room from another. "Drapes," those flimsy,
go-as-you-please looking bunches of poor taste knotted, cascaded, and
festooned over mantels, pictures, and chair backs, we have outgrown,
confining our efforts in this line to the silk draught curtain to
conceal the inelegant yawn of an open grate; and even this is being
supplanted by the small screen.
CURTAINS
Windows must be curtained with relation to their shape and position and
the nature of the room. The lower floor of the house, being naturally
the heavier, can be curtained in a statelier manner than the lighter
upper story. Here is the proper place for our handsome curtains of
Irish point and other appliques of muslin or lace on net, and of scrim
with insertions and edges of Renaissance, Cluny, and other laces.
These curtains are manufactured in three shades--dark cream or ecru,
light ivory, and pure white, the ivory being the richest and most
desirable--and in simple, inexpensive designs as well as those costly
and elaborate, and usually run about 50, 54, and 60 inches wide, and 3
1/2 yards long. The applique curtain wears better in an elaborate
all-over design which holds the net together and gives it body, cheaper
designs which can be had as low as $8 being coarser in quality and
pattern. Nottingham curtains must be discredited among other
imitations; they are well-meaning but both tasteless and cheaply
ostentatious. Lace curtains are rarely draped, but hang in straight
simplicity, most of the fullness being arranged in the body that the
border design may not be lost in the folds. They are shirred with an
inch heading on rods fastened outside of the window casing over which
they extend, and care must be taken, if the pattern is prominent, that
corresponding figures hang opposite each other. The double hem at the
top is nearly twice the diameter of the pole, with the extra length
turned over next to the window, the curtains, when hung, clearing the
floor about 2 inches. They usually stretch down another inch, which
brings them to just the right length. There is no between length in
curtains; they must be either sill or floor length. Over curtains may
or may not be used with the lace curtains. They are not necessary but
have a certain decorative value, particularly in a large room. Raw
silk, 30 inches wide, and costing from $0.75 to $1.50 a yard, is the
only fabric sold now for this purpose for drawing-room use. The inner
curtains may be simply s
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