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Show American Home Design Goes Modern ( SV. - .bd (-. .; J t" a I ? ? t 'f 11 ? , i hL ' - ' - 1 Innovations in furniture and housewares await an expected buying wave without precedent since the boom years. Some of the features of the annual winter wholesale markets at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago: Chi-cago: Candlesticks fashioned after the old chimney lamp; mirror designs that go 'round and 'round; streamlined irons with heat graduations marked for the kind of cloth to be ironed, and wringers through which you can run even a watch with perfect safety. By WILLIAM C. UTLEY THE American home is going "modern." It is right now 011 the verge of a wave of buying tliat Is to reveal a new beauty in household articles and a new functional philosophy of design in furnishings from living room to kitchen, from basement to attic. Such Is the impression everywhere every-where apparent this year in the several great wholesale furniture and housewares markets conducted annually in the wholesale centers of the United States in January. In these markets there are actually actu-ally twice as many buyers as there were last year acquiring stocks for the retail trade. There is little or none of the quibbling over prices which characterized such markets during the lean years after I!2!). Such buying could be laid to two reasons, although it Is impossible to say in what degree to either one: That times are actually better, and that the depreciation during years of depression in the American home is no longer to be denied. At nny rate, manufacturers, believing that the turn has come, have seized upon the WHO markets as the opportunity for concentration of new ideas, and for the Introduction of tempered solidification of trends that, in the extreme forms by which we knew them a few years ago, were little more lhan bizarre novelties. Preview of 1936 Homes. Although the wholesale markets are not open to the public, the merchandise mer-chandise that is shown and bought In them offers an interesting preview pre-view of forces that will inliui'iice the American home in the months to come, it is therefore the purpose of this article to set down the trends as accurately as they may be Interpreted by the lay observer. Most of the information has been culled from the markets in Chicago's Chi-cago's wholesale city under one roof, the Merchandise Mart, where nearly a million anil a half square feet of floor spare has been occupied by them. Krom the nightmare of weirdly cubic and geometrically uncomfortable uncomfort-able ''modernistic" furniture that was fantastic to look at, even more fantastic to sit on, In pent houses paid for Willi the paper prolils of the boom years, has emerged a new "period" furniture that belongs definitely def-initely to the era of recovery. It is known In the trade as "modern." liuyors estimate that SO per cent of the now furniture shown to the retail trade this year will be "modern." "mod-ern." It makes use of the simple straight lines and departure from elaborate ornamentation that characterized char-acterized the "modernistic" pieces of a few years back. It stimulates the eye, but not to the point where It leaves yon willi an artistic hangover. hang-over. A room full of It does not look like a jigsaw puzzle waiting to be lilted together. It is holti com fortable and pracl leal. In the opinion of K. ,7. YVorniley, one of the most noted of contemporary contem-porary designers, the simplicity of "modern" furniture makes its manufacture manu-facture for selling to Hie middle and low-priced trade possible, and therefore there-fore will have a profound effect upon the average homo. Furniture to Be "Styled." 'Teople who bought furniture In these price classes used to buy a suite of walnut or oak or mahogany, simply because it looked pretty," said Mr. W'ormley. "Consequently their homes were conglomerat ions of many styles without rhyme or reason. rea-son. Now these same people can obtain definitely styled furniture. I venture to say that f0 per cent of the furniture bought this year will be definitely styled for seme particular par-ticular application." America prefers blonds this year at least in furniture woods, ac-coriiiiiR ac-coriiiiiR to Mr. W'ormley. Most inomlnrnt In Hie markets are bleached mahogany, nutwood, acacia, aca-cia, aspen, English harewood, and other light woods. Upholstery and leather coverings are seen in pastel shades. Wool and rough, fur-like fabrics are much in evidence, one of the most popular coverings being be-ing of a material that looks and feels like caracul. Always the new furniture looks first to comfort and practicability. The sharp corners of "modern" furniture fur-niture are gone now, and more pleasing rounded ones have taken their place. Eor homes where space is important, the come-apart sofa which breaks down into three comfortable chairs is being seen more and more. "Modern" in Bedroom. More than anywhere else the "modern" note is evident in bedroom bed-room furniture, which is now extremely ex-tremely simple in design. There are striking applications of English hardwood, prima vera and myrtle wood.