The custom of acceptable and harmonious treatment of home decorating, interior decorations and appropriate furniture, looks to own been during a great measure abandoned throughout the present century, owing maybe to the indifference of architects of the time to this subsidiary but necessary portion of their work, or maybe to a want for economy, that most well-liked the cheapness of painted and artificially grained pine-wood, with ornamental effects made by wall papers, to the additional solid but expensive though less showy wood-panelling, architectural mouldings, well-made panelled doors and chimney items, that one finds, right down to quite the tip of the last century, even in homes of moderate rentals. Furniture therefore became freelance and "starting to account herself an Art, transgressed her limits"... and "grew to the vanity that it may stand by itself, and, and its betters, went a way of its own."
Interior Conservatory Finishing
The interiors, handed over from the builder, as it were, in blank, are stuffed up from the upholsterer's store, the curiosity look, and the auction area, whereas a massive contribution from the conservatory or the nearest florist gives the finishing touch to a mix, that characterizes the current taste for furnishing a boudoir or a drawing room.
There is, after all, in very many cases an individuality gained by the "omnium gatherum" of such a mode of furnishing. The cabinet which reminds its owner of a tour in Italy, the quaint stool from Tangier, and therefore the embroidered piano cowl from Spain, are to those who travel, pleasant souvenirs; as are also the presents from friends (when they have taste and judgment), the screens and flower-stands, and the images, that are reminiscences of the forms and faces separated from us by distance or death. The check of the full query of such an appointment of furniture in our living rooms, is the quantity of judgment and discretion displayed. Two favorable samples of the present fashion, representing the inside of the Saloon and Drawing Space at Sandringham House, are here reproduced.
How The Gather Inheritance Influenced On The Home Decorations
There is at the present time an ambition on the part of the many well-to-do persons to imitate the result made in houses of old families where, for generations, valuable and memorable articles of decorative furniture have been accumulated, just as footage, plate and china are preserved; and failing the inheritance of such household gods, it is the practice to acquire, or as the modern term goes, "to collect," previous furniture of different styles and periods, till the space becomes incongruous and overcrowded, an evidence of the wealth, instead of of the style, of the owner. Because it frequently happens that such collections are created terribly hastily, and in the temporary intervals of a busy industrial or political life, the choices don't seem to be the simplest or most appropriate; and where thus much is required in a very short area of time, it becomes not possible to devote a sufficient sum of money to acquire a really valuable specimen of the sort desired; instead a good and low priced reproduction of an old pattern (with all the faults inseparable from such conditions) is added to the conglomeration of articles requiring attention, and taking on space.
The limited accommodation of homes designed on ground that is too valuable to permit spacious halls and massive flats, makes this need of discretion and judgment the additional objectionable. There will be little question that need of care and restraint in the choice of furniture, by the buying public, affects its character, both as to style and workmanship.