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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 21, 1914)
SECTION SIX Pages 1 to 8 unit. MAGAZINE SECTION VOL 7TXTTTT. PORTLAND, OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING, JUNE 21, 1?14. NO. IV : :; "r'ife''ui'- ,.t'i 7 imavoap Bill 0 QD oir PPv"' i&- ' J :! i flii 1 AND now the humble paper hanger feels the advance of fashion. - - His mossy labors, hitherto exempt from In terference on the1 part of the housewife, Is threatened and his very occupation faces extinction. . His sup posedly indispensable services are no longer required, for Milady is doing her own paper hanging! The annual papeT hanging has long been a dread season . of the year, as unwelcome as the spring house cleaning. Bnt no more. Mrs. Housewife, be she never so wealthy or her social position never so commandng, now rolls up her sleeves, pins on a voluminous apron and fearlessly wields huge paste brush and heavy shears. Previously, the house has been turned over to white overalled workmen, who though humble enough In themselves,, have been regarded with the awe akin to that accorded the plumber The magic process of transforming a- few rolls of wide, coarse looking paper into a smooth, artistic, decorative mural background has been, watched with the respect and ad miration bestowed the magician who pulls a globe of gold fish out of a lighted cigar. But the advance of fashion has changed . all this. No woman who values her artistic reputation . would now think of turning over such an important matter as the decoration of her walls to a mere day laborer. She does the work herself, one room at. a time, and it must be admitted that, for once, fashion's, fancy meets with the unanimous approval of the other members of the household, who now recall the days when every room In the house was dismantled, meals were snatched in the kitchen and sleeping a precarious and none too sure a luxury, with the same amused disdain with which they glance at a picture of the first bicycle. Of course, women are paper hanging or hanging paper for the satisfaction of their artistic temperament. They feel. In their new emancipation, that man can no more be depend ed on to decorate walls properly than to direct the destinies of the nation without their approval at the polls. And besides, there is the satisfaction of taking a friend throughout the newly papered house, showing her the master ' pieces of decorative effects and then proudly saying: "And I did it all myself." Friend neighbor can be depended on to spread the news of the achievement with the inevitable and dramatic climax: "She did the whole thing herself." For the woman that feels that she has not the strength to undertake the repapering of the whole house herself, there is left the decorative touches, the putting up of panels, bor ders, crowns and skirtings. And then her boudoir. Pride forbids that the clumsy hand of man desecrate its sacred walls. Being he own do main, woman must paper it from wall to ceiling and even the ceiling itself, although this is no easy Job. In fact, the whole business is no easy job, however simple it may sound and look to paste up paper. Wall paper comes in rolls from twelve to twenty yards long and in widths of from twenty to twenty-four inches gen erally. It is not a simple matter to cut this paper the proper lengths and then get it straight on the walls. But practice makes perfect in paper-hanging, as in every other art. And art it is, as any novice will attest after a trial. You paste the paper on the back and simply stick it on the walls. But your first experience will lead Inevitably tc the conclusion the professional paper hanger is a wizard, sec- 5 II t N ,tr?-'" J lief IU30D.0DDOC GSQQOaatrc .TP .v 1 ff thJM wm umr. e--( if f r DDQ aa Li ' ond only in necromancy to the fitter of linoleum who . walks into your house with a roll some seven feet high and a sharp knife in his po'eket and proceeds without delay to put in prac- ' tice the problems of Euclid on the floor. If one could only be certain of hanging those pieces of paper fairly straight it would not be so bad. But they seem to have an unaccountable knack of getting out of the vertical. Then they are heavy and wet with paste. You"are at the top of the steps and your assistant down below to see that it is all right by the skirting. And you must be quick, or the paste will dry and won't stick. So what with hurry, nervousness and the limpness and perfectly Incomprehensible behavior of the length of paper you get it out of the true and there Is a v. hs All the Result of the "Arts and Crafts Tendencies of the Day, That Madame or. Mademoiselle Must "Do" Her. Own Room So That It May Reflect Her Own Pretty Characteristics But Oh, What a Mussy Time She Has Doing 1 1 . V WW OBrja aa cockle somewhere which has to be smoothed this way nd that until it finally decides to change into a crease. Then you stand back and wonder whether it Is better to pull it off at once before it has a chance to dry, and try again, or let it go and hope for better luck with the next strip. . Yes, putting up a tent in a gale of wind is child's play compared with getting properly fixed your first sheet of wall paper. But woman's well known and primordial virtue will triumph in the end. and this time patience will have its re ward. The little decorative effects and touches which only a woman can manage are ample reward for the trials and tribu lations of learning the paper hanger's art. Tfcere are innumer- able little touches which ran be addd to a room and tb justifies the trouble. V Paneling U the first and simplt of the dcrpraflra de vices. Woman must use her shears anJ ue thrm often in or der to attain the best results. It unmet I mm mi sin to cut Into a nice, fresh piece of wall paper and discard po much of it in order to get an effective border, but It will t economy in the end. - For paneling, buy a roll of paper with a nrmw bordT of stripes. Cut It up Into long ribbon according lo the de sign. Now paste down a strip. pcrhp It will b thr lnch wide, all around the room Immediately undr the frlPte rail. Do the same Just above the sklrtln. Then pant Hrlpi do the wall vertically In all corners. Thin b dltldod the plait paper into panels exactly the rtmi site and nhap a ac section of the wall area. If the wall area be extcnplve. JiikI aa many panrU rat be made as desired. But a word of warning to amateur hou decorators. In mishapen rooms, they are art to make tha walls look even more Irregular than before. For thla kind of a room, other effort are dei-lrable. 4 little delicate decoration Jim under the fringe rail utit lma helps. Choose a paper having atrlpen some even Inrhea broad. Take a pair of sclcsora and cut these Mrlpca aa before. In stead, however, of each atrip having a straight line earn UI. one edge must be cut carefully around the detail of th de sign, your sclasors following the outline of each flower and leaf. In places, too. It may be necewary to piece the pattern. You now bare a border, the straight edge of hlrh li pat1 close up to the moulding, tha serrated edge falling on the plain paper below. Wall paper manufacturers call It a "rrown" frier when It la ten and a half liube deep r more. Hut your is simply a cut out border. A good thing for the beginner l to roughly rkenh the outline of the wall and figure on paper with red tod blue pencils the probable effect of frleie. rail or skirting decora tlon. While Milady naturally devote mort uf her attention to her own room, carefully planned tourhea can be added to erti room tbat will give a distinctive and original effort to the en tire house. And in the nursery, the amateur decorator ran run riot with her Ideas. It'a a pretty good room to practice In, eond onl u hubby' den. (COPYRIGHT. 1914. BY THE CLEVELAND COMPANY.)