- Rut perhaps the most notable nota-ble trend is that of bedroom glassware. glass-ware. - Modern mirrors, like modern music, are "going 'round and 'round." Everywhere are round, unframed mirrors, much larger than before. With repeal of prohibition has come a new article of furniture, the cellarette. This is a sort of traveling travel-ing bar, containing glasses of various vari-ous kinds, shakers, ice-howls and bartenders' tools. The cellarettes fold up info oilier pieces of furniture, furni-ture, such as radios, desks and bookcases, when not in use. Perhaps Per-haps the niosl unusual not to say incongruous combination was a sewing machine which could be turned into a fully equipped cellarette cellar-ette al a moment's notice. Asked where in the house a cellarette cel-larette could he placed to tiie greatest great-est advantage, one exhibitor replied that he had his in his "rumpus" room and never hatted an eye. To the parlor, bedroom and bath trade Ibis was something of a jolt, but the dictionary revealed that "rumpus" "rum-pus" meant "disturbance; wrangle; row." If you must have these things it is probably a good idea to have a separate room for them, and maybe a cellarelte would help. Floor coverings this year have relinquished re-linquished the large, gay patterns, and have shown up in more small patterns anil plain colors. Linen Rugs Are New. Among Hie1 new departures were rugs and carpets of linen and linen-and-cotton, which are practically fireproof ;inii moist ureproof. Also (here are reversible lloor coverings, containing a distinct anil different pattern on each side, which can change the character of a room if the rug is turned over. Texture weave rugs that look very rough, some of them like homespun, but are not really that way, were shown. Manufacturers of housewares, it is said at fhe markets, have laid low during the depression yonrs and. rather than spend a great deal of money on sales promoiion when there was little chance for large volume sales, directed their efforts to the lield of research, anil now that the tide has turned, or shows signs of turning, are releasing many new perfections of household utensils. uten-sils. Two facts may be said to be true about these: They have fallen Into the present-day fashion of streamlining to the "nth" degree; and they are characterized by the ultimate in fiinctionalism In design. While the modern streamlining gives them a new unusual beauty, the insistence in-sistence on functionalist!! assures that this beauty of design will help to increase the efficiency of a utensil, uten-sil, rather than detract from it. An example of both the new characteristics char-acteristics was a chrome pitcher shaped like the funnel of the Nor-inandie. Nor-inandie. Asked just why n pitcher, of all things. SIIiiri.lt be shaped like the funnel of the Norinandie. the manufacturer's representative explained. "Yhy. so it will puiir 1 better." If you can follow that (this wrfter couldn't) you will be Interested Inter-ested to know that he also said. "It can pour through the eye of a needle." The pitcher was one piece in a matched set of utensils. That Is one of the big things about utensils uten-sils now. They come in matched sets. And in Cite most vivid pastel pas-tel shades; you can fry herring (DO you fry herring?) in a frying pan of shell pink or Alice blue. Cooking at the Table. For years the electrical appliance appli-ance manufacturers' and the public utilities have been trying to "educate" "edu-cate" the public into cooking right at the table, and this trend is more plainly to be seen this yea? than ever. There are chrome plated ovens that plug into any outlet, electric tea kettles with trigger spouts, and all sorts of new gadgets gad-gets for table use. One of the most practical is a device which keeps dishes warm, without overheating over-heating them, until they are ready to be served; one variation of this idea will also keep cold dishes cold in hot weather. There are toasters now which ring bells, light signal lights and in other ways warn you that the toast is ready; they do everything but scrape the toast. To use in cooking right on the range are some more articulate affairs. af-fairs. There is a tea kettle which sings when the water boils. And an egg cooker (they say eggs should be cooked, not boiled boiling makes them tough) with a baby chick sitting on top of it; the chick peeps wdien the eggs are ready. Manufacturers of cooking ranges have discovered that when all the burners are located in a square on one side of the range the housewife house-wife has to reach over a front burner to attend to anything on a rear burner. So the 193G range will have two burners on each side, will! a table top in between, or four burners at the back of the range, with the table top in front. Streamlining has reached even electric irons. And this year tliey will have several graduations of beat, as before, but instead of being be-ing marked Hot, Medium and Warm, these graduations will be plainly marked with the kind of materials for which they are used: Linens. Woolens, Silks, etc. Streamlining is by no means the .only feature the 19315 vacuum cleaner has borrowed from the automobile. au-tomobile. It. has headlights, gear shift and even Moating power, with the mechanism cradled in vibralion-less vibralion-less mountings. And talk about pickup! It's in the bag. Some More Trick Gadgets. There are other innovations, too numerous to catalogue here, awaiting await-ing the 1fl:;0 liiuneinaker. Among them are card tables that won't tip if a 2N pounder stands right on Ibe edge of them; washing machines ma-chines with wringers through which il is safe to run a 21 jewel watch (not MY watch, thank you) ; an electric percolator with a dial device de-vice for weak, medium or strong coffee; a heat-regulator frying pan gmiranted not to burn or scorch food, and a cooker in which yon can cook onions, chocolate pudding, pud-ding, cauliflower, chicken and last night's potatoes, all at once, without with-out having any of the tastes or odors mixed. Or, you can simply cook hash. The lamp markets presented so many Individual styles produced by different manufacturers that it Is difficult to pick any definite trends from them. Here are a couple of random tips, though: Shades of rough, coarse-woven fabrics will be good, as will parchment shades with designs punched in them. And to conclude on a happy note: For the bathtub vocalist recnL'ni-(ion recnL'ni-(ion at last! The new shower curtains cur-tains have the music printed rij.1-' on them. i WL'slern Newspaper Unlof. |