the theories of home beautifica-tion, they are within our reach; we find them in books, magazines, advertisements, and the cinema — even nature herself suggests ideas and colors to us.

The houses in which a particular taste and style shine forth always express an idea. What, then, is the idea you wish your house to express? Some, for example, incline toward a formal atmos-phere in their house, and express that inclination by choosing styles such as those of Louis the Fourteenth and the Fifteenth, and of Queen "Anne" with her delicate silks and light colors, or the Oriental style to which they are accustomed. Just as some prefer the formal modern style, with its gleaming wood, its sumptuous fabrics, and its Persian carpets. Another sort of people love the simple, natural life, and so select comfortable, sturdy furniture of simple build and plain wood, with gay colors and designs, the atmosphere on the whole being simple and rustic.

When you have settled upon the style you desire, it behooves you then to apply your idea in prac-tice; a great number of ladies err when they set about furnishing their homes without any prior studied plan or idea. If we wish, for example, to buy covers for

the chairs, we are at a loss in choosing the suitable color, and we usually buy the color we love, taking no heed of the harmony of these colors with the room concerned. This is a great error from the standpoint of absolute beauty, for it robs that room of its beauty and its charm. If we wish to renew, in a given room, the color of its walls, the covers of its chairs, and its curtains, we may draw the suitable colors from an artistic picture, for instance, if we own one. If that picture is Cézanne's "The Little Bridge," we see that its basic color is green. It can therefore be used for the ceiling of the room and for three of the walls; the fourth would be in the color of the stone bridge, which leans toward cream and pink, and we use this color as well for some of the chairs... For the curtains and the sofa we use green, in a striped or brocaded fabric, with a seat or two covered in watermelon-red cloth... This is what makes the picture we have taken as our model an inseparable part of the room.

Do you ask yourself, madam, about the inclinations of the members of your family when you arrange the rooms of your house? Your first care must be directed to your family, who will be using these rooms. And when you arrange the furniture

A corner in the library of Dr. Constantine Zurayk. An excellent example of the meeting of beauty with utility. Notice the copper plaque representing the Arab lands, upon the wall, and its harmony with the Oriental furniture!

of the house, take care that it be organized for comfort and use around the vital centers of the room — the hearth, for example — while keeping easy passage to the various rooms.

As for the interior of the house, preserve harmony among all its parts. It will not do for the entrance to be formal, the parlor a stage for everything under the sun, the dining room springlike, and so on and so forth...

Elegant and cheerful dwellings, madam, are not created by chance; they are the fruit of work, inquiry, and perseverance........ the fruit of a positive will and a pressing desire, shown by the lady of the house in order to present her house in the image and the idea that she desires.

3 — An Oriental library in the house of Dr. Constantine Zurayk. Notice the carving and the geometric designs, the merits of this Oriental furniture; the curtains and the lamp all preserve these Oriental geometric lines.