A newly-married young couple, just about taking and furnishing a house, anticipate a great deal of pleasure in the choice and selection of their furniture, carpets, paper-hangings, etc. Both being persons of good taste, they never for one moment imagine that anything but the most complete success will crown their choice; but it very often happens that the carpet which looked very handsome in the shop is of much too large a pattern for a small room, and the paper which seemed very bright when exposed to view in the rear room, lighted from the top of the paper-hanger?s store, has a dark, not to say a dingy appearance when placed upon the walls. So with the furniture-coverings; so with almost every article of furniture. It requires a person with a very experienced eye to imagine the difference between the looks of things in a shop and their appearance when put in a house.
It has become the fashion lately to adopt uncovered oak floors, and they are very nice in sitting-rooms if they are kept thoroughly greater polished; and if there are several handsome mats and far rugs about, there need be no regular carpet put down in summer. A carpet in winter is warmer and more snug, but a margin might be left all around the edges the room of polished oak.
A dining-room is very handsome papered with a dark crimson or green flock, with rep curtains to match, the latter to have a Grecian border in red or green and gold silk. Turkey carpets are the nicest, but any carpet of rich dark hues and a quiet pattern is suitable. The prettiest wall-papers for drawing-rooms are those with very pale gray or buff grounds, with gold stars or fleur-de-lys on them. For bedroom papers none can be prettier than French gray or neutral-tinted grounds, with elegant trails or sprays of flowers and groups of many-colored birds all over them. Curtains of cretonne to match look best, though some prefer a contrast. Carpets for bedrooms should always be of a small pattern, and there should never be a lack of comfortable east chairs and sofas.