Figure 37.—Designed by Gilbert Rhode, this many-purpose grouping of modern pieces can be arranged to fit the individual room and taste. Use of hairline stripe of natural inlay at regular intervals gives an unusual fabric like effect to this modern design.
Unit IX.—FURNISHING THE LIVING ROOM, HALL, AND DINING ROOM
The living room is the heart of the home. It is here that members of the family meet and spend a great part of their time; here that friends and guests are entertained; here that "memories are made." The woman is rare who does not recognize the importance of her living room both as a factor in family life and as an index of her own position, taste, and skill. Since the family living room is the show window of the home it is well to convey to the customers' mind that the personality of herself and her family should be reflected in this room. (See fig. 31, page 142.)
Comparatively few living rooms are genuinely attractive. It is safe to say that 9 living rooms out of every 10 could be improved enormously, and often at little cost. Some are merely shabby or out of date. Many are colorless, depressing, uncomfortable, commonplace, and unlovely. Nearly all lack important elements, and are in some respect underfurnished. In innumerable cases their owners are more or less clearly aware of these defects, deplore them, and would like to correct them.
This means that always there are possibilities for new and replacement sales of living room merchandise. Moreover, it means that any woman who today asks for any article for living-room use, however unimportant or inexpensive, may be at the point where she can be influenced to consider the purchase of additional articles. A systematic effort to explore and develop these latent possibilities infallibly will result in larger sales.
Comparatively few houses are designed throughout in an architectural style so well defined as to demand adherence to the same or closely related styles in furniture. Even in the case of many houses so designed we find that the owners prefer to equip their rooms with furniture of styles more pleasing to their fancy. Often this practice results in bad decoration, but after all there is little that can be done about it. Your job is to equip yourself to be a competent adviser and to give sound advice when it is wanted.
Under ordinary circumstances, do not ask your customer the style of her living room. If she doesn't know, or if the room has no style, she may be embarrassed or vaguely displeased by the question. On the other hand, if she regards the style of the room as in any way important she will in all likelihood volunteer the information.
The walls of the living room constitute its largest and most important single element, and form the background against which all other elements must be seen. The lighter the tone of the walls, and the smoother their texture, the greater will be the reflection and diffusion of light throughout the room and the larger its apparent size.
Calcimine and water paint are effective in simple and unpretentious living rooms of any size, but should not be used in rooms intended to be sumptuous, elegant, or formal in effect. They are most pleasant in colors, belonging to the yellow-to-orange family, such as buff, maize, putty, or in light pastels.
Walls covered with canvas and painted in oil, without paneling, and with or without effects of stippled modeling or glazing, can be used in living rooms of any type, and with furniture of any style.
Paneling, because of the severely balanced distribution of wall spaces and the effect of dignity produced by long, straight lines, tends to give a room a quality of formality and dignity which is reflected in the style and distribution of the furniture and relieved by a free use of color and ornament in the other elements of the room.
Rough plaster and compo walls, varying in unevenness of texture and depth of tone according to the scale and style of the room itself and the furniture to be used in it, are effective with houses of the cottage, Early English, and Mediterranean types and with Early Spanish, Italian, and English furniture and the cruder and heavier examples of French Provincial, Early American, and unstyled furniture.
Wallpapers are made in an extremely wide range of variation in texture, coloring, and pattern. Properly chosen, wallpaper is a suitable wall finish for practically any style of room, and a suitable background for practically any style of furniture.
Since personal preference has a great deal to do with the selection of wallpaper, the salesman's job should be merely to assist the customer on color and appropriateness of design. Studying the papers you will note that some have formalized motifs, others simple, repeated patterns. When in doubt, stay to the simpler patterns. However, there is no set rule on the types of wallpaper to be used, good taste and personal preference being the main factors.
The floor may be treated with a single, room-size rug, several small rugs, or linoleum.
A room-size rug usually is preferred where practicable in a small room because it causes the room to appear a little larger than when small rugs are used.
Linoleum when used in a living room may carry an inlaid design in keeping with the room or may be used as the basic floor covering with small, soft-surface rugs.
