USES OF THE DECORATOR

If we have not done so before, when we take up consideration of the
walls we will, if we can afford it, call in a professional decorator.
First, of course, we will make sure that he really may be of service to
us, for his duty is to give practical and artistic development to the
more or less vague ideas of which we have become possessed, and if he
seems, from examples of previous work, to be wedded to a "style" of his
own that would not jibe with our aspirations, we would better try to
struggle along without him.

But it is possible to secure the services of a decorative artist for a
sum not necessarily tremendous, and if we get hold of a sensible fellow
his advice will be, in the end, worth much more than the extra outlay.
If he is a sincere artist, he will plan just as carefully for a modest
six-room cottage as for a mansion, and he will be able to take the good
points of our own schemes and adapt them to expert application without
making us feel too insignificant.

Explicit advice as to decoration, where there are thousands of us, each
in different circumstances and with variant tastes, would be rather an
absurdity. We may emphasize to ourselves, however, a few phases of the
decorative problem in which lack of thought would lose to us some of
the joys of a house perfected.

If we are not to employ a decorator we must study out the problem for
ourselves. To leave it for the painter and paperhanger to settle would
be a fatal error. Much knowledge may be gained by the study of books
and magazine articles, provided they are very recent. It will be