THE ART OF INTERIOR DECORATION
PLATE I
There is something unusually exquisite about this composition.
You will discover at a glance perfect balance, repose--line,
everywhere, yet with it infinite grace and a winning charm. One
can imagine a tea tray brought in, a table placed and those two
attractive chairs drawn together so that my lady and a friend may
chat over the tea cups.
The mirror is an Italian Louis XVI.
The sconces, table and chairs, French.
The vases, Italian, all antiques.
A becoming mellow light comes through the shade of deep cream
Italian parchment paper with Louis XVI decorations.
It should be said that the vases are Italian medicine
jars--literally that. They were once used by the Italian
chemists, for their drugs, and some are of astonishing
workmanship and have great intrinsic value, as well as the added
value of age and uniqueness.
The colour scheme is as attractive as the lines. The walls are
grey, curtains of green and grey, antique taffeta being used,
while the chairs have green silk on their seats and the table is
of green and faded gold. The green used is a wonderfully
beautiful shade.
[Illustration: _Portion of a Drawing Room, Perfect in Composition and
Detail_]
THE ART OF INTERIOR
DECORATION
BY
GRACE WOOD
AND
EMILY BURBANK
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1917
DEDICATED
TO
A.M.M.
_At the age of eighty, an inspiration to all who meet her, because she
is the embodiment of what this book stands for; namely, fidelity to
the principles of Classic Art and watchfulness for the vital new note
struck in the cause of the Beautiful._
FOREWORD
If you would have your rooms interesting as well as beautiful, make
them say something, give them a spinal column by keeping all
ornamentation subservient to line.
Before you buy anything, try to imagine how you want each room to look
when completed; get the picture well in your mind, as a painter would;
think out the main features, for the details all depend upon these and
will quickly suggest themselves. This is, in the long run, the
quickest and the most economical method of furnishing.
There is a theory that no room can be created all at once, that it
must grow gradually. In a sense this is a fact, so far as it refers to
the amateur. The professional is always occupied with creating and
recreating rooms and can instantly summon to mind complete schemes of
decoration. The amateur can also learn to mentally furnish rooms. It
is a fascinating pastime when one gets the knack of it.
Beautiful things can be obtained anywhere and for the minimum price,
if one has a feeling for line and colour, or for either. If the lover
of the beautiful was not born with this art instinct, it may be
quickly acquired. A decorator creates or rearranges one room; the
owner does the next, alone, or with assistance, and in a season or two
has spread his or her own wings and worked out legitimate schemes,
teeming with individuality. One observes, is pleased with results and
asks oneself why. This is the birth of _Good Taste_. Next, one
experiments, makes mistakes, rights them, masters a period, outgrows
or wearies of it, and takes up another.
Progress is rapid and certain in this fascinating
amusement,--study--call it what you will, if a few of the laws
underlying all successful interior decoration are kept in mind.
These are:
HARMONY
in line and colour scheme;
SIMPLICITY
in decoration and number of objects in room, which is to be dictated
by usefulness of said objects; and insistence upon
SPACES
which, like rests in music, have as much value as the objects
dispersed about the room.
Treat your rooms like "still life," see to it that each group, such as
a table, sofa, and one or two chairs make a "composition," suggesting
comfort as well as beauty. Never have an isolated chair, unless it is
placed against the wall, as part of the decorative scheme.
In preparing this book the chief aim has been clearness and brevity,
the slogan of our day!
We give a broad outline of the historical periods in furnishing, with
a view to quick reference work.
The thirty-two illustrations will be analysed for the practical
instruction of the reader who may want to furnish a house and is in
search of definite ideas as to lines of furniture, colour schemes for
upholstery and hangings, and the placing of furniture and ornaments in
such a way as to make the composition of rooms appear harmonious from
the artist's point of view.
The index will render possible a quick reference to illustrations and
explanatory text, so that the book may be a guide for those ambitious
to try their hand at the art of interior decoration.
