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192
The House in Good Taste
·
Elsie De Wolfe
16
This
is
what
I
am
always
fighting
in
people's
houses,
the
unsuitability
of
things.
The
foolish
woman
goes
about
from
shop
to
shop
and
buys
as
her
fancy
directs.
She
sees
something
"pretty"
and
buys
it,
though
it
has
no
reference
either
in
form
or
color
to
the
scheme
of
her
house.
Haven't
you
been
in
rooms
where
there
was
a
jumble
of
mission
furniture,
satinwood,
fine
old
mahogany
and
gilt-legged
chairs?
And
it
is
the
same
with
color.
A
woman
says,
"Oh,
I
love
blue,
let's
have
blue!"
regardless
of
the
exposure
of
her
room
and
the
furnishings
she
has
already
collected.
And
then
when
she
has
treated
each
one
of
her
rooms
in
a
different
color,
and
with
a
different
floor
covering,
she
wonders
why
she
is
always
fretted
in
going
from
one
room
to
another.
Don't
go
about
the
furnishing
of
your
house
with
the
idea
that
you
must
select
the
furniture
of
some
one
period
and
stick
to
that.
It
isn't
at
all
necessary.
There
are
old
English
chairs
and
tables
of
the
Sixteenth
and
Seventeenth
Centuries
that
fit
into
our
quiet,
spacious
Twentieth
Century
country
homes.
Lines
and
fabrics
and
woods
are
the
things
to
be
compared.
There
are
so
many
beautiful
things
that
have
come
to
us
from
other
times
that
it
should
be
easy
to
make
our
homes
beautiful,
but
I
have
seen
what
I
can
best
describe
as
apoplectic
chairs
whose
legs
were
fashioned
like
aquatic
plants;
tables
upheld
by
tortured
naked
women;
lighting
fixtures
in
the
form
of
tassels,
and
such
horrors,
in
many
houses
of
to-day
under
the
guise
of
being
"authentic
period
furniture."
Only
a
connoisseur
can
ever
hope
to
know
about
the
furniture
of
every
period,
but
all
of
us
can
easily
learn
the
ear-marks
of
the
furniture
that
is
suited
to
our
homes.
I
shan't
talk
about
ear-marks
here,
however,
because
dozens
of
collectors
have
compiled
excellent
books
that
tell
you
all
about
curves
and
lines
and
grain-of-wood
and
worm-holes.
My
business
is
to
persuade
you
to
use
your
graceful
French
sofas
and
your
simple
rush
bottom
New
England
chairs
in
different
rooms--in
other
words,
to
preach
to
you
the
beauty
of
suitability.
Suitability!
Suitability!
SUITABILITY!!
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