[Frontispiece: Dining-room in "Pennyroyal" (in Mrs. Boudinot Keith'sCottage, Onteora)]

Principles of Home Decoration

With Practical Examples

By

Candace Wheeler

New York

Doubleday, Page & Company

1903

Published February 1903

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. Decoration as an Art. Decoration in American Homes. Woman's Influence in Decoration. 

CHAPTER II. Character in Homes. 

CHAPTER III. Builders' Houses. Expedients. 

CHAPTER IV. Colour in Houses. Colour as a Science. Colour as an Influence. 

CHAPTER V. The Law of Appropriateness. Cleanliness and Harmony Tastefully Combined. Bedroom Furnished in Accordance with Individual Tastes. 

CHAPTER VI. Kitchens. Treatment of Walls from a Hygienic Point of View. 

CHAPTER VII. Colour with Reference to Light. Examples of the Effects of Light on Colour. Gradation of Colour. 

CHAPTER VIII. Walls, Ceilings and Floors. Treatment and Decoration of Walls. Use of Tapestry. Leather and Wall-Papers. Panels of Wood, Painted Walls. Textiles. 

CHAPTER IX. Location of the House. Decoration Influenced by Situation. 

CHAPTER X. Ceilings. Decorations in Harmony with Walls. Treatment in Accordance with Size of Room. 

CHAPTER XI. Floors and Floor Coverings. Treatment of Floors--Polished Wood, Mosaics. Judicious Selection of Rugs and Carpets. 

CHAPTER XII. Draperies. Importance of Appropriate Colours. Importance of Appropriate Textures. 

CHAPTER XIII Furniture. Character in Rooms. Harmony in Furniture. Comparison Between Antique and Modern Furniture. Treatment of the Different Rooms. 

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Dining-room in "Penny-royal" (Mrs. Boudinot Keith's cottage, Onteora)

Hall in city house, showing effect of staircase divided and turned torear

Stenciled borders for hall and bathroom decorations

Sitting-room in "Wild Wood, " Onteora (belonging to Miss Luisita Leland)

Large sitting-room in "Star Rock" (country house of W. E. Connor, Esq. , Onteora)

Painted canvas frieze and buckram frieze for dining-room

Square hall in city house

Colonial chairs and sofa (belonging to Mrs. Ruth McEnery Stuart)

Colonial mantel and English hob-grate (sitting-room in Mrs. CandaceWheeler's house)

Sofa designed by Mrs. Candace Wheeler, for N. Y. Library in "Woman'sBuilding, " Columbia Exposition

Rustic sofa and tables in "Penny-royal" (Mrs. Boudinot Keith's cottage, Onteora)

Dining-room in "Star Rock" (country house of W. E. Connor, Esq. , Onteora)

Dining-room in New York house showing leaded-glass windows

Dining-room in New York home showing carved wainscoting and paintedfrieze

Screen and glass windows in house at Lakewood (belonging to ClarenceRoot, Esq. )

Principles of Home Decoration

CHAPTER I

DECORATION AS AN ART

"_Who creates a Home, creates a potent spirit which in turn doth fashionhim that fashioned. _"

Probably no art has so few masters as that of decoration. In England, Morris was for many years the great leader, but among his followers inEngland no one has attained the dignity of unquestioned authority; andin America, in spite of far more general practice of the art, we stillare without a leader whose very name establishes law. 

It is true we are free to draw inspiration from the same sources whichsupplied Morris and the men associated with him in his enthusiasms, andin fact we do lean, as they did, upon English eighteenth-centurydomestic art--and derive from the men who made that period famous manyof our articles of faith; but there are almost no authoritative booksupon the subject of appropriate modern decoration. Our text books arestill to be written; and one must glean knowledge from many sources, shape it into rules, and test the rules, before adopting them as safeguides. 

Yet in spite of the absence of authoritative teaching, we have learnedthat an art dependent upon other arts, as decoration is upon buildingand architecture, is bound to follow the principles which govern them. We must base our work upon what has already been done, select ourdecorative forms from appropriate periods, conform our use of colour tothe principles of colour, and be able to choose and apply allmanufactures in accordance with the great law of appropriateness. If wedo this, we stand upon something capable of evolution and the creationof a system. 

In so far as the principles of decoration are derived from other arts, they can be acquired by every one, but an exquisite feeling in theirapplication is the distinguishing quality of the true decorator. 

There is quite a general impression that house-decoration is not an artwhich requires a long course of study and training, but some kind ofnatural knack of arrangement--a faculty of making things "look pretty, "and that any one who has this faculty is amply qualified for "taking uphouse-decoration. " Indeed, natural facility succeeds in satisfying manypersonal cravings for beauty, although it is not competent for generalpractice. 

Of course there are people, and many of them, who are gifted with aninherent sense of balance and arrangement, and a true eye for colour, and--given the same materials--such people will make a room pleasant andcozy, where one without these gifts would make it positively ugly. In sofar, then, individual gifts are a great advantage, yet one possessingthem in even an unusual degree may make great mistakes in decoration. What _not_ to do, in this day of almost universal experiment, is perhapsthe most valuable lesson to the untrained decorator. Many of the rocksupon which he splits are down in no chart, and lie in the track of whatseems to him perfectly plain sailing. 

There are houses of fine and noble exterior which are vulgarized byuneducated experiments in colour and ornament, and belittled by beingfilled with heterogeneous collections of unimportant art. Yet these veryinstances serve to emphasize the demand for beautiful surroundings, andin spite of mistakes and incongruities, must be reckoned as effortstoward a desirable end. 

In spite of a prevalent want of training, it is astonishing how much wehave of good interior decoration, not only in houses of greatimportance, but in those of people of average fortunes--indeed, it is inthe latter that we get the general value of the art. 

This comparative excellence is to be referred to the very generalacquirement of what we call "art cultivation" among American women, andthis, in conjunction with a knowledge that her social world will be aptto judge of her capacity by her success or want of success in making herown surroundings beautiful, determines the efforts of the individualwoman. She feels that she is expected to prove her superiority by livingin a home distinguished for beauty as well as for the usual orderlinessand refinement. Of course this sense of obligation is a powerful spur tothe exercise of natural gifts, and if in addition to these she has thehabit of reasoning upon the principles of things, and is sufficientlycultivated in the literature of art to avoid unwarrantable experiment, there is no reason why she should not be successful in her ownsurroundings. 

The typical American, whether man, or woman, has great natural facility, and when the fact is once recognized that beauty--like education--candignify any circumstances, from the narrowest to the most opulent, itbecomes one of the objects of life to secure it. _How_ this is donedepends upon the talent and cultivation of the family, and this is oftenadequate for excellent results. 

It is quite possible that so much general ability may discourage thestudy of decoration as a precise form of art, since it encourages theidea that The House Beautiful can be secured by any one who has money topay for processes, and possesses what is simply designated as "goodtaste. "

We do not find this impulse toward the creation of beautiful interiorsas noticeable in other countries as in America. The instinct ofself-expression is much stronger in us than in other races, and for thatreason we cannot be contented with the utterances of any generation, race or country save our own. We gather to ourselves what we personallyenjoy or wish to enjoy, and will not take our domestic environment atsecond hand. It follows that there is a certain difference andoriginality in our methods, which bids fair to acquire distinctcharacter, and may in the future distinguish this art-loving period as amaker of style. 

A successful foreign painter who has visited this country at intervalsduring the last ten years said, "There is no such uniformity ofbeautiful interiors anywhere else in the world. There are palaces inFrance and Italy, and great country houses in England, to theembellishment of which generations of owners have devoted the best artof their own time; but in America there is something of it everywhere. Many unpretentious houses have drawing-rooms possessingcolour-decoration which would distinguish them as examples in England orFrance. "

To Americans this does not seem a remarkable fact. We have come into aperiod which desires beauty, and each one secures it as best he can. Weare a teachable and a studious people, with a faculty of turning"general information" to account; and general information upon artmatters has had much to do with our good interiors. 

We have, perhaps half unconsciously, applied fundamental principles toour decoration, and this may be as much owing to natural good sense asto cultivation. We have a habit of reasoning about things, and actingupon our conclusions, instead of allowing the rest of the world to dothe reasoning while we adopt the result. It is owing to this conjunctionof love for and cultivation of art, and the habit of materializing whatwe wish, that we have so many thoroughly successful interiors, whichhave been accomplished almost without aid from professional artists. Itis these, instead of the smaller number of costly interiors, which givethe reputation of artistic merit to our homes. 

Undoubtedly the largest proportion of successful as well asunsuccessful domestic art in our country is due to the efforts of women. In the great race for wealth which characterizes our time, it isdemanded that women shall make it effective by so using it as todistinguish the family; and nothing distinguishes it so much as thesuperiority of the home. This effort adheres to small as well as largefortunes, and in fact the necessity is more pronounced in the case ofmediocre than of great ones. In the former there is something to be madeup--some protest of worth and ability and intelligence that helps many ahome to become beautiful. 

As I have said, a woman feels that the test of her capacity is that herhouse shall not only be comfortable and attractive, but that it shall bearranged according to the laws of harmony and beauty. It is as much thedemand of the hour as that she shall be able to train her childrenaccording to the latest and most enlightened theories, or that sheshall take part in public and philanthropic movements, or understand andhave an opinion on political methods. These are things which areexpected of every woman who makes a part of society; and no less is itexpected that her house shall be an appropriate and beautiful settingfor her personality, a credit to her husband, and an unconsciouseducation for her children. 

But it happens that means of education in all of these directions, except that of decoration, are easily available. A woman can become amember of a kindergarten association, and get from books and study theresult of scientific knowledge of child-life and training. She can findmeans to study the ethics of her relations to her kind and become aneffective philanthropist, or join the league for political education andacquire a more or less enlightened understanding of politics; but who isto formulate for her the science of beauty, to teach her how to make theinterior aspect of her home perfect in its adaptation to hercircumstances, and as harmonious in colour and arrangement as a songwithout words? She feels that these conditions create a mentalatmosphere serene and yet inspiring, and that such surroundings are asmuch her birthright and that of her children as food and clothing of agrade belonging to their circumstances, but how is it to be compassed?

