If your furniture is good it must be made important, and not become lost against a heavy background, or one cluttered with distracting objects. Every care should be exercised to bring out the beauty of the lines and both background and upholstery should be selected to bring out the beauty of the wood. Every piece of furniture made from carefully selected and finished wood has a peculiar cast of its own. Often the best color to bring out this individual cast cannot be determined without experimenting, and a very good way to build up a color scheme around beautiful pieces of furniture is to try them against various pieces of colored silk.

When vivid colors appear pleasant against the wood, one should use them in the table strips and upholstery, and resort to a neutralized tone for the background. If the duller shades seem to blend better with the wood, as they usually do with mahogany, one should employ them in the upholstery and bring in interesting contrasting notes in the hangings and as much warmth and vitality into the walls as possible. This does not imply vivid walls. A large mixture of yellow gives warmth to some of the neutral shades. There are many kinds of gray walls and they are all apt to exert a different effect upon furniture. To bring out the beautiful shadings of old mahogany, a medium gray background, several shades deeper than French gray, is frequently effective.

A very charming modern room grew around several excellent examples of the simpler type of Chippendale furniture. There was a sofa with a gracefully sloping back, three curved back cabriole-legged chairs, and a combination bookcase and secretary. The room was on the second floor of a city house and acted in the capacity of morning room and boudoir to the mistress of the house. Chippendale furniture for a boudoir! -but just listen. The room had very deep gray walls paneled with a simple molding. The sofa and the seats of the chairs were upholstered in dull gold woolen velour. The rug was a plain deep gray, and the loose full curtains were of gray scrim with unlined hangings of a superb shade of dull coral silk. Two Japanese kakemonas were framed in the panels at opposite ends of the room, chosen obviously to repeat the tone of the hangings, for one represented a coral sunset and the other a clump of willow trees silhouetted against a coral sky. One of the beautiful chairs was used at the secretary, and the other two stood with their backs against the gray wall on either side of the windows framed in coral silk. In the center of the window space was a low black lacquer table with a gray crackled ware tea-service laid out on a black tray with a coral mat beneath the glass. A small lacquer stool fitted beneath it and was used when pouring tea.

There was nothing in the room which counteracted the importance of the furniture. The dull gold upholstery and gray background brought out the golden-brown-grayish cast of the wood, and the strong touches of coral tinged all with a rosy, feminine charm.

The idea that the only possible environment for Colonial furniture is a setting literally following the original one in which it was used, is generally prevalent. American Colonial is, indeed, the most legitimate of all the decorative ideas employed thus far by us in interior decoration, but many homes have degenerated into mere storehouses of Colonial reliques without a trace of Colonial reticence or distinction. In the independence of the early American spirit, there was both imagination and individuality; in the honesty and stability there was both dignity and poise. In how many of the vaunted Colonial interiors of to-day do these characteristics appear? There is nothing in modern surroundings which is inherently antagonistic to the Colonial idea, and many things which lend themselves well to the preservation and modernization of the sturdy, wholesome, but imaginative atmosphere of the early period.

The owners of a genuinely old Colonial house in Massachusetts furnished with real Colonial antiques, came to the conclusion some years ago that they were tired of faded chintz and an environment of spinning wheels, cradles, warming pans and displays of Staffordshire china. They decided to give a large number of their historic treasures to a local museum retaining only those which had a practical place in the home. For these they built up a new and original environment - one which aimed to show them off to their best advantage and at the same time make a pleasant and livable dwelling.

Hand woven linen was chosen for the walls of the living-rooms and it was dyed at home with vegetable dyes a luminous golden orange and hung above the low white wainscoting. Pieces of modern embroidery in the Colonial spirit on deep indigo linen were fitted into the panels of the white doors and hung on either side of the white mantel and in the centers of the opposite wall space. The mahogany furniture received plain dark blue mohair upholstery with the exception of the rush bottom chairs, the seats of which were painted bright yellow. Modern gray wool rugs with deep orange borders were used on the floors, and the lampshades were of home-dyed silk in charming gray, orange, and blue mottled effects. On the tables, of which there was every Colonial variety, were strips of grayish linen with beautiful silvery blue and lavender embroidery in quaint old patterns.

If there is such a thing as modern Colonial it was achieved in these rooms which preserved all the old simplicity and dignity yet added the joyful, colorful note of the modern spirit.