The manner of presentation is consciously didactic, the authors
believing that this is the simplest method by which such a book can
offer clear, terse suggestions. They have aimed at keeping "near to
the bone of fact" and when the brief statements of the fundamental
laws of interior decoration give way to narrative, it is with the hope
of opening up vistas of personal application to embryo collectors or
students of periods.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
CHAPTER I. HOW TO REARRANGE A ROOM
Method of procedure.--Inherited eyesores.--Line.--Colour.--Treatment
of small rooms and suites.--Old ceilings.--Old floors.--To paint brass
bedsteads.--Hangings.--Owning two or three antique pieces of
furniture, how proceed.--Appropriateness to setting.--How to give your
home a personal quality.
CHAPTER II. HOW TO CREATE A ROOM
Mere comfort.--Period rooms.--Starting a collection of antique
furniture.--Reproductions.--Painted furniture.--Order of procedure in
creating a room.--How to decide upon colour scheme.--Study
values.--Period ballroom.--A distinguished room.--Each room a
stage "set."--Background.--Flowers as decoration.--Placing
ornaments.--Tapestry.--Tendency to antique tempered by vivid Bakst
colours.
CHAPTER III. HOW TO DETERMINE CHARACTER OF HANGINGS AND
FURNITURE-COVERING FOR A GIVEN ROOM
Silk, velvet, corduroy, rep, leather, use of antique silks,
chintz.--When and how used.
CHAPTER IV. THE STORY OF TEXTILES
Materials woven by hand and machine, embroidered, or the combination
of the two known as Tapestry.--Painted tapestry.--Art fostered by the
Church.--Decorated walls and ceilings, 13th century, England.
CHAPTER V. CANDLESTICKS, LAMPS, FIXTURES FOR GAS AND ELECTRICITY, AND
SHADES
Fixtures, as well as mantelpiece, must follow architect's
scheme.--Plan wall space for furniture.--Shades for lights.--Important
as to line and colour.
CHAPTER VI. WINDOW SHADES AND AWNINGS
Coloured gauze sash-curtains.--Window shades of glazed linen, with
design in colours.--Striped canvas awnings.
CHAPTER VII. TREATMENT OF PICTURES AND PICTURE FRAMES
Selecting pictures.--Pictures as pure decoration.--"Staring" a
picture.--Restraint necessary in hanging pictures.--Hanging
miniatures.
CHAPTER VIII. TREATMENT OF PIANO CASES
Where interest centres abound piano.--Where piano is part of ensemble.
CHAPTER IX. TREATMENT OF DINING-ROOM BUFFETS AND DRESSING-TABLES
Articles placed upon them.
CHAPTER X. TREATMENT OF WORK TABLES, BIRD CAGES, DOG BASKETS, AND
FISH GLOBES
Value as colour notes.
CHAPTER XI. TREATMENT OF FIREPLACES
Proportions, tiles, andirons, grates.
CHAPTER XII. TREATMENT OF BATHROOMS
A man's bathroom.--A woman's bathroom.--Bathroom fixtures.--Bathroom
glassware.
CHAPTER XIII. PERIOD ROOMS
Chiselling of
metals.--Ormoulu.--Chippendale.--Colonial.--Victorian.--The art of
furniture making.--How to hang a mirror.--Appropriate furniture.--A
home must have human quality, a personal note.--Mrs. John L.
Gardner's Italian Palace in Boston.--The study of colour
schemes.--Tapestries.--A narrow hall.
CHAPTER XIV. PERIODS IN FURNITURE
The story of the evolution of periods.--
Assyria.--Egypt.--Greece.--Rome.--France.
--England.--America.--Epoch-making styles.
CHAPTER XV. CONTINUATION OF PERIODS IN FURNITURE
Greece.--Rome.--Byzantium.--Dark Ages.--Middle
Ages.--Gothic.--Moorish.--Spanish.--Anglo-Saxon.--Cæsar's
Table.--Charlemagne's Chair.--Venice.