Most women ask themselves this question, and fail to understand that itis as much of a marvel when a woman without training or experiencecreates a good interior _as a whole_, as if an amateur in music shouldcompose an opera. It is not at all impossible for a woman of goodtaste--and it must be remembered that this word means an educated orcultivated power of selection--to secure harmonious or happilycontrasted colour in a room, and to select beautiful things in the wayof furniture and belongings; but what is to save her from the thousandand one mistakes possible to inexperience in this combination of thingswhich make lasting enjoyment and appropriate perfection in a house? Howcan she know which rooms will be benefited by sombre or sunny tints, andwhich exposure will give full sway to her favourite colour or colours?How can she have learned the reliability or want of reliability incertain materials or processes used in decoration, or the rules oftreatment which will modify a low and dark room and make it seem lightand airy, or "bring down" too high a ceiling and widen narrow walls soas to apparently correct disproportion? These things are the results oflaws which she has never studied--laws of compensation and relation, which belong exclusively to the world of colour, and unfortunately theyare not so well formulated that they can be committed to memory likerules of grammar; yet all good colour-practice rests upon them asunquestionably as language rests upon grammatical construction. 

Of course one may use colour as one can speak a language, purely byimitation and memory, but it is not absolutely reliable practice; andjust here comes in the necessity for professional advice. 

There are many difficulties in the accomplishment of a perfecthouse-interior which few householders have had the time or experience tocope with, and yet the fact remains that each mistress of a housebelieves that unless she vanquishes all difficulties and comes outtriumphantly with colours flying at the housetop and enjoyment andadmiration following her efforts, she has failed in something which sheshould have been perfectly able to accomplish. But the obligation iscertainly a forced one. It is the result of the modern awakening to theeffect of many heretofore unrecognized influences in our lives and thelives and characters of our children. A beautiful home is undoubtedly agreat means of education, and of that best of all education which isunconscious. To grow up in such a one means a much more complete andperfect man or woman than would be possible without that particularinfluence. 

But a perfect home is never created all at once and by one person, andlet the anxious house-mistress take comfort in the thought. She shouldalso remember that it is in the nature of beauty to _grow_, and that awell-rounded and beautiful family life adds its quota day by day. Everybook, every sketch or picture--every carefully selected orcharacteristic object brought into the home adds to and makes a part ofa beautiful whole, and no house can be absolutely perfect without allthese evidences of family life. 

It can be made ready for them, completely and perfectly ready, byprofessional skill and knowledge; but if it remained just where theinterior artist or decorator left it, it would have no more of thesentiment of domesticity than a statue. 

CHAPTER II

CHARACTER IN HOUSES

"_For the created still doth shadow forth the mind and will which madeit. _

"_Thou art the very mould of thy creator_. "

It needs the combined personality of the family to make the character ofthe house. No one could say of a house which has family character, "Itis one of ----'s houses" (naming one or another successful decorator), because the decorator would have done only what it was his business todo--used technical and artistic knowledge in preparing a proper andcorrect background for family life. Even in doing that, he must consultfamily tastes and idiosyncracies if he has the reverence forindividuality which belongs to the true artist. 

A domestic interior is a thing to which he should give knowledge and notpersonality, and the puzzled home-maker, who understands that her worldexpects correct use of means of beauty, as well as character andoriginality in her home, need not feel that to secure the one she mustsacrifice the other. 

An inexperienced person might think it an easy thing to make a beautifulhome, because the world is full of beautiful art and manufactures, andif there is money to pay for them it would seem as easy to furnish ahouse with everything beautiful as to go out in the garden and gatherbeautiful flowers; but we must remember that the world is also full ofugly things--things false in art, in truth and in beauty--things made to_sell_--made with only this idea behind them, manufactured on theprinciple that an artificial fly is made to look something like a trueone in order to catch the inexpert and the unwary. It is a curious factthat these false things--manufactures without honesty, withoutknowledge, without art--have a property of demoralizing the spirit ofthe home, and that to make it truly beautiful everything in it must begenuine as well as appropriate, and must also fit into some previouslyconsidered scheme of use and beauty. 

The esthetic or beautiful aspect of the home, in short, must be createdthrough the mind of the family or owner, and is only maintained by itsor his susceptibility to true beauty and appreciation of it. It must, infact, be a visible mould of invisible matter, like the leaf-mould onefinds in mineral springs, which show the wonderful veining, branching, construction and delicacy of outline in a way which one could hardly beconscious of in the actual leaf. 

If the grade or dignity of the home requires professional and scholarlyart direction, the problem is how to use this professional or artisticadvice without delivering over the entire creation into stranger oralien hands; without abdicating the right and privilege of personalexpression. If the decorator appreciates this right, his function willbe somewhat akin to that of the portrait painter; both are bound torepresent the individual or family in their performances, each artistusing the truest and best methods of art with the added gift of grace orcharm of colour which he possesses, the one giving the physical aspectof his client and the other the mental characteristics, circumstances, position and life of the house-owner and his family. This is the truemission of the decorator, although it is not always so understood. Whatis called business talent may lead him to invent schemes of costlinesswhich relate far more to his own profit than to the wishes or characterof the house-owner. 

But it is not always that the assistance of the specialist in decorationand furnishing is necessary. There are many homes where both are quitewithin the scope of the ordinary man or woman of taste. In fact, thegreat majority of homes come within these lines, and it is to suchhome-builders that rules, not involving styles, are especially of use. 

The principles of truth and harmony, which underlie all beauty, may besecured in the most inexpensive cottage as well as in the broadest andmost imposing residence. Indeed, the cottage has the advantage of thatmost potent ally of beauty--simplicity--a quality which is apt to beconspicuously absent from the schemes of decoration for the palace. 

CHAPTER III

BUILDERS' HOUSES

"_Mine own hired house_. "

A large proportion of homes are made in houses which are not owned, butleased, and this prevents each man or family from indicating personaltaste in external aspect. A rich man and house-owner may approximate toa true expression of himself even in the outside of his house if hestrongly desires it, but a man of moderate means must adapt himself andhis family to the house-builder's idea of houses--that is to say, to theidea of the man who has made house-building a trade, and whoseexperiences have created a form into which houses of moderate cost andfairly universal application may be cast. 

Although it is as natural to a man to build or acquire a home as to abird to build a nest, he has not the same unfettered freedom inconstruction. He cannot always adapt his house either to the physical ormental size of his family, but must accept what is possible with muchthe same feeling with which a family of robins might accommodatethemselves to a wren's nest, or an oriole to that of a barn-swallow. Butthe fact remains, that all these accidental homes must, in some way, bebrought into harmony with the lives to be lived in them, and the habitsand wants of the family; and not only this, they must be made attractiveaccording to the requirements of cultivated society. The effort towardthis is instructive, and the pleasure in and enjoyment of the homedepends upon the success of the effort. The inmates, as a rule, arequite clear as to what they want to accomplish, but have seldom hadsufficient experience to enable them to remedy defects of construction. 

There are expedients by which many of the malformations and uglinessesof the ordinary "builder's house" may be greatly ameliorated, varioussmall surgical operations which will remedy badly planned rooms, anddispositions of furniture which will restore proportion. We can even, byjudicious distribution of planes of colour, apparently lower or raise aceiling, and widen or lengthen a room, and these expedients, whichbelong partly to the experience of the decorator, are based upon lawswhich can easily be formulated. Every one can learn something of them bythe study of faulty rooms and the enjoyment of satisfactory ones. Indeed, I know no surer or more agreeable way of getting wisdom in theart of decoration than by tracing back sensation to its source, andfinding out why certain things are utterly satisfactory, and certainothers a positive source of discomfort. 

In what are called the "best houses" we can make our deductions quiteas well as in the most faulty, and sometimes get a lesson of avoidanceand a warning against law-breaking which will be quite as useful as ifit were learned in less than the best. 

There is one fault very common in houses which date from a period ofsome forty or fifty years back, a fault of disproportionate height ofceilings. In a modern house, if one room is large enough to require alofty ceiling, the architect will manage to make his second floor upondifferent levels, so as not to inflict the necessary height of largerooms upon narrow halls and small rooms, which should have only a heightproportioned to their size. A ten-foot room with a thirteen-foot ceilingmakes the narrowness of the room doubly apparent; one feels shut upbetween two walls which threaten to come together and squeeze onebetween them, while, on the other hand, a ten-foot room with anine-foot ceiling may have a really comfortable and cozy effect. 

In this case, what is needed is to get rid of the superfluous four feet, and this can be done by cheating the eye into an utter forgetfulness ofthem. There must be horizontal divisions of colour which attract theattention and make one oblivious of what is above them. 

Every one knows the effect of a paper with perpendicular stripes inapparently heightening a ceiling which is too low, but not every one isequally aware of the contrary effect of horizontal lines of variedsurface. But in the use of perpendicular lines it is well to rememberthat, if the room is small, it will appear still smaller if the wall isdivided into narrow spaces by vertical lines. If it is large and theceiling simply low for the size of the room, a good deal can be done bylong, simple lines of drapery in curtains and portieres, or in choosinga paper where the composition of design is perpendicular rather thandiagonal. 

To apparently lower a high ceiling in a small room, the wall should betreated horizontally in different materials. Three feet of the base canbe covered with coarse canvas or buckram and finished with a small woodmoulding. Six feet of plain wall above this, painted the same shade asthe canvas, makes the space of which the eye is most aware. This spaceshould be finished with a picture moulding, and the four superfluousfeet of wall above it must be treated as a part of the ceiling. Thecream-white of the actual ceiling should be brought down on the sidewalls for a space of two feet, and this has the effect of apparentlyenlarging the room, since the added mass of light tint seems to broadenit. There still remain two feet of space between the picture mouldingand ceiling-line which may be treated as a _ceiling-border_ ininconspicuous design upon the same cream ground, the design to be indarker, but of the same tint as the ceiling. 

The floor in such a room as this should either be entirely covered withplain carpeting, or, if it has rugs at all, there should be several, asone single rug, not entirely covering the floor, would have the effectof confining the apparent size of the room to the actual size of therug. 