There is no rule to govern the proper width of margins, other than the general requirement for a dominant element in every composition, which means that in the case of a single large rug the effect will be unpleasant if the rug is so small that it seems to the mind less important than the total uncarpeted space. Ordinarily the side margin should not exceed one fourth of its length.
Several small rugs used together should be sufficiently alike in coloring, type of pattern, tone, and texture to ensure the unity of the floor treatment, but not identical, which would make the effect monotonous. This requirement would forbid the use together, for example, of characteristic Persian and Chinese designs, because of too sharp differences in pattern; or of pile and pileless rugs, because of too sharp differences in texture; or of light and dark rugs, because of great differences in tone.
It is never necessary, and rarely desirable, to have all of the rugs closely alike in color; but there must be pronounced elements of likeness. In general it is best to have at least one, and preferably two or three colors appear in varying degrees of importance in each rug.
Small rugs should be placed so as to be closely related to the fireplace, door, and principal pieces or groups of furniture. They are distracting and meaningless when scattered with no reference to this relationship.
Small rugs should be placed straight in the room; that is, so that their edges parallel either the side or end walls. To scatter them at angles destroys the organic unity of the room.
The floor coverings should be darker in tone than the walls, but not so much darker as to contrast harshly, and so impair the harmony and restfulness of the room.
In general the scale of the floor covering design should vary directly with the size of the room. Small rugs appear inartistic with large scale designs which might seem perfectly appropriate on larger rugs. The vigor of drawing and coloring in the floor covering also should increase with the size, or rather the effect of weight and massiveness, of the furniture.
Venetian blinds have become increasingly important as a treatment for windows in all parts of the house. Venetian blinds permit the user to control the light and add a decorative note to a room regardless of its period. Tapes of the blind should match the floor covering, the walls, or harmonize with the color scheme of the room. Although the off-white, cream, and buff blinds are most popular, colored blinds in keeping with the color scheme of the room also are in good taste. Other window treatments are roller window shades, glass curtains, and draperies.
Venetian blinds.—Most blinds are custom made and ordered to the customer's specific window size. Measurements should be taken within the molding. Venetian blinds may be used alone, with draperies, or with glass curtains and draperies. Venetian blinds harmonize with any period or setting and may be used on hall doors, kitchen, and bathroom windows as well as all other rooms of the house. Waxing maintains the slats most of which may be kept clean by washing with a bland soap and dusting regularly.
Roller window shades.—Roller window shades offer an inexpensive and easy means of controlling light and vary widely in quality, appearance, and price. Roller shades should be fairly close in hue and tone to the walls. It is necessary that the shades harmonize pleasantly with the house as seen from the outside.
Glass curtains, or the thin transparent curtains which in ordinary houses hang next to the windows, are necessary to soften the light by day; to cover what would otherwise be the bleak bare rectangle presented by an uncurtained window by night; and to provide the decorative interest of soft texture, flowing line, and soft color.
When desirable, glass curtains can be stiffened at the top and mounted on small movable rings to permit pushing back in the interest of morning sunshine or a fine view. They never should be made conspicuous by reason of striking pattern or sharp contrast with the walls. Pure white curtains can be used only in living rooms of the most delicate type, having light walls and woodwork. In most rooms use cream or light or dark ecru. Glass curtains require ample fullness of material (from 1½ to 2½ times the width of the window, depending upon fineness of mesh), and in ordinary houses should be hung either to the sill or to the bottom of the apron.
Outer hangings, or draperies, serve to subdue or control the lighting of the living room; to ensure a subtle sense of privacy and intimacy to its occupants; to soften while emphasizing the structural lines of its openings; and to add the charm of color, texture, and pattern.
The draperies should be plain if used with strikingly figured walls; figured, if used with plain walls; and either plain or figured if used with walls covered with a pattern of simple and inconspicuous design and coloring, according to personal taste or the amount of ornament in the other surfaces of the room. Figured draperies may be used with figured rugs when (1) both patterns are in the same style of design, as Chinese chintz with Chinese rugs; or (2) both patterns make a free use of the same type of line, as in an Italian damask with a Persian rug; or (3) one pattern is of marked individuality while the other is small, simple, or lacking in individuality.
