_Colour Harmony in the Model House._--It will be remembered that
the colour scheme of the hall, living room, and dining-room of our
model house was settled quite early in the development of the design.
Standing near the centre of the living room and looking through the
hall into the dining-room, one may see at a glance how some of the
details of decoration were worked out in keeping with the general
treatment. The walnut brown stain of the floors gives a good foundation
of colour. It flows easily into the lighter browns and yellows of all
the lower wall spaces. The suggestion of olive green in the frieze of
the living room offers a pleasing contrast with the prevailing browns
and harmonizes well with the woodwork of this room, which, it will be
remembered, was designed to be finished in gum wood. This beautiful
wood, when properly treated, presents a surface of satin-like texture
and soft colour tone. In the dining-room a corner of which is shown
in the frontispiece, the frieze lends a warmth of colour where it is
needed and is in keeping with the fumed oak trim. The wide openings
into the hall from the rooms on each side of it, together with the
long, unbroken lines of the beamed ceilings, give the impression of
generous width. The plain wall spaces, though varied in tone and
relieved of monotonous spacings by the location of the necessary doors
and windows, are of great assistance in increasing the apparent size of
the room. Plain walls are also the best of backgrounds for pictures.
_Redecorating Old Houses._--It is, of course, true that the decorating
and furnishing of a house or an apartment cannot always have a new
and original architectural design as the basis for the solution of
the problems involved. As a matter of fact, in the great majority of
cases, the houses in which homes are made are already built and have
been previously occupied. Often they are very old houses, presenting
difficult and even impossible tasks for the decorator. Sometimes,
however, such houses are all the more desirable if they bear the marks
of age that suggest a past of dignity and charm. But the spirit which
inspires the artist in decorating and furnishing a house already built
is the same as that which controls his thought when he can begin with
the foundation of a new and original design. His first thought is to
discover how beauty may be enhanced and at the same time unity of
purpose and harmony of treatment be preserved. His constant care is to
avoid incongruous elements, however beautiful they may be in themselves
or however appropriate in other houses. His general aim is to use his
art to develop the design as it is, if there be any design at all, and
make the most of it.
_Decoration as a Corrective._--But this does not prevent him from
attempting to counteract the blunders of faulty design and bad
architecture. Such correction, indeed, forms a large part of the work
of decorators and furnishers, both professional and amateur. If the
lines and space divisions of a room be not good, the decoration must
be planned with a view to giving the needed harmony of proportions,
or at least the appearance of it. If the ceiling be too high, it may
be made to "look" lower by carrying the ceiling paper or tinting one
or two feet down the walls of the room to meet the picture moulding.
The effect of reduced height is accentuated by a high base board or by
wainscoting. If the ceiling be too low, the depressing effect may be
largely overcome by extending the picture moulding along the top of the
wall spaces close to the ceiling. This is a desirable thing to do in
the living rooms of most modern houses. Striped wall papers of proper
tones may be used in low rooms with good effect in increasing their
apparent height. Bad wall spacing may also be corrected by enlarging
door-ways, substituting portières for the doors, and by arranging
the drapery over windows to give the effect either of increasing or
of diminishing their height, as the conditions may require. _Wall
Papers._--Probably no element of decoration furnishes so many pitfalls
to ensnare the unwary as wall papers do. It is easy to fall a victim
to a captivating design as it appears in the few square feet of wall
paper displayed on the dealer's rack. The same interesting figure,
spread out in endless repetition on the four walls of the living room,
may create an atmosphere of unrest and positive discomfort keenly felt
by sensitive persons. A wise choice cannot be made in the absence of
all the conditions that should really determine it. After all, it is
not the paper which is beautiful in the roll that should be selected,
but only that which will become beautiful when hung upon the walls of
a certain room. Papers with large figures should be avoided unless
there is a special reason for using them. They always have the effect
of reducing the apparent size of everything associated with them.
They make a small room appear dwarfish and a large one over decorated
unless well relieved by plain spaces harmonizing in colour with the
large-figured patterns. Strong contrasts in colour values should also
be avoided, not only between the designs and the ground colour of the
wall paper itself, but also between the paper and other objects of
importance in the room. The principle of gradation in colour values,
which does not as a general thing allow the placing together of light
and dark shades or tints, is almost as important as harmony of colour
tones.
_Nature of Decorative Design._--The one fact never to be lost sight
of by the decorator is the real nature of true decorative design. It
is never a picture. While it may suggest the natural forms of plants
or animals, it does not aim to represent them in a naturalistic way.
Some of the best decorative designs do not even suggest natural forms;
but, whether they do or not, the central idea is the repetition of good
combinations of line and form in closely related colours and values
on a flat surface. If natural forms are used, they should be more or
less highly conventionalized. Anything that destroys the idea of flat
surfaces in the same plane is a false note in wall decoration. In the
nature of the case, a wall can have but one plane. Clusters of flowers
or patterns of any kind that seem to hang in front of this plane, or
back of it, are out of place and therefore offend the sense of fitness.