CHAPTER XVI. THE GOTHIC PERIOD
Interior decoration of Feudal Castle.--Tapestry.--Hallmarks of Gothic
oak carving.
CHAPTER XVII. THE RENAISSANCE
Italy.--The Medici.--Great architects, painters, designers, and workers
in metals.--Marvellous pottery.--Furniture inlaying.--Hallmarks
of Renaissance.--Oak carving.--Metal work.--Renaissance in Germany
and Spain.
CHAPTER XVIII. FRENCH FURNITURE
Renaissance of classic period.--Francis I, Henry II, and the
Louis.--Architecture, mural decoration, tapestry, furniture, wrought
metals, ormoulu, silks, velvets, porcelains.
CHAPTER XIX. THE PERIODS OF THE THREE LOUIS
How to distinguish them.--Louis XIV.--Louis XV.--Louis
XVI.--Outline.--Decoration.--Colouring.--Mural Decoration.--Tapestry.
CHAPTER XX. CHARTS SHOWING HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF FURNITURE
French and English.
CHAPTER XXI. THE MAHOGANY PERIOD
Chippendale.--Heppelwhite.--Sheraton.--The Adam
Brothers.--Characteristics of these and the preceding English periods;
Gothic, Elizabethan, Jacobean, William and Mary, Queen Anne.--William
Morris.--Pre-Raphaelites.
CHAPTER XXII. THE COLONIAL PERIOD
Furniture.--Landscape paper.--The story of the evolution of wall
decoration.
CHAPTER XXIII. THE REVIVAL OF DIRECTOIRE AND EMPIRE FURNITURE
Shown in modern painted furniture.
CHAPTER XXIV. THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
Architecture and interior decoration become unrelated.--Machine-made
furniture.--Victorian cross-stitch, beadwork, wax and linen
flowers.--Bristol glass.--Value to-day as notes of variety.
CHAPTER XXV. PAINTED FURNITURE
Including "mission" furniture.--Treatment of an unplastered
cottage.--Furniture, colour-scheme.
CHAPTER XXVI. TREATMENT OF AN INEXPENSIVE BEDROOM
Factory furniture.--Chintz.--The cheapest
mirrors.--Floors.--Walls.--Pictures.--Treatment of old floors.
CHAPTER XXVII. TREATMENT OF A GUEST ROOM
Where economy is not a matter of importance.--Panelled walls.--Louis
XV painted furniture.--Taffeta curtains and bed-cover.--Chintz
chair-covers.--Cream net sash-curtains.--Figured linen window-shades.
CHAPTER XXVIII. A MODERN HOUSE IN WHICH GENUINE JACOBEAN FURNITURE Is
APPROPRIATELY SET
Traditional colour-scheme of crimson and gold.
CHAPTER XXIX. UNCONVENTIONAL BREAKFAST-ROOMS AND SPORTS BALCONIES
Porch-rooms.--Appropriate furnishings.--Colour schemes.
CHAPTER XXX. SUN-ROOMS
Colour schemes according to climate and season.--A small, cheap,
summer house converted into one of some pretentions by altering vital
details.
CHAPTER XXXI. TREATMENT OF A WOMAN'S DRESSING-ROOM
Solving problems of the toilet.--Shoe cabinets.--Jewel
cabinets.--Dressing tables.
CHAPTER XXXII. THE TREATMENT OF CLOSETS
Variety of closets.--Colour scheme.--Chintz covered boxes.
CHAPTER XXXIII. TREATMENT OF A NARROW HALL
Furniture.--Device for breaking length of hall.
CHAPTER XXXIV. TREATMENT OF A VERY SHADED LIVING-ROOM
In a warm climate.--In a cool climate.--Warm and cold colours.
CHAPTER XXXV. SERVANTS' ROOMS
Practical and suitable attractiveness.