In general the draperies, whether plain or figured, will repeat one of the colors important in the rug. When used with a plain neutral floor covering (as warm gray, fawn, or rose-taupe) the draperies may be unrelated to the rug in color. In this case some of the color of the draperies should appear on or near the floor, in the form of upholstery or pottery in order to ensure the repetitions essential to harmony. The tone of the draperies may be and generally should be somewhat darker than that of the walls; but never so much so as to overemphasize the draperies at the cost of the other decorative elements of the room.
The draperies usually will be run to the floor in the more formal and more sumptuously furnished rooms; and to the apron in the more informal and simply furnished rooms. The heavy materials, like silk and cotton reps, damasks, brocades, brocatelles, satins, velvets, thick taffetas, and richly colored printed linens and hand-blocked cretonnes should be hung to the floor; the very light and thin materials, like silk or rayon gauze, silk tissues and small-figured prints, voiles, organdies, thin casement cloths, whether plain, striped, or broché, should be hung to the sill or apron; while the medium-weight fabrics, like broché silks, poplins, chintzes, and the thinner taffetas, cretonnes, and linens, may be hung either way, according to decorative requirements or personal preference.
Some architectural defects may be covered up by the clever use of draperies. Oftentimes windows may be made to look larger by extended draperies across the wall.
Every living room is made up of groups of furniture. What these groups are depend on the size of the family, the size of the home, the number of guests who may be expected under normal conditions, and the interests of the family. The architecture will determine placement of furniture to a considerable extent. There are several possible "centers of interest." A fireplace is one of these. A long wall, with windows, may be the logical spot for the sofa. In a musical family, the piano or radio may be a focal point.
Figure 38.—Outgrowth of the platform rocker is this smart spring base chair designed by Alfons Bach and upholstered in beige and brown tapestry. The open bookshelves and desks are in a new, rubbed, fawn-colored finish. The swinging arm bridge lamp has a brass base and together with the clipper ship pictures and accessories adds a dignified note. The Axminster rug is in a sand tone.
Every grouping opens the possibility of selling "add-on" items. The conversational group—sofa and at least two chairs requires at least two tables and two lamps. The reading group implies a chair—or two chairs—at least one lamp, and a piece to hold books and magazines. Usually this would be a table, but it easily could include a bookcase. (See figs. 37 and 38.) The writing group takes in desk, chair, and lamp. A well-arranged "business corner" for the living room (see fig. 36), or an attractive alcove off this room, or for the "den," may become the center of interest of the home. There, for efficient operation, may be grouped the telephone, writing desk, and typewriter, with drawers and cupboards for stationery supplies and budget records, bookshelves for reference books, and a floor lamp. From this one place all the business of the home can be carried out efficiently: Ordering, corresponding, telephoning, and check writing.
In combination, whatever the style, the seeming "weight" of each end and each side of the room must balance the opposing side, and the corners joining sides and ends must "flow" together naturally. The reading group and the conversational group may include some of the same pieces, and the desk chair may be used as an auxiliary conversation piece.
In the arrangement of furniture it must be remembered that:
1. Furniture should be so arranged as to make the most of the light (as in placing desks, reading tables, and chairs), and also to satisfy the personal habits and tastes of the members of the family.
2. In general, the center of the room should be kept clear, which gives an effect of spaciousness, facilitates easy movements and regrouping when the room is full of persons, and affords a better view of its interesting features.
In the interest of beauty and distinction, it is important to avoid:
1. Too exclusive employment of large and heavy pieces, which make a room stiff, spotty, and uninteresting when used without small tables, chairs, and cabinets.
