be darker than when
they are to be used in bedrooms. Many of the newer chintzes have dark
grounds of blue, mauve, maroon or gray, and a still more recent chintz
has a black ground with fantastic designs of the most delightful
colorings. The black chintzes are reproductions of fabrics that were in
vogue in 1830. They are very good in rooms that must be used a great
deal, and they are very decorative. Some of them suggest old cut
velvets--they are so soft and lustrous.

My greatest difficulty in introducing chintzes here was to convert women
who loved their plush and satin draperies to a simpler fabric. They were
unwilling to give up the glories they knew for the charms they knew not.
I convinced them by showing them results! My first large commission was
the Colony Club, and I used chintzes throughout the Club: Chintzes of
cool grapes and leaves in the roof garden, hand-blocked linens of many
soft colors in the reading-room, rose-sprigged and English posy designs
in the bedrooms, and so on throughout the building.

Now I am using more chintz than anything else. It is as much at home in
the New York drawing-room as in the country cottage. I can think of
nothing more charming for a room in a country house than a sitting-room
furnished with gray painted furniture and a lovely chintz.

[Illustration: STRAIGHT HANGINGS OF ROSE AND YELLOW SHOT SILK]

Not long ago I was asked to furnish a small sea-shore cottage. The
whole thing had to be done in a month, and the only plan I had to work
on was a batch of chintz samples that had been selected for the house. I
extracted the colorings of walls, woodwork, furniture, etc., from these
chintzes. Instead of buying new furniture I dragged down a lot of old
things that had been relegated to the attic and painted them with a dull
ground color and small designs adapted from the chintzes. The lighting
fixtures, wall brackets, candle sticks, etc.--were of carved wood,
painted in polychrome to match the general scheme. One chintz in
particular I would like to have every woman see and enjoy. It had a
ground of old blue, patterned regularly with little Persian "pears," the
old rug design, you know. The effect of this simple chintz with white
painted walls and furniture and woodwork and crisp white muslin glass
curtains was delicious.

The most satisfactory of all chintzes is the _Toile de Jouy_. The
designs are interesting and well drawn, and very much more decorative
than the designs one