Nature is unerring in her choice and use of color. She is the mistress
of color, always in good taste and the greatest respecter of the
fitness of things. In the main, her dress is green and brown and grey
in a frame of blue and white. To relieve the monotony, she punctuates
her work with spots of brightness that stand out in harmonious
contrasts.
From earliest Spring days she operates a kaleidoscope which brings
changes to the eye and keeps it interested and unwearied of the
transitions which gain in attractiveness as she touches time with her
wand and carries us unwittingly through a maze of hueful glory.
In her scheme of things, she uses gold and pink, lilac and amethyst,
crimson and green, blue and purple, yellow and brown, orange, buff and
neutral silvers and drab. Go where you will in the flower months and
you cannot get away from her combinations of colors.
In March she brings the trailing arbutus into blossom with its delicate
pink flowers nestling in a bed of green. April comes with her lap
filled with wild honeysuckle, with its red spurs that seem to be a
reception committee to balmy days and renewed life. So it goes as the
season advances. Nature is never violent in her selections of color.
From the departure of snow to the turning of the leaves in Autumn, she
teaches us the use of color, and never once going wrong. With May comes
the beautiful wild lady’s slipper, followed in June by the grass-pink.
The spring season is a pink and green season, and with the warmer days,
meadow and roadside, woods and swamps become dotted with stronger
colors until in September the golden-rod and Jo Pye weed vie with each
other in the carnival of beauty.
So, if we would put harmony in the surroundings which make home, we
will do well to follow the order and the skill of this scheme of
universal decoration.
Let us consider, if you please, the spirit of home-making as nature
herself and the home and the rooms within it as nature and the seasons
passing in review. It is the purpose of this book to treat of the
home in its entirety and of all the elements that go to make it. For
inasmuch as all things are relative, it becomes imperative to consider
the details as well as the project of general requirements.
Let us picture and see the home from the outside and the inside points
of view. Let us see the physical structure and its uses. Let us not
only make walls but a place to live, ready for its owner to walk into,
sink into an easy-chair and meet eye rest and mental satisfaction,
called comfort.