2. Monotony in the height, color, and texture of the furniture.
Living-room furniture should not be covered throughout in the same material, or even in the same pattern, coloring, or texture, because the effect would be tiresome. On the other hand, the degree of diversity must not be so great as to make the room inharmonious and confusing. Coverings of large and important pieces should fit closely into the general color scheme, while those of small chair seats, benches, or stools may serve as piquant contrasting elements. Coverings should not contrast so strongly with the floor covering as to cause the pieces to stand out like spots, and thus to mar the repose and harmony of the room. In general, plain or self-toned coverings will be used with highly figured walls or floor coverings in the case of the larger pieces, while marked emphasis upon pattern is desirable when both walls and floor covering, or hangings and floor covering are plain.
The hall really sounds the keynote for the whole house, and does much to make or mar its beauty; it is the place in which strangers and guests form their first and last impressions of the home and the ideals and tastes of the household.
In most houses the decorative importance of the hall is undervalued and the room itself is underfurnished and far less inviting and attractive than it could and should be. In order to expand sales of hall furniture by the suggestion and sale of related merchandise, or by influencing home owners to refurnish, you will require some knowledge of the individual rooms and their present furnishings, and a fair knowledge of the principles, processes, and materials involved in hall decoration.
Just how much information you consider essential, and when and how to ask for it, will of course depend upon your judgment of your customer's taste, intelligence, and disposition. Taking retail practice as a whole, it is certain that more time is wasted and more potential sales lost by failure to secure adequate preliminary information than by unnecessary or unsuccessful attempts to do so.
The hall should have an atmosphere of warmth and hospitable welcome, a note of rich but quiet dignity, and a real quality of interest and charm. Its hospitableness can be insured by emphasis upon warm color and properly shaded light. Richness of effect is produced by emphasis upon ornamented as opposed to plain surfaces, particularly in the floor covering, walls, furniture, and accessories. Dignity results from the use of long lines in the interior trim, border lines of the rugs, and length or height in the furniture where practicable, and also of formal balance in furniture arrangement. Interest and charm are secured by a free use of color and texture, and a measure of distinction in the design of furniture and accessories.
The hall must announce or suggest some of the decorative elements of connecting rooms, and accordingly must have many points of resemblance and harmony in coloring, line, and texture. In choice of the "key" pieces of furniture, which give distinction and smartness to the hall, there should be similarity in outline and proportion to the "key" living room pieces, but identity in period style is wholly unnecessary. High-backed seventeenth century chairs of the more slenderly proportioned types could be used in the hall opening into a Sheraton dining room without marring the sense of harmony in the suite.
Figure 39.—Ideal for the hall is a cedar chest which serves the duo-purpose of providing valuable storage space as well as being decorative. This mahogany chest, built to resemble a chest of drawers, has a cedar lined bottom drawer. The chest proper is the depth of the first and second sham drawers. The oval mirror, a fitting accessory, has a gold-leaf frame.
When the walls are of plain or ornamental plaster, calcimined, or painted in oil, they should match the adjoining room if either is small or both rooms are small, in order to gain an effect of spaciousness. Where the hall and the adjoining room both are large, the walls may differ in hue; but marked difference in tone is unpleasant. For example, light stone walls in the hall and medium light green in the living room will be agreeable; dark stone and pale green, disagreeable.
When the walls are papered, the effect will be more interesting if the hall paper is different from that of adjoining rooms. If the hall is small, its paper should match that in the adjoining rooms rather closely in hue and tone, differing in texture or pattern, or in the fact that one paper is figured and the other plain. Small halls are high in proportion to their width. A figured paper helps to correct the proportions, whereas a stripe would raise the apparent height of the ceiling.
When the walls are plain, sufficient ornament to enrich the room and relieve it from any effect of thinness must be supplied by floor coverings, draperies, furniture, and accessories.
In a decorative sense, floor coverings are more important in the hall than in any other room, because the floor area is smaller in proportion to wall area, and there are fewer interesting pieces of furniture, and relatively fewer accessories. Here are some practical suggestions:
Linoleum is increasingly used for the hall since it permits the user to express her originality and good taste in many interesting forms. Plain or mottled linoleum with an attractive motif or monogram set into the center is both decorative and practical. A border or trim, in keeping with the architectural style of the room, also adds to the decoration. The linoleum may harmonize in color with the floor covering of the room adjoining or may carry out its own color scheme in keeping with the theme of the hall.
