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Show WOMAN'S WORLD Good Room Arrangements Please; Offer Liveability Summer Stole Fashion f ? , I 1 - J I : ' : - .j ' ' ' . .1 By Ertta Haley THE way in' which you arrange the furniture in your living room has much to do with whether you want to spend time in it, and also wheth-: wheth-: er it's attractive. Good arrangement is dictated by common sense and liveability. If 'you feel that almost everyone has furniture arranged in a traditional pattern, it's because accepted 1 styles have been time-tested for popularity, comfort and convenience. conven-ience. Large pieces just naturally go against the walls. Who wants to : clutter and crowd the middle of the jroom with them? The desk doesn't belong in a dark corner. Who ! would want to sit at it and write? Sofas and chairs are usually grouped together. It's only natural to have them so if you have a group of people who want to talk to each other, and not all the way across the room. Easy chairs, on the other hand, are usually placed in a corner by themselves. This- gives a secluded corner because this chair is used for reading and relaxing, and this is done alone. Convenience, however, Is not enough If you want a room to be thoroughly pleasing, see that you have one single grouping or a focal point which is so interesting it cannot can-not be missed. Focal points in the room give zest to convenient arrangements: they're like the seasonings in food, essential, for full enjoyment. Sometimes rooms have their focal fo-cal points already in them. Take for example, the living room with a Use an Upright Piece For Center of Interest A room need not have a fireplace fire-place with a mantel for the room to be interesting, or to have a center cen-ter of interest. A fireplace has architectural quality, and is also an upright, so it's only natural for it to be used as the main point of interest. in-terest. An upright because its breaks uninteresting un-interesting expanse of wall space is essential. This might be a floor to ceiling bookcase, wide enough to fill almost the whole wall. Against this might be placed a comfortable grouping, a sofa set against the bookcase, a coffee table in front of the sofa, and chairs to either side of the coffee table. Something like this immediately draws a person per-son to sit down, relax and be comfortable. com-fortable. Groups of windows or a large picture window, can be the center of interest by day. If a large window win-dow such as this has small shelves of glass which could be utilized for plants or a collection of various colored glass vases and containers, so much the better. Picture windows or a group of smaller windows, which are to be the center of interest, can be interesting in-teresting in the evening, too, if they have the proper drapes. The material ma-terial should be attractive, and the drapes made full and luxurious, floor length, so that when drawn, they . will be a decorative asset. How to Create Balance In Living Rooms If you feel strangely uncomfortable uncomfort-able in a room, look at it carefully to find out why. Perhaps it does not have the proper balance. A mantel at the end of a room should be balanced on the opposite wall by a bookcase or a table and chair grouping. This will give the proper sense of balance to the room, and also make it acceptable dec-oratively, dec-oratively, and at the same time more liveable. Table and one or two chair grouping group-ing at the opposite end invites a single party or two people who want to talk by themselves, away from the crowd which would naturally gather at the fireplace. A mantel on the long side of the room is well balanced by a sofa on the opposite wall. In this case the fireplace would probably carry only two chairs to either side, with possibly pos-sibly a small low table in the center, cen-ter, or not as desired. If you place a sofa at right angles to tift fireplace, be certain to place two heavy chairs right across from it. If the wall against which the chairs are placed has a window or two, one chair will be sufficient as the upright of the window will help to give balance. Desks can be placed in-between the two windows to help balance the wall on the other side, and at the same time give good light at the desk. Pianos or spinets are usually placed against the wall which has no window so 'as to be away from a draft which is harmful to the instrument. in-strument. Have Furniture Scaled To Room Size All of us have been In roomi which seemed too crowded althougl they really didn't have much furniture fur-niture in them after it was counted. What was wrong? The furniture was too big for the room. "But I can't go out and buy furniture," fur-niture," you say. There are other ways to do it, and still keep the room in as good scale as can be achieved. First, place all large furniture against the walls and keep the center of the room free. This makes for a spaciousness and air of comfort. India print cotton is used by a New York designer for this pretty little party dress with a stole to cover or uncover the shoulders. The colorful fabrio Is designed in green, lavendar and white to the deep and darker dark-er border, blending red with green and white. Boning shapes the bodice to the figure. wall above them. Should the room be small, a mirror above the mantel is excellent decorative treatment. If a smaller mirror is used, it might be framed by two or three small prints on either side. Any collector's items are ideal for a mantel, or if that is narrow, then a hanging shelf arrangement would be good on the wall. If you haven't started collecting, why not start now with sea shells, ten-cent store animals, miniature vases, bottles or dishes or just small amusing objects? ob-jects? "Treasure" plates from your collection col-lection which are too large to put on a hanging shelf, could be hung on the wall above the mantel in an interesting arrangement. Ugly mantels can usually be torn out easily enough, and new attrac- lltflffla ti a M Make your rooms attractive ... fireplace. It's only sensible that this should be the main center of interest in-terest in the room. How to Make Room With Mantel Interesting: If your room has a fireplace and a mantel over it, as they usually do, it's easy to make the room interesting. inter-esting. Here is a natural place for all sorts of objects that can be conversation-creating and Interest-stimulating. Interest-stimulating. Your own individual hobbies may be the means of arranging the mantel man-tel properly. What about an heirloom heir-loom clock and a collection of copper, cop-per, brass or pewter? Here the room can reflect your tastes and interests, inter-ests, and thus give it character, as well as clues to your personality. Small, narrow mantels which do not hold much on the ledge can be used by placing something on the with a center of interest. tive ones built by a carpenter Installed In-stalled to replace them. Keep the mantel suitable to the type of fireplace fire-place as well as to the room itself so that the feeling of unity is not destroyed. |