If the doors and windows in such a room are high and narrow, they can bemade to come into the scheme by placing the curtain and portiere rodsbelow the actual height and covering the upper space with thin material, either full or plain, of the same colour as the upper wall. A brocadedmuslin, stained or dyed to match the wall, answers this purposeadmirably, and is really better in its place than the usual expedient ofstained glass or open-work wood transom. A good expedient is to have thedesign already carried around the wall painted in the same colour upon apiece of stretched muslin. This is simple but effective treatment, andis an instance of the kind of thought or knowledge that must be used inremedying faults of construction. 

Colour has much to do with the apparent size of rooms, a room in lighttints always appearing to be larger than a deeply coloured one. 

Perhaps the most difficult problem in adaptation is the high, narrowcity house, built and decorated by the block by the builder, who is alsoa speculator in real estate, and whose activity was chiefly exercisedbefore the ingenious devices of the modern architect were known. Thesehouses exist in quantities in our larger and older cities, and mereslices of space as they are, are the theatres where the home-life ofmany refined and beauty-loving intelligences must be played. 

In such houses as these, the task of fitting them to the cultivated eyesand somewhat critical tests of modern society generally falls to thewomen who represent the family, and calls for an amount of ability whichwould serve to build any number of creditable houses; yet this isconstantly being done and well done for not one, but many families. Iknow one such, which is quite a model of a charming city home and yetwas evolved from one of the worst of its kind and period. In this casethe family had fallen heir to the house and were therefore justified inthe one radical change which metamorphosed the entrance-hall, from along, narrow passage, with an apparently interminable stairway occupyinghalf its width, to a small reception-hall seemingly enlarged by ajudicious placing of the mirrors which had formerly been a part of the"fixtures" of the parlour and dining-room. 

[Illustration: HALL IN CITY HOUSE SHOWING EFFECT OF STAIRCASE DIVIDEDAND TURNED TO REAR]

The reception-room was accomplished by cutting off the lower half of thestaircase, which had extended itself to within three feet of the frontdoor, and turning it directly around, so that it ends at the backinstead of the front of the hall. The two cut ends are connected by aplatform, thrown across from wall to wall, and furnished with a lowrailing of carved panels, and turned spindles, which gives a charmingbalcony effect. The passage to the back hall and stairs passes under thebalcony and upper end of the staircase, while the space under the lowerstair-end, screened by a portière, adds a coat-closet to theconveniences of the reception-hall. 

This change was not a difficult thing to accomplish, it was simply an_expedient_, but it has the value of carefully planned construction, and reminds one of the clever utterance of the immortal painter whosaid, "I never lose an accident. "

Indeed the ingenious home-maker often finds that the worse a thing is, the better it can be made by competent and careful study. To completeand adapt incompetent things to orderliness and beauty, to harmoniseincongruous things into a perfect whole requires and exercises abilityof a high order, and the consciousness of its possession is no smallsatisfaction. That it is constantly being done shows how much realcleverness is necessary to ordinary life--and reminds one of thepatriotic New York state senator who declared that it required moreability to cross Broadway safely at high tide, than to be a greatstatesman. And truly, to make a good house out of a poor one, or abeautiful interior from an ugly one, requires far more thought, and farmore original talent, than to decorate an important new one. The onefollows a travelled path--the other makes it. 

Of course competent knowledge saves one from many difficulties; andfaults of construction must be met by knowledge, yet this is oftengreatly aided by natural cleverness, and in the course of long practicein the decorative arts, I have seen such refreshing and charming resultsfrom thoughtful untrained intelligence, --I might almost sayinspiration, --that I have great respect for its manifestations;especially when exercised in un-authoritative fashion. 

CHAPTER IV

COLOUR IN HOUSES

 _"Heaven gives us of its colour, for our joy, Hues which have words and speak to ye of heaven. "_

Although the very existence of a house is a matter of construction, itsgeneral interior effect is almost entirely the result of colourtreatment and careful and cultivated selection of accessories. 

Colour in the house includes much that means furniture, in the way ofcarpets, draperies, and all the modern conveniences of civilization, butas it precedes and dictates the variety of all these things from theauthoritative standpoint of wall treatment, it is well to study its lawsand try to reap the full benefit of its influence. 

As far as effect is concerned, the colour of a room creates itsatmosphere. It may be cheerful or sad, cosy or repellent according toits quality or force. Without colour it is only a bare canvas, whichmight, but does not picture our lives. 

We understand many of the properties of colour, and have unconsciouslylearned some of its laws;--but what may be called the _science_ ofcolour has never been formulated. So far as we understand it, itsprinciples correspond curiously to those of melodious sound. It is asimpossible to produce the best effect from one tone or colour, as tomake a melody upon one note of the harmonic scale; it is skilful_variation_ of tone, the gradation or even judicious opposition of tintwhich gives exquisite satisfaction to the eye. In music, sequenceproduces this effect upon the ear, and in colour, juxtaposition andgradation upon the eye. Notes follow notes in melody as shade followsshade in colour. We find no need of even different names for thequalities peculiar to the two; scale--notes--tones--harmonies--the wordsexpress effects common to colour as well as to music, but colour hasthis advantage, that its harmonies can be _fixed_, they do not die withthe passing moment; once expressed they remain as a constant andever-present delight. 

Notes of the sound-octave have been gathered by the musicians fromwidely different substances, and carefully linked in order and sequenceto make a harmonious scale which may be learned; but the painter, conscious of colour-harmonies, has as yet no written law by which he canproduce them. 

The "born colourist" is one who without special training, or perhaps inspite of it, can unerringly combine or oppose tints into compositionswhich charm the eye and satisfy the sense. Even among painters it is byno means a common gift. It is almost more rare to find a picturedistinguished for its harmony and beauty of colour, than to see a roomin which nothing jars and everything works together for beauty. It seemsstrange that this should be a rarer personal gift than the musicalsense, since nature apparently is far more lavish of her lessons for theeye than for the ear; and it is curious that colour, which at firstsight seems a more apparent and simple fact than music, has not yet beenwritten. Undoubtedly there is a colour scale, which has its sharps andflats, its high notes and low notes, its chords and discords, and it isnot impossible that in the future science may make it a means ofregulated and written harmonies:--that some master colourist who hasmechanical and inventive genius as well, may so arrange them that theycan be played by rule; that colour may have its Mozart orBeethoven--its classic melodies, its familiar tunes. The musician, as Ihave said--has gathered his tones from every audible thing innature--and fitted and assorted and built them into a science; and whyshould not some painter who is also a scientist take the many variationsof colour which lie open to his sight, and range and fit and combine, and write the formula, so that a child may read it?

We already know enough to be very sure that the art is founded uponlaws, although they are not thoroughly understood. Principles of masses, spaces, and gradations underlie all accidental harmonies ofcolour;--just as in music, the simple, strong, under-chords of the bassmust be the ground for all the changes and trippings of the uppermelodies. 

It is easy, if one studies the subject, to see how the very likeness ofthese two esthetic forces illustrate the laws of each, --in theprinciples of relation, gradation, and scale. 

Until very recently the relation of colour to the beauty of a houseinterior was quite unrecognised. If it existed in any degree ofperfection it was an accident, a result of the softening and beautifyingeffect of time, or of harmonious human living. Where it existed, it wasfelt as a mysterious charm belonging to the home; something whichpervaded it, but had no separate being; an attractive ghost whichattached itself to certain houses, followed certain people, came bychance, and was a mystery which no one understood, but every oneacknowledged. Now we know that this something which distinguishedparticular rooms, and made beautiful particular houses, was a definiteresult of laws of colour accidentally applied. 

To avail ourselves of this influence upon the moods and experiences oflife is to use a power positive in its effects as any spiritual orintellectual influence. It gives the kind of joy we find in nature, inthe golden-green of light under tree-branches, or the mingled green andgray of tree and rock shadows, or the pearl and rose of sunrise andsunset. We call the deep content which results from such surroundingsthe influence of nature, and forget to name the less spiritual, the morehuman condition of well-being which comes to us in our homes from beingsurrounded with something which in a degree atones for lack of nature'sbeauty. 

It is a different well-being, and lacks the full tide of electricenjoyment which comes from living for the hour under the sky and in thebreadths of space, but it atones by substituting something of our owninvention, which surprises us by its compensations, and confounds us byits power. 

CHAPTER V

THE LAW OF APPROPRIATENESS

I have laid much stress upon the value of colour in interior decoration, but to complete the beauty of the home something more than happy choiceof tints is required. It needs careful and educated selection offurniture and fittings, and money enough to indulge in the purchase ofan intrinsically good thing instead of a medium one. It means evensomething more than the love of beauty and cultivation of it, and thatis a perfect adherence to the _law of appropriateness_. 

This is, after all, the most important quality of every kind ofdecoration, the one binding and general condition of its accomplishment. It requires such a careful fitting together of all the means of beautyas to leave no part of the house, whatever may be its use, without thesame care for appropriate completeness which goes to the more apparentfeatures. The cellar, the kitchen, the closets, the servants' bedroomsmust all share in the thought which makes the genuinely beautiful homeand the genuinely perfect life. It must be possible to go from the topto the bottom of the house, finding everywhere agreeable, suitable, andthoughtful furnishings. The beautiful house must consider the family asa whole, and not make a museum of rare and costly things in thedrawing-room, the library, the dining-room and family bedrooms, leavingthat important part of the whole machinery, the service, untouched bythe spirit of beauty. The same care in choice of colour will be as wellbestowed on the servants' floor as on those devoted to the family, andcurtains, carpets and furniture may possess as much beauty and yet beperfectly appropriate to servants' use. 

On this upper floor, it goes almost without saying, that the walls mustbe painted in oil-colour instead of covered with paper. That the floorsshould be uncarpeted except for bedside rugs which are easily removable. That bedsteads should be of iron, the mattress with changeable covers, the furniture of painted and enameled instead of polished wood, and inshort the conditions of healthful cleanliness as carefully provided asif the rooms were in a hospital instead of a private house--but theadded comfort of carefully chosen wall colour, and bright, harmonizing, washable chintz in curtains and bed-covers. 

These things have an influence upon the spirit of the home; they are apart of its spiritual beauty, giving a satisfied and approvingconsciousness to the home-makers, and a sense of happiness in theservice of the family. 