If the hall adjoins the living room it is well to use the same floor covering as in the living room since this has a tendency to make both the hall and the living room appear larger. If small rugs are used in the hall they may be of contrasting tone to the living room rug or may blend with the general color scheme.
Stair carpets are desirable for the following reasons:
They are more comfortable, less noisy and easier to keep in condition than bare treads.
They are safer, especially for children and old people.
They make the hall far more hospitable and inviting.
They add a much needed note of color to the room.
They serve to unite lower and upper floors artistically by a sweeping line of color.
Except in the case of doors with a metal grille, or recessed doors, Venetian blinds, or curtains, or both, are desirable on the doors and sidelight of a hall of ordinary size and architectural character, because they ensure a sense of privacy, temper the light, add the interest of color and texture and help to invest the hall with a quality of intimacy and hospitality.
Hall furniture must fit the room in scale. Avoid pieces so small and thin as to seem poor, weak, and inadequate, or so large as to crowd the room and destroy its decorative balance. In general, use furniture of slender proportions against light smooth walls, and thicker or more massive furniture against darker and rougher walls.
It is highly important to use distinctive pieces in the hall; partly because it is from this room that the visitor receives his first impression of the house, and partly because the room can use but few pieces, which are seen against such relatively large wall spaces that they must be of unusual interest in order to redeem the room from bareness and a commonplace quality.
Hall furniture should reveal as much variety as is consistent with the necessary harmony. Matched pieces usually are to be avoided. Even in the case of console table and mirror, a mahogany table, for example, usually will be more pleasing with a gold or lacquer mirror of harmonious shape than with a matched piece in mahogany. Differences in woods, finishes, ornamental detail, and height add interest to the room through variety.
As minimum equipment, the hall should have a table or cabinet with a mirror, and something on which to sit. Table and mirror constitute the dominant element; the mirror adds desirable spaciousness, and the charm of reflected vistas, and both are necessary for practical as well as artistic reasons. (See fig. 39.) A seat of some kind is necessary to ensure a sense of hospitality, and as a courtesy to the stranger who enters the home, but is not immediately admitted to its inner rooms. A chair, preferably of the straight high-backed type, a bench, or a low chest with cushion will meet this requirement.
As the dominant element, table and mirror should not be dwarfed by the wall behind them. If for any reason a small table is placed against a wide wall space, a long wall banner or panel should be placed on the wall behind the mirror in order to build up the group at eye level. It may be built up at the base by a chair at one or both sides, torcheres, etc. Never use a mirror wider than the piece that stands below it, or a narrow mirror with a wide table, unless a wall panel also is used to supply the necessary width. Modern hand-woven tapestries often are used for hall walls when their cost is not prohibitive. Other devices for the purpose include panels made from damask, brocade, brocatelle, plain or figured velvet, real or imitation crewel, Indian or Persian calico prints. A panel often is used on the wall behind a low chest.
The hall table need not be of the conventional console type. When wall space permits, any long narrow table will serve, as will a round or square English card table, with the half-top either flat or raised against the wall. In the very small hall a large nest of tables can be used as a small console.
In many halls a lowboy or chest of drawers is decorative and useful. Other possible items include the decorative cabinet, small tables, flower stands, floor or banjo clock, screen, lamps, desk, love seat, radio, and cane or umbrella rack. Always check the possibilities of the hall in a house you furnish.
The general methods discussed in relation to piece and group sales of living room merchandise apply equally to the hall. In addition it should be noted that it is practically impossible to suggest the proper choice of hall furnishings in the absence of measured drawings, since both the number of pieces and their size are more definitely determined by floor and wall space than is the case in any other room. Every sale of hall furniture of any importance should be followed by a call at the house as soon after delivery as possible. If the new furniture does not fit the room, corrections may be made promptly, before any ill-will develops. Moreover, in many cases additional merchandise can be suggested and sold.
