or bamboo, and coloured, not white, table cloths,
doilies and napkins, to avoid the glare from the reflection of strong
light. Also, informal china, glass, etc.

Screens, if necessary, should have frames to accord with the
furniture, and the panels should be of wood, or some simple material
such as sacking or rough linen, which comes in lovely vivid,
out-of-door colours.

The bizarre and fascinating sports balconies overlooking squash
courts, tennis courts, golf links, croquet grounds, etc., are among
the newest inventions of the decorator. Furnished porches we have all
grown accustomed to, and when made so as to be enclosed by glass, in
inclement weather, they may be treated like inside rooms in the way of
comforts and conveniences.

The smart porch-room is furnished with only such chairs, tables, sofas
and rugs as are appropriate to a place not thoroughly protected from
the elements, for while glass is provided for protection, a summer
shower can outstrip a slow-footed servant and valuable articles
made for indoors cannot long brave the effect of rain and hot sun.

PLATE XXV

In this case the house stood so near the road that there was no
privacy, so the ingenious architect-decorator became
landscape-gardener and by making a high but ornamental fence and
numerous arbours, carried the eye to the green trees beyond and
back to the refreshing tangle of shrubs and flowers in the
immediate foreground, until the illusion of being secluded was so
complete that the nearby road was forgotten.

[Illustration: _Treatment of Ground Lying Between House and Much
Travelled Country Road_]

For this reason furnish your porch with colours which do not fade, and
with wicker furniture which knows how to contract and expand to order!

The same rule applies to rugs. Put your Oriental rugs indoors, and use
inexpensive, effective porch rugs which, with a light heart, you can
renew each season, if necessary.

The sports balcony is fitted out with special reference to the comfort
of those who figure as audience for sports, and as a lounge between
games, and each hostess vies with her friends in the originality and
completeness of equipment, as well as in the costumes she dons in her
commendable desire to make of herself a part of her scheme of
decoration.

A country place which affords tennis courts, golf links, cricket and
polo grounds or has made arrangements for the exercise of any sports,