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Some small apartments have large rooms throughout, others have small ones, still others have a great living room, in which a grand piano is almost lost, and a small bedroom in which a single bed is always in the way. One cannot set down rules about placing furniture under such varying conditions. One can merely
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56INTERIOR DECORATING
adhere to general principles, such as these few which occur to me in this connection: First, to avoid crowding everywhere, by any means, and to employ all possible cleverness at one's command in order to do so, and still at the same time, if one has a large room, to see that it is comfortably filled; secondly, not to fill a living room with one type of furniture, such as chairs and sofas, and consider that one has done his duty, but to avoid the monotony of these by the use of other pieces, which may not be so supremely essential but which supply a very necessary decorative element, such as bookcases, small tables, cabinets, commodes, lamps, etc.; thirdly, to cultivate a variety of colors but a well-chosen, consciously-selected variety, which in themselves create a harmony which constantly improves with further acquaintance; fourthly, never to use something merely because one has it, if it is bad and one can possibly afford something better, never to be satisfied with an inferior effect if one can secure a finer result, and always to give away, sell or (if one has an artistic conscience!) burn or bury that which is bad and replace it with what one's increasing knowledge and experience tells one is good; but never, on the other hand, to dispose of something inherently excellent because some^ thing else happens to be fashionable the following season. For it should make one joyful to remember that there are no real fashions in genuinely good household things, that these are truly fit for use throughout a lifetime and that expenditures made upon them are permanent investments, never to be discarded so long as the home itself is kept intact.
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