The dining room should have an atmosphere of cheerfulness and hospitality both under natural and artificial lighting; and since it is occupied but three times a day at most, and for short periods only, its decorative treatment may have more "snap" than would be agreeable in the living room.
To produce an atmosphere of cheerfulness and hospitality, emphasize:
Warm or light pastel colors particularly in the walls.
Ample light, properly controlled.
Curved lines, and curvilinear shapes to soften hard austere outlines of case pieces and windows.
Gay, contrasting colors in ornamental details.
Variety and originality.
Cheerfulness and animation will be increased by increasing the diversity of the room treatment through contrasts in hue, tone, line, form, and texture, within the limits permitted by the requirement of unity and harmony. This consideration demands special care in the dining room, because the important pieces of furniture usually are matched, with a resulting loss in diversity which must be made up in the other elements of the room.
Here we have the chief single reason for the great number of monotonous, uninteresting dining rooms. To the skillful salesman this will suggest (a) a sound reason for pushing sales of such accessories as mirrors and pictures, tier tables for plants and accessories, and for plant stands; (b) an approach for the sale of broken suites and unmatched pieces. Many women feel that their dining rooms cannot possibly be correctly furnished unless they are equipped with a matched suite. This is not always true. Many distinctive dining rooms have been furnished with harmonious, unmatched pieces.
The same principles and processes discussed under living room wall treatments apply to the decoration of the dining room, subject to the qualification that for the reasons noted above, the dining room walls often may have more striking patterns and sharper contrasts.
Scenic landscape or other highly decorative papers may be effective in the dining room, although they would not serve as a living room background.
What was said concerning the living room will afford the basis for judging the proper relation of walls to the style of furniture. Highly figured walls do not require choice of plain dining furniture, or vice versa.
The general principles of harmony govern the proper relation of walls to floor covering. Polychromatic walls require that two or more of the colors be repeated (not necessarily accurately matched) on the floor. The floor covering should be somewhat lower in tone, and characterized neither by too little vigor or boldness of drawing to harmonize with the walls, nor too much. Choice among these would depend upon personal taste and the degree of sunniness and warmth required in the rug in order to bring the room total up to the level desired by the buyer.
The dining room may be treated with a room-size floor covering matching or harmonizing with the living room rug or linoleum or with a single large rug. Some housewives prefer to leave the floor bare, except for two or three small rugs. With figured linoleum the practice is unobjectionable, except for the loss of the sense of physical comfort and hospitality created by pile carpets under foot. With hardwood floors it is open to the objections that it is inhospitable; that it is too weak in a decorative sense to support the weight of the relatively large and heavy furniture; and that it makes the room seem thin and poor, mars the harmony between walls and floor, and prevents a convincing and satisfying distribution of color.
As compared with the living room, the dining room is relatively small and its furniture relatively large, striking, and uniform. This means that the floor covering must be adapted in scale and emphasis of pattern and coloring to sustain the load of this heavy furniture, and thus to prevent an effect of stiffness and spottiness in the room; and that it must have plenty of pattern and color when the other elements of the room are deficient in variety.
A single rug should be large enough to permit free movement of the chairs without letting the back legs touch the bare floor. In general, the rug should just clear the front legs of furniture placed against the wall. In small rooms, however, it is desirable to have the rug come to within 12 or 15 inches of the wall in order to increase the room's apparent size.
Window shades, Venetian blinds, glass curtains, and draperies are desirable in the dining room. Their selection is governed by the general considerations discussed under living room window treatments, page 182.
When a dining room has but one window or a single group of windows, there is some danger that the draperies may give the room an effect of spottiness and lack of balance unless care is taken to repeat the color of the draperies in some way on two or three of the other walls. With plain draperies, touches of the same hue should so appear, in pictures, wall panel, screen, sideboard decorations, or some similar device. With figured draperies containing several colors, at least one of the important colors should be thus repeated. (See fig. 29, page 130.)
