,frontispiece3 ,dining-room in ,pennyroyal 7in ,mrs4 ,boudinot ,keith's ,cottage1 ,onteora7 ,principles of ,home ,decoration ,with ,practical ,examples ,by ,candace ,wheeler ,new ,york ,doubleday1 ,page ,company #aijc ,published ,february #aijc ,,contents ,,chapter ,i4 ,decoration as an ,art4 ,decoration in ,american ,homes4 ,woman's ,influence in ,decoration4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,character in ,homes4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,builders' ,houses4 ,expedients4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,colour in ,houses4 ,colour as a ,science4 ,colour as an ,influence4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,the ,law of ,appropriateness4 ,cleanliness and ,harmony ,tastefully ,combined4 ,bedroom ,furnished in ,accordance with ,individual ,tastes4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,kitchens4 ,treatment of ,walls from a ,hygienic ,point of ,view4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,colour with ,reference to ,light4 ,examples of the ,effects of ,light on ,colour4 ,gradation of ,colour4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,walls1 ,ceilings and ,floors4 ,treatment and ,decoration of ,walls4 ,use of ,tapestry4 ,leather and ,wall-,papers4 ,panels of ,wood1 ,painted ,walls4 ,textiles4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,location of the ,house4 ,decoration ,influenced by ,situation4 ,,chapter ,x4 ,ceilings4 ,decorations in ,harmony with ,walls4 ,treatment in ,accordance with ,size of ,room4 ,,chapter ,,xi4 ,floors and ,floor ,coverings4 ,treatment of ,floors--,polished ,wood1 ,mosaics4 ,judicious ,selection of ,rugs and ,carpets4 ,,chapter ,,xii4 ,draperies4 ,importance of ,appropriate ,colours4 ,importance of ,appropriate ,textures4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,furniture4 ,character in ,rooms4 ,harmony in ,furniture4 ,comparison ,between ,antique and ,modern ,furniture4 ,treatment of the ,different ,rooms4 ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,dining-room in ,penny-royal 7,mrs4 ,boudinot ,keith's cottage1 ,onteora7 ,hall in city house1 showing effect of staircase divided and turned to rear ,stenciled borders for hall and bathroom decorations ,sitting-room in ,wild ,wood1 ,onteora 7belonging to ,miss ,luisita ,leland7 ,large sitting-room in ,star ,rock 7country house of ,w4,e4 ,connor1 ,esq41 ,onteora7 ,painted canvas frieze and buckram frieze for dining-room ,square hall in city house ,colonial chairs and sofa 7belonging to ,mrs4 ,ruth ,mc,enery ,stuart7 ,colonial mantel and ,english hob-grate 7sitting-room in ,mrs4 ,candace ,wheeler's house7 ,sofa designed by ,mrs4 ,candace ,wheeler1 for ,n4,y4 ,library in ,woman's ,building1 ,columbia ,exposition ,rustic sofa and tables in ,penny-royal 7,mrs4 ,boudinot ,keith's cottage1 ,onteora7 ,dining-room in ,star ,rock 7country house of ,w4,e4 ,connor1 ,esq41 ,onteora7 ,dining-room in ,new ,york house showing leaded-glass windows ,dining-room in ,new ,york home showing carved wainscoting and painted frieze ,screen and glass windows in house at ,lakewood 7belonging to ,clarence ,root1 ,esq47 ,principles of ,home ,decoration ,,chapter ,i ,,decoration ,,as ,,an ,,art ,who creates a ,home1 creates a potent spirit which in turn doth fashion him that fashioned4 ,probably no art has so few masters as that of decoration4 ,in ,england1 ,morris was for many years the great leader1 but among his followers in ,england no one has attained the dignity of unquestioned authority2 and in ,america1 in spite of far more general practice of the art1 we still are without a leader whose very name establishes law4 ,it is true we are free to draw inspiration from the same sources which supplied ,morris and the men associated with him in his enthusiasms1 and in fact we do lean1 as they did1 upon ,english eighteenth-century domestic art--and derive from the men who made that period famous many of our articles of faith2 but there are almost no authoritative books upon the subject of appropriate modern decoration4 ,our text books are still to be written2 and one must glean knowledge from many sources1 shape it into rules1 and test the rules1 before adopting them as safe guides4 ,yet in spite of the absence of authoritative teaching1 we have learned that an art dependent upon other arts1 as decoration is upon building and architecture1 is bound to follow the principles which govern them4 ,we must base our work upon what has already been done1 select our decorative forms from appropriate periods1 conform our use of colour to the principles of colour1 and be able to choose and apply all manufactures in accordance with the great law of appropriateness4 ,if we do this1 we stand upon something capable of evolution and the creation of a system4 ,in so far as the principles of decoration are derived from other arts1 they can be acquired by every one1 but an exquisite feeling in their application is the distinguishing quality of the true decorator4 ,there is quite a general impression that house-decoration is not an art which requires a long course of study and training1 but some kind of natural knack of arrangement--a faculty of making things look pretty1 and that any one who has this faculty is amply qualified for taking up house-decoration4 ,indeed1 natural facility succeeds in satisfying many personal cravings for beauty1 although it is not competent for general practice4 ,of course there are people1 and many of them1 who are gifted with an inherent sense of balance and arrangement1 and a true eye for colour1 and--given the same materials--such people will make a room pleasant and cozy1 where one without these gifts would make it positively ugly4 ,in so far1 then1 individual gifts are a great advantage1 yet one possessing them in even an unusual degree may make great mistakes in decoration4 ,what not to do1 in this day of almost universal experiment1 is perhaps the most valuable lesson to the untrained decorator4 ,many of the rocks upon which he splits are down in no chart1 and lie in the track of what seems to him perfectly plain sailing4 ,there are houses of fine and noble exterior which are vulgarized by uneducated experiments in colour and ornament1 and belittled by being filled with heterogeneous collections of unimportant art4 ,yet these very instances serve to emphasize the demand for beautiful surroundings1 and in spite of mistakes and incongruities1 must be reckoned as efforts toward a desirable end4 ,in spite of a prevalent want of training1 it is astonishing how much we have of good interior decoration1 not only in houses of great importance1 but in those of people of average fortunes--indeed1 it is in the latter that we get the general value of the art4 ,this comparative excellence is to be referred to the very general acquirement of what we call art cultivation among ,american women1 and this1 in conjunction with a knowledge that her social world will be apt to judge of her capacity by her success or want of success in making her own surroundings beautiful1 determines the efforts of the individual woman4 ,she feels that she is expected to prove her superiority by living in a home distinguished for beauty as well as for the usual orderliness and refinement4 ,of course this sense of obligation is a powerful spur to the exercise of natural gifts1 and if in addition to these she has the habit of reasoning upon the principles of things1 and is sufficiently cultivated in the literature of art to avoid unwarrantable experiment1 there is no reason why she should not be successful in her own surroundings4 ,the typical ,american1 whether man1 or woman1 has great natural facility1 and when the fact is once recognized that beauty--like education--can dignify any circumstances1 from the narrowest to the most opulent1 it becomes one of the objects of life to secure it4 ,how this is done depends upon the talent and cultivation of the family1 and this is often adequate for excellent results4 ,it is quite possible that so much general ability may discourage the study of decoration as a precise form of art1 since it encourages the idea that ,the ,house ,beautiful can be secured by any one who has money to pay for processes1 and possesses what is simply designated as good taste4 ,we do not find this impulse toward the creation of beautiful interiors as noticeable in other countries as in ,america4 ,the instinct of self-expression is much stronger in us than in other races1 and for that reason we cannot be contented with the utterances of any generation1 race or country save our own4 ,we gather to ourselves what we personally enjoy or wish to enjoy1 and will not take our domestic environment at second hand4 ,it follows that there is a certain difference and originality in our methods1 which bids fair to acquire distinct character1 and may in the future distinguish this art-loving period as a maker of style4 ,a successful foreign painter who has visited this country at intervals during the last ten years said1 ,there is no such uniformity of beautiful interiors anywhere else in the world4 ,there are palaces in ,france and ,italy1 and great country houses in ,england1 to the embellishment of which generations of owners have devoted the best art of their own time2 but in ,america there is something of it everywhere4 ,many unpretentious houses have drawing-rooms possessing colour-decoration which would distinguish them as examples in ,england or ,france4 ,to ,americans this does not seem a remarkable fact4 ,we have come into a period which desires beauty1 and each one secures it as best he can4 ,we are a teachable and a studious people1 with a faculty of turning general information to account2 and general information upon art matters has had much to do with our good interiors4 ,we have1 perhaps half unconsciously1 applied fundamental principles to our decoration1 and this may be as much owing to natural good sense as to cultivation4 ,we have a habit of reasoning about things1 and acting upon our conclusions1 instead of allowing the rest of the world to do the reasoning while we adopt the result4 ,it is owing to this conjunction of love for and cultivation of art1 and the habit of materializing what we wish1 that we have so many thoroughly successful interiors1 which have been accomplished almost without aid from professional artists4 ,it is these1 instead of the smaller number of costly interiors1 which give the reputation of artistic merit to our homes4 ,undoubtedly the largest proportion of successful as well as unsuccessful domestic art in our country is due to the efforts of women4 ,in the great race for wealth which characterizes our time1 it is demanded that women shall make it effective by so using it as to distinguish the family2 and nothing distinguishes it so much as the superiority of the home4 ,this effort adheres to small as well as large fortunes1 and in fact the necessity is more pronounced in the case of mediocre than of great ones4 ,in the former there is something to be made up--some protest of worth and ability and intelligence that helps many a home to become beautiful4 ,as ,i have said1 a woman feels that the test of her capacity is that her house shall not only be comfortable and attractive1 but that it shall be arranged according to the laws of harmony and beauty4 ,it is as much the demand of the hour as that she shall be able to train her children according to the latest and most enlightened theories1 or that she shall take part in public and philanthropic movements1 or understand and have an opinion on political methods4 ,these are things which are expected of every woman who makes a part of society2 and no less is it expected that her house shall be an appropriate and beautiful setting for her personality1 a credit to her husband1 and an unconscious education for her children4 ,but it happens that means of education in all of these directions1 except that of decoration1 are easily available4 ,a woman can become a member of a kindergarten association1 and get from books and study the result of scientific knowledge of child-life and training4 ,she can find means to study the ethics of her relations to her kind and become an effective philanthropist1 or join the league for political education and acquire a more or less enlightened understanding of politics2 but who is to formulate for her the science of beauty1 to teach her how to make the interior aspect of her home perfect in its adaptation to her circumstances1 and as harmonious in colour and arrangement as a song without words8 ,she feels that these conditions create a mental atmosphere serene and yet inspiring1 and that such surroundings are as much her birthright and that of her children as food and clothing of a grade belonging to their circumstances1 but how is it to be compassed8 ,most women ask themselves this question1 and fail to understand that it is as much of a marvel when a woman without training or experience creates a good interior as a whole1 as if an amateur in music should compose an opera4 ,it is not at all impossible for a woman of good taste--and it must be remembered that this word means an educated or cultivated power of selection--to secure harmonious or happily contrasted colour in a room1 and to select beautiful things in the way of furniture and belongings2 but what is to save her from the thousand and one mistakes possible to inexperience in this combination of things which make lasting enjoyment and appropriate perfection in a house8 ,how can she know which rooms will be benefited by sombre or sunny tints1 and which exposure will give full sway to her favourite colour or colours8 ,how can she have learned the reliability or want of reliability in certain materials or processes used in decoration1 or the rules of treatment which will modify a low and dark room and make it seem light and airy1 or bring down too high a ceiling and widen narrow walls so as to apparently correct disproportion8 ,these things are the results of laws which she has never studied--laws of compensation and relation1 which belong exclusively to the world of colour1 and unfortunately they are not so well formulated that they can be committed to memory like rules of grammar2 yet all good colour-practice rests upon them as unquestionably as language rests upon grammatical construction4 ,of course one may use colour as one can speak a language1 purely by imitation and memory1 but it is not absolutely reliable practice2 and just here comes in the necessity for professional advice4 ,there are many difficulties in the accomplishment of a perfect house-interior which few householders have had the time or experience to cope with1 and yet the fact remains that each mistress of a house believes that unless she vanquishes all difficulties and comes out triumphantly with colours flying at the housetop and enjoyment and admiration following her efforts1 she has failed in something which she should have been perfectly able to accomplish4 ,but the obligation is certainly a forced one4 ,it is the result of the modern awakening to the effect of many heretofore unrecognized influences in our lives and the lives and characters of our children4 ,a beautiful home is undoubtedly a great means of education1 and of that best of all education which is unconscious4 ,to grow up in such a one means a much more complete and perfect man or woman than would be possible without that particular influence4 ,but a perfect home is never created all at once and by one person1 and let the anxious house-mistress take comfort in the thought4 ,she should also remember that it is in the nature of beauty to grow1 and that a well-rounded and beautiful family life adds its quota day by day4 ,every book1 every sketch or picture--every carefully selected or characteristic object brought into the home adds to and makes a part of a beautiful whole1 and no house can be absolutely perfect without all these evidences of family life4 ,it can be made ready for them1 completely and perfectly ready1 by professional skill and knowledge2 but if it remained just where the interior artist or decorator left it1 it would have no more of the sentiment of domesticity than a statue4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,character ,,in ,,houses ,for the created still doth shadow forth the mind and will which made it4 ,thou art the very mould of thy creator4 ,it needs the combined personality of the family to make the character of the house4 ,no one could say of a house which has family character1 ,it is one of ----'s houses 7naming one or another successful decorator71 because the decorator would have done only what it was his business to do--used technical and artistic knowledge in preparing a proper and correct background for family life4 ,even in doing that1 he must consult family tastes and idiosyncracies if he has the reverence for individuality which belongs to the true artist4 ,a domestic interior is a thing to which he should give knowledge and not personality1 and the puzzled home-maker1 who understands that her world expects correct use of means of beauty1 as well as character and originality in her home1 need not feel that to secure the one she must sacrifice the other4 ,an inexperienced person might think it an easy thing to make a beautiful home1 because the world is full of beautiful art and manufactures1 and if there is money to pay for them it would seem as easy to furnish a house with everything beautiful as to go out in the garden and gather beautiful flowers2 but we must remember that the world is also full of ugly things--things false in art1 in truth and in beauty--things made to sell--made with only this idea behind them1 manufactured on the principle that an artificial fly is made to look something like a true one in order to catch the inexpert and the unwary4 ,it is a curious fact that these false things--manufactures without honesty1 without knowledge1 without art--have a property of demoralizing the spirit of the home1 and that to make it truly beautiful everything in it must be genuine as well as appropriate1 and must also fit into some previously considered scheme of use and beauty4 ,the esthetic or beautiful aspect of the home1 in short1 must be created through the mind of the family or owner1 and is only maintained by its or his susceptibility to true beauty and appreciation of it4 ,it must1 in fact1 be a visible mould of invisible matter1 like the leaf-mould one finds in mineral springs1 which show the wonderful veining1 branching1 construction and delicacy of outline in a way which one could hardly be conscious of in the actual leaf4 ,if the grade or dignity of the home requires professional and scholarly art direction1 the problem is how to use this professional or artistic advice without delivering over the entire creation into stranger or alien hands2 without abdicating the right and privilege of personal expression4 ,if the decorator appreciates this right1 his function will be somewhat akin to that of the portrait painter2 both are bound to represent the individual or family in their performances1 each artist using the truest and best methods of art with the added gift of grace or charm of colour which he possesses1 the one giving the physical aspect of his client and the other the mental characteristics1 circumstances1 position and life of the house-owner and his family4 ,this is the true mission of the decorator1 although it is not always so understood4 ,what is called business talent may lead him to invent schemes of costliness which relate far more to his own profit than to the wishes or character of the house-owner4 ,but it is not always that the assistance of the specialist in decoration and furnishing is necessary4 ,there are many homes where both are quite within the scope of the ordinary man or woman of taste4 ,in fact1 the great majority of homes come within these lines1 and it is to such home-builders that rules1 not involving styles1 are especially of use4 ,the principles of truth and harmony1 which underlie all beauty1 may be secured in the most inexpensive cottage as well as in the broadest and most imposing residence4 ,indeed1 the cottage has the advantage of that most potent ally of beauty--simplicity--a quality which is apt to be conspicuously absent from the schemes of decoration for the palace4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,builders' ,,houses ,mine own hired house4 ,a large proportion of homes are made in houses which are not owned1 but leased1 and this prevents each man or family from indicating personal taste in external aspect4 ,a rich man and house-owner may approximate to a true expression of himself even in the outside of his house if he strongly desires it1 but a man of moderate means must adapt himself and his family to the house-builder's idea of houses--that is to say1 to the idea of the man who has made house-building a trade1 and whose experiences have created a form into which houses of moderate cost and fairly universal application may be cast4 ,although it is as natural to a man to build or acquire a home as to a bird to build a nest1 he has not the same unfettered freedom in construction4 ,he cannot always adapt his house either to the physical or mental size of his family1 but must accept what is possible with much the same feeling with which a family of robins might accommodate themselves to a wren's nest1 or an oriole to that of a barn-swallow4 ,but the fact remains1 that all these accidental homes must1 in some way1 be brought into harmony with the lives to be lived in them1 and the habits and wants of the family2 and not only this1 they must be made attractive according to the requirements of cultivated society4 ,the effort toward this is instructive1 and the pleasure in and enjoyment of the home depends upon the success of the effort4 ,the inmates1 as a rule1 are quite clear as to what they want to accomplish1 but have seldom had sufficient experience to enable them to remedy defects of construction4 ,there are expedients by which many of the malformations and uglinesses of the ordinary builder's house may be greatly ameliorated1 various small surgical operations which will remedy badly planned rooms1 and dispositions of furniture which will restore proportion4 ,we can even1 by judicious distribution of planes of colour1 apparently lower or raise a ceiling1 and widen or lengthen a room1 and these expedients1 which belong partly to the experience of the decorator1 are based upon laws which can easily be formulated4 ,every one can learn something of them by the study of faulty rooms and the enjoyment of satisfactory ones4 ,indeed1 ,i know no surer or more agreeable way of getting wisdom in the art of decoration than by tracing back sensation to its source1 and finding out why certain things are utterly satisfactory1 and certain others a positive source of discomfort4 ,in what are called the best houses we can make our deductions quite as well as in the most faulty1 and sometimes get a lesson of avoidance and a warning against law-breaking which will be quite as useful as if it were learned in less than the best4 ,there is one fault very common in houses which date from a period of some forty or fifty years back1 a fault of disproportionate height of ceilings4 ,in a modern house1 if one room is large enough to require a lofty ceiling1 the architect will manage to make his second floor upon different levels1 so as not to inflict the necessary height of large rooms upon narrow halls and small rooms1 which should have only a height proportioned to their size4 ,a ten-foot room with a thirteen-foot ceiling makes the narrowness of the room doubly apparent2 one feels shut up between two walls which threaten to come together and squeeze one between them1 while1 on the other hand1 a ten-foot room with a nine-foot ceiling may have a really comfortable and cozy effect4 ,in this case1 what