In the average, or small house, there is room for much improvement inthe treatment and furnishing of servants' bedrooms; and this is notalways from indifference, but because they are out of daily sight, andalso from a belief that it would add seriously to the burden ofhousekeeping to see that they are kept up to the standard of familysleeping-rooms. 

In point of fact, however, good surroundings are potent civilizers, anda house-servant whose room is well and carefully furnished feels anadded value in herself, which makes her treat herself respectfully inthe care of her room. 

If it pleases her, the training she receives in the care of family roomswill be reflected in her own, and painstaking arrangements made for herpleasure will perhaps be recognised as an obligation. 

Of course the fact must be recognised, that the occupant is not always apermanent one; that it may at times be a fresh importation directly froma city tenement; therefore, everything in the room should be able tosustain very radical treatment in the way of scrubbing and cleaning. Wall papers, unwashable rugs and curtains are out of the question; yeteven with these limitations it is possible to make a charming andreasonably inexpensive room, which would be attractive to cultivated aswell as uncultivated taste. It is in truth mostly a matter of colour; ofcoloured walls, and harmonising furniture and draperies, which are inthemselves well adapted to their place. 

As I have said elsewhere, the walls in a servant's bedroom--andpreferably in any sleeping-room--should for sanitary reasons be paintedin oil colours, but the possibilities of decorative treatment in thismedium are by no means limited. All of the lighter shades of green, blue, yellow, and rose are as permanent, and as easily cleaned, as thedull grays and drabs and mud-colours which are often used upon bedroomwalls--especially those upper ones which are above the zone of ornament, apparently under the impression that there is virtue in their veryugliness. 

"A good clean gray" some worthy housewife will instruct the painter touse, and the result will be a dead mixture of various lively andpleasant tints, any one of which might be charming if used separately, or modified with white. A small room with walls of a very light springgreen, or a pale turquoise blue, or white with the dash of vermilion andtouch of yellow ochre which produces salmon-pink, is quite as durablyand serviceably coloured as if it were chocolate-brown, or heavylead-colour; indeed its effect upon the mind is like a spring day fullof sunshine instead of one dark with clouds or lowering storms. 

The rule given elsewhere for colour in light or dark exposure will holdgood for service bedrooms as well as for the important rooms of thehouse. That is; if a bedroom for servants' use is on the north orshadowed side of the house, let the colour be salmon or rose pink, creamwhite, or spring green; but if it is on the sunny side, the tint shouldbe turquoise, or pale blue, or a grayish-green, like the green of afield of rye. With such walls, a white iron bedstead, enameledfurniture, curtains of white, or a flowered chintz which repeats orcontrasts with the colour of the walls, bedside and bureau rugs of thetufted cotton which is washable, or of the new rag-rugs of which thecolours are "water fast, " the room is absolutely good, and can be usedas an influence upon a lower or higher intelligence. 

As a matter of utility the toilet service should be always of white; sothat there will be no chance for the slovenly mismatching which resultsfrom breakage of any one of the different pieces, when of differentcolours. A handleless or mis-matched pitcher will change the entirecharacter of a room and should never be tolerated. 

If the size of the room will warrant it, a rocking-chair or easy-chairshould always be part of its equipment, and the mattress and bed-springsshould be of a quality to give ease to tired bones, for these thingshave to do with the spirit of the house. 

It may be said that the colouring and furnishing of the servants'bedroom is hardly a part of house decoration, but in truth housedecoration at its best is a means of happiness, and no householder canachieve permanent happiness without making the service of the familysharers in it. 

What I have said with regard to painted walls in plain tints applies tobedrooms of every grade, but where something more than merely agreeablecolour effect is desired a stencilled decoration from the simplest tothe most elaborate can be added. There are many ways of using thismethod, some of which partake very largely of artistic effect; indeed athoroughly good stencil pattern may reproduce the best instances ofdesign, and in the hands of a skilful workman who knows how to graduateand vary contrasting or harmonising tints it becomes a very artisticmethod and deserves a place of high honour in the art of decoration. 

[Illustration: 1, AND 2, STENCILED BORDERS FOR BATH-ROOM DECORATION: 3, 4, AND 5, STENCILED BORDERS FOR HALLS (BY DUNHAM WHEELER)]

Its simplest form is that of a stencilled border in flat tints usedeither in place of a cornice or as the border of a wall-paper is used. This, of course, is a purely mechanical performance, and one with whichevery house-painter is familiar. After this we come to borders ofrepeating design used as friezes. This can be done with the mostdelicate and delightful effect, although the finished wall will still becapable of withstanding the most energetic annual scrubbing. Friezeborders of this kind starting with strongly contrasting colour at thetop and carried downward through gradually fading tints until they arelost in the general colour of the wall have an openwork grille effectwhich is very light and graceful. There are infinite possibilities inthe use of stencil design without counting the introduction of gold andsilver, and bronzes of various iridescent hues which are more suitablefor rooms of general use than for bedrooms. Indeed in sleeping-roomsthe use of metallic colour is objectionable because it will not standwashing and cleaning without defacement. The ideal bedroom is one thatif the furniture were removed a stream of water from a hose might beplayed upon its walls and ceiling without injury. I always remember withpleasure a pink and silver room belonging to a young girl, where thesalmon-pink walls were deepened in colour at the top into almost a tintof vermilion which had in it a trace of green. It was, in fact, anaddition of spring green dropped into the vermilion and carelesslystirred, so that it should be mixed but not incorporated. Over thisshaded and mixed colour for the space of three feet was stencilled afountain-like pattern in cream-white, the arches of the pattern rilledin with almost a lace-work of design. The whole upper part had aneffect like carved alabaster and was indescribably light and graceful. 

The bed and curtain-rods of silver-lacquer, and the abundant silver ofthe dressing-table gave a frosty contrast which was necessary in a roomof so warm a general tone. This is an example of very delicate and trulyartistic treatment of stencil-work, and one can easily see how it can beused either in simple or elaborate fashion with great effect. 

Irregularly placed floating forms of Persian or Arabic design are oftenadmirably stencilled in colour upon a painted wall; but in this case thecolours should be varied and not too strong. A group of forms floatingaway from a window-frame or cornice can be done in two shades of thewall colour, one of which is positively darker and one lighter than theground. If to these two shades some delicately contrasting colour isoccasionally added the effect is not only pleasing, but belongs to athoroughly good style. 

One seldom tires of a good stencilled wall; probably because it isintrinsic, and not applied in the sense of paper or textiles. It carriesan air of permanency which discourages change or experiment, but itrequires considerable experience in decoration to execute it worthily;and not only this, there should be a strong feeling for colour and tasteand education in the selection of design, for though the form of thestencilled pattern may be graceful, and gracefully combined, it mustalways--to be permanently satisfactory--have a geometrical basis. It issomewhat difficult to account for the fact that what we call naturalforms, of plants and flowers, which are certainly beautiful and gracefulin themselves, and grow into shapes which delight us with their freedomand beauty, do not give the best satisfaction as motives for interiordecoration. Construction in the architectural sense--the strength andsquareness of walls, ceilings, and floors--seem to reject the yieldingcharacter of design founded upon natural forms, and demand somethingwhich answers more sympathetically to their own qualities. Perhaps it isfor this reason that we find the grouping and arrangement of horizontaland perpendicular lines and blocks in the old Greek borders soeverlastingly satisfactory. 

It is the principle or requirement, of geometric base in interior designwhich, coupled with our natural delight in yielding or growing forms, has maintained through all the long history of decoration what is calledconventionalised flower design. We find this in every form or method ofdecorative art, from embroidery to sculpture, from the Lotus of Egyptto the Rose of England, and although it results in a sort of crucifixionof the natural beauty of the flower, in the hands of great designers ithas become an authoritative style of art. 

Of course, there are flower-forms which are naturally geometric, whichhave conventionalised themselves. Many of the intricate Moorish fretsand Indian carvings are literal translations of flower-formsgeometrically repeated, and here they lend themselves so perfectly tothe decoration of even exterior walls that the fretted arches of someEastern buildings seem almost to have grown of themselves, with alltheir elaboration, into the world of nature and art. 

The separate flowers of the gracefully tossing lilac plumes, and thefive-and six-leaved flowers of the pink, have become in this way a verypart of the everlasting walls, as the acanthus leaf has become themarble blossom of thousands of indestructible columns. 

These are the classics of design and hold the same relation to ornamentprinted on paper and silk that we find in the music of the Psalms, ascompared with the tinkle of the ballad. 

There are other methods of decoration in oils which will meet the wantsof the many who like to exercise their own artistic feelings and abilityin their houses or rooms. The painting of flower-friezes upon canvaswhich can afterward be mounted upon the wall is a never-ending source ofpleasure; and many of these friezes have a charm and intimacy which nomerely professional painter can rival. These are especially suitable forbedrooms, since there they may be as personal as the inmate pleaseswithout undue unveiling of thoughts, fancies, or personal experiencesto the public. A favourite flower or a favourite motto or selection maybe the motive of a charming decoration, if the artist has sufficientart-knowledge to subordinate it to its architectural juxtaposition. Anarrow border of fixed repeating forms like a rug-border will oftenfulfil the necessity for architectural lines, and confine theflower-border into limits which justify its freedom of composition. 

If one wishes to mount a favourite motto or quotation on the walls, where it may give constant suggestion or pleasure--or even be a help tothoughtful and conscientious living--there can be no better fashion thanthe style of the old illuminated missals. Dining-rooms andchimney-pieces are often very appropriately decorated in this way; thewords running on scrolls which are half unrolled and half hidden, andshowing a conventionalised background of fruit and flowers. 

In all these things the _knowingness_, which is the result of study, tells very strongly--and it is quite worth while to give a good deal ofstudy to the subject of this kind of decoration before expending therequisite amount of work upon a painted frieze. 

Canvas friezes have the excellent merit of being not only durable andcleanable, but they belong to the category of pictures; to what Ruskincalls "portable art, " and one need not grudge the devotion ofconsiderable time, study, and effort to their doing, since they arereally detachable property, and can be removed from one house or roomand carried to another at the owner's or artist's will. 

