[Illustration:  The Oriental rug used on the stairs harmonizes with those used on the floor.]

[Illustration:  This bed-room is a good example of a simple Colonial bed-room, and the rag rugs are in keeping with it.  The repeat design of the wallpaper ties the room into a unified whole.]

The question of whether to use Oriental rugs or plain rugs is one which many people find hard to solve.  One of the deciding factors is often finding just what is right for the room, for really beautiful Oriental rugs in large or carpet size are rare and also expensive, but soft-toned Persian rugs with their interesting floral designs, and Chinese rugs with their wonderful tones of blue and yellow are works of art and well worth the trouble necessary to discover them and the price asked.  They are best adapted to some libraries and halls and some dining-rooms, but they should not be startling in either design or color.  To my mind Oriental rugs are not well suited to the majority of living-rooms and bedrooms because of the constant and varied use of these rooms.  When Oriental rugs are used there should be plenty of plain effect in the room; the walls, for instance, should be plain.  I have never seen a room which was successful if both walls and rug were figured.  A fine tapestry may be used with Oriental rugs, but that is quite different from a figured wall.  If several rugs are to be used in one room they must be of the same color value and the same general color tone or the floor will appear uneven.  One does not wish to have a room give the uncomfortable effect of “the rocky road to Dublin.”  A rug with a general blue tone must not be put with other rugs of many colors or an overpowering amount of red, but should be matched in color by having blue the chief color of the other rugs also.  The color value, too, must be even, for a light rug next to a dark has the same disagreeable effect.  It is impossible to have a beautiful room if the rug seems to rise up and smite you as you enter.  Persian rugs with their conventional floral designs should not be used with the marked color and geometrical designs of Caucasian rugs.  These points are important to remember and follow, for otherwise unity of scheme for the room will be impossible.

If one has several fine rugs well matched in color value and design they should be placed with a due regard to the shape of the room and the position of the furniture.  A rug placed cat-a-cornered breaks up the structural plan of the room and makes it appear smaller than it really is.  The new lines formed are at odds with the lines of the walls and interfere with the sense of space by stopping the eye in its instinctive journey to the boundary of things.  Oriental rugs should be tried if possible in the rooms in which they are to be used before the final choice is made, and one must always try the rug with the light falling across the nap and also with the nap, for one way makes the rug lighter and the other darker, and one of the two may be just what is wanted.