| The world has often turned to Paris for its fashions, | | | | expert painter, wood carver, etc. |
| so it is small wonder that French house furnishings | | | | These French provincial rooms are more livable and |
| should play their part in society. There is sufficient | | | | informal, and have been growing in favor since about |
| variety in styles as distinctive and different as the | | | | 1923. It is never advisable to attempt to design a |
| Henry II and Louis XV to meet all tastes and even | | | | room in any of the French period styles without |
| follow the swing of fashion's pendulum. One point | | | | documentary evidence at hand for reference at |
| must be kept clearly in mind in working in the French | | | | every step. However, a free use of French furniture, |
| periods and that is that they are absolute. The | | | | textiles, wall décor, door toppers, mirrors, |
| successful introduction of anything not French into a | | | | window toppers, candelabras, and other accessories |
| French room, unless it be something Chinese, is such | | | | can be made in modern rooms, and so grouped as to |
| a difficult problem that it is better avoided; while a | | | | meet the daily living conditions of the family, and to |
| few pieces of French furniture can often be happily | | | | be practicable as well as in good taste. |
| accommodated in rooms furnished in other styles. | | | | In such rooms, furniture grouping is of first |
| But, it is not mandatory for the decorator to keep | | | | importance-window groups, lamp-light groups, table |
| each French room in strict period because the periods | | | | groups, fireside groups, or lounging groups, according |
| overlap. While to the purist, curvilinear and rectilinear | | | | to the use of the room. The boudoir, woman's |
| furniture and brick fireplace mantels and shelves are | | | | bedroom, and the room for the young girl are never |
| not properly associated, some very pleasing | | | | more beautifully or luxuriously furnished than when |
| decorative schemes can be worked out by the | | | | some of the elements of French furnishings are |
| combination of such pieces as are not too extreme in | | | | introduced, especially in connection with the draped |
| type. The Louis XV and XVI types frequently | | | | bed, draped dressing table, and chaise lounge. Little |
| overlap, as do the Louis XIV and XV, and the | | | | French tables, commodes, cabinets, tabourets, and |
| Directoire and Empire. | | | | consoles are extremely useful in modern rooms when |
| Even the Louis XVI and Directoire types may be | | | | a little of everything is tastefully assembled. The |
| happily assembled. A perfect French period room | | | | chaise lounge in two or even three sections is an |
| when achieved is really a work of art, but its very | | | | extremely useful and decorative piece of furniture. |
| perfection often makes it so unlivable that it is | | | | The appropriate use of brightly colored leathers and |
| redundant in the modern home unless used in a | | | | Chinese rugs with Louis XV furnishings is not very |
| mansion and a room for occasional use only. It looks | | | | well understood. Leather upholstery in single or |
| palatial and it is meant for a palace. Artists of ability | | | | combined colors was effectively used in that period. |
| are also required to carry out even the smallest | | | | The decorative value of leather combined in canary |
| details of French decorative ornament to avoid | | | | yellow and powder blue, scarlet and lemon yellow, |
| banality. Nothing is more inane than amateurish work | | | | French green and lemon yellow can only be |
| in the French styles and this should always be | | | | appreciated by use. These leathers may either be |
| avoided. The most conscientious attention to detail is | | | | bright colored or antiqued. The use of Chinese rugs in |
| required, like room proportions, wall panel divisions, | | | | appropriate pastel colorings with the addition of |
| moldings, cornices, window and door openings, | | | | lacquer is very suitable especially where the |
| appropriate textiles for upholstery and drapery, all | | | | chinoiscrie element is introduced in wall-papers, |
| accessories, and the furniture and floor coverings. | | | | wooden bar rails, textiles, or screens. |
| None of the decorative styles are more demanding | | | | As a rule the later development of the Louis XV |
| or rigid than the French styles. They are a matter of | | | | style and the styles following are more suitable to |
| thought as well as taste. When completed, they are | | | | modern conditions due to the fact that they are |
| so ceremonious that they almost demand a certain | | | | more consistent with the small rooms that we use |
| elaborate social etiquette, with a good deal of bowing | | | | today. French paneling may be introduced by the |
| and scraping long since abandoned by society, there | | | | application of loose moldings applied to walls that |
| is a strong modern tendency to appropriate the | | | | should be first covered with muslin. French panels are |
| simplified types of French provincial styles used in the | | | | usually made with a 2-inch molding and are vertical in |
| country homes far away from Paris, where local | | | | proportion rather than square or horizontal. The |
| craftsmen followed the Parisian models as well as | | | | spaces between the panels (stiles) are narrow and |
| they could, which means without the artist and the | | | | average from 2 1/2 to 4 inches. |