CHAPTER XXXVI. TABLE DECORATION
Appropriateness the keynote.--Tableware.--Linen, lace, and
flowers.--Japanese simplicity.--Background.
CHAPTER XXXVII. WHAT TO AVOID IN INTERIOR DECORATION: RULES FOR
BEGINNERS
Appropriateness.--Intelligent elimination.--Furnishings.--Colour
scheme.--Small suites.--Background.--Placing rugs and hangings.--Treatment
of long wall-space.--Men's rooms.--Table decoration.--Tea table.--How
to train the taste, eye, and judgment.
CHAPTER XXXVIII. FADS IN COLLECTING
A panier fleuri collection.--A typical experience in collecting.--A
"find" in an obscure American junk-shop.--Getting on the track of some
Italian pottery.--Collections used as decoration.--A "find" in Spain.
CHAPTER XXXIX. WEDGWOOD POTTERY, OLD AND MODERN
The history of Wedgwood.--Josiah Wedgwood, the founder.
CHAPTER XL. ITALIAN POTTERY
Statuettes.
CHAPTER XLI. VENETIAN GLASS, OLD AND MODERN
Murano Museum collection.--Table-gardens in Venetian glass.
IN CONCLUSION
Four Fundamental Principles of Interior Decoration Re-stated.
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE I Portion of a Drawing-room, Perfect in Composition and Detail.
PLATE II Bedroom in Country House. Modern Painted Furniture.
PLATE III Suggestion for Treatment of a Very Small Bedroom.
PLATE IV A Man's Office in Wall Street.
PLATE V A Corner of the Same Office.
PLATE VI Another View of the Same Office.
PLATE VII Corner of a Room, Showing Painted Furniture, Antique and
Modern.
PLATE VIII Example of a Perfect Mantel, Ornaments and Mirror.
PLATE IX Dining-room in Country House, Showing Modern Painted
Furniture.
PLATE X Dining-room Furniture, Italian Renaissance, Antique.
PLATE XI Corner of Dining-room in New York Apartment, Showing Section
of Italian Refectory Table and Italian Chairs, both Antique and
Renaissance in Style.
PLATE XII An Italian Louis XVI Salon in a New York Apartment.
PLATE XIII Another Side of the Same Italian Louis XVI Salon.
PLATE XIV A Narrow Hall Where Effect of Width is Attained by Use of
Tapestry with Vista.
PLATE XV Venetian Glass, Antique and Modern.
PLATE XVI Corner of a Room in a Small Empire Suite.
PLATE XVII An Example of Perfect Balance and Beauty in Mantel
Arrangement.
PLATE XVIII Corner of a Drawing-room, Furniture Showing Directoire
Influence.
PLATE XIX Entrance Hall in New York Duplex Apartment. Italian
Furniture.
PLATE XX Combination of Studio and Living-room in New York Duplex
Apartment.
PLATE XXI Part of a Victorian Parlour in One of the Few Remaining New
York Victorian Mansions.
PLATE XXII Two Styles of Day-beds, Modern Painted.
PLATE XXIII Boudoir in New York Apartment. Painted Furniture, Antique
and Reproductions.
PLATE XXIV Example of Lack of Balance in Mantel Arrangement.
PLATE XXV Treatment of Ground Lying Between House and Much Travelled
Country Road.
PLATE XXVI An Extension Roof in New York Converted into a Balcony.
PLATE XXVII A Common-place Barn Made Interesting.
PLATE XXVIII Narrow Entrance Hall of a New York Antique Shop.
PLATE XXIX Example of a Charming Hall Spoiled by Too Pronounced a Rug.
PLATE XXX A Man's Library.
PLATE XXXI A Collection of Empire Furniture, Ornaments, and China.
PLATE XXXII Italian Reproductions in Pottery After Classic Models.
