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192
The House in Good Taste
·
Elsie De Wolfe
108
XIII
A
LIGHT,
GAY
DINING-ROOM
First
of
all,
I
think
a
dining-room
should
be
light,
and
gay.
The
first
thing
to
be
considered
is
plenty
of
sunshine.
The
next
thing
is
the
planning
of
a
becoming
background
for
the
mistress
of
the
house.
The
room
should
always
be
gay
and
charming
in
color,
but
the
color
should
be
selected
with
due
consideration
of
its
becomingness
to
the
hostess.
Every
woman
has
a
right
to
be
pretty
in
her
own
dining-room.
I
do
not
favor
the
dark,
heavy
treatments
and
elaborate
stuff
hangings
which
seem
to
represent
the
taste
of
most
of
the
men
who
go
in
for
decorating
nowadays.
Nine
times
out
of
ten
the
dining-room
seems
to
be
the
gloomiest
room
in
the
house.
I
think
it
should
be
a
place
where
the
family
may
meet
in
gaiety
of
spirit
for
a
pause
in
the
vexatious
happenings
of
the
day.
I
think
light
tones,
gay
wallpapers,
flowers
and
sunshine
are
of
more
importance
than
storied
tapestries
and
heavily
carved
furniture.
These
things
are
all
very
well
for
the
house
that
has
a
small
dining-room
and
a
gala
dining-room
for
formal
occasions
as
well,
but
there
are
few
such
houses.
We
New
Yorkers
have
been
so
accustomed
to
the
gloomy
basement
dining-rooms
of
the
conventional
brown-stone
houses
of
the
late
eighties
we
forgot
how
nice
a
dining-room
can
be.
Even
though
the
city
dining-room
is
now
more
fortunately
placed
in
the
rear
of
the
second
floor
it
is
usually
overshadowed
by
other
houses,
and
can
be
lightened
only
by
skilful
use
of
color
in
curtains,
china,
and
so
forth.
Therefore,
I
think
this
is
the
one
room
in
the
city
house
where
one
can
afford
to
use
a
boldly
decorative
paper.
I
like
very
much
the
Chinese
rice-papers
with
their
broad,
sketchy
decorations
of
birds
and
flowers.
These
papers
are
never
tiresomely
realistic
and
are
always
done
in
very
soft
colors
or
in
soft
shades
of
one
color,
and
while
if
you
analyze
them
they
are
very
fantastic,
the
general
effect
is
as
restful
as
it
is
cheerful.
You
know
you
can
be
most
cheerful
when
you
are
most
rested!
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