There is room for the exercise of much artistic ability in thisdirection, as the fact of being able to paint the decoration in partsand afterward place it, makes it possible for an amateur to do much forthe enhancement of her own house. 

More than any other room in the house, the bedroom will show personalcharacter. Even when it is not planned for particular occupation, thecharacteristics of the inmate will write themselves unmistakably in theroom. If the college boy is put in the white and gold bedroom for even avacation period, there will shortly come into its atmosphere an elementof sporting and out-of-door life. Banners and balls and bats, andemblems of the "wild thyme" order will colour its whiteness; and life ofthe growing kind make itself felt in the midst of sanctity. In the sameway, girls would change the bare asceticism of a monk's cell into abower of lilies and roses; a fit place for youth and unprayinginnocence. 

The bedrooms of a house are a pretty sure test of the liberality ofmind and understanding of character of the mother or house-ruler. Aseach room is in a certain sense the home of the individual occupant, almost the shell of his or her mind, there will be something narrow anddespotic in the house-rules if this is not allowed. Yet, evenindividuality of taste and expression must scrupulously follow sanitarylaws in the furnishing of the bedroom. "Stuffy things" of any sortshould be avoided. The study should be to make it beautiful without suchthings, and a liberal use of washable textiles in curtains, portières, bed and table covers, will give quite as much sense of luxury as heavilypapered walls and costly upholstery. In fact, one may run through allthe variations from the daintiest and most befrilled and elegant ofguests' bedrooms, to the "boys' room, " which includes all or any of thevarious implements of sport or the hobbies of the boy collector, andyet keep inviolate the principles of harmony, colour, andappropriateness to use, and so accomplish beauty. 

The absolute ruling of light, air, and cleanliness are quite compatiblewith individual expression. 

It is this characteristic aspect of the different rooms which makes upthe beauty of the house as a whole. If the purpose of each is left todevelop itself through good conditions, the whole will make that mostdelightful of earthly things, a beautiful home. 

CHAPTER VI

KITCHENS

The kitchen is an important part of the perfect house and should be arecognised sharer in its quality of beauty; not alone the beauty whichconsists of a successful adaptation of means to ends, but the kind whichis independently and positively attractive to the eye. 

In costly houses it is not hard to attain this quality or the rarer oneof a union of beauty, with perfect adaptation to use; but where it mustbe reached by comparatively inexpensive methods, the difficulty isgreater. 

Tiled walls, impervious to moisture, and repellent of fumes, are idealboundaries of a kitchen, and may be beautiful in colour, as well asvirtuous in conduct. They may even be laid with gradations of alluringmineral tints, but, of course, this is out of the question in cheapbuildings; and in demonstrating the possibility of beauty and intrinsicmerit in small and comparatively inexpensive houses, tiles and marblesmust be ruled out of the scheme of kitchen perfection. Plaster, paintedin agreeable tints of oil colour is commendable, but one can do betterby covering the walls with the highly enamelled oil-cloth commonly usedfor kitchen tables and shelves. This material is quite marvellous in itscombination of use and effect. Its possibilities were discovered by ayoung housewife whose small kitchen formed part of a city apartment, andwhose practical sense was joined to a discursive imagination. After thisachievement--which she herself did not recognise as a stroke ofgenius--she added a narrow shelf running entirely around the room, which carried a decorative row of blue willow-pattern plates. Adresser, hung with a graduated assortment of blue enamelled sauce-pans, and other kitchen implements of the same enticing ware, a floor coveredwith the heaviest of oil-cloth, laid in small diamond-shapes of blue, between blocks of white, like a mosaic pavement, were the features of akitchen which was, and is, after several years of strenuous wear, a joyto behold. It was from the first, not only a delight to the clever younghousewife and her friends, but it performed the miracle of changing theaverage servant into a careful and excellent one, zealous for thecleanliness and perfection of her small domain, and performing herkitchen functions with unexampled neatness. 

The mistress--who had standards of perfection in all things, whethergreat or small, and was moreover of Southern blood--confessed that herideal of service in her glittering kitchen was not a clever red-hairedHibernian, but a slim mulatto, wearing a snow-white turban; and thislonging seemed so reasonable, and so impressed my fancy, that whenever Ithink of the shining blue-and-silver kitchen, I seem to see within itthe graceful sway of figure and coffee-coloured face which belongs tothe half-breed African race, certain rare specimens of which are themost beautiful of domestic adjuncts. 

I have used this expedient of oil-cloth-covered walls--for which I amanxious to give the inventor due credit--in many kitchens, and certainbathrooms, and always with success. 

It must be applied as if it were wall-paper, except that, as it is aheavy material, the paste must be thicker. It is also well to have in ita small proportion of carbolic acid, both as a disinfectant and adeterrent to paste-loving mice, or any other household pest. The clothmust be carefully fitted into corners, and whatever shelving or woodfittings are used in the room, must be placed against it, after it isapplied, instead of having the cloth cut and fitted around them. 

When well mounted, it makes a solid, porcelain-like wall, to which dustand dirt will not easily adhere, and which can be as easily andeffectually cleaned as if it were really porcelain or marble. 

Such wall treatment will go far toward making a beautiful kitchen. Addto this a well-arranged dresser for blue or white kitchen china, with aclosed cabinet for the heavy iron utensils which can hardly be includedin any scheme of kitchen beauty; curtained cupboards and shortwindow-hangings of blue, or "Turkey red"--which are invaluable forcolour, and always washable; a painted floor--which is far better thanoil-cloth, and one has the elements of a satisfactory scheme of beauty. 

A French kitchen, with its white-washed walls, its shining range androws upon rows of gleaming copper-ware, is an attractive subject for apainter; and there is no reason why an American kitchen, in a housedistinguished for beauty in all its family and semi-public rooms, shouldnot also be beautiful in the rooms devoted to service. We can if we willmake much even in a decorative way of our enamelled and aluminumkitchen-ware; we may hang it in graduated rows over thechimney-space--as the French cook parades her coppers--and arrange thesenecessary things with an eye to effect, while we secure perfectconvenience of use. They are all pleasant of aspect if care and thoughtare devoted to their arrangement, and it is really of quite as muchvalue to the family to have a charming and perfectly appointed kitchen, as to possess a beautiful and comfortable parlour or sitting-room. 

Every detail should be considered from the double point of view of useand effect. If the curtains answer the two purposes of shading sunlight, or securing privacy at night, and of giving pleasing colour and contrastto the general tone of the interior, they perform a double function, each of of which is valuable. 

If the chairs are chosen for strength and use, and are painted orstained to match the colour of the floor, they add to the satisfactionof the eye, as well as minister to the house service. A pursuance ofthis thought adds to the harmony of the house both in aspect and actualbeauty of living. Of course in selecting such furnishings of the kitchenas chairs, one must bear in mind that even their legitimate use mayinclude standing, as well as sitting upon them; that they may be madetemporary resting-places for scrubbing pails, brushes, and othercleaning necessities, and therefore they must be made of painted wood;but this should not discourage the provision of a cane-seatedrocking-chair for each servant, as a comfort for weary bones when theday's work is over. 

In establishments which include a servants' dining-or sitting-room, these moderate luxuries are a thing of course, but in houses where atmost but two maids are employed they are not always considered, althoughthey certainly should be. 

If a corner can be appropriated to evening leisure--where there is roomfor a small, brightly covered table, a lamp, a couple of rocking-chairs, work-baskets and a book or magazine, it answers in a small way to thefamily evening-room, where all gather for rest and comfort. 

There is no reason why the wall space above it should not have itscabinet for photographs and the usually cherished prayer-book whichmaids love both to possess and display. Such possessions answer exactlyto the _bric-a-brac_ of the drawing-room; ministering to the same humaninstinct in its primitive form, and to the inherent enjoyment of thebeautiful which is the line of demarcation between the tribes of animalsand those of men. 

If one can use this distinctly human trait as a lever to raise crudehumanity into the higher region of the virtues, it is certainly worthwhile to consider pots and pans from the point of view of theirdecorative ability. 

CHAPTER VII

COLOUR WITH REFERENCE TO LIGHT

In choosing colour for walls and ceilings, it is most necessary toconsider the special laws which govern its application to houseinteriors. 

The tint of any particular room should be chosen not only with referenceto personal liking, but first of all, to the quantity and quality oflight which pervades it. A north room will require warm and brighttreatment, warm reds and golden browns, or pure gold colours. Gold-colour used in sash curtains will give an effect of perfectsunshine in a dark and shadowy room, but the same treatment in a roomfronting the south would produce an almost insupportable brightness. 

I will illustrate the modifications made necessary in tint by differentexposure to light, by supposing that some one member of the familyprefers yellow to all other colours, one who has enough of the chameleonin her nature to feel an instinct to bask in sunshine. I will alsosuppose that the room most conveniently devoted to the occupation ofthis member has a southern exposure. If yellow must be used in her room, the quality of it should be very different from that which could beproperly and profitably used in a room with a northern exposure, and itshould differ not only in intensity, but actually in tint. If it isnecessary, on account of personal preference, to use yellow in a sunnyroom, it should be lemon, instead of ochre or gold-coloured yellow, because the latter would repeat sunlight. There are certain shades ofyellow, where white has been largely used in the mixture, which arecapable of greenish reflections. This is where the white is of so pure aquality as to suggest blue, and consequently under the influence ofyellow to suggest green. We often find yellow dyes in silks the shadowsof which are positive fawn colour or even green, instead of orange as wemight expect; still, even with modifications, yellow should properly bereserved for sunless rooms, where it acts the part almost of the blessedsun itself in giving cheerfulness and light. Going from a sun-lightedatmosphere, or out of actual sunlight into a yellow room, one would missthe sense of shelter which is so grateful to eyes and senses a littledazzled by the brilliance of out-of-door lights; whereas a room darkenedor shaded by a piazza, or somewhat chilled by a northern exposure andwant of sun, would be warmed and comforted by tints of gold-colouredyellow. 

Interiors with a southern exposure should be treated with cool, lightcolours, blues in various shades, water-greens, and silvery tones whichwill contrast with the positive yellow of sunlight. 