"Those who duly consider the influence of the _fine-arts_ on the
_human mind_, will not think it a small benefit to the world, to
diffuse their productions as wide, and preserve them as long as
possible. The multiplying of copies of fine work, in beautiful
and durable materials, must obviously have the same effect in
respect to the arts as the invention of printing has upon
literature and the sciences: by their means the principal
productions of both kinds will be forever preserved, and will
effectually prevent the return of ignorant and barbarous ages."
JOSIAH WEDGWOOD: Catalogue of 1787.
One of the most joyful obligations in life should be the planning and
executing of BEAUTIFUL HOMES, keeping ever in mind that distinction is
not a matter of scale, since a vast palace may find its rival in the
smallest group of rooms, provided the latter obeys the law of _good
line, correct proportions, harmonious colour scheme and
appropriateness_: a law insisting that all useful things be beautiful
things.
THE ART OF INTERIOR DECORATION
CHAPTER I
HOW TO REARRANGE A ROOM
Lucky is the man or woman of taste who has no inherited eyesores
which, because of association, must not be banished! When these exist
in large numbers one thing only remains to be done: look them over,
see to what period the majority belong, and proceed as if you _wanted_
a mid-Victorian, late Colonial or brass-bedstead room.
To rearrange a room successfully, begin by taking everything out of it
(in reality or in your mind), then decide how you want it to look, or
how, owing to what you own and must retain, you are obliged to have it
look. Design and colour of wall decorations, hangings, carpets,
lighting fixtures, lamps and ornaments on mantel, depend upon the
character of your furniture.
It is the mantel and its arrangement of ornaments that sound the
keynote upon first entering a room.
Conventional simplicity in number and arrangement of ornaments gives
balance and repose, hence dignity. Dignity once established, one can
afford to be individual, and introduce a riot of colours, provided
they are all in the same key. Luxurious cushions, soft rugs and a
hundred and one feminine touches will create atmosphere and knit
together the austere scheme of line--the anatomy of your room. Colour
and textiles are the flesh of interior decoration.
In furnishing a small room you can add greatly to its apparent size by
using plain paper and making the woodwork the same colour, or slightly
darker in tone. If you cannot find wall paper of exactly the colour
and shade you wish, it is often possible to use the wrong side of a
paper and produce exactly the desired effect.
In repapering old rooms with imperfect ceilings it is easy to disguise
this by using a paper with a small design in the same tone. A
perfectly plain ceiling paper will show every defect in the surface of
the ceiling.
If your house or flat is small you can gain a great effect of space
by keeping the same colour scheme throughout--that is, the same colour
or related colours. To make a small hall and each of several small
rooms on the same floor different in any pronounced way, is to cut up
your home into a restless, unmeaning checkerboard, where one feels
conscious of the walls and all limitations. The effect of restful
spaciousness may be obtained by taking the same small suite and
treating its walls, floors and draperies, as has been suggested, in
the same colour scheme or a scheme of related keys in colour. That is,
wood browns, beiges and yellows; violets, mauves and pinks; different
tones of greys; different tones of yellows, greens and blues.
Now having established your suite and hall all in one key, so that
there is absolutely no jarring note as one passes from room to room,
you may be sure of having achieved that most desirable of all
qualities in interior decoration--repose. We have seen the idea here
suggested carried out in small summer homes with most successful
results; the same colour used on walls and furniture, while exactly
the same chintz was employed in every bedroom, opening out of one
hall. By this means it was possible to give to a small, unimportant
cottage, a note of distinction otherwise quite impossible. Here,
however, let us say that, if the same chintz is to be used in every
room, it must be neutral in colour--a chintz in which the colour
scheme is, say, yellows in different tones, browns in different tones,
or greens or greys. To vary the character of each room, introduce
different colours in the furniture covers, the sofa-cushions and
lamp-shades. Our point is to urge the repetition of a main background
in a small group of rooms; but to escape monotony by planning that the
accessories in each room shall strike individual notes of decorative,
contrasting colour.
PLATE II
A room with modern painted furniture is shown here. Lines and
decorations Empire.
