In this lovely English-style bedroom in New Jersey, the elegant pale green of an old Chinese-style wallpaper was used as the foundation color.
Very cool and delicate in color, it had a background of soft green, and traceries of white flowers and birds and birdcages — with notes of violet, yellow, and rose in the fruits and tassels which occured here and there in the design.
If this vintage room had been completed with vividly-colored curtains, carpets and upholsteries, its whole delicate beauty would have been destroyed. Instead, the colors of the other furnishings were kept the same value as the paper.
The curtains were of oyster white taffeta. The pillows and lampshades repeated the attenuated rose and yellow in the paper, which were re-echoed in the embroidered flowers of the grayish-white silk bedspreads. The carpet was gray-green.
Strengthening notes in the room were the dark walnut beds, the pine mantel, and the gilt Chippendale mirror over the dressing table.
With this treatment, this classic bedroom decor from the 1920s had a refreshing and restful quality that could not have existed had strong colors been used.
Above: This view of the bedroom gives a better idea of the room’s proportions, and of the care exercised to maintain in every detail the ideal of delicate loveliness, which was its motivating principle.