It is by no means a merely arbitrary rule. Colours are actually warm orcold in temperature, as well as in effect upon the eye or theimagination, in fact the words cover a long-tested fact. I rememberbeing told by a painter of his placing a red sunset landscape upon theflat roof of a studio building to dry, and on going to it a few hoursafterward he found the surface of it so warm to the touch--so sensiblywarmer than the gray and blue and green pictures around it--that hebrought a thermometer to test it, and found it had acquired and retainedheat. It was actually warmer by degrees than the gray and blue picturesin the same sun exposure. 

We instinctively wear warm colours in winter and dispense with them insummer, and this simple fact may explain the art which allots what wecall warm colour to rooms without sun. When we say warm colours, we meanyellows, reds with all their gradations, gold or sun browns, and darkbrowns and black. When we say cool colours--whites, blues, grays, andcold greens--for greens may be warm or cold, according to theircomposition or intensity. A water-green is a cold colour, so is a pureemerald green, so also a blue-green; while an olive, or a gold-greencomes into the category of warm colours. This is because it is acomposite colour made of a union of warm and cold colours; the brown andyellow in its composition being in excess of the blue; as pink also, which is a mixture of red and white; and lavender, which is a mixture ofred, white, and blue, stand as intermediate between two extremes. 

Having duly considered the effect of light upon colour, we mayfearlessly choose tints for every room according to personal preferencesor tastes. If we like one warm colour better than another, there is noreason why that one should not predominate in every room in the housewhich has a shadow exposure. If we like a cold colour it should be usedin many of the sunny rooms. 

I believe we do not give enough importance to this matter of personalliking in tints. We select our friends from sympathy. As a rule, we donot philosophise much about it, although we may recognise certainprinciples in our liking; it is those to whom our hearts naturally openthat we invite in and have joy in their companionship, and we mightsurely follow our likings in the matter of colour, as well as infriendship, and thereby add much to our happiness. Curiously enough weoften speak of the colour of a mind--and I once knew a child whopersisted in calling people by the names of colours; not the colour oftheir clothes, but some mind-tint which he felt. "The blue lady" was hisespecial favourite, and I have no doubt the presence or absence of thatparticular colour made a difference in his content all the days of hislife. 

The colour one likes is better for tranquillity and enjoyment--moreconducive to health; and exercises an actual living influence uponmoods. For this reason, if no other, the colour of a room should neverbe arbitrarily prescribed or settled for the one who is to be itsoccupant. It should be as much a matter of _nature_ as the lining of ashell is to the mussel, or as the colour of the wings of a butterfly. 

In fact the mind which we cannot see may have a colour of its own, andit is natural that it should choose to dwell within its own influence. 

We do not know _why_ we like certain colours, but we do, and let thatsuffice, and let us live with them, as gratefully as we should for moreexplainable ministry. 

If colours which we like have a soothing effect upon us, those which wedo not like are, on the other hand, an unwelcome influence. If a womansays in her heart, I hate green, or red, or I dislike any one colour, and then is obliged to live in its neighbourhood, she will find herselfdwelling with an enemy. We all know that there are colours of which alittle is enjoyable when a mass would be unendurable. Predominantscarlet would be like close companionship with a brass band, but a noteof scarlet is one of the most valuable of sensations. The graycompounded of black and white would be a wet blanket to all bubble ofwit or spring of fancy, but the shadows of rose colour are gray, pink-tinted it is true; indeed the shadow of pink used to be known bythe name of _ashes of roses_. I remember seeing once in Paris--that homeof bad general decoration--a room in royal purples; purple velvet onwalls, furniture, and hangings. One golden Rembrandt in the middle of along wall, and a great expanse of ochre-coloured parquetted floor wereall that saved it from the suggestion of a royal tomb. As it was, I leftthe apartment with a feeling of treading softly as when we pass througha door hung with crape. Vagaries of this kind are remediable when theyoccur in cravats, or bonnets, or gloves--but a room in the wrong colour!Saints and the angels preserve us!

[Illustration: SITTING-ROOM IN "WILD WOOD. " ONTEORA (BELONGING TO MISSLUISITA LELAND)]

The number, size, and placing of the windows will greatly affect theintensity of colour to be used. It must always be remembered that anyinterior is dark as compared with out-of-doors, and that in the lightestroom there will be dark corners or spaces where the colour chosen aschief tint will seem much darker than it really is. A paper or textilechosen in a good light will look several shades darker when placed inlarge unbroken masses or spaces upon the wall, and a fully furnishedroom will generally be much darker when completed than might be expectedin planning it. For this reason, in choosing a favourite tint, it isbetter on many accounts to choose it in as light a shade as one findsagreeable. It can be repeated in stronger tones in furniture or in smalland unimportant furnishings of the room, but the wall tone should neverbe deeper than medium in strength, at the risk of having all the lightabsorbed by the colour, and of losing a sense of atmosphere in the room. There is another reason for this, which is that many colours areagreeable, even to their lovers, only in light tones. The moment theyget below medium they become insistent, and make themselves of too muchimportance. In truth colour has qualities which are almost personal, andis well worth studying in all its peculiarities, because of its power toaffect our happiness. 

The principles of proper use of colour in house interiors are notdifficult to master. It is unthinking, unreflective action which makesso many unrestful interiors of homes. The creator of a home shouldconsider, in the first place, that it is a matter as important asclimate, and as difficult to get away from, and that the first shadesof colour used in a room upon walls or ceiling, must govern everythingelse that enters in the way of furnishing; that the colour of wallsprescribes that which must be used in floors, curtains, and furniture. Not that these must necessarily be of the same tint as walls, but thatwall-tints must govern the choice. 

All this makes it necessary to take first steps carefully, to select foreach room the colour which will best suit the taste, feeling, or bias ofthe occupant, always considering the exposure of the room and the use ofit. 

After the relation of colour to light is established--with personalpreferences duly taken into account--the next law is that of gradation. The strongest, and generally the purest, tones of colour belongnaturally at the base, and the floor of a room means the base upon whichthe scheme of decoration is to be built. 

The carpet, or floor covering, should carry the strongest tones. If asingle tint is to be used, the walls must take the next gradation, andthe ceiling the last. These gradations must be far enough removed fromeach other in depth of tone to be quite apparent, but not to lose theirrelation. The connecting grades may appear in furniture covering anddraperies, thus giving different values in the same tone, the relationbetween them being perfectly apparent. These three masses of relatedcolour are the groundwork upon which one can play infinite variations, and is really the same law upon which a picture is composed. There areforeground, middle-distance, and sky--and in a properly coloured room, the floors, walls, and ceiling bear the same relation to each other asthe grades of colour in a picture, or in a landscape. 

Fortunately we keep to this law almost by instinct, and yet I have seena white-carpeted floor in a room with a painted ceiling of considerabledepth of colour. Imagine the effect where this rule of gradation orascending scale is reversed. A tinted floor of cream colour, or evenwhite, and a ceiling as deep in colour as a landscape. One feels as ifthey themselves were reversed, and standing upon their heads. Certainlyif we ignore this law we lose our sense of base or foundation, andalthough we may not know exactly why, we shall miss the restfulness of aproperly constructed scheme of decoration. 

The rule of gradation includes also that of massing of colour. In allsimple treatment of interiors, whatever colour is chosen should beallowed space enough to establish its influence, broadly and freely, andhere again we get a lesson from nature in the massing of colour. Itshould not be broken into patches and neutralised by divisions, but usedin large enough spaces to dominate, or bring into itself or its owninfluence all that is placed in the room. If this rule is disregardedevery piece of furniture unrelated to the whole becomes a spot, it hasno real connection with the room, and the room itself, instead of aharmonious and delightful influence, akin to that of a sun-flushed dawnor a sunset sky, is like a picture where there is no composition, or abook where incident is jumbled together without relation to the story. In short, placing of colour in large uniform masses used in gradation isthe groundwork of all artistic effect in interiors. As I have said, itis the same rule that governs pictures, the general tone may be green orblue, or a division of each, but to be a perfect and harmonious view, every detail must relate to one or both of these tints. 

In formulating thus far the rules for use of colour in rooms, we havetouched upon three principles which are equally binding in interiors, whether of a cottage or a palace; the first is that of colour inrelation to light, the second of colour in gradation, and the third ofcolour in masses. 

A house in which walls and ceilings are simply well coloured or covered, has advanced very far toward the home which is the rightful endowment ofevery human being. The variations of treatment, which pertain to morecostly houses, the application of design in borders and frieze spaces, walls, wainscots, and ceilings, are details which will probably call forartistic advice and professional knowledge, since in these things it iseasy to err in misapplied decoration. The advance from perfectsimplicity to selected and beautiful ornament marks not only the degreeof cost but of knowledge which it is in the power of the house-owner tocommand. The elaboration which is the privilege of more liberal meansand the use of artistic experience in decoration on a larger scale. 

The smaller house shares in the advantage of beautiful colour, correctprinciples, and appropriate treatment equally with the more costly. Thevariations do not falsify principles. 

CHAPTER VIII

WALLS, CEILINGS, AND FLOORS

The true principle of wall treatment is to make the boundary stand forcolour and beauty, and not alone for division of space. 

As a rule, the colour treatment of a house interior must begin with thewalls, and it is fortunate if these are blank and plain as in most newhouses with uncoloured ceilings, flat or broken with mouldings to suitthe style of the house. 

The range of possible treatment is very wide, from simple tones of wallcolour against which quiet cottage or domestic city life goes on, to theelaboration of walls of houses of a different grade, where statelypageants are a part of the drama of daily life. But having shown thatcertain rules are applicable to both, and indeed necessary to successin both, we may choose within these rules any tint or colour which ispersonally pleasing. 

Rooms with an east or west light may carry successfully tones of anyshade, without violating fundamental laws. 

The first impression of a room depends upon the walls. In fact, roomsare good or bad, agreeable or ugly in exact accordance with thewall-quality and treatment. No richness of floor-covering, draperies, orfurniture can minimise their influence. 