Note the lyre backs of chairs and head board in day-bed.
Treatment of this bed is that suggested where twin beds are used
and room affords wall space for but one of them.
[Illustration: _Bedroom in Country House. Modern Painted Furniture._]
* * * * *
What to do with old floors is a question many of us have faced. If
your house has been built with floors of wide, common boards which
have become rough and separated by age, in some cases allowing dust to
sift through from the cellar, and you do not wish to go to the expense
of all-over carpets, you have the choice of several methods. The
simplest and least expensive is to paint or stain the floors. In this
case employ a floor painter and begin by removing all old paint.
Paint removers come for the purpose. Then have the floors planed to
make them even. Next, fill the cracks with putty. The most practical
method is to stain the floors some dark colour; mahogany, walnut,
weathered oak, black, green or any colour you may prefer, and then wax
them. This protects the colour. In a room where daintiness is desired,
and economy is not important, as for instance in a room with white
painted furniture, you may have white floors and a square carpet rug
of some plain dark toned velvet; or, if preferred, the painted border
may be in come delicate colour to match the wall paper. To resume, if
you like a dull finish, have the wax rubbed in at intervals, but if
you like a glossy background for rugs, use a heavy varnish after the
floors are coloured. This treatment we suggest for more or less formal
rooms. In bedrooms, put down an inexpensive filling as a background
for rugs, or should yours be a summer home, use straw matting.
For halls and dining-rooms a plain dark-coloured linoleum, costing not
less than two dollars a yard makes and inexpensive floor covering.
If it is waxed it becomes not only very durable but, also, extremely
effective, suggesting the dark tiles in Italian houses. We do not
advise the purchase of the linoleums which represent inlaid floors, as
they are invariably unsuccessful imitations.
If it is necessary to economise and your brass bedstead must be used
even though you dislike it, you can have it painted the colour of your
walls. It requires a number of coats. A soft pearl grey is good. Then
use a colour, or colours, in your silk or chintz bedspread. Sun-proof
material in a solid colour makes an attractive cover, with a narrow
fringe in several colours straight around the edges and also, forming
a circle or square on the top of the bed-cover.
* * * * *
If your gas or electric fixtures are ugly and you cannot afford more
attractive ones, buy very cheap, perfectly plain, ones and paint them
to match the walls, giving decorative value to them with coloured silk
shades.
PLATE III
Shows one end of a very small bedroom with modern painted
furniture, so simple in line and decoration that it would be
equally appropriate either for a young man or for a young woman.
We say "young," because there is something charmingly fresh and
youthful about this type of furniture.
The colour is pale pistache green, with mulberry lines, the same
combination of colours being repeated in painting the walls which
have a grey background lined with mulberry--the broad stripe--and
a narrow green line. The bed cover is mulberry, the lamp shade is
green with mulberry and grey in the fringe.
On the walls are delightful old prints framed in black glass with
gold lines, and a narrow moulding of gilded oak, an old style
revived.
A square of antique silk covers the night table, and the floor is
polished hard wood.
Here is your hall bedroom, the wee guest room in a flat, or the
extra guest room under the eaves of your country house, made
equally beguiling. The result of this artistic simplicity is a
restful sense of space.
[Illustration: _Suggestion for Treatment of a Very Small Bedroom_]
If you wish to use twin beds and have not wall space for them, treat
one like a couch or day-bed. See Plate II. Your cabinet-maker can
remove the footboard, then draw the bed out into the room, place in a
position convenient to the light either by day or night, after which
put a cover of cretonne or silk over it and cushions of the same.
Never put a spotted material on a spotted material. If your couch or
sofa is done in a figured material of different colours, make your
sofa cushions of plain material to tone down the sofa. If the sofa is
a plain colour, then tone it up--make it more decorative by using
cushions of several colours.