The dining room should be lighted by direct light, released through a ceiling fixture. The light from this source can be turned off when candles are used; but the ceiling will be bare and unpleasing without this central point of interest, and most families prefer not to dine by candlelight alone.
The fixture should have sufficient height to keep the glare of light from the eyes of diners. The effect will be most agreeable if the light is released through several globes of low wattage, and if each of the globes is shaded in such a way as to keep the table in an arc of slightly higher illumination than the rest of the room.
Side lights are effective as auxiliaries, but not as the principal source of light.
Figure 40.—Many features of this eighteenth century dining room grouping make it adaptable to contemporary homes. It is scaled to fit a small-size dining room; it is simple in design and it provides valuable storage space in its compact design. The pedestal legs on the table carry through the Duncan Phyfe theme of this suite. The corner cabinet is decorative and practical and the credenza-type buffet adds the necessary weight to the grouping.
Usually the dining room adjoins the living room, and it may be assumed that the same style will be carried through, although not imperatively so. Any eighteenth century style—Hepplewhite, Sheraton, or Chippendale can be used with any eighteenth century style or with Colonial or Duncan Phyfe furniture, providing wood, textures, and fabrics have unity, similarity, color likenesses, or pleasing contrasts. (See fig. 40.) "Modern" in walnut living room pieces will look well with walnut dining room in contemporary design. Maple living room furnishings look well with Early American or French Provincial dining room furniture. It is easier to combine single styles than several styles harmoniously. Frequently, however, the most interesting arrangements are from several styles put together well.
Try out, on the floor, in idle moments, a Sheraton dining table with Chippendale or Duncan Phyfe chairs. The scale may be right or wrong—your judgment should tell you. Naturally, the store finds it easier to sell "sets," but should you run into difficult customers, this knowledge of interesting combinations may "save" a sale.
Figure 41.—A living-dining room suite. Designed by Gilbert Rhode, New York, N. Y. Folding dinette table with one drop leaf. Photograph shows view open, table set for four, table moved away from wall.
Tell customers that, although they may buy six chairs, it is not only good taste from a decorative standpoint but also from a practical point of view to have a host and hostess chair. These are upholstered chairs with tall backs and are used at the head and the foot of the table. The host chairs either should match the draperies or harmonize with the color scheme of the room. Many times host and hostess chairs upholstered in a print, matching the draperies are cheerful and decorative. Stripes are popular as upholstered seat covers on dining room chairs, but plain coverings in damask, leather, or tapestry are also in good taste. Small figured patterns are also used.
Many of the new homes are being built with living room and dining room combined into one unit or with a large living room and very small dining room. For the single-unit rooms, a happy choice is an extension or a gate-leg table and a low chest of drawers for linen which may be used either in the living room or in dining room. Small dining room tables which may be extended to seat six or eight may be arranged in front of a bay window or along the wall at one side of the room in keeping with the general room harmony. The dining chairs are placed near the table, when not in use, and may be used as bridge chairs or auxiliary seating equipment. (See fig. 41.)
Figure 42.—A contemporary dining room grouping made of birch and finished in a light wheat tone. Simply carved with a modernized wheat motif, this grouping relies upon its simplicity for smartness and distinction. The chairs are upholstered in a rose-colored, leather-like fabric and trimmed with small bronze nail heads. The legs of the table and chairs taper gracefully and eliminate the box-like features usually associated with contemporary design. The credenza-type buffet and china have pulls of matching wood.
Dinette furniture, especially made for the dinette, offers a variety of selection and need not necessarily be in keeping with the living room scheme. Light woods are popular for dinettes, maple, oak, birch, and pine being popular for this purpose. When the dinette is replaced by a larger dining room ensemble the dinette set may be used in the breakfast room or in the kitchen. Small size china cabinets and buffets accompany many of the dinette sets.
Junior dining room sets are small scale dining room ensembles and are usually shown in fine cabinet woods in styles found in large size dining room ensembles. The junior dining room sets differ from the dinette sets in that they are usually not as informal as the dinette and are designed for the small-size dining room rather than for the dinette.