Perhaps it is for this reason that the world is full of papers and otherdevices for making walls agreeable; and we cannot wonder at this, whenwe reflect that something of the kind is necessary to the aspect of theroom, and that each room effects for the individual exactly what theouter walls of the house effect for the family, they give space forpersonal privacy and for that reserve of the individual which is theearliest effect of luxury and comfort. 

It is certain that if walls are not made agreeable there is in themsomething of restraint to the eye and the sense which is altogetherdisagreeable. Apparent confinement within given limits, is, on thewhole, repugnant to either the natural or civilised man, and for thisreason we are constantly tempted to disguise the limit and to cover thewall in such a way as shall interest and make us forget our bounds. Inthis case, the idea of decoration is, to make the walls a barrier ofcolour only, instead of hard, unyielding masonry; to take away the senseof being shut in a box, and give instead freedom to thought and pleasureto the sense. 

It is the effect of shut-in-ness which the square and rigid walls of aroom give that makes drapery so effective and welcome, and which alsogives value to the practice of covering walls with silks or othertextiles. The softened surface takes away the sense of restraint. Wehang our walls with pictures, or cover them with textiles, or with paperwhich carries design, or even colour them withpigments--something--anything, which will disguise a restraining bound, or make it masquerade as a luxury. 

This effort or instinct has set in motion the machinery of the world. Ithas created tapestries and brocades for castle and palace, and inventedcheap substitutes for these costly products, so that the smallest andpoorest house as well as the richest can cover its walls with somethingpleasant to the eye and suggestive to the mind. 

[Illustration: LARGE SITTING-ROOM IN "STAR ROCK" COUNTRY HOUSE]

It is one of the privileges and opportunities of art to invent thesedisguises; and to do it so thoroughly and successfully as to content uswith facts which would otherwise be disagreeable. And we do, by thesevarious devices, make our walls so hospitable to our thoughts that wetake positive and continual pleasure in them. 

We do this chiefly, perhaps, by ministering to our instinctive love ofcolour; which to many temperaments is like food to the hungry, andsatisfies as insistent a demand of the mind as food to the body. 

At this late period of the world we are the inheritors of many methodsof wall disguise, from the primitive weavings or blanket coverings withwhich nomadic peoples lined the walls of their tents, or the arras whichin later days covered the roughness and rudeness of the stone walls ofkings and barons, to the pictured tapestries of later centuries. Thislatter achievement of art manufacture has outlived and far outweighedthe others in value, because it more perfectly performs the object ofits creation. 

Tapestries, for the most part, offer us a semblance of nature, and cheatus with a sense of unlimited horizon. The older tapestries give us, withthis, suggestions of human life and action in out-of-door scenessufficiently unrealistic to offer a vague dream of existence in fieldsand forests. This effectually diverts our minds from the confinements ofspace, and allows us the freedom of nature. 

Probably the true secret of the never-failing appreciation oftapestries--from the very beginning of their history until this day--isthis fact of their suggestiveness; since we find that damasks of silk orvelvet or other costly weavings, although far surpassing tapestries intexture and concentration of colour, yet lacking their suggestiveness tothe mind, can never rival them in the estimation of the world. Unhappily, we cannot count veritable tapestries as a modern recourse inwall-treatment, since we are precluded from the use of genuine ones bytheir scarcity and cost. 

There is undoubtedly a peculiar richness and charm in a tapestry-hungwall which no other wall covering can give; yet they are not entirelyappropriate to our time. They belong to the period of windy palaces andenormous enclosures, and are fitted for pageants and ceremonies, and notto our carefully plastered, wind-tight and narrow rooms. Their missionto-day is to reproduce for us in museums and collections the life ofyesterday, so full of pomp and almost barbaric lack of domestic comfort. In studios they are certainly appropriate and suggestive, but inprivate houses except of the princely sort, it is far better to makeharmonies with the things of to-day. 

Nevertheless if the soul craves tapestries let them be chosen forintrinsic beauty and perfect preservation, instead of accepting the ragsof the past and trying to create with them a magnificence which must beincomplete and shabby. Considering, as I do, that tapestries belong tothe life and conditions of the past, where the homeless many toiled forthe pampered few, and not to the homes of to-day where the man ofmoderate means expects beauty in his home as confidently as if he were aworld ruler, I find it hardly necessary to include them in the list ofmeans of modern decoration, and indeed it is not necessary, since awell-preserved tapestry of a good period, and of a famous manufactureror origin, is so costly a purchase that only our bounteous andself-indulgent millionaires would venture to acquire one solely forpurposes of wall decoration. It would be purchased as a specimen of artand not as furnishing. 

Yet I know one instance of a library where a genuine old foliagetapestry has been cut and fitted to the walls and between bookcases anddoors, where the wood of the room is in mahogany, and a greatchimney-piece of Caen stone of Richardson's designing fills nearly oneside of the room. Of course the tapestry is unapproachable in effect inthis particular place and with its surroundings. It has the richness andsoftness of velvet, and the red of the mahogany doors and furniturefinds exactly its foil in the blue greens and soft browns of the web, while the polished floor and velvety antique rugs bring all the richnessof the walls down to one's feet and to the hearth with its glow offire. But this particular room hardly makes an example for generalfollowing. It is really a house of state, a house without children, onein which public life predominates. 

There is a very flagrant far-away imitation of tapestry which is so farfrom being good that it is a wonder it has had even a moderate success, imitation which does not even attempt the decorative effect of thegenuine, but substitutes upon an admirably woven cotton or woollencanvas, figure panels, copied from modern French masters, and suggestiveof nothing but bad art. Yet these panels are sometimes used (and in factare produced for the purpose of being used) precisely as a genuinetapestry would be, although the very fact of pretence in them, brings afeeling of untruth, quite at variance with the principles of all goodart. The objection to pictures transferred to tapestries holds good, even when the tapestries are genuine. 

The great cartoons of Raphael, still to be seen in the KensingtonMuseum, which were drawn and coloured for Flemish weavers to copy, showa perfect adaptation to the medium of weaving, while the paintings inthe Vatican by the same great master are entirely inappropriate totextile reproduction. 

A picture cannot be transposed to different substance and purposewithout losing the qualities which make it valuable. The double effortto be both a tapestry and a picture is futile, and brings into disreputea simple art of imitation which might become respectable if itscapabilities were rightly used. 

No one familiar with collections of tapestries can fail to recognise thelargeness and simplicity of treatment peculiar to tapestry subjects ascontrasted with the elaboration of pictures. 

If we grant that in this modern world of hurry, imitation of tapestriesis legitimate, the important question is, what are the best subjects, and what is the best use for such imitations?

The best use is undoubtedly that of wall-covering; and that was, indeed, the earliest object for which they were created. They were woven tocover great empty spaces of unsightly masonry; and they are stillinfinitely useful and beautiful in grand apartments whose barren spacesare too large for modern pictures, and which need the disguise of asuggestion of scenery or pictorial subject. 

If tapestries must be painted, let them by all means follow the style ofthe ancient verdure or foliage tapestries, and be used for the samepurpose--to cover an otherwise blank wall. This is legitimate, and evenbeautiful, but it is painting, and should be frankly acknowledged to besuch, and no attempt made to have them masquerade as genuine and costlyweavings. It is simply and always painting, although in the style andspirit of early tapestries. Productions of this sort, where real skillin textile painting is used, are quite worthy of admiration and respect. 

I remember seeing, in the Swedish exhibit of women's work in the Woman'sBuilding at the Columbian Exposition, a screen which had evidently beencopied from an old bit of verdure tapestry. At the base werebroad-leaved water-plants, each leaf carefully copied in blocks andpatches of colour, with even the effect of the little empty space--whereone thread passes to the back in weaving, to make room for one ofanother colour brought forward--imitated by a dot of black to simulatethe tiny shadow-filled pen-point of a hole. 

Now whether this was art or not I leave to French critics to decide, butit was at least admirable imitation; and any one able to cover the wallspaces between bookcases in a library with such imitation would findthem as richly set as if it were veritable tapestry. 

This is a very different thing from a painted tapestry, perhaps enlargedfrom a photograph or engraving of a painting the original of which thetapestry-painter had never even seen--the destiny of which unfortunatecopy, changed in size, colour, and all the qualities which gave value tothe original, is probably to be hung as a picture in the centre of aspace of wall-paper totally antagonistic in colour. 

When I see these things I long to curb the ambition of the unfortunatetapestry-painter until a course of study has taught him or her theproper use of a really useful process; for whether the object is toproduce a decoration or a simulated tapestry, it is not attained bythese methods. 

The ordinary process of painting in dyes upon a wool or linen fabricwoven in tapestry method, and fixing the colour with heat, enables thepainter--if a true tapestry subject is chosen and tapestry effectscarefully studied--to produce really effective and good things, and thisopens a much larger field to the woman decorator than the ordinaryunstudied shams which have thrown what might become in time a large anduseful art-industry into neglect and disrepute. 

I have seen the walls of a library hung with Siberian linen, stained inlandscape design in the old blues and greens which give tapestry itsdecorative value, and found it a delightful wall-covering. Indeed we maylay it down as a principle in decoration that while we may use and adaptany decorative _effect_ we must not attempt to make it pass for thething which suggested the effect. 

Coarse and carefully woven linens, used as I have indicated, are reallyfar better than old tapestries for modern houses, because the design canbe adapted to the specific purpose and the texture itself can be easilycleaned and is more appropriate to the close walls and less airy roomsof this century. 

For costly wall-decoration, leather is another of the substances whichhave had a past of pomp and magnificence, and carries with it, inaddition to beauty, a suggestion of the art of a race. Spanish leather, with its stamping and gilding, is quite as costly a wall covering asantique or modern tapestry, and far more indestructible. Perhaps it isneedlessly durable as a mere vehicle for decoration. At all eventsJapanese artists and artisans seem to be of this opinion, and havetransferred the same kind of decoration to heavy paper, where for someoccult reason--although strongly simulating leather--it seems not onlynot objectionable, but even meritorious. This is because it simplytransfers an artistic method from a costly substance, to another whichis less so, and the fact may even have some weight that paper is aproduct of human manufacture, instead of human appropriation of animallife, for surely sentiment has its influence in decoration as in otherarts. 

