TRADITIONAL OR PERIOD STYLES IN FURNISHINGS 83
MODERN USE OF VICTORIAN STYLE

A detailed account of the way Victorian furniture is used today
is given here, because little is known about it, and because it is very
poor unless carefully chosen. An adventure into Victorian dec-
oration is for the person who already owns some pieces of this
furniture that can be redeemed from the attic and smartly re-
upholstered. A person with considerable means might, however,
be encouraged to experiment with the Victorian idea, if she finds
it interesting, but the average woman who is gradually acquiring
her permanent furniture cannot afford to indulge in a fashion which
may be temporary.

It may seem strange that decorators are able to create some
beauty through use of the Victorian style, which was itself usually
lacking in merit. This result is possible because the decorators care-
fully select only certain items and place them in a setting of plain
colorful walls and plain-colored carpets, instead of in the elaborate
backgrounds of the original period. They usually try to retain
the naivete of the Age of Innocence. See page 88.

A few well-designed American Victorian furniture pieces are
being used with only slight modification. Most common of these
are oval-backed chairs and sofas with curved legs in the style of
Louis XV. Their exposed wood frames are sometimes plain but
often have restrained carving at the top of the oval. Smooth-
textured modern fabrics have replaced horsehair. The deep biscuit
tufting of the overstuffed hassocks and even their heavy cord fringe
are copied, with restraint, however.

Numerous other Victorian pieces have been completely dis-
carded in the interests of design and service. The modern home
has no place for the bric-a-brac cabinets (whatnots), heavy marble-
topped tables, melodions, and massive black walnut bedroom pieces.
The lavish display of crimson and heavy gold and of monstrous
floral patterns is seldom copied in the modern interpretations of
the period.

Victorian windows were muffled in fringed and tasseled lace
curtains and layers of draperies and overdraperies of heavy da-
masks, velvets, satins, or brocatelles, Modern designers omit all
these, but they do imitate the old valances, side draperies, and the
looped-back, crisscrossed glass curtains of sheer materials-