a northern climate or is used chiefly in winter, comfort is expressed by a large fireplace, warm colorings, large rugs, heavier and richer drapery, and some upholstered furniture. In the city house, space and light are luxuries that must be conserved by every possible means. In the country there are fewer limitations of this sort, but there are varying conditions in the environment of country houses that should influence their treatment.

In general, simplicity of treatment in finish and furnishing preserves the dignity of the house and is always in good taste. An interior should also be fitted to its use in every part, should appear consistent, genuine, and harmonious throughout. The environment can thus be made to typify the qualities to which a family aspires.