is needed is to get rid of the superfluous four feet1 and this can be done by cheating the eye into an utter forgetfulness of them4 ,there must be horizontal divisions of colour which attract the attention and make one oblivious of what is above them4 ,every one knows the effect of a paper with perpendicular stripes in apparently heightening a ceiling which is too low1 but not every one is equally aware of the contrary effect of horizontal lines of varied surface4 ,but in the use of perpendicular lines it is well to remember that1 if the room is small1 it will appear still smaller if the wall is divided into narrow spaces by vertical lines4 ,if it is large and the ceiling simply low for the size of the room1 a good deal can be done by long1 simple lines of drapery in curtains and portieres1 or in choosing a paper where the composition of design is perpendicular rather than diagonal4 ,to apparently lower a high ceiling in a small room1 the wall should be treated horizontally in different materials4 ,three feet of the base can be covered with coarse canvas or buckram and finished with a small wood moulding4 ,six feet of plain wall above this1 painted the same shade as the canvas1 makes the space of which the eye is most aware4 ,this space should be finished with a picture moulding1 and the four superfluous feet of wall above it must be treated as a part of the ceiling4 ,the cream-white of the actual ceiling should be brought down on the side walls for a space of two feet1 and this has the effect of apparently enlarging the room1 since the added mass of light tint seems to broaden it4 ,there still remain two feet of space between the picture moulding and ceiling-line which may be treated as a ceiling-border in inconspicuous design upon the same cream ground1 the design to be in darker1 but of the same tint as the ceiling4 ,the floor in such a room as this should either be entirely covered with plain carpeting1 or1 if it has rugs at all1 there should be several1 as one single rug1 not entirely covering the floor1 would have the effect of confining the apparent size of the room to the actual size of the rug4 ,if the doors and windows in such a room are high and narrow1 they can be made to come into the scheme by placing the curtain and portiere rods below the actual height and covering the upper space with thin material1 either full or plain1 of the same colour as the upper wall4 ,a brocaded muslin1 stained or dyed to match the wall1 answers this purpose admirably1 and is really better in its place than the usual expedient of stained glass or open-work wood transom4 ,a good expedient is to have the design already carried around the wall painted in the same colour upon a piece of stretched muslin4 ,this is simple but effective treatment1 and is an instance of the kind of thought or knowledge that must be used in remedying faults of construction4 ,colour has much to do with the apparent size of rooms1 a room in light tints always appearing to be larger than a deeply coloured one4 ,perhaps the most difficult problem in adaptation is the high1 narrow city house1 built and decorated by the block by the builder1 who is also a speculator in real estate1 and whose activity was chiefly exercised before the ingenious devices of the modern architect were known4 ,these houses exist in quantities in our larger and older cities1 and mere slices of space as they are1 are the theatres where the home-life of many refined and beauty-loving intelligences must be played4 ,in such houses as these1 the task of fitting them to the cultivated eyes and somewhat critical tests of modern society generally falls to the women who represent the family1 and calls for an amount of ability which would serve to build any number of creditable houses2 yet this is constantly being done and well done for not one1 but many families4 ,i know one such1 which is quite a model of a charming city home and yet was evolved from one of the worst of its kind and period4 ,in this case the family had fallen heir to the house and were therefore justified in the one radical change which metamorphosed the entrance-hall1 from a long1 narrow passage1 with an apparently interminable stairway occupying half its width1 to a small reception-hall seemingly enlarged by a judicious placing of the mirrors which had formerly been a part of the fixtures of the parlour and dining-room4 ,illustration3 ,,hall ,,in ,,city ,,house ,,showing ,,effect ,,of ,,staircase ,,divided ,,and ,,turned ,,to ,,rear ,the reception-room was accomplished by cutting off the lower half of the staircase1 which had extended itself to within three feet of the front door1 and turning it directly around1 so that it ends at the back instead of the front of the hall4 ,the two cut ends are connected by a platform1 thrown across from wall to wall1 and furnished with a low railing of carved panels1 and turned spindles1 which gives a charming balcony effect4 ,the passage to the back hall and stairs passes under the balcony and upper end of the staircase1 while the space under the lower stair-end1 screened by a portire1 adds a coat-closet to the conveniences of the reception-hall4 ,this change was not a difficult thing to accomplish1 it was simply an expedient1 but it has the value of carefully planned construction1 and reminds one of the clever utterance of the immortal painter who said1 ,i never lose an accident4 ,indeed the ingenious home-maker often finds that the worse a thing is1 the better it can be made by competent and careful study4 ,to complete and adapt incompetent things to orderliness and beauty1 to harmonise incongruous things into a perfect whole requires and exercises ability of a high order1 and the consciousness of its possession is no small satisfaction4 ,that it is constantly being done shows how much real cleverness is necessary to ordinary life--and reminds one of the patriotic ,new ,york state senator who declared that it required more ability to cross ,broadway safely at high tide1 than to be a great statesman4 ,and truly1 to make a good house out of a poor one1 or a beautiful interior from an ugly one1 requires far more thought1 and far more original talent1 than to decorate an important new one4 ,the one follows a travelled path--the other makes it4 ,of course competent knowledge saves one from many difficulties2 and faults of construction must be met by knowledge1 yet this is often greatly aided by natural cleverness1 and in the course of long practice in the decorative arts1 ,i have seen such refreshing and charming results from thoughtful untrained intelligence1--,i might almost say inspiration1--that ,i have great respect for its manifestations2 especially when exercised in un-authoritative fashion4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,colour ,,in ,,houses ,heaven gives us of its colour1 for our joy1 ,hues which have words and speak to ye of heaven4 ,although the very existence of a house is a matter of construction1 its general interior effect is almost entirely the result of colour treatment and careful and cultivated selection of accessories4 ,colour in the house includes much that means furniture1 in the way of carpets1 draperies1 and all the modern conveniences of civilization1 but as it precedes and dictates the variety of all these things from the authoritative standpoint of wall treatment1 it is well to study its laws and try to reap the full benefit of its influence4 ,as far as effect is concerned1 the colour of a room creates its atmosphere4 ,it may be cheerful or sad1 cosy or repellent according to its quality or force4 ,without colour it is only a bare canvas1 which might1 but does not picture our lives4 ,we understand many of the properties of colour1 and have unconsciously learned some of its laws2--but what may be called the science of colour has never been formulated4 ,so far as we understand it1 its principles correspond curiously to those of melodious sound4 ,it is as impossible to produce the best effect from one tone or colour1 as to make a melody upon one note of the harmonic scale2 it is skilful variation of tone1 the gradation or even judicious opposition of tint which gives exquisite satisfaction to the eye4 ,in music1 sequence produces this effect upon the ear1 and in colour1 juxtaposition and gradation upon the eye4 ,notes follow notes in melody as shade follows shade in colour4 ,we find no need of even different names for the qualities peculiar to the two2 scale--notes--tones--harmonies--the words express effects common to colour as well as to music1 but colour has this advantage1 that its harmonies can be fixed1 they do not die with the passing moment2 once expressed they remain as a constant and ever-present delight4 ,notes of the sound-octave have been gathered by the musicians from widely different substances1 and carefully linked in order and sequence to make a harmonious scale which may be learned2 but the painter1 conscious of colour-harmonies1 has as yet no written law by which he can produce them4 ,the born colourist is one who without special training1 or perhaps in spite of it1 can unerringly combine or oppose tints into compositions which charm the eye and satisfy the sense4 ,even among painters it is by no means a common gift4 ,it is almost more rare to find a picture distinguished for its harmony and beauty of colour1 than to see a room in which nothing jars and everything works together for beauty4 ,it seems strange that this should be a rarer personal gift than the musical sense1 since nature apparently is far more lavish of her lessons for the eye than for the ear2 and it is curious that colour1 which at first sight seems a more apparent and simple fact than music1 has not yet been written4 ,undoubtedly there is a colour scale1 which has its sharps and flats1 its high notes and low notes1 its chords and discords1 and it is not impossible that in the future science may make it a means of regulated and written harmonies3--that some master colourist who has mechanical and inventive genius as well1 may so arrange them that they can be played by rule2 that colour may have its ,mozart or ,beethoven--its classic melodies1 its familiar tunes4 ,the musician1 as ,i have said--has gathered his tones from every audible thing in nature--and fitted and assorted and built them into a science2 and why should not some painter who is also a scientist take the many variations of colour which lie open to his sight1 and range and fit and combine1 and write the formula1 so that a child may read it8 ,we already know enough to be very sure that the art is founded upon laws1 although they are not thoroughly understood4 ,principles of masses1 spaces1 and gradations underlie all accidental harmonies of colour2--just as in music1 the simple1 strong1 under-chords of the bass must be the ground for all the changes and trippings of the upper melodies4 ,it is easy1 if one studies the subject1 to see how the very likeness of these two esthetic forces illustrate the laws of each1--in the principles of relation1 gradation1 and scale4 ,until very recently the relation of colour to the beauty of a house interior was quite unrecognised4 ,if it existed in any degree of perfection it was an accident1 a result of the softening and beautifying effect of time1 or of harmonious human living4 ,where it existed1 it was felt as a mysterious charm belonging to the home2 something which pervaded it1 but had no separate being2 an attractive ghost which attached itself to certain houses1 followed certain people1 came by chance1 and was a mystery which no one understood1 but every one acknowledged4 ,now we know that this something which distinguished particular rooms1 and made beautiful particular houses1 was a definite result of laws of colour accidentally applied4 ,to avail ourselves of this influence upon the moods and experiences of life is to use a power positive in its effects as any spiritual or intellectual influence4 ,it gives the kind of joy we find in nature1 in the golden-green of light under tree-branches1 or the mingled green and gray of tree and rock shadows1 or the pearl and rose of sunrise and sunset4 ,we call the deep content which results from such surroundings the influence of nature1 and forget to name the less spiritual1 the more human condition of well-being which comes to us in our homes from being surrounded with something which in a degree atones for lack of nature's beauty4 ,it is a different well-being1 and lacks the full tide of electric enjoyment which comes from living for the hour under the sky and in the breadths of space1 but it atones by substituting something of our own invention1 which surprises us by its compensations1 and confounds us by its power4 ,,chapter ,v ,,the ,,law ,,of ,,appropriateness ,i have laid much stress upon the value of colour in interior decoration1 but to complete the beauty of the home something more than happy choice of tints is required4 ,it needs careful and educated selection of furniture and fittings1 and money enough to indulge in the purchase of an intrinsically good thing instead of a medium one4 ,it means even something more than the love of beauty and cultivation of it1 and that is a perfect adherence to the law of appropriateness4 ,this is1 after all1 the most important quality of every kind of decoration1 the one binding and general condition of its accomplishment4 ,it requires such a careful fitting together of all the means of beauty as to leave no part of the house1 whatever may be its use1 without the same care for appropriate completeness which goes to the more apparent features4 ,the cellar1 the kitchen1 the closets1 the servants' bedrooms must all share in the thought which makes the genuinely beautiful home and the genuinely perfect life4 ,it must be possible to go from the top to the bottom of the house1 finding everywhere agreeable1 suitable1 and thoughtful furnishings4 ,the beautiful house must consider the family as a whole1 and not make a museum of rare and costly things in the drawing-room1 the library1 the dining-room and family bedrooms1 leaving that important part of the whole machinery1 the service1 untouched by the spirit of beauty4 ,the same care in choice of colour will be as well bestowed on the servants' floor as on those devoted to the family1 and curtains1 carpets and furniture may possess as much beauty and yet be perfectly appropriate to servants' use4 ,on this upper floor1 it goes almost without saying1 that the walls must be painted in oil-colour instead of covered with paper4 ,that the floors should be uncarpeted except for bedside rugs which are easily removable4 ,that bedsteads should be of iron1 the mattress with changeable covers1 the furniture of painted and enameled instead of polished wood1 and in short the conditions of healthful cleanliness as carefully provided as if the rooms were in a hospital instead of a private house--but the added comfort of carefully chosen wall colour1 and bright1 harmonizing1 washable chintz in curtains and bed-covers4 ,these things have an influence upon the spirit of the home2 they are a part of its spiritual beauty1 giving a satisfied and approving consciousness to the home-makers1 and a sense of happiness in the service of the family4 ,in the average1 or small house1 there is room for much improvement in the treatment and furnishing of servants' bedrooms2 and this is not always from indifference1 but because they are out of daily sight1 and also from a belief that it would add seriously to the burden of housekeeping to see that they are kept up to the standard of family sleeping-rooms4 ,in point of fact1 however1 good surroundings are potent civilizers1 and a house-servant whose room is well and carefully furnished feels an added value in herself1 which makes her treat herself respectfully in the care of her room4 ,if it pleases her1 the training she receives in the care of family rooms will be reflected in her own1 and painstaking arrangements made for her pleasure will perhaps be recognised as an obligation4 ,of course the fact must be recognised1 that the occupant is not always a permanent one2 that it may at times be a fresh importation directly from a city tenement2 therefore1 everything in the room should be able to sustain very radical treatment in the way of scrubbing and cleaning4 ,wall papers1 unwashable rugs and curtains are out of the question2 yet even with these limitations it is possible to make a charming and reasonably inexpensive room1 which would be attractive to cultivated as well as uncultivated taste4 ,it is in truth mostly a matter of colour2 of coloured walls1 and harmonising furniture and draperies1 which are in themselves well adapted to their place4 ,as ,i have said elsewhere1 the walls in a servant's bedroom--and preferably in any sleeping-room--should for sanitary reasons be painted in oil colours1 but the possibilities of decorative treatment in this medium are by no means limited4 ,all of the lighter shades of green1 blue1 yellow1 and rose are as permanent1 and as easily cleaned1 as the dull grays and drabs and mud-colours which are often used upon bedroom walls--especially those upper ones which are above the zone of ornament1 apparently under the impression that there is virtue in their very ugliness4 ,a good clean gray some worthy housewife will instruct the painter to use1 and the result will be a dead mixture of various lively and pleasant tints1 any one of which might be charming if used separately1 or modified with white4 ,a small room with walls of a very light spring green1 or a pale turquoise blue1 or white with the dash of vermilion and touch of yellow ochre which produces salmon-pink1 is quite as durably and serviceably coloured as if it were chocolate-brown1 or heavy lead-colour2 indeed its effect upon the mind is like a spring day full of sunshine instead of one dark with clouds or lowering storms4 ,the rule given elsewhere for colour in light or dark exposure will hold good for service bedrooms as well as for the important rooms of the house4 ,that is2 if a bedroom for servants' use is on the north or shadowed side of the house1 let the colour be salmon or rose pink1 cream white1 or spring green2 but if it is on the sunny side1 the tint should be turquoise1 or pale blue1 or a grayish-green1 like the green of a field of rye4 ,with such walls1 a white iron bedstead1 enameled furniture1 curtains of white1 or a flowered chintz which repeats or contrasts with the colour of the walls1 bedside and bureau rugs of the tufted cotton which is washable1 or of the new rag-rugs of which the colours are water fast1 the room is absolutely good1 and can be used as an influence upon a lower or higher intelligence4 ,as a matter of utility the toilet service should be always of white2 so that there will be no chance for the slovenly mismatching which results from breakage of any one of the different pieces1 when of different colours4 ,a handleless or mis-matched pitcher will change the entire character of a room and should never be tolerated4 ,if the size of the room will warrant it1 a rocking-chair or easy-chair should always be part of its equipment1 and the mattress and bed-springs should be of a quality to give ease to tired bones1 for these things have to do with the spirit of the house4 ,it may be said that the colouring and furnishing of the servants' bedroom is hardly a part of house decoration1 but in truth house decoration at its best is a means of happiness1 and no householder can achieve permanent happiness without making the service of the family sharers in it4 ,what ,i have said with regard to painted walls in plain tints applies to bedrooms of every grade1 but where something more than merely agreeable colour effect is desired a stencilled decoration from the simplest to the most elaborate can be added4 ,there are many ways of using this method1 some of which partake very largely of artistic effect2 indeed a thoroughly good stencil pattern may reproduce the best instances of design1 and in the hands of a skilful workman who knows how to graduate and vary contrasting or harmonising tints it becomes a very artistic method and deserves a place of high honour in the art of decoration4 ,illustration3 #a1 ,,and #b1 ,,stenciled ,,borders ,,for ,,bath-,,room ,,decoration3 #c1 #d1 ,,and #e1 ,,stenciled ,,borders ,,for ,,halls 7,,by ,,dunham ,,wheeler7 ,its simplest form is that of a stencilled border in flat tints used either in place of a cornice or as the border of a wall-paper is used4 ,this1 of course1 is a purely mechanical performance1 and one with which every house-painter is familiar4 ,after this we come to borders of repeating design used as friezes4 ,this can be done with the most delicate and delightful effect1 although the finished wall will still be capable of withstanding the most energetic annual scrubbing4 ,frieze borders of this kind starting with strongly contrasting colour at the top and carried downward through gradually fading tints until they are lost in the general colour of the wall have an openwork grille effect which is very light and graceful4 ,there are infinite possibilities in the use of stencil design without counting the introduction of gold and silver1 and bronzes of various iridescent hues which are more suitable for rooms of general use than for bedrooms4 ,indeed in sleeping-rooms the use of metallic colour is objectionable because it will not stand washing and cleaning without defacement4 ,the ideal bedroom is one that if the furniture were removed a stream of water from a hose might be played upon its walls and ceiling without injury4 ,i always remember with pleasure a pink and silver room belonging to a young girl1 where the salmon-pink walls were deepened in colour at the top into almost a tint of vermilion which had in it a trace of green4 ,it was1 in fact1 an addition of spring green dropped into the vermilion and carelessly stirred1 so that it should be mixed but not incorporated4 ,over this shaded and mixed colour for the space of three feet was stencilled a fountain-like pattern in cream-white1 the arches of the pattern rilled in with almost a lace-work of design4 ,the whole upper part had an effect like carved alabaster and was indescribably light and graceful4 ,the bed and curtain-rods of silver-lacquer1 and the abundant silver of the dressing-table gave a frosty contrast which was necessary in a room of so warm a general tone4 ,this is an example of very delicate and truly artistic treatment of stencil-work1 and one can easily see how it can be used either in simple or elaborate fashion with great effect4 ,irregularly placed floating forms of ,persian or ,arabic design are often admirably stencilled in colour upon a painted wall2 but in this case the colours should be varied and not too strong4 ,a group of forms floating away from a window-frame or cornice can be done in two shades of the wall colour1 one of which is positively darker and one lighter than the ground4 ,if to these two shades some delicately contrasting colour is occasionally added the effect is not only pleasing1 but belongs to a thoroughly good style4 ,one seldom tires of a good stencilled wall2 probably because it is intrinsic1 and not applied in the sense of paper or textiles4 ,it carries an air of permanency which discourages change or experiment1 but it requires considerable experience in decoration to execute it worthily2 and not only this1 there should be a strong feeling for colour and taste and education in the selection of design1 for though the form of the stencilled pattern may be graceful1 and gracefully combined1 it must always--to be permanently satisfactory--have a geometrical basis4 ,it is somewhat difficult to account for the fact that what we call natural forms1 of plants and flowers1 which are certainly beautiful and graceful in themselves1 and grow into shapes which delight us with their freedom and beauty1 do not give the best satisfaction as motives for interior decoration4 ,construction in the architectural sense--the strength and squareness of walls1 ceilings1 and floors--seem to reject the yielding character of design founded upon natural forms1 and demand something which answers more sympathetically to their own qualities4 ,perhaps it is for this reason that we find the grouping and arrangement of horizontal and perpendicular lines and blocks in the old ,greek borders so everlastingly satisfactory4 ,it is the principle or requirement1 of geometric base in interior design which1 coupled with our natural delight in yielding or growing forms1 has maintained through all the long history of decoration what is called conventionalised flower design4 ,we find this in every form or method of decorative art1 from embroidery to sculpture1 from the ,lotus of ,egypt to the ,rose of ,england1 and although it results in a sort of crucifixion of the natural beauty of the flower1 in the hands of great designers it has become an authoritative style of art4 ,of course1 there are flower-forms which are naturally geometric1 which have conventionalised themselves4 ,many of the intricate ,moorish frets and ,indian carvings are literal translations of flower-forms geometrically repeated1 and here they lend themselves so perfectly to the decoration of even exterior walls that the fretted arches of some ,eastern buildings seem almost to have grown of themselves1 with all their elaboration1 into the world of nature and art4 ,the separate flowers of the gracefully tossing lilac plumes1 and the five-and six-leaved flowers of the pink1 have become in this way a very part of the everlasting walls1 as the acanthus leaf has become the marble blossom of thousands of indestructible columns4 ,these are the classics of design and hold the same relation to ornament printed on paper and silk that we find in the music of the ,psalms1 as compared with the tinkle of the ballad4 ,there are other methods of decoration in oils which will meet the wants of the many who like to exercise their own artistic feelings and ability in their houses or rooms4 ,the painting of flower-friezes upon canvas which can afterward be mounted upon the wall is a never-ending source of pleasure2 and many of these friezes have a charm and intimacy which no merely professional painter can rival4 ,these are especially suitable for bedrooms1 since there they may be as personal as the inmate pleases without undue unveiling of thoughts1 fancies1 or personal experiences to the public4 ,a favourite flower or a favourite motto or selection may be the motive of a charming decoration1 if the artist has sufficient art-knowledge to subordinate it to its architectural juxtaposition4 ,a narrow border of fixed repeating forms like a rug-border will often fulfil the necessity for architectural lines1 and confine the flower-border into limits which justify its freedom of composition4 ,if one wishes to mount a favourite motto or quotation on the walls1 where it may give constant suggestion or pleasure--or even be a help to thoughtful and conscientious living--there can be no better fashion than the style of the old illuminated missals4 ,dining-rooms and chimney-pieces are often very appropriately decorated in this way2 the words running on scrolls which are half unrolled and half hidden1 and showing a conventionalised background of fruit and flowers4 ,in all these things the knowingness1 which is the result of study1 tells very strongly--and it is quite worth while to give a good deal of study to the subject of this kind of decoration before expending the requisite amount of work upon a painted frieze4 ,canvas friezes have the excellent merit of being not only durable and cleanable1 but they belong to the category of pictures2 to what ,ruskin calls portable art1 and one need not grudge the devotion of considerable time1 study1 and effort to their doing1 since they are really detachable property1 and can be removed from one house or room and carried to another at the owner's or artist's will4 ,there is room for the exercise of much artistic ability in this direction1 as the fact of being able to paint the decoration in parts and afterward place it1 makes it possible for an amateur to do much for the enhancement of her own house4 ,more than any other room in the house1 the bedroom will show personal character4 ,even when it is not planned for particular occupation1 the characteristics of the inmate will write themselves unmistakably in the room4 ,if the college boy is put in the white and gold bedroom for even a vacation period1 there will shortly come into its atmosphere an element of sporting and out-of-door life4 ,banners and balls and bats1 and emblems of the wild thyme order will colour its whiteness2 and life of the growing kind make itself felt in the midst of sanctity4 ,in the same way1 girls would change the bare asceticism of a monk's cell into a bower of lilies and roses2 a fit place for youth and unpraying innocence4 ,the bedrooms of a house are a pretty sure test of the liberality of mind and understanding of character of the mother or house-ruler4 ,as each room is in a certain sense the home of the individual occupant1 almost the shell of his or her mind1 there will be something narrow and despotic in the house-rules if this is not allowed4 ,yet1 even individuality of taste and expression must scrupulously follow sanitary laws in the furnishing of the bedroom4 ,stuffy things of any sort should be avoided4 ,the study should be to make it beautiful without such things1 and a liberal use of washable textiles in curtains1 portires1 bed and table covers1 will give quite as much sense of luxury as heavily papered walls and costly upholstery4 ,in fact1 one may run through all the variations from the daintiest and most befrilled and elegant of guests' bedrooms1 to the boys' room1 which includes all or any of the various implements of sport or the hobbies of the boy collector1 and yet keep inviolate the principles of harmony1 colour1 and appropriateness to use1 and so accomplish beauty4 ,the absolute ruling of light1 air1 and cleanliness are quite compatible with individual expression4 ,it is this characteristic aspect of the different rooms which makes up the beauty of the house as a whole4 ,if the purpose of each is left to develop itself through good conditions1 the whole will make that most delightful of earthly things1 a beautiful home4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,kitchens ,the kitchen is an important part of the perfect house and should be a recognised sharer in its quality of beauty2 not alone the beauty which consists of a successful adaptation of means to ends1 but the kind which is independently and positively attractive to the eye4 ,in costly houses it is not hard to attain this quality or the rarer one of a union of beauty1 with perfect adaptation to use2 but where it must be reached by comparatively inexpensive methods1 the difficulty is greater4 ,tiled walls1 impervious to moisture1 and repellent of fumes1 are ideal boundaries of a kitchen1 and may be beautiful in colour1 as well as virtuous in conduct4 ,they may even be laid with gradations of alluring mineral tints1 but1 of course1 this is out of the question in cheap buildings2 and in demonstrating the possibility of beauty and intrinsic merit in small and comparatively inexpensive houses1 tiles and marbles must be ruled out of the scheme of kitchen perfection4 ,plaster1 painted in agreeable tints of oil colour is commendable1 but one can do better by covering the walls with the highly enamelled oil-cloth commonly used for kitchen tables and shelves4 ,this material is quite marvellous in its combination of use and effect4 ,its possibilities were discovered by a young housewife whose small kitchen formed part of a city apartment1 and whose practical sense was joined to a discursive imagination4 ,after this achievement--which she herself did not recognise as a stroke of genius--she added a narrow shelf running entirely around the room1 which carried a decorative row of blue willow-pattern plates4 ,a dresser1 hung with a graduated assortment of blue enamelled sauce-pans1 and other kitchen implements of the same enticing ware1 a floor covered with the heaviest of oil-cloth1 laid in small diamond-shapes of blue1 between blocks of white1 like a mosaic pavement1 were the features of a kitchen which was1 and is1 after several years of strenuous wear1 a joy to behold4 ,it was from the first1 not only a delight to the clever young housewife and her friends1 but it performed the miracle of changing the average servant into a careful and excellent one1 zealous for the cleanliness and perfection of her small domain1 and performing her kitchen functions with unexampled neatness4 ,the mistress--who had standards of perfection in all things1 whether great or small1 and was moreover of ,southern blood--confessed that her ideal of service in her glittering kitchen was not a clever red-haired ,hibernian1 but a slim mulatto1 wearing a snow-white turban2 and this longing seemed so reasonable1 and so impressed my fancy1 that whenever ,i think of the shining blue-and-silver kitchen1 ,i seem to see within it the graceful sway of figure and coffee-coloured face which belongs to the half-breed ,african race1 certain rare specimens of which are the most beautiful of domestic adjuncts4 ,i have used this expedient of oil-cloth-covered walls--for which ,i am anxious to give the inventor due credit--in many kitchens1 and certain bathrooms1 and always with success4 ,it must be applied as if it were wall-paper1 except that1 as it is a heavy material1 the paste must be thicker4 ,it is also well to have in it a small proportion of carbolic acid1 both as a disinfectant and a deterrent to paste-loving mice1 or any other household pest4 ,the cloth must be carefully fitted into corners1 and whatever shelving or wood fittings are used in the room1 must be placed against it1 after it is applied1 instead of having the cloth cut and fitted around them4 ,when well mounted1 it makes a solid1 porcelain-like wall1 to which dust and dirt will not easily adhere1 and which can be as easily and effectually cleaned as if it were really porcelain or marble4 ,such wall treatment will go far toward making a beautiful kitchen4 ,add to this a well-arranged dresser for blue or white kitchen china1 with a closed cabinet for the heavy iron utensils which can hardly be included in any scheme of kitchen beauty2 curtained cupboards and short window-hangings of blue1 or ,turkey red--which are invaluable for colour1 and always washable2 a painted floor--which is far better than oil-cloth1 and one has the elements of a satisfactory scheme of beauty4 ,a ,french kitchen1 with its white-washed walls1 its shining range and rows upon rows of gleaming copper-ware1 is an attractive subject for a painter2 and there is no reason why an ,american kitchen1 in a house distinguished for beauty in all its family and semi-public rooms1 should not also be beautiful in the rooms devoted to service4 ,we can if we will make much even in a decorative way of our enamelled and aluminum kitchen-ware2 we may hang it in graduated rows over the chimney-space--as the ,french cook parades her coppers--and arrange these necessary things with an eye to effect1 while we secure perfect convenience of use4 ,they are all pleasant of aspect if care and thought are devoted to their arrangement1 and it is really of quite as much value to the family to have a charming and perfectly appointed kitchen1 as to possess a beautiful and comfortable parlour or sitting-room4 ,every detail should be considered from the double point of view of use and effect4 ,if the curtains answer the two purposes of shading sunlight1 or securing privacy at night1 and of giving pleasing colour and contrast to the general tone of the interior1 they perform a double function1 each of of which is valuable4 ,if the chairs are chosen for strength and use1 and are painted or stained to match the colour of the floor1 they add to the satisfaction of the eye1 as well as minister to the house service4 ,a pursuance of this thought adds to the harmony of the house both in aspect and actual beauty of living4 ,of course in selecting such furnishings of the kitchen as chairs1 one must bear in mind that even their legitimate use may include standing1 as well as sitting upon them2 that they may be made temporary resting-places for scrubbing pails1 brushes1 and other cleaning necessities1 and therefore they must be made of painted wood2 but this should not discourage the provision of a cane-seated rocking-chair for each servant1 as a comfort for weary bones when the day's work is over4 ,in establishments which include a servants' dining-or sitting-room1 these moderate luxuries are a thing of course1 but in houses where at most but two maids are employed they are not always considered1 although they certainly should be4 ,if a corner can be appropriated to evening leisure--where there is room for a small1 brightly covered table1 a lamp1 a couple of rocking-chairs1 work-baskets and a book or magazine1 it answers in a small way to the family evening-room1 where all gather for rest and comfort4 ,there is no reason why the wall space above it should not have its cabinet for photographs and the usually cherished prayer-book which maids love both to possess and display4 ,such possessions answer exactly to the bric-a-brac of the drawing-room2 ministering to the same human instinct in its primitive form1 and to the inherent enjoyment of the beautiful which is the line of demarcation between the tribes of animals and those of men4 ,if one can use this distinctly human trait as a lever to raise crude humanity into the higher region of the virtues1 it is certainly worth while to consider pots and pans from the point of view of their decorative ability4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,colour ,,with ,,reference ,,to ,,light ,in choosing colour for walls and ceilings1 it is most necessary to consider the special laws which govern its application to house interiors4 ,the tint of any particular room should be chosen not only with reference to personal liking1 but first of all1 to the quantity and quality of light which pervades it4 ,a north room will require warm and bright treatment1 warm reds and golden browns1 or pure gold colours4 ,gold-colour used in sash curtains will give an effect of perfect sunshine in a dark and shadowy room1 but the same treatment in a room fronting the south would produce an almost insupportable brightness4 ,i will illustrate the modifications made necessary in tint by different exposure to light1 by supposing that some one member of the family prefers yellow to all other colours1 one who has enough of the chameleon in her nature to feel an instinct to bask in sunshine4 ,i will also suppose that the room most conveniently devoted to the occupation of this member has a southern exposure4 ,if yellow must be used in her room1 the quality of it should be very different from that which could be properly and profitably used in a room with a northern exposure1 and it should differ not only in intensity1 but actually in tint4 ,if it is necessary1 on account of personal preference1 to use yellow in a sunny room1 it should be lemon1 instead of ochre or gold-coloured yellow1 because the latter would repeat sunlight4 ,there are certain shades of yellow1 where white has been largely used in the mixture1 which are capable of greenish reflections4 ,this is where the white is of so pure a quality as to suggest blue1 and consequently under the influence of yellow to suggest green4 ,we often find yellow dyes in silks the shadows of which are positive fawn colour or even green1 instead of orange as we might expect2 still1 even with modifications1 yellow should properly be reserved for sunless rooms1 where it acts the part almost of the blessed sun itself in giving cheerfulness and light4 ,going from a sun-lighted atmosphere1 or out of actual sunlight into a yellow room1 one would miss the sense of shelter which is so grateful to eyes and senses a little dazzled by the brilliance of out-of-door lights2 whereas a room darkened or shaded by a piazza1 or somewhat chilled by a northern exposure and want of sun1 would be warmed and comforted by tints of gold-coloured yellow4 ,interiors with a southern exposure should be treated with cool1 light colours1 blues in various shades1 water-greens1 and silvery tones which will contrast with the positive yellow of sunlight4 ,it is by no means a merely arbitrary rule4 ,colours are actually warm or cold in temperature1 as well as in effect upon the eye or the imagination1 in fact the words cover a long-tested fact4 ,i remember being told by a painter of his placing a red sunset landscape upon the flat roof of a studio building to dry1 and on going to it a few hours afterward he found the surface of it so warm to the touch--so sensibly warmer than the gray and blue and green pictures around it--that he brought a thermometer to test it1 and found it had acquired and retained heat4 ,it was actually warmer by degrees than the gray and blue pictures in the same sun exposure4 ,we instinctively wear warm colours in winter and dispense with them in summer1 and this simple fact may explain the art which allots what we call warm colour to rooms without sun4 ,when we say warm colours1 we mean yellows1 reds with all their gradations1 gold or sun browns1 and dark browns and black4 ,when we say cool colours--whites1 blues1 grays1 and cold greens--for greens may be warm or cold1 according to their composition or intensity4 ,a water-green is a cold colour1 so is a pure emerald green1 so also a blue-green2 while an olive1 or a gold-green comes into the category of warm colours4 ,this is because it is a composite colour made of a union of warm and cold colours2 the brown and yellow in its composition being in excess of the blue2 as pink also1 which is a mixture of red and white2 and lavender1 which is a mixture of red1 white1 and blue1 stand as intermediate between two extremes4 ,having duly considered the effect of light upon colour1 we may fearlessly choose tints for every room according to personal preferences or tastes4 ,if we like one warm colour better than another1 there is no reason why that one should not predominate in every room in the house which has a shadow exposure4 ,if we like a cold colour it should be used in many of the sunny rooms4 ,i believe we do not give enough importance to this matter of personal liking in tints4 ,we select our friends from sympathy4 ,as a rule1 we do not philosophise much about it1 although we may recognise certain principles in our liking2 it is those to whom our hearts naturally open that we invite in and have joy in their companionship1 and we might surely follow our likings in the matter of colour1 as well as in friendship1 and thereby add much to our happiness4 ,curiously enough we often speak of the colour of a mind--and ,i once knew a child who persisted in calling people by the names of colours2 not the colour of their clothes1 but some mind-tint which he felt4 ,the blue lady was his especial favourite1 and ,i have no doubt the presence or absence of that particular colour made a difference in his content all the days of his life4 ,the colour one likes is better for tranquillity and enjoyment--more conducive to health2 and exercises an actual living influence upon moods4 ,for this reason1 if no other1 the colour of a room should never be arbitrarily prescribed or settled for the one who is to be its occupant4 ,it should be as much a matter of nature as the lining of a shell is to the mussel1 or as the colour of the wings of a butterfly4 ,in fact the mind which we cannot see may have a colour of its own1 and it is natural that it should choose to dwell within its own influence4 ,we do not know why we like certain colours1 but we do1 and let that suffice1 and let us live with them1 as gratefully as we should for more explainable ministry4 ,if colours which we like have a soothing effect upon us1 those which we do not like are1 on the other hand1 an unwelcome influence4 ,if a woman says in her heart1 ,i hate green1 or red1 or ,i dislike any one colour1 and then is obliged to live in its neighbourhood1 she will find herself dwelling with an enemy4 ,we all know that there are colours of which a little is enjoyable when a mass would be unendurable4 ,predominant scarlet would be like close companionship with a brass band1 but a note of scarlet is one of the most valuable of sensations4 ,the gray compounded of black and white would be a wet blanket to all bubble of wit or spring of fancy1 but the shadows of rose colour are gray1 pink-tinted it is true2 indeed the shadow of pink used to be known by the name of ashes of roses4 ,i remember seeing once in ,paris--that home of bad general decoration--a room in royal purples2 purple velvet on walls1 furniture1 and hangings4 ,one golden ,rembrandt in the middle of a long wall1 and a great expanse of ochre-coloured parquetted floor were all that saved it from the suggestion of a royal tomb4 ,as it was1 ,i left the apartment with a feeling of treading softly as when we pass through a door hung with crape4 ,vagaries of this kind are remediable when they occur in cravats1 or bonnets1 or gloves--but a room in the wrong colour6 ,saints and the angels preserve us6 ,illustration3 ,,sitting-,,room ,,in ,,wild ,,wood4 ,,onteora 7,,belonging ,,to ,,miss ,,luisita ,,leland7 ,the number1 size1 and placing of the windows will greatly affect the intensity of colour to be used4 ,it must always be remembered that any interior is dark as compared with out-of-doors1 and that in the lightest room there will be dark corners or spaces where the colour chosen as chief tint will seem much darker than it really is4 ,a paper or textile chosen in a good light will look several shades darker when placed in large unbroken masses or spaces upon the wall1 and a fully furnished room will generally be much darker when completed than might be expected in planning it4 ,for this reason1 in choosing a favourite tint1 it is better on many accounts to choose it in as light a shade as one finds agreeable4 ,it can be repeated in stronger tones in furniture or in small and unimportant furnishings of the room1 but the wall tone should never be deeper than medium in strength1 at the risk of having all the light absorbed by the colour1 and of losing a sense of atmosphere in the room4 ,there is another reason for this1 which is that many colours are agreeable1 even to their lovers1 only in light tones4 ,the moment they get below medium they become insistent1 and make themselves of too much importance4 ,in truth colour has qualities which are almost personal1 and is well worth studying in all its peculiarities1 because of its power to affect our happiness4 ,the principles of proper use of colour in house interiors are not difficult to master4 ,it is unthinking1 unreflective action which makes so many unrestful interiors of homes4 ,the creator of a home should consider1 in the first place1 that it is a matter as important as climate1 and as difficult to get away from1 and that the first shades of colour used in a room upon walls or ceiling1 must govern everything else that enters in the way of furnishing2 that the colour of walls prescribes that which must be used in floors1 curtains1 and furniture4 ,not that these must necessarily be of the same tint as walls1 but that wall-tints must govern the choice4 ,all this makes it necessary to take first steps carefully1 to select for each room the colour which will best suit the taste1 feeling1 or bias of the occupant1 always considering the exposure of the room and the use of it4 ,after the relation of colour to light is established--with personal preferences duly taken into account--the next law is that of gradation4 ,the strongest1 and generally the purest1 tones of colour belong naturally at the base1 and the floor of a room means the base upon which the scheme of decoration is to be built4 ,the carpet1 or floor covering1 should carry the strongest tones4 ,if a single tint is to be used1 the walls must take the next gradation1 and the ceiling the last4 ,these gradations must be far enough removed from each other in depth of tone to be quite apparent1 but not to lose their relation4 ,the connecting grades may appear in furniture covering and draperies1 thus giving different values in the same tone1 the relation between them being perfectly apparent4 ,these three masses of related colour are the groundwork upon which one can play infinite variations1 and is really the same law upon which a picture is composed4 ,there are foreground1 middle-distance1 and sky--and in a properly coloured room1 the floors1 walls1 and ceiling bear the same relation to each other as the grades of colour in a picture1 or in a landscape4 ,fortunately we keep to this law almost by instinct1 and yet ,i have seen a white-carpeted floor in a room with a painted ceiling of considerable depth of colour4 ,imagine the effect where this rule of gradation or ascending scale is reversed4 ,a tinted floor of cream colour1 or even white1 and a ceiling as deep in colour as a landscape4 ,one feels as if they themselves were reversed1 and standing upon their heads4 ,certainly if we ignore this law we lose our sense of base or foundation1 and although we may not know exactly why1 we shall miss the restfulness of a properly constructed scheme of decoration4 ,the rule of gradation includes also that of massing of colour4 ,in all simple treatment of interiors1 whatever colour is chosen should be allowed space enough to establish its influence1 broadly and freely1 and here again we get a lesson from nature in the massing of colour4 ,it should not be broken into patches and neutralised by divisions1 but used in large enough spaces to dominate1 or bring into itself or its own influence all that is placed in the room4 ,if this rule is disregarded every piece of furniture unrelated to the whole becomes a spot1 it has no real connection with the room1 and the room itself1 instead of a harmonious and delightful influence1 akin to that of a sun-flushed dawn or a sunset sky1 is like a picture where there is no composition1 or a book where incident is jumbled together without relation to the story4 ,in short1 placing of colour in large uniform masses used in gradation is the groundwork of all artistic effect in interiors4 ,as ,i have said1 it is the same rule that governs pictures1 the general tone may be green or blue1 or a division of each1 but to be a perfect and harmonious view1 every detail must relate to one or both of these tints4 ,in formulating thus far the rules for use of colour in rooms1 we have touched upon three principles which are equally binding in interiors1 whether of a cottage or a palace2 the first is that of colour in relation to light1 the second of colour in gradation1 and the third of colour in masses4 ,a house in which walls and ceilings are simply well coloured or covered1 has advanced very far toward the home which is the rightful endowment of every human being4 ,the variations of treatment1 which pertain to more costly houses1 the application of design in borders and frieze spaces1 walls1 wainscots1 and ceilings1 are details which will probably call for artistic advice and professional knowledge1 since in these things it is easy to err in misapplied decoration4 ,the advance from perfect simplicity to selected and beautiful ornament marks not only the degree of cost but of knowledge which it is in the power of the house-owner to command4 ,the elaboration which is the privilege of more liberal means and the use of artistic experience in decoration on a larger scale4 ,the smaller house shares in the advantage of beautiful colour1 correct principles1 and appropriate treatment equally with the more costly4 ,the variations do not falsify principles4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,walls1 ,,ceilings1 ,,and ,,floors ,the true principle of wall treatment is to make the boundary stand for colour and beauty1 and not alone for division of space4 ,as a rule1 the colour treatment of a house interior must begin with the walls1 and it is fortunate if these are blank and plain as in most new houses with uncoloured ceilings1 flat or broken with mouldings to suit the style of the house4 ,the range of possible treatment is very wide1 from simple tones of wall colour against which quiet cottage or domestic city life goes on1 to the elaboration of walls of houses of a different grade1 where stately pageants are a part of the drama of daily life4 ,but having shown that certain rules are applicable to both1 and indeed necessary to success in both1 we may choose within these rules any tint or colour which is personally pleasing4 ,rooms with an east or west light may carry successfully tones of any shade1 without violating fundamental laws4 ,the first impression of a room depends upon the walls4 ,in fact1 rooms are good or bad1 agreeable or ugly in exact accordance with the wall-quality and treatment4 ,no richness of floor-covering1 draperies1 or furniture can minimise their influence4 ,perhaps it is for this reason that the world is full of papers and other devices for making walls agreeable2 and we cannot wonder at this1 when we reflect that something of the kind is necessary to the aspect of the room1 and that each room effects for the individual exactly what the outer walls of the house effect for the family1 they give space for personal privacy and for that reserve of the individual which is the earliest effect of luxury and comfort4 ,it is certain that if walls are not made agreeable there is in them something of restraint to the eye and the sense which is altogether disagreeable4 ,apparent confinement within given limits1 is1 on the whole1 repugnant to either the natural or civilised man1 and for this reason we are constantly tempted to disguise the limit and to cover the wall in such a way as shall interest and make us forget our bounds4 ,in this case1 the idea of decoration is1 to make the walls a barrier of colour only1 instead of hard1 unyielding masonry2 to take away the sense of being shut in a box1 and give instead freedom to thought and pleasure to the sense4 ,it is the effect of shut-in-ness which the square and rigid walls of a room give that makes drapery so effective and welcome1 and which also gives value to the practice of covering walls with silks or other textiles4 ,the softened surface takes away the sense of restraint4 ,we hang our walls with pictures1 or cover them with textiles1 or with paper which carries design1 or even colour them with pigments--something--anything1 which will disguise a restraining bound1 or make it masquerade as a luxury4 ,this effort or instinct has set in motion the machinery of the world4 ,it has created tapestries and brocades for castle and palace1 and invented cheap substitutes for these costly products1 so that the smallest and poorest house as well as the richest can cover its walls with something pleasant to the eye and suggestive to the mind4 ,illustration3 ,,large ,,sitting-,,room ,,in ,,star ,,rock ,,country ,,house ,it is one of the privileges and opportunities of art to invent these disguises2 and to do it so thoroughly and successfully as to content us with facts which would otherwise be disagreeable4 ,and we do1 by these various devices1 make our walls so hospitable to our thoughts that we take positive and continual pleasure in them4 ,we do this chiefly1 perhaps1 by ministering to our instinctive love of colour2 which to many temperaments is like food to the hungry1 and satisfies as insistent a demand of the mind as food to the body4 ,at this late period of the world we are the inheritors of many methods of wall disguise1 from the primitive weavings or blanket coverings with which nomadic peoples lined the walls of their tents1 or the arras which in later days covered the roughness and rudeness of the stone walls of kings and barons1 to the pictured tapestries of later centuries4 ,this latter achievement of art manufacture has outlived and far outweighed the others in value1 because it more perfectly performs the object of its creation4 ,tapestries1 for the most part1 offer us a semblance of nature1 and cheat us with a sense of unlimited horizon4 ,the older tapestries give us1 with this1 suggestions of human life and action in out-of-door scenes sufficiently unrealistic to offer a vague dream of existence in fields and forests4 ,this effectually diverts our minds from the confinements of space1 and allows us the freedom of nature4 ,probably the true secret of the never-failing appreciation of tapestries--from the very beginning of their history until this day--is this fact of their suggestiveness2 since we find that damasks of silk or velvet or other costly weavings1 although far surpassing tapestries in texture and concentration of colour1 yet lacking their suggestiveness to the mind1 can never rival them in the estimation of the world4 ,unhappily1 we cannot count veritable tapestries as a modern recourse in wall-treatment1 since we are precluded from the use of genuine ones by their scarcity and cost4 ,there is undoubtedly a peculiar richness and charm in a tapestry-hung wall which no other wall covering can give2 yet they are not entirely appropriate to our time4 ,they belong to the period of windy palaces and enormous enclosures1 and are fitted for pageants and ceremonies1 and not to our carefully plastered1 wind-tight and narrow rooms4 ,their mission to-day is to reproduce for us in museums and collections the life of yesterday1 so full of pomp and almost barbaric lack of domestic comfort4 ,in studios they are certainly appropriate and suggestive1 but in private houses except of the princely sort1 it is far better to make harmonies with the things of to-day4 ,nevertheless if the soul craves tapestries let them be chosen for intrinsic beauty and perfect preservation1 instead of accepting the rags of the past and trying to create with them a magnificence which must be incomplete and shabby4 ,considering1 as ,i do1 that tapestries belong to the life and conditions of the past1 where the homeless many toiled for the pampered few1 and not to the homes of to-day where the man of moderate means expects beauty in his home as confidently as if he were a world ruler1 ,i find it hardly necessary to include them in the list of means of modern decoration1 and indeed it is not necessary1 since a well-preserved tapestry of a good period1 and of a famous manufacturer or origin1 is so costly a purchase that only our bounteous and self-indulgent millionaires would venture to acquire one solely for purposes of wall decoration4 ,it would be purchased as a specimen of art and not as furnishing4 ,yet ,i know one instance of a library where a genuine old foliage tapestry has been cut and fitted to the walls and between bookcases and doors1 where the wood of the room is in mahogany1 and a great chimney-piece of ,caen stone of ,richardson's designing fills nearly one side of the room4 ,of course the tapestry is unapproachable in effect in this particular place and with its surroundings4 ,it has the richness and softness of velvet1 and the red of the mahogany doors and furniture finds exactly its foil in the blue greens and soft browns of the web1 while the polished floor and velvety antique rugs bring all the richness of the walls down to one's feet and to the hearth with its glow of fire4 ,but this particular room hardly makes an example for general following4 ,it is really a house of state1 a house without children1 one in which public life predominates4 ,there is a very flagrant far-away imitation of tapestry which is so far from being good that it is a wonder it has had even a moderate success1 imitation which does not even attempt the decorative effect of the genuine1 but substitutes upon an admirably woven cotton or woollen canvas1 figure panels1 copied from modern ,french masters1 and suggestive of nothing but bad art4 ,yet these panels are sometimes used 7and in fact are produced for the purpose of being used7 precisely as a genuine tapestry would be1 although the very fact of pretence in them1 brings a feeling of untruth1 quite at variance with the principles of all good art4 ,the objection to pictures transferred to tapestries holds good1 even when the tapestries are genuine4 ,the great cartoons of ,raphael1 still to be seen in the ,kensington ,museum1 which were drawn and coloured for ,flemish weavers to copy1 show a perfect adaptation to the medium of weaving1 while the paintings in the ,vatican by the same great master are entirely inappropriate to textile reproduction4 ,a picture cannot be transposed to different substance and purpose without losing the qualities which make it valuable4 ,the double effort to be both a tapestry and a picture is futile1 and brings into disrepute a simple art of imitation which might become respectable if its capabilities were rightly used4 ,no one familiar with collections of tapestries can fail to recognise the largeness and simplicity of treatment peculiar to tapestry subjects as contrasted with the elaboration of pictures4 ,if we grant that in this modern world of hurry1 imitation of tapestries is legitimate1 the important question is1 what are the best subjects1 and what is the best use for such imitations8 ,the best use is undoubtedly that of wall-covering2 and that was1 indeed1 the earliest object for which they were created4 ,they were woven to cover great empty spaces of unsightly masonry2 and they are still infinitely useful and beautiful in grand apartments whose barren spaces are too large for modern pictures1 and which need the disguise of a suggestion of scenery or pictorial subject4 ,if tapestries must be painted1 let them by all means follow the style of the ancient verdure or foliage tapestries1 and be used for the same purpose--to cover an otherwise blank wall4 ,this is legitimate1 and even beautiful1 but it is painting1 and should be frankly acknowledged to be such1 and no attempt made to have them masquerade as genuine and costly weavings4 ,it is simply and always painting1 although in the style and spirit of early tapestries4 ,productions of this sort1 where real skill in textile painting is used1 are quite worthy of admiration and respect4 ,i remember seeing1 in the ,swedish exhibit of women's work in the ,woman's ,building at the ,columbian ,exposition1 a screen which had evidently been copied from an old bit of verdure tapestry4 ,at the base were broad-leaved water-plants1 each leaf carefully copied in blocks and patches of colour1 with even the effect of the little empty space--where one thread passes to the back in weaving1 to make room for one of another colour brought forward--imitated by a dot of black to simulate the tiny shadow-filled pen-point of a hole4 ,now whether this was art or not ,i leave to ,french critics to decide1 but it was at least admirable imitation2 and any one able to cover the wall spaces between bookcases in a library with such imitation would find them as richly set as if it were veritable tapestry4 ,this is a very different thing from a painted tapestry1 perhaps enlarged from a photograph or engraving of a painting the original of which the tapestry-painter had never even seen--the destiny of which unfortunate copy1 changed in size1 colour1 and all the qualities which gave value to the original1 is probably to be hung as a picture in the centre of a space of wall-paper totally antagonistic in colour4 ,when ,i see these things ,i long to curb the ambition of the unfortunate tapestry-painter until a course of study has taught him or her the proper use of a really useful process2 for whether the object is to produce a decoration or a simulated tapestry1 it is not attained by these methods4 ,the ordinary process of painting in dyes upon a wool or linen fabric woven in tapestry method1 and fixing the colour with heat1 enables the painter--if a true tapestry subject is chosen and tapestry effects carefully studied--to produce really effective and good things1 and this opens a much larger field to the woman decorator than the ordinary unstudied shams which have thrown what might become in time a large and useful art-industry into neglect and disrepute4 ,i have seen the walls of a library hung with ,siberian linen1 stained in landscape design in the old blues and greens which give tapestry its decorative value1 and found it a delightful wall-covering4 ,indeed we may lay it down as a principle in decoration that while we may use and adapt any decorative effect we must not attempt to make it pass for the thing which suggested the effect4 ,coarse and carefully woven linens1 used as ,i have indicated1 are really far better than old tapestries for modern houses1 because the design can be adapted to the specific purpose and the texture itself can be easily cleaned and is more appropriate to the close walls and less airy rooms of this century4 ,for costly wall-decoration1 leather is another of the substances which have had a past of pomp and magnificence1 and carries with it1 in addition to beauty1 a suggestion of the art of a race4 ,spanish leather1 with its stamping and gilding1 is quite as costly a wall covering as antique or modern tapestry1 and far more indestructible4 ,perhaps it is needlessly durable as a mere vehicle for decoration4 ,at all events ,japanese artists and artisans seem to be of this opinion1 and have transferred the same kind of decoration to heavy paper1 where for some occult reason--although strongly simulating leather--it seems not only not objectionable1 but even meritorious4 ,this is because it simply transfers an artistic method from a costly substance1 to another which is less so1 and the fact may even have some weight that paper is a product of human manufacture1 instead of human appropriation of animal life1 for surely sentiment has its influence in decoration as in other arts4 ,wood panelling is also a form of interior treatment which has come to us by inheritance from the past as well as by right of natural possession4 ,it has a richness and sober dignity of effect which commends it in large or small interiors1 in halls1 libraries1 and dining-rooms1 whether they are public or private2 devoted to grand functions1 or to the constantly recurring uses of domesticity4 ,wood is so beautiful a substance in itself1 and lends itself to so many processes of ornamentation1 that hardly too much can be said of its appropriateness for interior decoration4 ,from the two extremes of plain pine panellings cut into squares or parallelograms by machinery1 and covered with paint in tints to match door and window casings1 to the most elaborate carvings which back the ,cathedral stalls or seats of ecclesiastical dignity1 it is always beautiful and generally appropriate in use and effect1 and that can hardly be said of any other substance4 ,there are wainscotted rooms in old houses in ,newport1 where1 under the accumulated paint of one or two centuries1 great panels of old ,spanish mahogany can still be found1 not much the worse for their long eclipse4 ,such rooms1 in the original brilliancy of colour and polish1 with their parallel shadings of mahogany-red reflecting back the firelight from tiled chimney-places and scattering the play of dancing flame1 must have had a beauty of colour hard to match in this day of sober oak and painted wainscottings4 ,illustration3 ,,painted ,,canvas ,,frieze ,illustration3 ,,buckram ,,frieze ,,for ,,dining-,,room ,one of the lessons gained by experience in treatment of house interiors1 is that plain1 flat tints give apparent size to small rooms1 and that a satisfying effect in large ones can be gained by variation of tint or surface2 also1 that in a bedroom or other small room apparent size will be gained by using a wall covering which is light rather than dark4 ,some difference of tone there must be in large plain surfaces which lie within the level of the eye2 or the monotony of a room becomes fatiguing4 ,a plain1 painted wall may1 it is true1 be broken by pictures1 or cabinets1 or bits of china2 anything in short which will throw parts of it into shadow1 and illumine other parts with gilded reflections2 but even then there will be long1 plain spaces above the picture or cabinet line1 where blank monotony of tone will be fatal to the general effect of the room4 ,it is in this upper space1 upon a plain painted wall1 that a broad line of flat decoration should occur1 but on a wall hung with paper or cloth1 it is by no means necessary4 ,damasked cloths1 where the design is shown by the direction of woven threads1 are particularly effective and satisfactory as wall-coverings4 ,the soft surface is luxurious to the imagination1 and the play of light and shadow upon the warp and woof interests the eye1 although there is no actual change of colour4 ,too much stress can hardly be laid upon the variation of tone in wall-surfaces1 since the four walls stand for the atmosphere of a room4 ,tone means quality of colour4 ,it may be light or dark1 or of any tint1 or variations of tint1 but the quality of it must be soft and charitable1 instead of harsh and uncompromising4 ,almost the best of modern inventions for inexpensive wall-coverings are found in what are called the ingrain papers4 ,these have a variable surface1 without reflections1 and make not only a soft and impalpable colour effect1 but1 on account of their want of reflection1 are good backgrounds for pictures4 ,in these papers the colour is produced by a mixture in the mass of paper pulp of atoms of varying tint1 which are combined in the substance and make one general tint resulting from the mixture of several4 ,in canvases and textiles1 which are a more expensive method of producing almost the same mixed effect1 the minute points of brilliance of threads in light and darkness of threads in shadow1 combine to produce softness of tone1 impossible to pigment because it has but one plain surface1 unrelieved by breaking up into light and shadow4 ,variation1 produced by minute differences1 which affect each other and which the eye blends into a general tone1 produce quality4 ,it is at the same time soft and brilliant1 and is really a popular adaptation of the philosophy of impressionist painters1 whose small dabs of pure colour placed in close juxtaposition and fused into one tone by the eye1 give the purity and vibration of colour which distinguishes work of that school4 ,some skilful painters can stipple one tone upon another so as to produce the same brilliant softness of effect1 and when this can be done1 oil-colour upon plaster is the best of all treatment for bedrooms since it fulfils all the sanitary and other conditions so necessary in sleeping-rooms4 ,the same effect may be produced if the walls are of rough instead of smooth plaster1 so that the small inequalities of surface give light and shadow as in textiles2 upon such surfaces a pleasant tint in flat colour is always good4 ,painted burlaps and certain ,japanese papers prepared with what may be called a textile or canvas surface give the same effect1 and indeed quality of tint and tone is far more easily obtained in wall-coverings or applied materials than in paint1 because in most wall-coverings there are variations of tint produced in the very substance of the material4 ,this matter of variation without contrast in wall-surface1 is one of the most important in house decoration1 and has led to the increased use of textiles in houses where artistic effects have been carefully studied and are considered of importance4 ,of course wall-paper must continue to be the chief means of wall-covering1 on account of its cheapness1 and because it is the readiest means of sheathing a plaster surface2 and a continuous demand for papers of good and nearly uniform colour1 and the sort of inconspicuous design which fits them for modest interiors will have the effect of increasing the manufacture of desirable and artistic things4 ,in the meantime one should carefully avoid the violently coloured papers which are made only to sell2 materials which catch the eye of the inexperienced and tempt them into the buying of things which are productive of lasting unrest4 ,it is in the nature of positive masses and strongly contrasting colours to produce this effect4 ,if one is unfortunate enough to occupy a room of which the walls are covered with one of these glaring designs1 and circumstances prevent a radical change1 the simplest expedient is to cover the whole surface with a kalsomine or chalk-wash1 of some agreeable tint4 ,this will dry in an hour or two and present a nearly uniform surface1 in which the printed design of the paper1 if it appears at all1 will be a mere suggestion4 ,papers where the design is carried in colour only a few shades darker than the background1 are also safe1 and--if the design is a good one--often very desirable for halls and dining-rooms4 ,in skilfully printed papers of the sort the design often has the effect of a mere shadow-play of form4 ,of course in the infinite varieties of use and the numberless variations of personal taste1 there are1 and should be1 innumerable differences in application of both colour and materials to interiors4 ,there are differences in the use of rooms which may make a sense of perfect seclusion desirable1 as1 for instance1 in libraries1 or rooms used exclusively for evening gatherings of the family4 ,in such semi-private rooms the treatment should give a sense of close family life rather than space1 while in drawing-rooms it should be exactly the reverse1 and this effect is easily secured by competent use of colour4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,location ,,of ,,the ,,house ,besides the difference in treatment demanded by different use of rooms--the character of the decoration of the whole house will be influenced by its situation4 ,a house in the country or a house in town2 a house by the sea-shore or a house situated in woods and fields require stronger or less strong colour1 and even different tints1 according to situation4 ,the decoration itself may be much less conventional in one place than in another1 and in country houses much and lasting charm is derived from design and colour in perfect harmony with nature's surroundings4 ,whatever decorative design is used in wall-coverings or in curtains or hangings will be far more effective if it bears some relation to the surroundings and position of the house4 ,if the house is by the sea the walls should repeat with many variations the tones of sea and sand and sky2 the gray-greens of sand-grasses2 the blues which change from blue to green with every cloud-shadow2 the pearl tints which become rose in the morning or evening light1 and the browns and olives of sea mosses and lichens4 ,this treatment of colour will make the interior of the house a part of the great out-of-doors and create a harmony between the artificial shelter and nature4 ,there is philosophy in following1 as far as the limitations of simple colour will allow1 the changeableness and fluidity of natural effects along the shore1 and allowing the mood of the brief summer life to fall into entire harmony with the dominant expression of the sea4 ,blues and greens and pinks and browns should all be kept on a level with out-of-door colour1 that is1 they should not be too deep and strong for harmony with the sea and sky1 and if1 when harmonious colour is once secured1 most of the materials used in the furnishing of the house are chosen because their design is based upon1 or suggested by1 sea-forms1 an impression is produced of having entered into complete and perfect harmony with the elements and aspects of nature4 ,the artificialities of life fall more and more into the background1 and one is refreshed with a sense of having established entirely harmonious and satisfactory relations with the surroundings of nature4 ,i remember a doorway of a cottage by the sea1 where the moulding which made a part of the frame was an orderly line of carved cockle-shells1 used as a border1 and this little touch of recognition of its sea-neighbours was not only decorative in itself1 but gave even the chance visitor a sort of interpretation of the spirit of the interior life4 ,suppose1 on the other hand1 that the summer house is placed in the neighbourhood of fields and trees and mountains2 it will be found that strong and positive treatment of the interior is more in harmony with the outside landscape4 ,even heavier furniture looks fitting where the house is surrounded with massive tree-growths2 and deeper and purer colours can be used in hangings and draperies4 ,this is due to the more positive colouring of a landscape than of a sea-view4 ,the masses of strong and slightly varying green in foliage1 the red1 brown1 or vivid greens of fields and crops1 the dark lines of tree-trunks and branches1 as well as the unchanging forms of rock and hillside1 call for a corresponding strength of interior effect4 ,it is a curious fact1 also1 that where a house is surrounded by myriads of small natural forms of leaves and flowers and grasses1 plain spaces of colour in interiors1 or spaces where form is greatly subordinated to colour1 are more grateful to the eye than prominently decorated surface4 ,a repetition of small natural forms like the shells and sea-mosses1 which are for the most part hidden under lengths of liquid blue1 is pleasing and suggestive by the sea2 but in the country1 where form is prominent and positive and prints itself constantly upon both mental and bodily vision1 unbroken colour surfaces are found to be far more agreeable4 ,it will be seen that the principles of appropriate furnishing and adornment in house interiors depend upon circumstances and natural surroundings as well as upon the character and pursuits of the family who are to be lodged1 and that the final charm of the home is attained by a perfect adaptation of principles to existing conditions both of nature and humanity4 ,in cottages of the character we are considering1 furniture should be simpler and lighter than in houses intended for constant family living4 ,chairs and sofas should be without elaborate upholstery and hangings1 and cushions can be appropriately made of some well-coloured cotton or linen material which wind1 and sun1 and dampness cannot spoil1 and of which the freshness can always be restored by laundering4 ,these are general rules1 appropriate to all summer cottages1 and to these it may be added1 that a house which is to be closed for six or eight months in the year should really1 to be consistent1 be inexpensively furnished4 ,these general rules are intended only to emphasise the fact that in houses which are to become in the truest sense homes--that is1 places of habitation which represent the inhabitants1 directions or rules for beautiful colour and arrangement of interiors1 must always follow the guiding incidents of class and locality4 ,,chapter ,x ,,ceilings ,as ceilings are in reality a part of the wall1 they must always be considered in connection with room interiors1 but their influence upon the beauty of the average house is so small1 that their treatment is a comparatively easy problem4 ,in simple houses with plaster ceilings the tints to be used are easily decided4 ,the rule of gradation of colour from floor to ceiling prescribes for the latter the lightest tone of the gradation1 and as the ceiling stands for light1 and should actually reflect light into the room1 the philosophy of this arrangement of colours is obvious4 ,it is not1 however1 an invariable rule that the ceiling should carry the same tint as the wall1 even in a much lighter tone1 although greater harmony and restfulness of effect is produced in this way4 ,a ceiling of cream white will harmonise well with almost any tint upon the walls1 and at the same time give an effect of air and light in the room4 ,it is also a good ground for ornament in elaborately decorated ones4 ,if the walls are covered with a light wall-paper which carries a floral design1 it is a safe rule to make the ceiling of the same colour but a lighter shade of the background of the paper1 but it is not by any means good art to carry a flower design over the ceiling4 ,one sometimes sees instances of this in the bedrooms of fairly good houses1 and the effect is naturally that of bringing the ceiling apparently almost to one's head1 or at all events1 of producing a very unrestful effect4 ,a wood ceiling in natural colour is always a good feature in a room of defined or serious purpose1 like a hall1 dining-room1 or library1 because in such rooms the colour of the side walls is apt to be strong enough to balance it4 ,indeed a wooden ceiling has always the merit of being secure in its place1 and even where the walls are light can be painted so as to be in harmony with them4 ,plaster as a ceiling for bedrooms is open to the objection of a possibility of its detaching itself from the lath1 especially in old houses1 and in these it is well to have them strengthened with flat mouldings of wood put on in regular squares1 or even in some geometrical design1 and painted with the ceiling4 ,this gives security as well as a certain elaborateness of effect not without its value4 ,for the ordinary1 or comparatively inexpensive home1 we need not consider the ceiling an object for serious study1 because it is so constantly out of the line of sight1 and because its natural colourless condition is no bar to the general colour-effect4 ,in large rooms this condition is changed1 for in a long perspective the ceiling comes into sight and consciousness4 ,there would be a sense of barrenness and poverty in a long stretch of plain surface or unbroken colour over a vista of decorated wall1 and accordingly the ceilings of large and important rooms are generally broken by plaster mouldings or architectural ornament4 ,in rooms of this kind1 whether in public or private buildings1 decorative painting has its proper and appropriate place4 ,a painted ceiling1 no matter how beautiful1 is quite superfluous and indeed absolutely lost in a room where size prevents its being brought into the field of the eye by the lowering of long perspective lines1 but when the size of the room gives unusual length of ceiling1 no effect of decoration is so valuable and precious4 ,colour and gilding upon a ceiling1 when well sustained by fine composition or treatment1 is undoubtedly the highest and best achievement of the decorative painter's art4 ,such a ceiling in a large and stately drawing-room1 where the walls are hung with silk which gives broken indications of graceful design in play of light upon the texture1 is one of the most successful of both modern as well as antique methods of decoration4 ,it has come down in direct succession of practice to the school of ,french decoration of to-day1 and has been adopted into ,american fashion in its full and complete practice without sufficient adaptation to ,american circumstances4 ,if it were modified by these1 it is capable of absorbing other and better qualities than those of mere fashion and brilliance1 as we see in occasional instances in some beautiful ,american houses1 where the ceilings have been painted1 and the textiles woven with an almost imaginative appropriateness of subject4 ,such ceilings as this belong1 of course1 to the efforts of the mural or decorative painter1 who1 in conjunction with the decorator1 or architect1 has studied the subject as connected with its surroundings4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,floors ,,and ,,floor-,,coverings ,although in ordinary sequence the colouring of floors comes after that of walls1 the fact that--in important houses--costly and elaborate floors of mosaic or of inlaid wood form part of the architect's plan1 makes it necessary to consider the effect of inherent or natural colours of such floors1 in connection with applied colour-schemes in rooms4 ,mosaic floors1 being as a rule confined to halls in private houses1 need hardly be considered in this relation1 and costly wood floors are almost necessarily confined to the yellows of the natural woods4 ,these yellows range from pale buff to olive1 and are not as a rule inharmonious with any other tint1 although they often lack sufficient strength or intensity to hold their own with stronger tints of walls and furniture4 ,as it is one of the principles of colour in a house that the floor is the foundation of the room1 this weakness of colour in hard-wood floors must be acknowledged as a disadvantage4 ,the floors should certainly be able to support the room in colour as well as in construction4 ,it must be the strongest tint in the room1 and yet it must have the unobtrusiveness of strength4 ,this makes floor treatment a more difficult problem1 or one requiring more thought than is generally supposed1 and explains why light rooms are more successful with hard-wood floors than medium or very dark ones4 ,there are many reasons1 sanitary as well as economic1 why hard-wood floors should not be covered in ordinary dwelling-houses2 and when the pores of the wood are properly filled1 and the surface kept well polished1 it is not only good as a fact1 but as an effect1 as it reflects surrounding tints1 and does much to make up for lack of sympathetic or related colour4 ,yet it will be found that in almost every case of successful colour-treatment in a room1 something must be added in the way of floor-covering to give it the sense of completeness and satisfaction which is the result of a successful scheme of decoration4 ,the simplest way of doing this is to cover enough of the space with rugs to attract the eye1 and restore the balance lost by want of strength of colour in the wood4 ,sometimes one or two small rugs will do this1 and these may be of almost any tint which includes the general one of the room1 even if the general tint is not prominent in the rug4 ,if the use or luxury of the room requires more covered space1 it is better to use one rug of a larger size than several small and perhaps conflicting ones4 ,of course in this the general tone of the rug must be chosen for its affinity to the tone of the room1 but that affinity secured1 any variations of colour occurring in the design are apt to add to the general effect4 ,illustration3 ,,square ,,hall ,,in ,,city ,,house ,a certain amount of contrast to prevailing colour is an advantage1 and the general value of rugs in a scheme of decoration is that they furnish this contrast in small masses or divisions1 so well worked in with other tints and tones that it makes its effect without opposition to the general plan4 ,thus1 in a room where the walls are of a pale shade of copper1 the rugs should bring in a variety of reds which would be natural parts of the same scale1 like lower notes in the octave2 and yet should add patches of relative blues and harmonising greens2 possibly also1 deep gold1 and black and white2--the latter in minute forms and lines which only accent or enrich the general effect4 ,it is really an interesting problem1 why the strong colours generally used in ,oriental rugs should harmonise so much better with weaker tints in walls and furniture than even the most judiciously selected carpets can possibly do4 ,it is true there are bad ,oriental rugs1 very bad ones1 just as there may be a villain in any congregation of the righteous1 but certainly the long centuries of ,eastern manufacture1 reaching back to the infancy of the world1 have given ,eastern nations secrets not to be easily mastered by the people of later days4 ,but if we cannot tell with certainty why good rugs fit all places and circumstances1 while any other thing of mortal manufacture must have its place carefully prepared for it1 we may perhaps assume to know why the most beautiful of modern carpets are not as easily managed and as successful4 ,in the first place having explained that some contrast1 some fillip of opposing colour1 something which the artist calls snap1 is absolutely required in every successful colour scheme1 we shall see that if we are to get this by simple means of a carpet1 we must choose one which carries more than one colour in its composition1 and colour introduced as design must come under the laws of mechanical manufacture2 that is1 it must come in as repeating design1 and here comes in the real difficulty4 ,the same forms and the same colours must come in in the same way in every yard1 or every half or three-quarter yard of the carpet4 ,it follows1 then1 that it must be evenly sprinkled or it must regularly meander over every yard or half yard of the surface2 and this regularity resolves itself into spots1 and spots are unendurable in a scheme of colour4 ,so broad a space as the floor of a room cannot be covered by sections of constantly repeated design without producing a spotty effect1 although it can be somewhat modified by the efforts of the good designer4 ,nevertheless1 in spite of his best knowledge and intention1 the difficulty remains4 ,there is no one patch of colour larger than another1 or more irregular in form4 ,there is nothing which has not its exact counterpart at an exact distance--north1 south1 east and west1 or northeast1 southeast1 northwest and southwest--and this is why a carpet with good design and excellent colour becomes unbearable in a room of large size4 ,in a small room where there are not so many repeats1 the effect is not as bad1 but in a large room the monotonous repetition is almost without remedy4 ,of course there are certain laws of optics and ingenuities of composition which may palliate this effect1 but the fact remains that the floor should be covered in a way which will leave the mind tranquil and the eye satisfied1 and this is hard to accomplish with what is commonly known as a figured carpet4 ,if carpet is to be used1 it seems1 then1 that the simplest way is to select a good monochrome in the prevailing tint of the room1 but several shades darker4 ,not an absolutely plain surface1 but one broken with some unobtrusive design or pattern in still darker darks and lighter lights than the general tone4 ,in this case we shall have the room harmonious1 it is true1 but lacking the element which provokes admiration--the enlivening effect of contrast4 ,this may be secured by making the centre or main part of the carpet comparatively small1 and using a very wide and important border of contrasting colour--a border so wide as to make itself an important part of the carpet4 ,in large rooms this plan does not entirely obviate the difficulty1 as it leaves the central space still too large and impressive to remain unbroken2 but the remedy may be found in the use of hearth-rugs or skin-rugs1 so placed as to seem necessities of use4 ,as ,i have said before1 contrast on a broad scale can be secured by choosing carpets of an entirely different tone from the wall1 and this is sometimes expedient4 ,for instance1 as contrast to a copper-coloured wall1 a softly toned green carpet is nearly always successful4 ,this one colour1 green1 is always safe and satisfactory in a floor-covering1 provided the walls are not too strong in tone1 and provided that the green in the carpet is not too green4 ,certain brownish greens possess the quality of being in harmony with every other colour4 ,they are the most peaceable shades in the colour-world--the only ones without positive antipathies4 ,green in all the paler tones can claim the title of peace-maker among colours1 since all the other tints will fight with something else1 but never with green of a corresponding or even of a much greater strength4 ,of course this valuable quality1 combined with a natural restfulness of effect1 makes it the safest of ordinary floor-coverings4 ,in bedrooms with polished floors and light walls good colour-effects can be secured without carpets1 but if the floors are of pine and need covering1 no better general effect can be secured than that of plain or mixed ingrain filling1 using with it ,oriental hearth and bedside rugs4 ,the entire second floor of a house can in that case be covered with carpet in the accommodating tint of green mentioned1 leaving the various colour-connections to be made with differently tinted rugs4 ,good pine floors well fitted and finished can be stained to harmonise with almost any tint used in furniture or upon the wall4 ,i remember a sea-side chamber in a house where the mistress had great natural decorative ability1 and so much cultivation as to prevent its running away with her1 where the floor was stained a transparent olive1 like depths of sea-water1 and here and there a floating sea-weed1 or a form of sea-life faintly outlined within the colour4 ,in this room1 which seemed wide open to the sea and air1 even when the windows were closed1 the walls were of a faint greenish blue1 like what is called dead turquoise1 and the relation between floor and walls was so perfect that it remained with me to this day as a crowning instance of satisfaction in colour4 ,it is perhaps more difficult to convey an idea of happy choice or selection of floor-colour than of walls1 because it is relative to walls4 ,it must relate to what has already been done4 ,but in recapitulation it is safe to say1 first1 that in choosing colour for a room1 soft and medium tints are better than positively dark or bright ones1 and that walls should be unobtrusive in design as well as colour2 secondly1 that floors1 if of the same tint as walls1 should be much darker2 and that they should be made apparent by means of this strength of colour1 or by the addition of rugs or borders1 although the relation between walls and floor must be carefully preserved and perfectly unmistakable1 for it is the perfection of this relation of one colour to another which makes home decoration an art4 ,there is still a word to be said as to floor-coverings1 which relates to healthful housekeeping instead of art1 and that is1 that in all cases where carpets or mattings are used1 they should be in rug form1 not fitted in to irregular floor-spaces2 so as to be frequently and easily lifted and cleaned4 ,the great1 and indeed the only1 objection to the use of mattings in country or summer houses1 is the difficulty of frequent lifting1 and removal of accumulated dust1 which has sifted through to the floor--but if fine hemp-warp mattings are used1 and sewn into squares which cover the floor sufficiently1 it is an ideal summer floor-covering1 as it can be rolled and removed even more easily than a carpet1 and there is a dust-shedding quality in it which commends itself to the housekeeper4 ,,chapter ,,xii ,,draperies ,draperies are not always considered as a part of furnishings1 yet in truth--as far as decorative necessities are concerned--they should come immediately after wall and floor coverings4 ,the householder who is in haste to complete the arrangement of the home naturally thinks first of chairs1 sofas1 and tables1 because they come into immediate personal use1 but if draperies are recognised as a necessary part of the beauty of the house it is worth while to study their appropriate character from the first4 ,they have in truth much more to do with the effect of the room than chairs or sofas1 since these are speedily sat upon and pass out of notice1 while draperies or portires are in the nature of pictures--hanging in everybody's sight4 ,as far as the element of beauty is concerned1 a room having good colour1 attractive and interesting pictures1 and beautiful draperies1 is already furnished4 ,whatever else goes to the making of it may be also beautiful1 but it must be convenient and useful1 while in the selection of draperies1 beauty1 both relative and positive1 is quite untrammelled4 ,as in all other furnishings1 from the sthetic point of view colour is the first thing to be considered4 ,as a rule it should follow that of the walls1 a continuous effect of colour with variation of form and surface being a valuable and beautiful thing to secure4 ,to give the full value of variation--where the walls are plain one should choose a figured stuff for curtains2 where the wall is papered1 or covered with figures1 a plain material should be used4 ,there is one exception to this rule and this is in the case of walls hung with damask4 ,here it is best to use the same material for curtains1 as the effect is obtained by the difference between the damask hung in folds1 with the design indistinguishable1 or stretched flat upon a wall-surface1 where it is plainly to be seen and felt4 ,even where damask is used upon the walls1 if exactly the same shade of colour can be found in satin or velvet1 the plain material in drapery will enhance the value of design on the walls4 ,this choice or selection of colour applies to curtains and portires as simple adjuncts of furnishing1 and not to such pieces of drapery as are in themselves works of art4 ,when a textile becomes a work of art it is in a measure a law unto itself1 and has as much right to select its own colour as if it were a picture instead of a portire1 in fact if it is sufficiently important1 the room must follow instead of leading4 ,this may happen in the case of some priceless old embroidery1 some relic of that peaceful past1 when hours and days flowed contentedly into a scheme of art and beauty1 without a thought of competitive manufacture4 ,it might be difficult to subdue the spirit of a modern drawing-room into harmony with such a work of art1 but if it were done1 it would be a very shrine of restfulness to the spirit4 ,fortunately many ancient marvels of needlework were done upon white satin1 and this makes them easily adaptable to any light scheme of colour1 where they may appear indeed as guests of honour--invited from the past to be courted by the present4 ,it is not often that such pieces are offered as parts of a scheme of modern decoration1 and the fingers of to-day are too busy or too idle for their creation1 yet it sometimes happens that a valuable piece of drapery of exceptional colour belongs by inheritance or purchase to the fortunate householder1 and in this case it should be used as a picture would be1 for an independent bit of decoration4 ,to return to simple things1 the rule of contrast as applied to papered walls1 covered with design1 ordains that the curtains should undoubtedly be plain and of the most pronounced tint used in the paper4 ,if the walls of a room are simply tinted or painted1 figured stuffs of the same general tone1 or printed silks1 velvets1 or cottons in which the predominant tint corresponds with that of the wall should be used4 ,these relieve the simplicity of the walls1 and give the desirable variation4 ,transparent silk curtains are of great value in colouring the light which enters the room1 and these should be used in direct reference to the light4 ,if the room is dark or cold in its exposure1 to hang the windows with sun-coloured silk or muslin will cheat the eye and imagination into the idea that it is a sunny room4 ,if1 on the contrary1 there is actual sunshine in the room1 a pervading tint of rose-colour or delicate green may be given by inner curtains of either of those colours4 ,these are effects1 however1 for which rules can hardly be given1 since the possible variations must be carefully studied1 unless1 indeed1 they are the colour-strokes of some one who has that genius for combination or contrast of tints which we call colour sense4 ,after colour in draperies come texture and quality1 and these need hardly be discussed in the case of silken fabrics1 because silk fibre has inherent qualities of tenacity of tint and flexibility of substance4 ,pure silk1 that is silk unstiffened with gums1 no matter how thickly and heavily it is woven1 is soft and yielding and will fall into folds without sharp angles4 ,this quality of softness is in its very substance4 ,even a single unwoven thread of silk will drop gracefully into loops1 where a cotton or linen or even a woollen thread will show stiffness4 ,woollen fibre seems to acquire softness as it is gathered into yarns and woven1 and will hang in folds with almost the same grace as silk2 but unfortunately they are favourite pasture grounds as well as burying-places for moths1 and although these co-inhabitants of our houses come to a speedy resurrection1 they devour their very graves1 and leave our woollen draperies irremediably damaged4 ,it is a pity that woollen fabrics should in this way be made undesirable for household use1 for they possess in a great degree the two most valuable qualities of silk3 colour-tenacity and flexibility4 ,if one adopts woollen curtains and portires1 constant vigilance is the price of safety1 and considering that vigilance is required everywhere and at all times in the household1 it is best to reduce the quantity whenever it is possible4 ,this throws us back upon cottons and linens for inexpensive hangings1 and in all the thousand forms in which these two fibres are manufactured it would seem easy to choose those which are beautiful1 durable1 and appropriate4 ,but here we are met at the very threshold of choice with the two undesirable qualities of fugitive colour1 and stiffness of texture4 ,something in the nature of cotton makes it inhospitable to dyes4 ,if it receives them it is with a protest1 and an evident intention of casting them out at the earliest opportunity--it makes1 it is true1 one or two exceptions4 ,it welcomes indigo dye and will never quite relinquish its companionship2 once received1 it will carry its colours through all its serviceable life1 and when it is finally ready to fall into dust1 it is still loyally coloured by its influence4 ,if it is cheated1 as we ourselves are apt to be1 into accepting spurious indigo1 made up of chemical preparations1 it speedily discovers the cheat and refuses its colouring4 ,perhaps this sympathy is due to a vegetable kinship and likeness of experience1 for where cotton will grow1 indigo will also flourish4 ,in printed cottons or chintzes1 there is a reasonable amount of fidelity to colour1 and if chintz curtains are well chosen1 and lined to protect them from the sun1 their attractiveness bears a fair proportion to their durability4 ,an interlining of some strong and tried colour will give a very soft and subtle daylight effect in a room1 but this is1 of course1 lost in the evening4 ,the expedient of an under colour in curtain linings will sometimes give delightful results in plain or unprinted goods1 and sometimes a lining with a strong and bold design will produce a charming shadow effect upon a tinted surface--of course each new experiment must be tried before one can be certain of its effect1 and1 in fact1 there is rather an exciting uncertainty as to results4 ,yet there are infinite possibilities to the householder who has what is called the artistic instinct and the leisure and willingness to experiment1 and experiments need not be limited to prints or to cottons1 for wonderful combinations of colour are possible in silks where light is called in as an influence in the composition4 ,one must1 however1 expect to forego these effects except in daylight1 but as artificial light has its own subtleties of effect1 the one can be balanced against the other4 ,in my own country-house ,i have used the two strongest colours--red and blue--in this doubled way1 with delightful effect4 ,the blue1 which is the face colour1 presenting long1 pure folds of blue1 with warmed reddish shadows between1 while at sunset1 when the rays of light are level1 the variations are like a sunset sky4 ,it will be seen by these suggestions that careful selection1 and some knowledge of the qualities of different dyes1 will go far toward modifying the want of permanence of colour and lack of reflection in cottons2 the other quality of stiffness1 or want of flexibility1 is occasionally overcome by methods of weaving4 ,indeed1 if the manufacturer or weaver had a clear idea of excellence in this respect1 undoubtedly the natural inflexibility of fibre could be greatly overcome4 ,there is a place waiting in the world of art and decoration for what in my own mind ,i call the missing textile4 ,this is by no means a fabric of cost1 for among its other virtues it must possess that of cheapness4 ,to meet an almost universal want it should combine inexpensiveness1 durability1 softness1 and absolute fidelity of colour1 and these four qualities are not to be found in any existing textile4 ,three of them--cheapness1 strength1 and colour--were possessed by the old-fashioned true indigo-blue denim--the delightful blue which faded into something as near the colour of the flower of grass1 as dead vegetable material can approach that which is full of living juices--the possession of these three qualities doubled and trebled the amount of its manufacture until it lost one of them by masquerading in aniline indigo4 ,many of our ordinary cotton manufactures are strong and inexpensive1 and a few of them have the flexibility which denim lacks4 ,it was possessed in an almost perfect degree by the ,canton1 or fleeced1 flannels1 manufactured so largely a few years ago1 and called art-drapery4 ,it lacked colour1 however1 for the various dyes given to it during its brief period of favouritism were not colour2 they were merely tint4 ,that strong1 good word1 colour1 could not be applied to the mixed and evanescent dyes with which this soft and estimable material clothed itself withal4 ,it was1 so to speak1 invertebrate--it had no backbone4 ,besides this lack of colour stanchness1 it had another fault which helped to overbalance its many virtues4 ,it was fatally attractive to fire4 ,its soft1 fluffy surface seemed to reach out toward flame1 and the contact once made1 there ensued one flash of instantaneous blaze1 and the whole surface1 no matter if it were a table-cover1 a hanging1 or the wall covering a room1 was totally destroyed4 ,yet as one must have had or heard of such a disastrous experience to fear and avoid it1 this proclivity alone would not have ended its popularity4 ,it was probably the evanescent character of what was called its art-colour which ended the career of an estimable material1 and if the manufacturers had known how to eliminate its faults and adapt its virtues1 it might still have been a flourishing textile4 ,in truth1 we do not often stop to analyse the reasons of prolonged popular favour2 yet nothing is more certain than that there is reason1 and good reason1 for fidelity in public taste4 ,popular liking1 if continued1 is always founded upon certain incontrovertible virtues4 ,if a manufacture cannot hold its own for ever in public favour1 it is because it fails in some important particular to be what it should be4 ,products of the loom must have lasting virtues if they would secure lasting esteem4 ,blue denim had its hold upon public use principally for the reason that it possessed a colour superior to all the chances and accidents of its varied life4 ,it is true it was a colour which commended itself to general liking1 yet if as stanch and steadfast a green or red could be imparted to an equally cheap and durable fabric1 it would find as lasting a place in public favour4 ,it is quite possible that in the near future domestic weavings may come to the aid of the critical house-furnisher1 so that the qualities of strength and pliability may be united with colour which is both water-fast and sun-fast1 and that we shall be able to order not only the kind of material1 but the exact shade of colour necessary to the perfection of our houses4 ,to be washable as well as durable is also a great point in favour of cotton textiles4 ,the ,english chintzes with which the high post bedsteads of our foremothers were hung had a yearly baptism of family soap-suds1 and came from it with their designs of gaily-crested1 almost life-size pheasants1 sitting upon inadequate branches1 very little subdued by the process4 ,those were not days of colour-study2 and harmony1 applied to things of sight instead of conduct1 was not looked for2 but when we copy the beautiful old furniture of that day1 we may as well demand with it the quality of washableness and cleanableness which went with all its belongings4 ,it is always a wonder to the masculine1 that the feminine mind has such an ineradicable love of draperies4 ,the man despises them1 but to the woman they are the perfecting touch of the home1 hiding or disguising all the sharp angles of windows and doors1 and making of them opportunities of beauty4 ,it is the same instinct with which she tries to cover the hard angles and facts of daily life and make of them virtuous incitements4 ,as long as the woman rules1 house-curtains will be a joy and delight to her4 ,something in their soft protection1 grace of line1 and possible beauty of colour appeals to her as no other household belonging has the power to do4 ,the long folds of the straight hanging curtain are far more beautiful than the looped and festooned creations which were held in vogue by some previous generations1 and indeed are still dear to the hearts of professional upholsterers4 ,the simpler the treatment1 the better the effect1 since natural rather than distorted line is more restful and enjoyable4 ,quality1 colour1 and simple graceful lines are quite sufficient elements of value in these important adjuncts of house furnishing and decoration4 ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,furniture ,although the forms and varieties of furniture are infinite1 they can easily be classified first into the two great divisions of good and bad1 and after that into kinds and styles2 but no matter how good the different specimens may be1 or to what style they may belong1 each one is subject again to the ruling of fitness4 ,detached things may be both thoroughly pleasing and thoroughly good in themselves1 but unless they are appropriate to the place where1 and purpose for which they are used1 they will not be beautiful4 ,illustration3 ,,colonial ,,chairs ,,and ,,sofa 7,,belonging ,,to ,,mrs4 ,,ruth ,,mcenery ,,stuart7 ,it is well to reiterate that the use to which a room is put must always govern its furnishing and in a measure its colour1 and that whatever we put in it must be placed there because it is appropriate to that use1 and because it is needed for completeness4 ,it is misapplication which makes much of what is called artistic furnishing ridiculous4 ,an old-fashioned brass preserving-kettle and a linen or wool spinning-wheel are in place and appropriate pieces of furnishing for a studio2 the one for colour1 and the other for form1 and because also they may serve as models2 but they are sadly out of place in a modern city house1 or even in the parlour of a country cottage4 ,we all recognise the fact that a room carefully furnished in one style makes a oneness of impression2 whereas if things are brought together heterogeneously1 even if each separate thing is selected for its own special virtue and beauty1 the feeling of enjoyment will be far less complete4 ,there is a certain kinship in pieces of furniture made or originated at the same period and fashioned by a prevailing sentiment of beauty1 which makes them harmonious when brought together2 and if our minds are in sympathy with that period and style of expression1 it becomes a great pleasure to use it as a means of expression for ourselves4 ,whatever appeals to us as the best or most beautiful thought in manufacture we have a right to adopt1 but we should study to understand the circumstances of its production1 in order to do justice to it and ourselves1 since style is evolved from surrounding influences4 ,it would seem also that its periods and origin should not be too far removed from the interests and ways of our own time1 and incongruous with it1 because it would be impossible to carry an utterly foreign period or method of thought into all the intimacies of domestic life4 ,the fad of furnishing different rooms in different periods of art1 and in the fashion of nations and peoples whose lives are totally dissimilar1 may easily be carried too far1 and the spirit of home1 and even of beauty1 be lost4 ,of course this applies to small1 and not to grand houses1 which are always exceptions to the purely domestic idea4 ,there are many reasons why one should be in sympathy with what is called the colonial craze2 not only because colonial days are a part of our history1 but because colonial furniture and decorations were derived directly from the best period of ,english art4 ,its original designers were masters who made standards in architectural and pictorial as well as household art4 ,the ,adams brothers1 to whom many of the best forms of the period are referable1 were great architects as well as great designers4 ,even so distinguished a painter as ,hogarth delighted in composing symmetrical forms for furniture1 and preached persistently the beauty of curved instead of rectangular lines4 ,it was1 in fact1 a period in which superior minds expressed themselves in material forms1 when ,flaxman1 ,wedgwood1 ,chippendale and many others of their day1 true artists in form1 wrote their thoughts in wood1 stone1 and pottery1 and bequeathed them to future ages4 ,certainly the work of such minds in such company must outlast mere mechanical efforts4 ,it is interesting to note1 that many of the ,chippendale chairs keep in their under construction the square and simple forms of a much earlier period1 while the upper part1 the back1 and seats are carved into curves and floriated designs4 ,one cannot help wondering whether this square solidity was simply a reminiscence or persistence of earlier forms1 or a conscious return to the most direct principles of weight-bearing constructions4 ,all furniture made under primitive conditions naturally depends upon perpendicular and horizontal forms1 because uninfluenced construction considers first of all the principle of strength2 but under the varied influences of the ,georgian period one hardly expects fidelity to first principles4 ,new ,england carpenters and cabinet-makers who had wrought under the masters of carpentry and cabinet-work in ,england brought with them not only skill to fashion1 but the very patterns and drawings from which ,chippendale and ,sheraton furniture had been made in ,england4 ,our ,english forefathers were very fond of the ,st4 ,domingo mahogany1 brought back in the ship-bottoms of ,english traders1 but the ,english workmen who made furniture in the new world1 while they adopted this foreign wood1 were not slow to appreciate the wild cherry1 and the different maples and oak and nut woods which they found in ,america4 ,they were woods easy to work1 and apt to take on polish and shining surface4 ,the cabinet-makers liked also the abnormal specimens of maple where the fibre grew in close waves1 called curled maple1 as well as the great roots flecked and spotted with minute knots1 known as dotted maple4 ,all these things went into colonial furniture1 so beautifully cut1 so carefully dowelled and put together1 so well made1 that many of the things have become heirlooms in the families for which they were constructed4 ,i remember admiring a fine old cherry book-case in ,mr4 ,lowell's library at ,cambridge1 and being told by the poet that it had belonged to his grandfather4 ,when ,i spoke of the comparative rarity of such possessions he answered3 ,oh1 anyone can have his grandfather's furniture if he will wait a hundred years6 ,nevertheless1 with modern methods of manufacture it is by no means certain that a hundred years will secure possession of the furniture we buy to-day to our grandchildren4 ,in those early days it was not uncommon1 it was indeed the custom1 for some one of the men who were called journeymen cabinet-makers--that is1 men who had served their time and learned their trade1 but had not yet settled down to a fixed place and shop of their own--to take up an abode in the house with the family which had built it1 for a year1 or even two or three years1 carrying on the work in some out-house or dependence1 choosing and seasoning the wood1 and measuring the furniture for the spaces where it was to stand4 ,there was a fine fitness in such furnishing2 it was as if the different pieces actually grew where they were placed1 and it is small wonder that so built and fashioned they should possess almost a human interest4 ,direct and special thought and effort were incorporated with the furniture from the very first1 and it easily explains the excellences and finenesses of its fashioning4 ,there is an interesting house in ,flushing1 ,long ,island1 where such furniture still stands in the rooms where it was put together in #affd1 and where it is so fitted to spaces it has filled during the passing centuries1 that it would be impossible to carry it through the narrow doors and passages1 which1 unlike our present halls1 were made for the passing to and fro of human beings1 and not of furniture4 ,illustration3 ,,colonial ,,mantel ,,and ,,english ,,hob-,,grate 7,,sitting-,,room ,,in ,,mrs4 ,,candace ,,wheeler',s ,,house7 ,it is this kind of interest which attaches us to colonial furniture and adds to the value of its beauty and careful adaptation to human convenience4 ,in the roomy high boys which we find in old houses there are places for everything4 ,they were made for the orderly packing and keeping of valuable things1 in closetless rooms1 and they were made without projecting corners and cornices1 because life was lived in smaller spaces than at present4 ,they were the best product of a thoughtful time--where if manufacture lacked some of the machinery and appliances of to-day1 it was at least not rushed by breathless competition1 but could progress slowly in careful leisure4 ,of course we cannot all have colonial furniture1 and indeed it would not be according to the spirit of our time1 for the arts of our own day are to be encouraged and fostered--but we can buy the best of the things which are made in our time1 the best in style1 in intention1 in fittingness1 and above all in carefulness and honesty of construction4 ,for some reason the quality of durability seems to be wanting in modern furniture4 ,our things are fashioned of the same woods1 but something in the curing or preparation of them has weakened the fibre and made it brittle4 ,probably the gradual evaporation of the tree-juices which old-time cabinet-makers were willing to wait for1 left the shrunken sinews of the wood in better condition than is possible with our hurried and violent kiln-dried methods4 ,what is gained in time in the one place is lost in another4 ,nature refuses to enter into our race for speedy completion1 and if we hurry her natural processes we shorten our lease of ownership4 ,as a very apt illustration of this fact1 ,i remember coming into possession some twenty years ago of an oak chair which had stood1 perhaps1 for more than two hundred years in a ,long ,island farm-house4 ,when ,i found it1 it had been long relegated to kitchen use and was covered with a crust of variously coloured paints which had accumulated during the two centuries of its existence4 ,the fashion of it was rare1 and had probably been evolved by some early ,american cabinet-maker1 for while it had all and even more than the grace of the high-backed ,chippendale patterns1 it was better fitted to the rounded surfaces of the human body4 ,it was a spindle chair with a slightly hollowed seat1 the rim of the back rounded to a loop which was continued into arm-rests1 which spread into thickened blades for hand-rests4 ,being very much in love with the grace and ease of it1 ,i took it to a manufacturer to be reproduced in mahogany1 who1 with a far-sighted sagacity1 flooded the market with that particular pattern4 ,we are used--and with good reason--to consider mahogany as a durable wood1 but of the half-dozen of mahogany copies of the old oak chair1 each one has suffered some break of legs or arms or spindles1 while the original remains as firm in its withered old age as it was the day ,i rescued it from the out-kitchen of the ,long ,island farm-house4 ,for the next fifty years after the close of our colonial history1 the colonial cabinet-makers in ,new ,england and the northern ,middle ,states continued to flourish1 evolving an occasional good variation from what may be called colonial forms4 ,rush-and flag-bottomed chairs and chairs with seats of twisted rawhide--the frames often gilded and painted-- sometimes took the place of wrought mahogany1 except in the best rooms of great houses4 ,many of these are of excellent shape and construction1 and specially interesting as an adaptation of natural products of the country4 ,undoubtedly1 with our ingenious modern appliances1 we could make as good furniture as was made in ,chippendale and ,sheraton's day1 with far less expenditure of effort2 but the demon of competition in trade will not allow it4 ,we must use all material1 perfect or imperfect2 we cannot afford to select4 ,we must cover knots and imperfections with composition and pass them on4 ,we must use the cheapest glue1 and save an infinitesimal sum in the length of our dowels2 we must varnish instead of polishing1 or the other man will get the better of us4 ,if we did not do these things our furniture would be better1 but the other man would sell more1 because he could sell more cheaply4 ,since the revived interest in the making of furniture1 we find an occasional and marked recurrence to primitive form--on each occasion the apparently new style taking on the name of the man who produced it4 ,in our own day we have seen the ,eastlake furniture appear and disappear1 succeeded by the ,morris furniture1 which is undoubtedly better adapted to our varied wants4 ,at present1 mortising and dowelling have come to the front as proper processes1 especially for table-building2 and this time the style appears under the name of ,mission furniture4 ,much of this is extremely well suited for cottage furnishing1 but the occasional exaggeration of the style takes one back not only to early1 but the earliest1 ,english art1 when chairs were immovable seats or blocks1 and tables absolute fixtures on account of the weighty legs upon which they were built4 ,in short1 the careful and cultivated decorator finds it as imperative to guard against exaggerated simplicity as unsupported prettiness4 ,fortunately there has been a great deal of attention paid to good cabinet work within the last few years1 and although the method of its making lacks the human motive and the human interest of former days--it is still a good expression of the art of to-day1 and at its best1 worthy to be carried down with the generations as one of the steps in the evolutions of time4 ,what we have to do1 is to learn to discriminate between good and bad1 to appreciate the best in design and workmanship1 even although we cannot afford to buy it4 ,in this case we should learn to do with less4 ,as a rule our houses are crowded4 ,if we are able to buy a few good things1 we are apt instead to buy many only moderately good1 for lavish possession seems to be a sort of passion1 or birthright1 of ,americans4 ,it follows that we fill our houses with heterogeneous collections of furniture1 new and old1 good and bad1 appropriate or inappropriate1 as the case may be1 with a result of living in seeming luxury1 but a luxury without proper selection or true value4 ,to have less would in many cases be to have more--more tranquillity of life1 more ease of mind1 more knowledge and more real enjoyment4 ,there is another principle which can be brought into play in this case1 and that is the one of buying--not a costly kind of thing1 but the best of its kind4 ,if it is a choice in chairs1 for instance1 let it be the best cane-seated1 or rush-bottomed chair that is made1 instead of the second or third best upholstered or leather-covered one4 ,if it is a question of tables1 buy the simplest form made of flawless wood and with best finish1 instead of a bargain in elaborately turned or scantily carved material4 ,if it is in bedsteads1 a plain brass1 or good enamelled iron or a simple form in black walnut1 instead of a cheap inlaid wood--and so on through the whole category4 ,a good chintz or cotton is better for draperies1 than flimsy silk or brocade2 and when all is done the very spirit of truth will sit enthroned in the household1 and we shall find that all things have been brought into harmony by her laws4 ,illustration3 ,,sofa ,,designed ,,by ,,mrs4 ,,candace ,,wheeler ,,for ,,new ,,library ,,in ,,woman',s ,,building1 ,,columbian ,,exposition ,although the furnishing of a house should be one of the most painstaking and studied of pursuits1 there is certainly nothing which is at the same time so fascinating and so flattering in its promise of future enjoyment4 ,it is like the making of a picture as far as possibility of beauty is concerned1 but a picture within and against which one's life1 and the life of the family1 is to be lived4 ,it is a bit of creative art in itself1 and one which concerns us so closely as to be a very part of us4 ,we enjoy every separate thing we may find or select or procure--not only for the beauty and goodness which is in it1 but for its contribution to the general whole4 ,and in knowledge of applied and manufactured art1 the furnishing of a house is truly the beginning of wisdom4 ,one learns to appreciate what is excellent in the new1 from study and appreciation of quality in the old4 ,it is the fascination of this study which has made a multiplication of shops and collections of antiques in every quarter of the city4 ,many a woman begins from the shop-keeper's point of view of the value of mere age1 and learns by experience that age1 considered by itself1 is a disqualification1 and that it gives value only when the art which created the antique has been lost or greatly deteriorated4 ,if one can find as good1 or a better thing in art and quality1 made to-day--by all means buy the thing of to-day1 and let yourself and your children be credited with the hundred or two years of wear which is in it4 ,we can easily see that it is wiser to buy modern iridescent glass1 fitted to our use1 and yet carrying all the fascinating lustre of ancient glass1 than to sigh for the possession of some unbuyable thing belonging to dead and gone ,caesars4 ,and the case is as true of other modern art and modern inventions1 if the art is good1 and the inventions suitable to our wants and needs4 ,yet in spite of the goodness of much that is new1 there is a subtle pleasure in turning over1 and even in appropriating1 the things that are old4 ,there are certain fenced-in-blocks on the east side of ,new ,york ,city where for many years the choice parts of old houses have been deposited4 ,as fashion and wealth have changed their locality--treading slowly up from the ,battery to ,central ,park--many beautiful bits of construction have been left behind in the abandoned houses--either disregarded on account of change in popular taste1 or unappreciated by reason of want of knowledge4 ,for the few whose knowledge was competent1 there were things to be found in the second-hand yards1 precious beyond comparison with anything of contemporaneous manufacture4 ,there were panelled front doors with beautifully fluted columns and carved capitals1 surmounted by half-ovals of curiously designed sashes2 there were beautifully wrought iron railings1 and elaborate newel-posts of mahogany1 brass door-knobs and hinges1 and ,english hob-grates1 and crystal chandeliers of cost and brilliance1 and panelled wainscots of oak and mahogany2 chimney-pieces in marble and wood of an excellence which we are almost vainly trying to compass1 and all of them to be bought at the price of lumber4 ,these are the things to make one who remembers them critical about the collections to be found in the antique shops of to-day1 and yet such shops are enticing and fashionable1 and the quest of antiques will go on until we become convinced of the art-value and the equal merit of the new--which period many things seem to indicate is not far off4 ,in those days there was but one antique shop in all ,new ,york which was devoted to the sale of old things1 to furniture1 pictures1 statuary1 and what ,ruskin calls portable art of all kinds4 ,it was a place where one might go1 crying new lamps for old ones with a certainty of profit in the transaction4 ,in later years it has been known as ,sypher's1 and although one of many1 instead of a single one1 is still a place of fascinating possibilities4 ,to sum up the gospel of furnishing1 we need only fall back upon the principles of absolute fitness1 actual goodness1 and real beauty4 ,if the furniture of a well-coloured room possesses these three qualities1 the room as a whole can hardly fail to be lastingly satisfactory4 ,it must be remembered1 however1 that it is a trinity of virtues4 ,no piece of furniture should be chosen because it is intrinsically good or genuinely beautiful1 if it has not also its use--and this rule applies to all rooms1 with the one exception of the drawing-room4 ,the necessity of use1 governing the style of furnishing in a room1 is very well understood4 ,thus1 while both drawing-room and dining-room must express hospitality1 it is of a different kind or degree4 ,that of the drawing-room is ceremonious and punctilious1 and represents the family in its relation to society1 while the dining-room is far more intimate1 and belongs to the family in its relation to friends4 ,in fact1 as the dining-room is the heart of the house1 its furnishing would naturally be quite different in feeling and character from the drawing-room1 although it might be fully as lavish in cost4 ,it would be stronger1 less conservative1 and altogether more personal in its expression4 ,family portraits and family silver give the personal note which we like to recognise in our friends' dining-rooms1 because the intimacy of the room makes even family history in place4 ,in moderate houses1 even the drawing-room is too much a family room to allow it to be entirely emancipated from the law of use1 but in houses which are not circumscribed in space1 and where one or more rooms are set apart to social rather than domestic life1 it is natural and proper to gather in them things which stand1 primarily1 for art and beauty--which satisfy the needs of the mind as distinct from those of bodily comfort4 ,things which belong in the category of unrelated beauty may be appropriately gathered in such a room1 because the use of it is to please the eye and excite the interest of our social world2 therefore a table which is a marvel of art1 but not of convenience1 or a casket which is beautiful to look at1 but of no practical use1 are in accordance with the idea of the room4 ,they help compose a picture1 not only for the eyes of friends and acquaintances1 but for the education of the family4 ,it follows that an artistic and luxurious drawing-room may be a true family expression2 it may speak of travel and interest in the artistic development of mankind2 but even where the experiences of the family have been wide and liberal1 if the house and circumstances are narrow1 a luxurious interior is by no means a happiness4 ,it may seem quite superfluous to give advice against luxury in furnishing except where it is warranted by exceptional means1 because each family naturally adjusts its furnishing to its own needs and circumstances2 but the influence of mere beauty is very powerful1 and many a costly toy drifts into homes where it does not rightly belong and where1 instead of being an educational or elevating influence1 it is a source of mental deterioration1 from its conflict with unsympathetic circumstances4 ,a long and useful chapter might be written upon art out of place1 but nothing which could be said upon the subject would apply to that incorporation of art and beauty with furniture and interior surrounding1 which is the effort and object of every true artist and art-lover4 ,the fact to be emphasised is1 that objects d'art--beautiful in themselves and costly because of the superior knowledge1 artistic feeling1 and patient labour which have produced them--demand care and reserve for their preservation1 which is not available in a household where the first motive of everything must be ministry to comfort4 ,art in the shape of pictures is fortunately exempt from this rule1 and may dignify and beautify every room in the house without being imperilled by contact in the exigencies of use4 ,following out this idea1 a house where circumstances demand that there shall be no drawing-room1 and where the family sitting-room must also answer for the reception of guests1 a perfect beauty and dignity may be achieved by harmony of colour1 beauty of form1 and appropriateness to purpose1 and this may be carried to almost any degree of perfection by the introduction and accompaniment of pictures4 ,in this case art is a part of the room1 as well as an adornment of it4 ,it is kneaded into every article of furniture4 ,it is the daily bread of art to which we are all entitled1 and which can make a small country home1 or a smaller city apartment1 as enjoyable and elevating as if it were filled with the luxuries of art4 ,illustration3 ,,rustic ,,sofa ,,and ,,tables ,,in ,,pennyroyal 7,,in ,,mrs4 ,,boudinot ,,keith',s ,,cottage1 ,,onteora7 ,but one may say1 ,it requires knowledge to do this2 much knowledge in the selection of the comparatively few things which are to make up such an interior1 and that is true--and the knowledge is to be proved every time we come to the test of buying4 ,yet it is a curious fact that the really good thing1 the thing which is good in art as well as construction1 will inevitably be chosen by an intelligent buyer1 instead of the thing which is bad in art and in construction4 ,fortunately1 one can see good examples in the shops of to-day1 where twenty years ago at best only honest and respectable furniture was on exhibition4 ,one must rely somewhat on the character of the places from which one buys1 and not expect good styles and reliable manufacture where commercial success is the dominant note of the business4 ,in truth the careful buyer is not so apt to fail in quality as in harmony1 because grade as well as style in different articles and manufactures is to be considered4 ,what is perfectly good in one grade of manufacture will not be in harmony with a higher or lower grade in another4 ,just as we choose our grade of floor-covering from ingrain to ,aubusson1 we must choose the grade of other furnishings4 ,even an inexperienced buyer would be apt to feel this1 and would know that if she found a simple ingrain-filling appropriate to a bed-chamber1 maple or enamelled furniture would belong to it1 instead of more costly inlaid or carved pieces4 ,it may be well to reiterate the fact that the predominant use of each room in a house gives the clew to the best rules of treatment in decoration and furniture4 ,for instance1 the hall1 being an intermediate space between in and out of doors1 should be coloured and furnished in direct reference to this1 and to its common use as a thoroughfare by all members of the family4 ,it is not a place of prolonged occupation1 and may therefore properly be without the luxury and ease of lounges and lounging-chairs4 ,but as long as it serves both as entrance-room to the house and for carrying the stairways to the upper floors1 it should be treated in such a way as to lead up to and prepare the mind for whatever of inner luxury there may be in the house4 ,at the same time it should preserve something of the simplicity and freedom from all attempt at effect which belong to out-of-door life4 ,the difference between its decoration and furniture and that of other divisions of the house should be principally in surface1 and not in colour4 ,difference of surface is secured by the use of materials which are permanent and durable in effect1 such as wood1 plaster1 and leather4 ,these may all be coloured without injury to their impression of permanency1 although it is generally preferable to take advantage of indigenous or inherent colour like the natural yellows and russets of wood and leather4 ,when these are used for both walls and ceiling1 it will be found that1 to give the necessary variation1 and prevent an impression of monotony and dulness1 some tint must be added in the ornament of the surface1 which could be gained by a forcible deepening or variation of the general tone1 like a deep golden brown1 which is the lowest tone of the scale of yellow1 or a red which would be only a variant of the prevailing tint4 ,the introduction of an opposing or contrasting tint1 like pale blue in small masses as compared with the general tint1 even if it is in so small a space as that of a water-colour on the wall1 adds the necessary contrast1 and enlivens and invigorates a harmony4 ,no colour carries with it a more appropriate influence at the entrance of a house than red in its different values4 ,certain tints of it which are known both as ,pompeiian and ,damascus red have sufficient yellow in their composition to fall in with the yellows of oiled wood1 and give the charm of a variant but related colour4 ,in its stronger and deeper tones it is in direct contrast to the green of abundant foliage1 and therefore a good colour for the entrance-hall or vestibule of a country-house2 while the paler tones1 which run into pinks1 hold the same opposing relation to the gray and blue of the sea-shore4 ,if walls and ceiling are of wood1 a rug of which the prevailing colour is red will often give the exact note which is needed to preserve the room from monotony and insipidity4 ,a stair-carpet is a valuable point to make in a hall1 and it is well to reserve all opposing colour for this one place1 which1 as it rises1 meets all sight on a level1 and makes its contrast directly and unmistakably4 ,a stair-carpet has other reasons for use in a country-house than sthetic ones1 as the stairs are conductors of sound to all parts of the house1 and should therefore be muffled1 and because a carpeted stair furnishes much safer footing for the two family extremes of childhood and age4 ,the furniture of the hall should not be fantastic1 as some cabinet-makers seem to imagine4 ,impossible twists in the supports of tables and chairs are perhaps more objectionable in this first vestibule or entrance to the house than elsewhere1 because the mind is not quite free from out-of-door influences1 or ready to take pleasure in the vagaries of the human fancy4 ,simple chairs1 settles1 and tables1 more solid perhaps than is desirable in other parts of the house1 are what the best natural1 as well as the best cultivated1 taste demands4 ,if there is one place more than another where a picture performs its full work of suggestion and decoration1 it is in a hall which is otherwise bare of ornament4 ,pictures in dining-rooms make very little impression as pictures1 because the mind is engrossed with the first and natural purpose of the room1 and consequently not in a waiting and easily impressible mood2 but in a hall1 if one stops for even a moment1 the thoughts are at leisure1 and waiting to be interested4 ,aside from the colour effect1 which may be so managed as to be very valuable1 pictures hung in a hall are full of suggestion of wider mental and physical life1 and1 like books1 are indications of the tastes and experiences of the family4 ,of course there are country-houses where the halls are built with fireplaces1 and windows commanding favourite views1 and are really intended for family sitting-rooms and gathering-places2 in this case it is generally preceded by a vestibule which carries the character of an entrance-hall1 leaving the large room to be furnished more luxuriously1 as is proper to a sitting-room4 ,the dining-room shares with the hall a purpose common to the life of the family1 and1 while it admits of much more variety and elaboration1 that which is true of the hall is equally true of the dining-room1 that it should be treated with materials which are durable and have surface quality1 although its decoration should be preferably with china rather than with pictures4 ,it is important that the colour of a dining-room should be pervading colour--that is1 that walls and ceiling should be kept together by the use of one colour only1 in different degrees of strength4 ,for many reasons1 but principally because it is the best material to use in a dining-room1 the rich yellows of oiled wood make the most desirable colour and surface4 ,the rug1 the curtains1 the portires and screen1 can then be of any good tint which the exposure of the room and the decoration of the china seem to indicate4 ,if it has a cold1 northern exposure1 reds or gold browns are indicated2 but if it is a sunny and warm-looking room1 green or strong ,india blue will be found more satisfactory in simple houses4 ,the materials used in curtains1 portires1 and screens should be of cotton or linen1 or some plain woollen goods which are as easily washable4 ,a one-coloured1 heavy-threaded cotton canvas1 a linen in solid colour1 or even indigo-blue domestic1 all make extremely effective and appropriate furnishings4 ,the variety of blue domestic which is called denim is the best of all fabrics for this kind of furnishing1 if the colour is not too dark4 ,the prettiest country house dining-room ,i know is ceiled and wainscoted with wood1 the walls above the wainscoting carrying an ingrain paper of the same tone2 the line of division between the wainscot and wall being broken by a row of old blue ,india china plates1 arranged in groups of different sizes and running entirely around the room4 ,there is one small mirror set in a broad carved frame of yellow wood hung in the centre of a rather large wall-space1 its angles marked by small ,dutch plaques2 but the whole decoration of the room outside of these pieces consists of draperies of blue denim in which there is a design1 in narrow white outline1 of leaping fish1 and the widening water-circles and showery drops made by their play4 ,the white lines in the design answer to the white spaces in the decorated china1 and the two used together in profusion have an unexpectedly decorative effect4 ,the table and chairs are1 of course1 of the same coloured wood used in the ceiling and wainscot1 and the rug is an ,india cotton of dark and light blues and white4 ,the sideboard is an arrangement of fixed shelves1 but covered with a beautiful collection of blue china1 which serves to furnish the table as well4 ,if the dining-room had a northern exposure1 and it was desirable to use red instead of blue for colouring1 as good an effect could be secured by depending for ornament upon the red ,kaga porcelain so common at present in ,japanese and ,chinese shops1 and using with it the ,eastern cotton known as bez4 ,this is dyed with madder1 and exactly repeats the red of the porcelain1 while it is extremely durable both in colour and texture4 ,borders of yellow stitchery1 or straggling fringes of silk and beads1 add very much to the effect of the drapery and to the character of the room4 ,illustration3 ,,dining-,,room ,,in ,,star ,,rock 7,,country ,,house ,,of ,w4,e4 ,,connor1 ,,esq41 ,,onteora7 ,a library in ordinary family life has two parts to play4 ,it is not only to hold books1 but to make the family at home in a literary atmosphere4 ,such a room is apt to be a fascinating one by reason of this very variety of use and purpose1 and because it is a centre for all the family treasures4 ,books1 