Such incongruities are sometimes so pronounced that they positively
shock the sensibilities of refined people. Extreme examples have been
known to give such pain to sensitive persons as to drive them from the
room.
_Advantage of Plain Walls._--Decorative designs, however, are not
essential in wall papers. The main point in the treatment of walls is
to secure and preserve a good background. If one is in doubt as to
the kind of figure or pattern to be used, which is often a perplexing
question, it is well to leave them out altogether. Plain walls are
always good if the colour tone is right; for colour is the main thing
in wall decoration. The decorative effects of form may be brought out
in the portières and window draperies, which may easily carry more
elaborate patterns when associated with plain walls than is desirable
with figured wall decorations. In fact, with figured walls plain
portières and curtains are much to be preferred. In our model house,
as has been explained, the wall decorations were designed to offer a
plain background of colour. The figured borders of the portières and
curtains, combined with the careful gradation in the colouring of the
floors, wall spaces, and ceiling, gave such a variety of tone to this
background that nothing further was needed to avoid monotony.
_Trial Needed in Doubtful Cases._--It is, indeed, a good rule to omit
whatever is unnecessary. To observe this rule wisely is to escape much
that is positively bad in decoration. Overwrought designs, too great
variety in decorative material, too many decorative objects, however
great their individual beauty, too many odd pieces of furniture, too
many interesting things in whatever direction one may turn, create an
oppressive and disquieting atmosphere and a feeling of unrest which
it should always be the aim of home decoration to dispel. And yet it
may not always be best to set aside our treasures because they do not
seem perfectly suited to the general scheme of decoration or are not
apparently needed to complete it. It is, in fact, often very difficult
to determine where the line should be drawn between what is needed and
what is not needed. The fact that nothing seems to be lacking is not a
final test if one has at hand useful or beautiful things that may be
introduced into a scheme of decoration already well thought out and be
given a trial. Such experimenting will often reveal unsuspected needs
or add a new charm that at once proves its right to be retained.
To take a step like this, somewhat out of line with accepted rules
as strictly interpreted, is entirely safe if this step is dictated
by good taste and does not lead the young decorator too far afield.
Exceptional treatment of any kind should show proper restraint, and
such restraint, when it is plainly indicated in any work of art, is in
itself an attractive feature.
_Precise Rules not Always Practicable._--The truth is, the rules of
decoration, though founded upon fundamental principles of art, are not
rules of precision like those founded upon mathematical principles.
In the nature of the case they must in their application yield more
or less to circumstances. It is, for example, a good general rule
to determine the colour scheme and background first and accommodate
other decorative features to these as a foundation; and yet it is
possible for a situation to be so exceptional as to justify a complete
reversal of this rule. Here is a concrete case. A young artist was the
fortunate possessor of a considerable number of Japanese and Chinese
embroideries and other Oriental ornaments. He wished to make these the
main decorative materials for one of his rooms. The embroidered figures
were in yellow and white on a deep, strong blue, the general effect
being quite dark. There were in the collection several prints, showing
the typical dull reds, dark blues, and yellows of Japanese art. Now the
room itself happened to be one that, under the general principle of
colour schemes as determined by exposure and other fixed conditions,
would demand warm colours on its walls. It would easily support a rich
red frieze with appropriate combinations in floor, dado, and ceiling.
This would set off well the dark oak trim and the mahogany furniture,
but it would rule out the Oriental decorations. One or the other must
give way; and, since the value of these decorative materials was beyond
question, it was decided to try them, even at the cost of setting aside
the general rule. The whole matter resolved itself into selecting a
proper background for these beautiful pictures and embroideries; and
for these the best colour was a gray blue--the coldest of colours. But
when the whole decorative scheme was carried out to completion and the
cold background was fully employed in setting off the rich colours and
exquisite workmanship of the Oriental prints and draperies, all the
circumstances that ordinarily determine the choice of backgrounds were
forgotten in the charm of originality. No one thought of the exposure
as requiring warm colours, the dark oak trim was not noticed, and the
mahogany furniture was still in keeping. The result was so absolutely
satisfying that no one who saw it could question the good taste
displayed in this very original plan of decoration.
But such exceptional cases should not shake our confidence in the
fundamental principles of decoration. It is true that these principles
cannot be reduced to formulas to be applied invariably in all cases,
and it is unreasonable to assume that any form of treatment is the only
one possible in any given case. Modifications in the application of
these principles are always possible, but the principles themselves are
as unalterable as the Mosaic law. One is, indeed, tempted to summarize
them thus as the