Motion Picture Magazine (Feb-Jul 1927)

Stephen Gooson, the Interior Decoration Expert of the National Studios, Contributes a Practical Article on Decoration in the Home Every Month First cabinets came in later, but the dining-room table came in first of all. The first tables of our ancestors were boards arranged on trestles — resembling somewhat our present-day informal picnic arrangement. That is, a couple of boards were put on standards resembling sawhorses, and this crude arrangement formed a table. In between meals the boards were taken down and the horses pushed out of the way. It was several generations later before the horses and the table top became one piece. Later, as civilization grew, benches were made on a similar plan to •go with the table and out of this, slowly enough, grew our present refectory table with its graceful benches. Sawhorses changed into legs, and were planed or turned or elaborately carved. The table of the Italian Renaissance and the table of Jacobean and Elizabethan origin all show plainly how this development took place. As time passed, backs were put onto the benches, and some time later the benches were made less broad, and turned, as the years passed, into chairs, and from these grew our modern chairs. As civilization became more advanced, paddings were added. At first these paddings were little loose cushions, gradually stuffed seats came in, and finally your present-day stuffed furniture grew to be what it is. But you see the dining-room table was first of all — almost as early as the real heart of the home, the fire, which was for warmth and comfort. It was in the main room — the dining-room didn't come until generations later, but as the dining-room table was important to our early ancestors, it is important to us today. Where shall we eat? What kind of dining-room things shall we use? It is a long jump from the time when our ancestors sat at long crude tables and threw their bones to the dogs, where folks were seated at the table according to their rank, and where, for many generations, the women waited until second table to eat, to the modern dining-room with its sparkling silver, its charming colored glass and its gay flowers. The step is a long one — in some cases it is not long enough. By this I mean that the dining-room frequently is not at all so modern as it should be. We renovate our living-rooms, we make our bedrooms gay and light and airy, but we are apt to leave our. diningrooms the way our grandmothers had them. Well, not altogether. We do little things to them, but do we do enough ? In a home I visited not long ago, a home where as much money as needed could have been spent on the furnishings, the dining-room was colored a dull, dingy brown and there were "fish and game" pictures on the walls. Ugh ! Xo wonder that the man of the family suffered with chronic indigestion and the hostess herself was more than out of sorts a bit, and more than looked her age. First of all, your dining-room must be a cheerful place. Good cheer, you have so often heard, will bring on {Continued on page 117 J In the home of the director, Clarence Brown, the dining-room is furnished with Mexican furniture . rough plastered walls, brilliant hangings and bright pottery. You will notice that the chairs are not all of one pattern 940 Lags.