The Decoration of Houses

Description

An informative reference guide of interior design penned by Edith Wharton with architect Ogden Codman. The writers deplored Victorian interior decoration and interior design, particularly the rooms that were furnished with thick window curtains, Victorian antiques and overfilled furniture. They debated that rooms give emphasis on upholstery with the right space planning and architectural design and were, for that reason, inconvenient and seldom used.

The writers were in favor of the construction of houses with rooms designed with strong architectural wall and ceiling accents, stressed by complementary furniture, rooms with natural, conventional design bases consisting of symmetry and balance and proportionate architectural structure. The book is regarded as an influential work and its fame led to the transpiring of professional designers working based in the style favored by its writers, such as Elsie de Wolfe.

Edith Wharton born as Edith Newbold Jones was awarded a Pulitzer Prize as an American author, short story writer, and designer. She was one of the nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930. Wharton brought together her insights of the United States’ honored classes with brilliance and intelligence to invent farcical, fathomable books and short stories of social and psychological views. She had many friends with her other literary and dominant personalities, such as Theodore Roosevelt.

Her parents were George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander at their brownstone in New York City. Her elder brothers were Frederic Rhinelander and Henry Edward. She was nicknamed as Pussy Jones to her friends and family. The quote “keeping up with the Joneses” is said to speak of their family.
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