Should you furnish your home, mother, entirely for:
A. Family ease?
B. Beauty?
C. Adaptability to family needs and attractiveness?
D. A three-ring clrcus?
Nearly every mother and homemaker is a victim of conflicts about her house. What shall she do? Allow the children to knock the old stuff about and be happy, or refurnish and then shoo them off to the
street or attic so the nice new rooms may repose in spiritual peace?
The latter course will only give her a worse headache, If she goes in for splendid things that may not be touched. To chase the family out or get upset every time a cushion Is crushed, is not my idea of bliss. On the other hand, if there is a very small family, say one boy or girl, with no disposition to romp, she may safely go in for antiques or fine pieces and expect them to last fairly well for another generation.
To my mind, “C” is the right answer. Furnishings should be adapted to the size, needs, dispositions and habits of the family one has.
Beauty is an elastic word, but It means more than anything eles, attractiveness. And attractiveness has more than a trace of good taste. It does not depend on money, for I have seen plain farmhouses, with not one visible feature that could be called artistic or expensive, that were so sweet and simple one could camp out In them forever and be called blessed. And money can buy monostrosities.
Beauty to me, means fitness, and that means utility. Nothing that just fills up for filling’s sake is lovely. It must have a place, some attractive color or line in Itself and be worthy of respect.
The nicest homes are those done in the popular Informal or semiformal style. But still, even with that, Bob won’t want his room done in pink, He wants shelves on which to keep his jars of worms and dried frogs’ legs. Sis wants her room to look pretty, but she, too, wants a place to live In rather than simply to admire.
Father wants his easy chair when he comes home tired, and, you, too, mother, have your little weaknesses about your comfort.
So It looks as though mere looks must make some little sacrifice.
Children love things that are new. They have, for some reason or another, greater respect for things acquired In their time, than for the hangovers of from before they were born, even though that time antedated them only by a year or two. Funny how it works, but I have seen it happen over and over.
Taken from the Edwardsville Intelligencer, Nov 1, 1939.
