Arizona State Miner

Selecting Furnishings

In building your house into a home by putting your personality to it, give serious study to everything you put into it. Things last such a long time that it is a pity to make poor selections when one could just as well chose things of "beauty and a joy forever".

Discriminate between things which will endure for all your life; as dressers, tables, chairs, and things which will soon have to be replaced; as drapes, dishes, rugs, lamp shades, table runners and upholstery. If you must economize and most of us must—select the latter of inexpensive stuff but do not buy shoddy furniture.

If you cannot buy many things according to your taste, begin in just one room or one corner of the room, and let that room or corner be your delight until you can make the rest of the house come up to it. of course the living room-where you spend your hours of ease and where you entertain your guests will deserve your first beautifcation. Unseen and little used rooms can wait their turn.

The house should be considered as a unit in selecting furnishings. The rooms opening into one another should harmonize. They may be varied enough to avoid monotony by little touches or different styles, but they should not clash or be so distinct as to look choppy. An advantage in selecting all the furnishings as a unit, that is, with a general style or color tone, is that they can be moved from room to room as they grow shabby, or upon need, and will fit in their later location.

Everything you buy should be suitable in color. size and design to its use and to its environment. It should not be so large as to dwarf the proportions of the room or its neighboring pieces. Variety in type is in good taste, as a delicate French chair in the same room with an overstuffed one. Everything in the house should be useful or beautiful. and if it can be both, so much the better.