Sales of living room merchandise fall into two classes: Piece sales, involving the selection of one or more pieces for use in a room already partially furnished; and ensemble sales, involving the selection of most or all of the furnishings necessary to equip completely a room, or even a house.
These two types of sales present different problems and require the use of different methods. However, they are alike in two important respects. In all of them the self-interest of the buyer is the determining factor; and competition in one or more forms is inevitable.
The first and inescapable form of competition is a competition among conflicting desires in the mind of the average buyer. In order to buy one thing, she must give up something else. Furniture dealers and salesmen habitually assume that the woman who enters a furniture store and asks, for example, for an easy chair, has already decided to buy one. The fact is that the customer is often merely weighing the satisfactions likely to come to her through possession of a chair against those offered by other articles or services also under consideration. In this case you must lead her to desire a chair more than she desires anything else before you can sell any chair, however large your stock or low your prices.
Unhappily, much furniture advertising is calculated to give the reading public a false impression of the necessary price levels of good furniture. It may be that you can please your customer with a chair at the price she has tentatively decided to pay. If not, you must please her in a more costly piece. Here you run up against new competition; for however able your demonstration of quality may be, your customer is certain to weigh that additional item of cost against the additional articles that she must give up in order to buy the chair. Hence something more than a convincing demonstration of the intrinsic worthiness of the piece will be necessary to complete the sale.
Finally, there is a third form of competition—that among different furniture stores for the same sale. However well the customer may like your chair at the price asked, it is natural for her to try to find something just as good at a lower price, or more pleasing at the same price, since that is her habit in buying other commodities.
She knows that there are other good stores nearby, with scores of easy chairs to show her, and that they are advertising bargains and holding out inducements to get her trade. You cannot prove to her in advance that she will only waste her time by looking further, and any arguments, pleadings, or high-pressure methods designed to keep her from doing so are quite likely to have precisely the opposite effect.
At this point a surprisingly large percentage of salesmen weaken. Knowing that it is impossible to oppose successfully the self-interest of the buyer, they can think of nothing else to do. In point of fact there is nothing else to do in a great many cases, except to make every possible effort to create an impression sufficiently powerful to bring the buyer back after her shopping tour is over. In many other cases, however, there is a way to meet competition, if you can develop the ability to use it.
The woman who wants an easy chair, a sofa, a rug, or a desk, also wants something else which is far more important to her, namely, a more satisfying room. She doesn't tell you about it, but she really hopes that the new piece under consideration will add more beauty, comfort, distinction, or impressiveness to her room.
Get her to thinking of her room as a whole, with the new article a part of that whole. Lead her to believe that the desirable qualities which she seeks will appear in it as a result of your help in selection and arrangement. In other words, appeal to her self-interest by offering her something highly important which she knows in advance cannot be found elsewhere.
To overcome the inevitable competition of opposing desires, and to reduce or eliminate shopping for variety of selection or price, make your customer see the piece under consideration not as an individual unit, but as an integral part of her room. As long as she is permitted to think that she is buying a chair and nothing but a chair, she will be concerned with a multitude of details, most of which are of no real importance,[27] and will be strongly disposed to keep on looking until she has exhausted every possibility of finding something completely satisfactory in all of these details.
Transfer her interest to her room as a whole, with your chair as a part of it, and you immediately rob most of these details of their earlier importance in her mind. Paint a sufficiently attractive mental picture of her room as it will become with your chair in it, and she may buy the picture, and the chair as an essential element of it. She will not care to shop further for a better looking or cheaper chair, in the fear that even if one could be found the picture would be spoiled.
Possibly you have had the experience of losing important sales to men working in stores far smaller than your own or to decorators with no more physical equipment than could be condensed into a small office or studio. Why should you have lost such sales when you enjoy the great advantages of ample stocks, lower prices, better terms, and the prestige of a well-known and financially solid house? Obviously, because the other man had the skill and the power to shift your customer's interest and desire from merchandise, as such to what merchandise will do.
In order to make a normal sale by means of this "room-picture" method, you will require: