Furnishing the Home of Good Taste: A Brief Sketch of the Period Styles in Interior Decoration with Suggestions as to Their Employment in the Homes of TodayThroop, Lucy Abbot
History
Furnishing the Home of Good Taste: A Brief Sketch of the Period Styles in Interior Decoration with Suggestions as to Their Employment in the Homes of Today
Throop, Lucy Abbot
Interior decoration
A house should be looked at as a whole, not as so many units to be
treated in a care-free manner. A room is affected by all the rooms
opening from it, as they, in turn, are affected by it. There can be
variety of color with harmony of contrast, or there can be the same
color used throughout, with the variety gained by the use of its
different tones. The plan of each floor should be carefully studied to
get the vistas in all directions so that harmony may reign and there
will be no danger of a clashing color discord when a door is opened. The
connecting rooms need not be all in one color, of course, but they
should form a perfect color harmony one with another, with deft touches
of contrast to accent and bring out the beauty of the whole scheme: This
matter of harmony in contrast is an important one. The idea of using a
predominant color is a restful one, and adds dignity and apparent size
to a house. The walls, for instance, could be paneled in white enameled
wood, or plaster, and the necessary color and variety could be supplied
by the rugs, hangings, furniture, and pictures.
Another charming plan is to have different tones of one color used--a
scheme running from cream or old ivory through soft yellow and tan to a
russet brown would be lovely, especially if the house did not have an
over supply of light. Greens may be used with discretion, and a cool and
attractive scheme is from white to soft blue through gray. If different
colors are to be used in the different rooms the number of combinations
is almost unlimited, but there must always be the restraining influence
of a good color sense in forming the scheme or the result will be
disappointing, to say the least.
A very important matter in the use of color is in its relation to the
amount and quality of the light. Dreary rooms can be made cheerful, and
too bright and dazzling rooms can be softened in effect, by the skillful
use of color. The warm colors,--cream white, yellows--but not lemon
yellow--orange, warm tans, russet, pinks, yellow greens, yellowish reds
are to be used on the north or shady side of the house. The cool
colors,--white, cream white, blues, grays, greens, and violet, are for
the sunny side. Endless combinations may be made of these colors, and if
a gray room, for example, is wished on the north side of the house, it
can be used by first choosing a warm tone of gray and combining with it
one of the warm colors, such as certain shades of soft pink or yellow.
We can stand more brilliancy of color out-of-doors than we can in the
house, where it is shut in with us. It is too exciting and we become
restless and nervous. No matter on what scale a house is furnished one
of its aims should be to be restful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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