Blue grass-cloth walls and dull yellow hangings were used in another room with Colonial furniture, and a blue and white Chinese rug and blue and white ginger jars. Another more radical regeneration employed pinkish lavender walls, plum-colored upholstery, and sapphire blue hangings. The effect was charming, although it might have startled the good old Puritan progenitors of the furniture a bit!

Bright hangings, bright cushions, plain rugs, modern lamps and electric-light shades, scrim or casement cloth curtains, and slender picture frames will help old furniture surprisingly, whether it is the kind you are justly proud of or the kind you have to apologize for.

In the latter case, the object will be to subordinate rather than call attention to it. It is much more difficult to lay down rules for subordinating bad furniture than for bringing good furniture out, because while there is only a limited variety of "goodness," the bad varieties of furniture are legion. If your old furniture is black walnut of "the General Grant period," there is little hope, but if it is of the nondescript type which preceded and followed it, there are possibilities.

The first thing to do in building up a decoration around questionable furniture is to use as little of it as possible. You don't know how much furniture you can get along without until you try. Almost invariably, American houses are over-furnished and about half of the things may be eliminated with no loss in comfort and great gain in the artistic possibilities. There was one woman who refused for years to part with a hideous old hallrack which blocked up the entrance hall, because she was afraid the children's hats and coats would always be on the floor. Far more nervous energy was exhausted by her, however, in combating the bangs and bruises inflicted by the protruding corners than it would have taken to teach the children to hang their hats and coats in a closet. Another woman felt she couldn't give up her rocking chairs because a certain cherished caller always chose one, although she had learned at the Woman's Club that they were not correct. She finally removed them to the garret replacing them temporarily with two straight-backed side-chairs, upon which her caller seated herself with aplomb at the next visit and failed to perceive the difference. These are, of course, exaggerated instances, but they illustrate the feminine habit of clinging to accustomed things often for very slight and foolish reasons.

After every possible piece that can possibly be dispensed with has been weeded out, the next step will be to doctor up the remaining things. One very excellent way of subordinating ugly furniture is by painting it the color of the woodwork or wells. Against a self-toned background its shortcomings are not nearly so evident, and with bright new upholstery the transformation is often unbelievable. Leaf-green furniture against a leaf-green wall, yellowish mustard furniture against a yellowish mustard wall, or mauve or cobalt blue furniture with mauve or blue woodwork provide happy and amusing schemes wherein the limitations of the furniture are often offset by the bright and pleasing colors.

The greatest drawback to a great many pieces of furniture lies in the finish, and its conflict with the other woodwork in the room. Golden oak, some of the muddy brown oaks, and reddish mahogany stains are particularly unadaptable. Many of the undesirable pieces can be done over at home and refinished with some of the delightful modern stains, or painted cream or gray.

To refinish old furniture all the shellac should be carefully scraped off with a scraper, first softening it with alcohol or paint remover. After washing the scraped wood with vinegar and water it should be allowed to dry thoroughly and then rubbed with fine sandpaper. If the wood is fine it can simply be shellacked and rubbed to a dull finish with powdered pumice stone. This may be used on all pieces of furniture except the dining-table top where a hard oil finish should be applied to provide against hot dishes and finger marks. Two parts of raw linseed oil is used to one part of turpentine and several coats applied and allowed to dry slightly each time after rubbing off the surplus oil with a cloth. The surface can then be gone over with an iron wrapped in a flannel and rubbed to a polish.

By the use of acid stains grained wood can be stained to match practically any fabric or wall and with excellent results. The Bridgeport Standard Acid Stains and their Wonder Lac finish can be obtained in a wide assortment and is very simply applied. Their Pearl Gray stain gives a soft silvery gray finish which can be highly recommended for library and living-room furniture. All the old finish must be carefully removed, of course, before the application of either stain or paint. Any standard enamel can be used with good results for a painted finish, after a coat or two of ordinary paint has been first applied. A professional house painter can usually be relied upon for painting and shellacking.

Old bureaus and old beds can often be surprisingly regenerated. The mirrors and side supports should be removed from the bureaus. If the mirror is not too large it should be hung on the wall above, or it may be replaced by an oval or oblong one of pleasing proportions. The old knobs may be exchanged for glass or china, or bright colored pottery ones. Upon the china knobs a small design may be painted. Stripes of a contrasting shade can be stenciled on, or a small design in the center of each drawer.