If you like your room, but find it cold in atmosphere, try deep cream
gauze for sash curtains. They are wonderful atmosphere producers. The
advantage of two tiers of sash curtains (see Plate IX) is that one can
part and push back one tier for air, light or looking out, and still
use the other tier to modify the light in the room.
Another way to produce atmosphere in a cold room is to use a
tone-on-tone paper. That is, a paper striped in two depths of the same
colour. In choosing any wall paper it is imperative that you try a
large sample of it in the room for which it is intended, as the
reflection from a nearby building or brick wall can entirely change a
beautiful yellow into a thick mustard colour. How a wall paper looks
in the shop is no criterion. As stated sometimes the _wrong side_ of
wall paper gives you the tone you desire.
When rearranging your room do not desecrate the few good antiques you
happen to own by the use of a too modern colour scheme. Have the
necessary modern pieces you have bought to supplement your treasures
stained or painted in a dull, dark colour in harmony with the
antiques, and then use subdued colours in the floor coverings,
curtains and cushions.
If you own no good old ornaments, try to get a few good shapes and
colours in inexpensive reproductions of the desired period.
If your room is small, and the bathroom opens out of it, add to the
size of the room by using the same colour scheme in the bathroom, and
conceal the plumbing and fixtures by a low screen. If the connecting
door is kept open, the effect is to enlarge greatly the appearance of
the small bedroom, whereas if the bedroom decorations are dark and the
bathroom has a light floor and walls, it abruptly cuts itself off and
emphasises the smallness of the bedroom.
Everything depends upon the appropriateness of the furniture to its
setting. We recall some much admired dining-room chairs in the home of
the Maclaines of Lochbuie in Argyleshire, west coast of Scotland. The
chairs in question are covered with sealskin from the seals caught off
that rugged coast. They are quite delightful in a remote country
house; but they would not be tolerated in London.
The question of placing photographs is not one to be treated lightly.
Remember, intimate photographs should be placed in intimate rooms,
while photographs of artists and all celebrities are appropriate for
the living room or library. It is extremely seldom that a photograph
unless of public interest is not out of place in a formal room.
To repeat, never forget that your house or flat is _your_ home, and,
that to have any charm whatever of a personal sort, it must suggest
_you_--not simply the taste of a professional decorator. So work with
your decorator (if you prefer to employ one) by giving your personal
attention to styles and colours, and selecting those most sympathetic
to your own nature. Your architect will be grateful if you will show
the same interest in the details of building your home, rather than
assuming the attitude that you have engaged him in order to rid
yourself of such bother.
If you are building a pretentious house and decide upon some clearly
defined period of architecture, let us say, Georgian (English
eighteenth century) we would advise keeping your first floor mainly in
that period as to furniture and hangings, but upstairs let yourself
go, that is, make your rooms any style you like. Go in for a gay riot
of colour, such combinations as are known as Bakst colouring,--if that
happens to be your fancy. This Russian painter and designer was
fortunate in having the theatre in which to demonstrate his
experiments in vivid colour combinations, and sometimes we quite
forget that he was but one of many who have used sunset palettes.
PLATE IV
Here we have a man's office in Wall Street, New York, showing how
a lawyer with large interests surrounds himself with necessities
which contribute to his comfort, sense of beauty and art
instincts.
The desk is big, solid and commodious, yet artistically unusual.
[Illustration: _A Man's Office in Wall Street_]
Recently the fair butterfly daughters of a mother whose taste has
grown sophisticated, complained--"But, Mother, we dislike
_periods_, and here you are building a Tudor house!" forgetting, by
the way, that the so-called Bakst interiors, adored by them, are
equally a _period_.
This home, a very wonderful one, is being worked out on the plan
suggested, that is, the first floor is decorated in the period of the
exterior of the house, while the personal rooms on the upper floors
reflect, to a certain extent, the personality of their occupants.
Remember there must always be a certain relationship between all the
rooms in one suite, the relationship indicated by lines and a
background of the same, or a harmonising colour-scheme.