Plates 22 and 23 show bedroom furniture of more ornamental forms than the above, which may be used, either plain or decorated, in the choicer rooms. The twins bedsteads at once suggest the remark that every person for every reason should have his or her own bed. They also prompt the observation - applying to other furniture as well as this - that when twin bedsteads are used, eight high posts are apt to give a decidedly "posty" look to the room and that it is better to chose either lower forms or the half-high posts.

Both the stool and the charmingly old-fashioned chair on Plate 23 are designed for dressing-table or desk usage but may well be employed elsewhere.

Much mahogany furniture is manufactured in America, most of it necessarily more expensive than that made in oak, birch and the like, but some of it in combination with gum, as previously described, at moderate figures. Among the latter is the bedroom furniture illustrated in Plates 24-27. Here we have the product of two manufacturers working in an admirable combination, the one making the bedsteads and the other the accompanying pieces. The head-and-foot boards of the bedsteads are of the 5 ply built-up mahogany and these are furnished in the standard sizes of both twin and double width. The first plate shows single examples of twin-bed size and the first reproduction on Plate 25 the twins with low-posts. All are of good style, as are also the day-beds. The remaining plates (26 and 27) illustrate equally good forms of bureau, chiffonier (both open and closed) dressing-table, table-desk, and bench for either of the last two. It will be noted that the bureau and dressing-table may be had with mirrors of two forms, as preferred. The pieces are otherwise the same in size and detail. Simple decorated furniture is also illustrated in Plate 28.

PLATE 21. BUFFET. Height, 36 in. Top, 48 x 18 in.

TABLE. Height, 29 in. Top, 54 x 44 in.

CHAIR. Height, 15 in Seat, 18 x 17 in.

COTTAGE CHAIR, Height, 33 in Seat, 16 x 14 in.

In Japanese Decorated Finish and also in Old Mahogany Finish.

Manufactured by Stickley Bros. Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.

PLATE 22. ENAMELLED AND DECORATED BEDROOM FURNITURE.

Manufactured and Sold by William Leavens & Co., Inc., Boston, Mass.

PLATE 23. ENAMELLED AND DECORATED BEDROOM FURNITURE, CONTINUED.

Manufactured and Sold by William Leaven & Co., Inc., Boston, Mass.

PLATE 24. FOUR POST BEDS WITH HIGH AND LOW POSTS.

The bedroom furniture on Plates 26 and 27 is made to accompany these beds.

Manufactured by Foote-Reynolds Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.

PLATE 25. LOW-POST TWIN BEDS AND DAY BEDS.

Manufactured by Foote-Reynolds Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.

PLATE 26. BUREAUS AND CHIFFONIER ACCOMPANYING BEDS ON PLATE.

Manufactured by Davies-Putnam Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.

24 Bureau, top 44 x 21 inches with either glass Chiffonier, top 36 x 21, height 49 inches.

PLATE 27. DRESSING-TABLES, DESK, AND BENCH FOR BOTH. ACCOMPANYING BEDS ON PLATE.

Dressing-table, top 20 x 40 inches, with either glass.

Desk, top 20 x 40 inches.

Bench, top 14 x 22 inches.

This is but a small portion of the furniture readily to be purchased, but even from this it will be evident what a large array of simple, inexpensive furniture - oak, mahogany, enamelled and decorated - is upon the open market in America and at the householder's command. For this Modern method the British tradition of oak rather than mahogany has persisted in that country, doubtless because the continued use of the former wood in its cottages has emphasized the appropriateness of oak for simple interiors. If they are to remain simple it is probably the preferable choice; the supply is greater, there may be a variety in the different stains used in the various rooms, and in America the effect is more unusual because of the almost ubiquitous employment of mahogany in the period furnishing of middle-class houses and apartments. It is however, a matter of personal preference and the reader is free to decide for himself.

If, as may be the case with newly married people, it is felt that the present scheme is to be but temporary and gradually developed, as means allow, into simple period furnishing of the later styles - such as Colonial - then mahogany would be the natural choice. A solid mahogany gate-leg table and a bookcase (Plate 57 shows good examples) should be among the first items purchased for the living room.

PLATE 28. SIMPLE DECORATED FURNITURE SUITABLE FOR EITHER MODERN OR PERIOD USE BRITISH FURNITURE.

By Courtesy of A. L. Diament & Co., Philadelphia and New York.

Those of any nationality will find much of value here, both in furniture and decoration, and it already has been said that it is unnecessary to stress the desirability of a mutual knowledge, sympathy and co-operation between countries so closely united by every tie as Great Britain and America.

In England the need was felt both for schemes of decoration and the required furniture and furnishings to meet the demand for very simple and inexpensive yet beautiful homes, grown especially insistent since the great war. Mr. Percy A. Wells, Head of the Cabinet-making department of the Shoreditch Technical Institute, London, had designed furniture for a Government Cottage, much of which had been made for the "Housing Schemes" about the country. He also proceeded with the devising of "Other furniture, still of a simple and intensely practical character but on a different plane, and through his kindness and that of the manufacturers a substantial display of these interesting painted pieces is shown. For here we have a pioneer combination of business-house, artist and craftsman-designer. Messrs. Oetzmann &; Company, Ltd. erected two bungalow cottages at their premises in Tottenham Court Road, here this furniture was displayed, and the colour-schemes were designed by and carried out under the personal direction of Mr. Hall Thorpe, R. B. A. By his courtesy joined with that of Messrs. Oetzmann, a colour-plate is given of the living-room of one of these cottages (Plate 29). Pattern is here dispensed with and colour relied upon for decoration. The colour-scheme is built up upon the floor, which throughout the cottage is covered with plain grey hair-carpet or felt. The body-colour of the furniture is likewise grey, and ft is these large surfaces, uniform in each room which give cohesion to the scheme. In the living-room the walls also are grey, but in other rooms there is a variation both in the wall-colour and that selected for the "trim" of the furniture. In one of the bedrooms, for instance, the wall surface is primrose and the picture-rail and mouldings picked out with mauve, the furniture being decorated in grey and mauve to harmonise. The remaining rooms of this cottage are treated on the same principles and are equally charming. The same idea can be developed in any number of combinations to suit the individual taste. In one of the rooms in the other cottage the carpet is light brown and the furniture also brown, picked out with orange lines and chamfers. Where this method is provided for by such an able designer as Mr. Thorpe it is sure to be successful; it seems also to be possible of carrying out by an intelligent home-furnisher, though possibly he might find his decoration easier to manage if the walls were kept of a uniform tone throughout.

PLATE 29. AN ENGLISH COTTAGE LIVING-ROOM IN MODERN STYLE.

Decorative Scheme by Hall Thorpe, R.B.A., Furniture designed by Percy A. Wells.

Executed by Oetzmann & Co., Ltd., all of London.