Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
192
The House in Good Taste
·
Elsie De Wolfe
60
My
greatest
difficulty
in
introducing
chintzes
here
was
to
convert
women
who
loved
their
plush
and
satin
draperies
to
a
simpler
fabric.
They
were
unwilling
to
give
up
the
glories
they
knew
for
the
charms
they
knew
not.
I
convinced
them
by
showing
them
results!
My
first
large
commission
was
the
Colony
Club,
and
I
used
chintzes
throughout
the
Club:
Chintzes
of
cool
grapes
and
leaves
in
the
roof
garden,
hand-blocked
linens
of
many
soft
colors
in
the
reading-room,
rose-sprigged
and
English
posy
designs
in
the
bedrooms,
and
so
on
throughout
the
building.
Now
I
am
using
more
chintz
than
anything
else.
It
is
as
much
at
home
in
the
New
York
drawing-room
as
in
the
country
cottage.
I
can
think
of
nothing
more
charming
for
a
room
in
a
country
house
than
a
sitting-room
furnished
with
gray
painted
furniture
and
a
lovely
chintz.
Not
long
ago
I
was
asked
to
furnish
a
small
sea-shore
cottage.
The
whole
thing
had
to
be
done
in
a
month,
and
the
only
plan
I
had
to
work
on
was
a
batch
of
chintz
samples
that
had
been
selected
for
the
house.
I
extracted
the
colorings
of
walls,
woodwork,
furniture,
etc.,
from
these
chintzes.
Instead
of
buying
new
furniture
I
dragged
down
a
lot
of
old
things
that
had
been
relegated
to
the
attic
and
painted
them
with
a
dull
ground
color
and
small
designs
adapted
from
the
chintzes.
The
lighting
fixtures,
wall
brackets,
candle
sticks,
etc.--were
of
carved
wood,
painted
in
polychrome
to
match
the
general
scheme.
One
chintz
in
particular
I
would
like
to
have
every
woman
see
and
enjoy.
It
had
a
ground
of
old
blue,
patterned
regularly
with
little
Persian
"pears,"
the
old
rug
design,
you
know.
The
effect
of
this
simple
chintz
with
white
painted
walls
and
furniture
and
woodwork
and
crisp
white
muslin
glass
curtains
was
delicious.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