pictures1 papers1 photographs1 bits of decorative needlework1 all centre here1 and all are on most orderly behaviour1 like children at a company dinner4 ,the colour of such a room may1 and should1 be much warmer and stronger than that of a parlour pure and simple1 the very constancy and hardness of its use indicating tints of strength and resistance2 but1 keeping that in mind1 the rules for general use of colour and harmony of tints will apply as well to a room used for a double purpose as for a single4 ,of course the furniture should be more solid and darker1 as would be necessary for constant use1 but the deepening of tones in general colour provides for that1 and for the use of rugs of a different character4 ,in a room of this kind perhaps the best possible effect is produced by the use of some textile as a wall-covering1 as in that case the same material with a contrasted colour in the lining can be used for curtains1 and to some extent in the furniture4 ,this use of one material has not only an effect of richness which is due to the library of the house1 but it softens and brings together all the heterogeneous things which different members of a large family are apt to require in a sitting-room4 ,to those who prefer to work out and adapt their own surroundings1 it is well to illustrate the advice given for colour in different exposures by selecting particular rooms1 with their various relations to light1 use1 and circumstances1 and seeing how colour-principles can be applied to them4 ,we may choose a reception-hall1 in either a city or country house1 since the treatment would in both cases be guided by the same rules4 ,if in a city house1 it may be on the shady or the sunny side of the street1 and this at once would differentiate1 perhaps the colour1 and certainly the depth of colour to be used4 ,if it is the hall of a country house the difference between north or south light will not be as great1 since a room opening on the north in a house standing alone1 in unobstructed space1 would have an effect of coldness1 but not necessarily of shadow or darkness4 ,the first condition1 then1 of coldness of light would have to be considered in both cases1 but less positively in the country1 than in the city house4 ,if the room is actually dark1 a warm or orange tone of yellow will both modify and lighten it4 ,gold-coloured or yellow canvas with oak mouldings lighten and warm the walls2 and rugs with a preponderance of white and yellow transform a dark hall into a light and cheerful one4 ,it must be remembered that few dark colours can assert themselves in the absolute shadow of a north light4 ,green and blue become black4 ,gold1 orange1 and red alone have sufficient power to hold their own1 and make us conscious of them in darkness4 ,in a hall which has plenty of light1 but no sun1 red is an effective and natural colour1 copper-coloured leather paper1 cushions and rugs or carpets of varying shades of red1 and transparent curtains of the same tint give an effect of warmth and vitality4 ,red is truly a delightful colour to deal with in shadowed interiors1 its sensitiveness to light1 changing from colour-tinted darkness to palpitating ruby1 and even to flame colour1 on the slightest invitation of day-or lamp-light1 makes it like a living presence4 ,it is especially valuable at the entrance of the home1 where it seems to meet one with almost a human welcome4 ,if we can succeed in making what would be a cold and unattractive entrance hospitable and cordial by liberal use of warm and strong colour1 by reversing the effort we can just as easily modify the effect of glaring1 or overpowering1 sunlight4 ,suppose the entrance-hall of the house to be upon the sunny side of the street1 where in addition to the natural effect of full rays of the sun there are also the reflections from innumerable other house-fronts and house-windows4 ,in this case we must simulate shadow and mystery1 and this can be done by the colour-tones of blues and greens4 ,i use these in the plural because the shadows of both are innumerable1 and because all1 except perhaps turquoise and apple-green1 are natural shadow-tints4 ,green and blue can be used together or separately1 according to the skill and what is called the colour-sense with which they are applied4 ,to use them together requires not only observation of colour-occurrences in nature but sensitiveness to the more subtle out-of-door effects1 resulting from intermingling of shadows and reflection of lights4 ,well done1 it is one of the most beautiful and satisfactory of achievements1 but it may easily be bad by reason of sharp contrasts1 or unmodified juxtaposition4 ,but a room where blue in all its shades from dark to light alone predominates1 or a room where only green is used1 bright and gray tones in contrast and variation is within the reach of most colour-loving mortals1 and as both of these tints are companionable with oak and gold1 and to be found in nearly all decoration materials1 it is easy to arrange a refined and beautiful effect in either colour4 ,it will require little reflection to show that a hall skilfully treated with green or blue tints would modify the colour of sunlight1 without giving a sense of discord4 ,it would be like passing only from sunlight to grateful shadow1 and this because in all art the actual representation shadow-colour would be blue or green4 ,the shadow of a tree falling upon snow on a sunny winter day is blue4 ,the shadow of a sunheated rock in summer is green1 and the success of either of these schemes of decoration would be because of adherence to an actual principle of colour1 or a knowledge of the peculiar qualities of certain colours and their proper use4 ,it would be an intelligent application of the medicinal or healing qualities of colour to the constitution of the house1 as skilful physicians use medicines to overcome constitutional defects or difficulties in man4 ,this may be called corrective treatment of a room1 and may1 of course1 include all the decorative devices of ornament1 design and furniture1 and although it is not1 strictly speaking1 decoration1 it should certainly and always precede decoration4 ,it is sad to see an elaborate scheme of ornament based upon bad colour-treatment1 and unfortunately this not infrequently happens4 ,it is difficult to give a formula for the decoration of any room in relation to its colour-treatment1 except by a careful description of certain successful examples1 each one of which illustrates principles that may be of use to the amateur or student of the art4 ,one which occurs to me in this immediate connection is a dining-room in an apartment house1 where this room alone is absolutely without what may be called exterior light4 ,its two windows open upon a well1 the brick wall of which is scarcely ten feet away4 ,fortunately1 it makes a part of the home of a much travelled and exceedingly cultivated pair of beings1 the business of one being to create beauty in the way of pictures and the other of statues1 so perhaps it is less than a wonder that this square1 unattractive well-room should have blossomed under their hands into a dining-room perfect in colour1 style1 and fittings4 ,i shall give only the result1 the process being capable of infinite small variations4 ,at present it is a room sixteen feet square1 one side of which is occupied by two nearly square windows4 ,the wood-work1 including a five-foot wainscot of small square panels1 is painted a glittering varnished white which is warm in tone1 but not creamy4 ,the upper halves of the square windows are of semi-opaque yellow glass1 veined and variable1 but clear enough everywhere to admit a stained yellow light4 ,below these1 thin yellow silk curtains cross each other1 so that the whole window-space radiates yellow light4 ,if we reflect that the colour of sunlight is yellow1 we shall be able to see both the philosophy and the result of this treatment4 ,the wall above the wainscot is covered with a plain unbleached muslin1 stencilled at the top in a repeating design of faint yellow tile-like squares which fade gradually into white at a foot below the ceiling4 ,at intervals along the wall are water-colours of flat ,holland meadows1 or blue canals1 balanced on either side by a blue delft plate1 and in a corner near the window is a veritable blue porcelain stove1 which once faintly warmed some far-off ,german interior4 ,the floor is polished oak1 as are the table and chairs4 ,i purposely leave out all the accessories and devices of brass and silver1 the quaint brass-framed mirrors1 the ivy-encircled windows1 the one or two great ferns1 the choice blue table-furniture3--because these are personal and should neither be imitated or reduced to rules4 ,the lesson is in the use of yellow and white1 accented with touches of blue1 which converts a dark and perfectly cheerless room into a glitter of light and warmth4 ,the third example ,i shall give is of a dining-room which may be called palatial in size and effect1 occupying the whole square wing of a well-known ,new ,york house4 ,there are many things in this house in the way of furniture1 pictures1 historic bits of art in different lines1 which would distinguish it among fine houses1 but one particular room is1 perhaps1 as perfectly successful in richness of detail1 picturesqueness of effect1 and at the same time perfect appropriateness to time1 place1 and circumstances as is possible for any achievement of its kind4 ,the dining-room1 and its art1 taken in detail1 belongs to the ,venetian school1 but if its colour-effect were concentrated upon canvas1 it would be known as a ,rembrandt4 ,there is the same rich shadow1 covering a thousand gradations1--the same concentration of light1 and the same liberal diffusion of warm and rich tones of colour4 ,it is a grand room in space1 as ,new ,york interiors go1 being perhaps forty to fifty feet in breadth and length1 with a height exactly proportioned to the space4 ,it has had the advantage of separate creation--being thought out years after the early period of the house1 and is1 consequently1 a concrete result of study1 travel1 and opportunities1 such as few families are privileged to experience4 ,aside from the perfect proportions of the room1 it is not difficult to analyse the art which makes it so distinguished an example of decoration of space1 and decide wherein lies its especial charm4 ,it is undoubtedly that of colour1 although this is based upon a detail so perfect1 that one hesitates to give it predominant credit4 ,the whole1 or nearly the whole west end of the room is thrown into one vast1 slightly projecting window of clear leaded glass1 the lines of which stand against the light like a weaving of spiders' webs4 ,there is a border of various tints at its edge1 which softens it into the brown shadow of the room1 and the centre of each large sash is marked by a shield-like ornament glowing with colour like a jewel4 ,the long ceiling and high wainscoting melt away from this leaded window in a perspective of wonderfully carved planes of antique oak1 catching the light on lines and points of projection and quenching it in hollows of relief4 ,illustration3 ,,dining-,,room ,,in ,,new ,,york ,,house ,,showing ,,leaded-,,glass ,,windows ,these perpendicular wall panels were scaled from a room in a ,venetian palace1 carved when the art and the fortunes of that sea-city were at their best1 and the alternately repeating squares of the ceiling were fashioned to carry out and supplement the ancient carvings4 ,if this were a small room1 there would be a sense of unrest in so lavish a use of broken surface1 but in one large enough to have it felt as a whole1 and not in detail1 it simply gives a quality of preciousness4 ,the soft browns of the wood spread a mystery of surface1 from the edge of the polished floor until it meets a frieze of painted canvas filled with large reclining figures clad in draperies of red1 and blue1 and yellow--separating the walls from the ceiling by an illumination of colour4 ,this colour-decoration belongs to the past1 and it is a question if any modern painting could have adapted itself so perfectly to the spirit of the room1 although in itself it might be far more beautiful4 ,it is a bit of antique imagination1 its cherub-borne plates of fruit1 and golden flagons1 and brown-green of foliage and turquoise of sky1 and crimson and gold of garments1 all softened to meet the shadows of the room4 ,the door-spaces in the wainscot are hung with draperies of crimson velvet1 the surface frayed and flattened by time into variations of red1 impossible to newer weavings1 while the great floor-space is spread with an enormous rug of the same colour--the gift of a ,sultan4 ,a carved table stands in the centre1 surrounded with high-backed carved chairs1 the seats covered with the same antique velvet which shows in the portires4 ,a fall of thin crimson silk tints the sides of the window-frame1 and on the two ends of the broad step or platform which leads to the window stand two tall pedestals and globe-shaped jars of red and blue-green pottery4 ,the deep1 ruby-like red of the one and the mixed indefinite tint of the other seem to have curdled into the exact shade for each particular spot1 their fitness is so perfect4 ,the very sufficient knowledge which has gone to the making of this superb room has kept the draperies unbroken by design or device1 giving colour only and leaving to the carved walls the privilege of ornament4 ,it will be seen that there are but two noticeable colour-tones in the room--brown with infinite variations1 and red in rugs and draperies4 ,there is no real affinity between these two tints1 but they are here so well balanced in mass1 that the two form a complete harmony1 like the brown waves of a landscape at evening tipped with the fire of a sunset sky4 ,much is to be learned from a room like this1 in the lesson of unity and concentration of effect4 ,the strongest1 and in fact the only1 mass of vital colour is in the carpet1 which is allowed to play upwards1 as it were1 into draperies1 and furniture1 and frieze1 none of which show the same depth and intensity4 ,to the concentration of light in the one great window we must give the credit of the ,rembrandt-like effect of the whole interior4 ,if the walls were less rich1 this single flood of light would be a defect1 because it would be difficult to treat a plain surface with colour alone1 which should be equally good in strong light and deep shadow4 ,illustration3 ,,dining-,,room ,,in ,,new ,,york ,,home ,,showing ,,carved ,,wainscotting ,,and ,,painted ,,frieze ,then1 again1 the amount of living and brilliant colour is exactly proportioned to that of sombre brown1 the red holding its value by strength1 as against the greatly preponderating mass of dark4 ,on the whole this may be called a picture-room1 and yet it is distinctly liveable1 lending itself not only to hospitality and ceremonious function but also to real domesticity4 ,it is true that there is a certain obligation in its style of beauty which calls for fine manners and fine behaviour1 possibly even1 behaviour in kind2 for it is in the nature of all fine and exceptional things to demand a corresponding fineness from those who enjoy them4 ,i will give still another dining-room as an example of colour1 which1 unlike the others1 is not modern1 but a sort of falling in of old gentility and costliness into lines of modern art--one might almost say it happened to be beautiful1 and yet the happening is only an adjustment of fine old conditions to modern ideas4 ,yet ,i have known many as fine a room torn out and refitted1 losing thereby all the inherent dignity of age and superior associations4 ,a beautiful city home of seventy years ago is not very like a beautiful city home of to-day2 perhaps less so in this than in any other country4 ,the character of its fineness is curiously changed2 the modern house is fitted to its inmates1 while the old-fashioned house1 modelled upon the early eighteenth century art of ,england1 obliged the inmates to fit themselves as best they might to a given standard4 ,the dining-room ,i speak of belongs to the period when ,washington ,square1 ,new ,york1 was still surrounded by noble homes1 and almost the limit of luxurious city life was ,union ,square4 ,the house fronts to the north1 consequently the dining-room1 which is at the back1 is flooded with sunshine4 ,the ceiling is higher than it would be in a modern house1 and the windows extend to the floor1 and rise nearly to the ceiling1 far indeed above the flat arches of the doorways with their rococo flourishes4 ,this extension of window-frame1 and the heavy and elaborate plaster cornice so deep as to be almost a frieze1 and the equally elaborate centre-piece1 are the features which must have made it a room difficult to ameliorate4 ,i could fancy it must have been an ugly room in the old days when its walls were probably white1 and the great mahogany doors were spots of colour in prevailing spaces of blankness4 ,now1 however1 any one at all learned in art1 or sensitive to beauty1 would pronounce it a beautiful room4 ,the way in which the ceiling with its heavy centre-piece and plaster cornice is treated is especially interesting4 ,the whole of this is covered with an ochre-coloured bronze1 while the walls and door-casings are painted a dark indigo1 which includes a faint trace of green4 ,over this wall-colour1 and joining the cornice1 is carried a stencil design in two coloured bronzes which seem to repeat the light and shadow of the cornice mouldings1 and this apparently extends the cornice into a frieze which ends faintly at a picture-moulding some three feet below4 ,this treatment not only lowers the ceiling1 which is in construction too high for the area of the room1 but blends it with the wall in a way which imparts a certain richness of effect to all the lower space4 ,the upper part of the windows1 to the level of the picture-moulding1 is covered with green silk1 overlaid with an appliqu of the same in a design somewhat like the frieze1 so that it seems to carry the frieze across the space of light in a green tracery of shadow4 ,the same green extends from curtain-rods at the height of the picture-moulding into long under-curtains of silk1 while the over-curtains are of indigo coloured silk-canvas which matches the walls4 ,the portires separating the dining-room from the drawing-room are of a wonderfully rich green brocade--the colour of which answers to the green of the silk under-curtains across the room1 while the design ranges itself indisputably with the period of the plaster work4 ,the blue and green of the curtains and portire each seem to claim their own in the mixed and softened background of the wall4 ,the colour of the room would hardly be complete without the three beautiful portraits which hang upon the walls1 and suggest their part of the life and conversation of to-day so that it stands on a proper plane with the dignity of three generations4 ,the beautiful mahogany doors and elaboration of cornice and central ornament belong to them1 but the harmony and beauty of colour are of our own time and tell of the general knowledge and feeling for art which belongs to it4 ,i have given the colour-treatment only of this room1 leaving out the effect of carved teak-wood furniture and subtleties of china and glass--not alone as an instance of colour in a sunny exposure1 but as an example of fitting new styles to old1 of keeping what is valuable and beautiful in itself and making it a part of the comparatively new art of decoration4 ,illustration3 ,,screen ,,by ,,dora ,,wheeler ,,keith ,,screen ,,and ,,glass ,,window ,,in ,,house ,,at ,,lakewood 7,belonging to ,clarence ,roof1 ,esq47 ,there is a dining-room in one of the many delightful houses in ,lakewood1 ,n4,j41 which owes its unique charm to a combination of position1 light1 colour1 and perhaps more than all1 to the clever decoration of its upper walls1 which is a fine and broad composition of swans and many-coloured clusters of grapes and vine-foliage placed above the softly tinted copper-coloured wall4 ,the same design is carried in silvery and gold-coloured leaded-glass across the top of the wide west window1 as shown in illustration opposite page #bbb1 and reappears with a shield-shaped arrangement of wings in a beautiful four-leaved screen4 ,the notable and enjoyable colour of the room is seen from the very entrance of the house1 the broad main hall making a carpeted highway to the wide opening of the room1 where a sheaf of tinted sunset light seems to spread itself like a many-doubled fan against the shadows of the hall4 ,all the ranges and intervals1 the lights1 reflections1 and darks possible to that most beautiful of metals--copper--seem to be gathered into the frieze and screen1 and melt softly into the greens of the foliage1 or tint the plumage of the swans4 ,it is an instance of the kind of decoration which is both classic and domestic1 and being warmed and vivified by beautiful colour1 appeals both to the senses and the imagination4 ,it would be easy to multiply instances of beautiful rooms1 and each one might be helpful for mere imitation1 but those ,i have given have each one illustrated--more or less distinctly--the principle of colour as affecting or being affected by light4 ,i have not thought it necessary to give examples of rooms with eastern or western exposures1 because in such rooms one is free to consult one's own personal preferences as to colour1 being limited only by the general rules which govern all colour decoration4 ,i have not spoken of pictures or paintings as accessories of interior decoration1 because while their influence upon the character and degree of beauty in the house is greater than all other things put together1 their selection and use are so purely personal as not to call for remark or advice4 ,any one who loves pictures well enough to buy them1 can hardly help placing them where they not only are at their best1 but where they will also have the greatest influence4 ,a house where pictures predominate will need little else that comes under the head of decoration4 ,it is a pity that few houses have this advantage1 but fortunately it is quite possible to give a picture quality to every interior4 ,this can often be done by following the lead of some accidental effect which is in itself picturesque4 ,the placing a jar of pottery or metal near or against a piece of drapery which repeats its colour and heightens the lustre of its substance is a small detail1 but one which gives pleasure out of all proportion to its importance4 ,the half accidental draping of a curtain1 the bringing together of shapes and colours in insignificant things1 may give a character which is lastingly pleasing both to inmates and casual visitors4 ,of course this is largely a matter of personal gift4 ,one person may make a picturesque use of colour and material1 which in the hands of another will be perhaps without fault1 but equally without charm4 ,instances of this kind come constantly within our notice1 although we are not always able to give the exact reasons for success or failure4 ,we only know that we feel the charm of one instance and are indifferent to1 or totally unimpressed by1 the other4 ,it is by no means an unimportant thing to create a beautiful and picturesque interior4 ,there is no influence so potent upon life as harmonious surroundings1 and to create and possess a home which is harmonious in a simple and inexpensive way is the privilege of all but the wretchedly poor4 ,in proportion also as these surroundings become more perfect in their art and meaning1 there is a corresponding elevation in the dweller among them--since the best decoration must include many spiritual lessons4 ,it may indeed be used to further vulgar ambitions1 or pamper bodily weaknesses1 but truth and beauty are its essentials1 and these will have their utterance4