Wood panelling is also a form of interior treatment which has come to usby inheritance from the past as well as by right of natural possession. It has a richness and sober dignity of effect which commends it in largeor small interiors, in halls, libraries, and dining-rooms, whether theyare public or private; devoted to grand functions, or to the constantlyrecurring uses of domesticity. Wood is so beautiful a substance initself, and lends itself to so many processes of ornamentation, thathardly too much can be said of its appropriateness for interiordecoration. From the two extremes of plain pine panellings cut intosquares or parallelograms by machinery, and covered with paint in tintsto match door and window casings, to the most elaborate carvings whichback the Cathedral stalls or seats of ecclesiastical dignity, it isalways beautiful and generally appropriate in use and effect, and thatcan hardly be said of any other substance. There are wainscotted roomsin old houses in Newport, where, under the accumulated paint of one ortwo centuries, great panels of old Spanish mahogany can still be found, not much the worse for their long eclipse. Such rooms, in the originalbrilliancy of colour and polish, with their parallel shadings ofmahogany-red reflecting back the firelight from tiled chimney-places andscattering the play of dancing flame, must have had a beauty of colourhard to match in this day of sober oak and painted wainscottings. 

[Illustration: PAINTED CANVAS FRIEZE]

[Illustration: BUCKRAM FRIEZE FOR DINING-ROOM]

One of the lessons gained by experience in treatment of house interiors, is that plain, flat tints give apparent size to small rooms, and that asatisfying effect in large ones can be gained by variation of tint orsurface; also, that in a bedroom or other small room apparent size willbe gained by using a wall covering which is light rather than dark. Some difference of tone there must be in large plain surfaces which liewithin the level of the eye; or the monotony of a room becomesfatiguing. A plain, painted wall may, it is true, be broken by pictures, or cabinets, or bits of china; anything in short which will throw partsof it into shadow, and illumine other parts with gilded reflections; buteven then there will be long, plain spaces above the picture or cabinetline, where blank monotony of tone will be fatal to the general effectof the room. 

It is in this upper space, upon a plain painted wall, that a broad lineof flat decoration should occur, but on a wall hung with paper or cloth, it is by no means necessary. 

Damasked cloths, where the design is shown by the direction of woventhreads, are particularly effective and satisfactory as wall-coverings. The soft surface is luxurious to the imagination, and the play of lightand shadow upon the warp and woof interests the eye, although there isno actual change of colour. 

Too much stress can hardly be laid upon the variation of tone inwall-surfaces, since the four walls stand for the atmosphere of a room. Tone means quality of colour. It may be light or dark, or of any tint, or variations of tint, but the quality of it must be soft andcharitable, instead of harsh and uncompromising. 

Almost the best of modern inventions for inexpensive wall-coverings arefound in what are called the ingrain papers. These have a variablesurface, without reflections, and make not only a soft and impalpablecolour effect, but, on account of their want of reflection, are goodbackgrounds for pictures. 

In these papers the colour is produced by a mixture in the mass ofpaper pulp of atoms of varying tint, which are combined in the substanceand make one general tint resulting from the mixture of several. Incanvases and textiles, which are a more expensive method of producingalmost the same mixed effect, the minute points of brilliance of threadsin light and darkness of threads in shadow, combine to produce softnessof tone, impossible to pigment because it has but one plain surface, unrelieved by breaking up into light and shadow. 

Variation, produced by minute differences, which affect each other andwhich the eye blends into a general tone, produce quality. It is at thesame time soft and brilliant, and is really a popular adaptation of thephilosophy of impressionist painters, whose small dabs of pure colourplaced in close juxtaposition and fused into one tone by the eye, givethe purity and vibration of colour which distinguishes work of thatschool. 

Some skilful painters can stipple one tone upon another so as to producethe same brilliant softness of effect, and when this can be done, oil-colour upon plaster is the best of all treatment for bedrooms sinceit fulfils all the sanitary and other conditions so necessary insleeping-rooms. The same effect may be produced if the walls are ofrough instead of smooth plaster, so that the small inequalities ofsurface give light and shadow as in textiles; upon such surfaces apleasant tint in flat colour is always good. Painted burlaps and certainJapanese papers prepared with what may be called a textile or canvassurface give the same effect, and indeed quality of tint and tone is farmore easily obtained in wall-coverings or applied materials than inpaint, because in most wall-coverings there are variations of tintproduced in the very substance of the material. 

This matter of variation without contrast in wall-surface, is one of themost important in house decoration, and has led to the increased use oftextiles in houses where artistic effects have been carefully studiedand are considered of importance. 

Of course wall-paper must continue to be the chief means ofwall-covering, on account of its cheapness, and because it is thereadiest means of sheathing a plaster surface; and a continuous demandfor papers of good and nearly uniform colour, and the sort ofinconspicuous design which fits them for modest interiors will have theeffect of increasing the manufacture of desirable and artistic things. 

In the meantime one should carefully avoid the violently colouredpapers which are made only to sell; materials which catch the eye of theinexperienced and tempt them into the buying of things which areproductive of lasting unrest. It is in the nature of positive masses andstrongly contrasting colours to produce this effect. 

If one is unfortunate enough to occupy a room of which the walls arecovered with one of these glaring designs, and circumstances prevent aradical change, the simplest expedient is to cover the whole surfacewith a kalsomine or chalk-wash, of some agreeable tint. This will dry inan hour or two and present a nearly uniform surface, in which theprinted design of the paper, if it appears at all, will be a meresuggestion. Papers where the design is carried in colour only a fewshades darker than the background, are also safe, and--if the design isa good one--often very desirable for halls and dining-rooms. Inskilfully printed papers of the sort the design often has the effect ofa mere shadow-play of form. 

Of course in the infinite varieties of use and the numberless variationsof personal taste, there are, and should be, innumerable differences inapplication of both colour and materials to interiors. There aredifferences in the use of rooms which may make a sense of perfectseclusion desirable, as, for instance, in libraries, or rooms usedexclusively for evening gatherings of the family. In such semi-privaterooms the treatment should give a sense of close family life rather thanspace, while in drawing-rooms it should be exactly the reverse, and thiseffect is easily secured by competent use of colour. 

CHAPTER IX

LOCATION OF THE HOUSE

Besides the difference in treatment demanded by different use ofrooms--the character of the decoration of the whole house will beinfluenced by its situation. A house in the country or a house in town;a house by the sea-shore or a house situated in woods and fields requirestronger or less strong colour, and even different tints, according tosituation. The decoration itself may be much less conventional in oneplace than in another, and in country houses much and lasting charm isderived from design and colour in perfect harmony with nature'ssurroundings. Whatever decorative design is used in wall-coverings or incurtains or hangings will be far more effective if it bears somerelation to the surroundings and position of the house. 

If the house is by the sea the walls should repeat with many variationsthe tones of sea and sand and sky; the gray-greens of sand-grasses; theblues which change from blue to green with every cloud-shadow; the pearltints which become rose in the morning or evening light, and the brownsand olives of sea mosses and lichens. This treatment of colour will makethe interior of the house a part of the great out-of-doors and create aharmony between the artificial shelter and nature. 

There is philosophy in following, as far as the limitations of simplecolour will allow, the changeableness and fluidity of natural effectsalong the shore, and allowing the mood of the brief summer life to fallinto entire harmony with the dominant expression of the sea. Blues andgreens and pinks and browns should all be kept on a level without-of-door colour, that is, they should not be too deep and strong forharmony with the sea and sky, and if, when harmonious colour is oncesecured, most of the materials used in the furnishing of the house arechosen because their design is based upon, or suggested by, sea-forms, an impression is produced of having entered into complete and perfectharmony with the elements and aspects of nature. The artificialities oflife fall more and more into the background, and one is refreshed with asense of having established entirely harmonious and satisfactoryrelations with the surroundings of nature. I remember a doorway of acottage by the sea, where the moulding which made a part of the framewas an orderly line of carved cockle-shells, used as a border, and thislittle touch of recognition of its sea-neighbours was not onlydecorative in itself, but gave even the chance visitor a sort ofinterpretation of the spirit of the interior life. 

Suppose, on the other hand, that the summer house is placed in theneighbourhood of fields and trees and mountains; it will be found thatstrong and positive treatment of the interior is more in harmony withthe outside landscape. Even heavier furniture looks fitting where thehouse is surrounded with massive tree-growths; and deeper and purercolours can be used in hangings and draperies. This is due to the morepositive colouring of a landscape than of a sea-view. The masses ofstrong and slightly varying green in foliage, the red, brown, or vividgreens of fields and crops, the dark lines of tree-trunks and branches, as well as the unchanging forms of rock and hillside, call for acorresponding strength of interior effect. 

It is a curious fact, also, that where a house is surrounded by myriadsof small natural forms of leaves and flowers and grasses, plain spacesof colour in interiors, or spaces where form is greatly subordinated tocolour, are more grateful to the eye than prominently decorated surface. A repetition of small natural forms like the shells and sea-mosses, which are for the most part hidden under lengths of liquid blue, ispleasing and suggestive by the sea; but in the country, where form isprominent and positive and prints itself constantly upon both mental andbodily vision, unbroken colour surfaces are found to be far moreagreeable. 

It will be seen that the principles of appropriate furnishing andadornment in house interiors depend upon circumstances and naturalsurroundings as well as upon the character and pursuits of the familywho are to be lodged, and that the final charm of the home is attainedby a perfect adaptation of principles to existing conditions both ofnature and humanity. 

In cottages of the character we are considering, furniture should besimpler and lighter than in houses intended for constant family living. Chairs and sofas should be without elaborate upholstery and hangings, and cushions can be appropriately made of some well-coloured cotton orlinen material which wind, and sun, and dampness cannot spoil, and ofwhich the freshness can always be restored by laundering. These aregeneral rules, appropriate to all summer cottages, and to these it maybe added, that a house which is to be closed for six or eight months inthe year should really, to be consistent, be inexpensively furnished. These general rules are intended only to emphasise the fact that inhouses which are to become in the truest sense homes--that is, places ofhabitation which represent the inhabitants, directions or rules forbeautiful colour and arrangement of interiors, must always follow theguiding incidents of class and locality. 

CHAPTER X

CEILINGS

As ceilings are in reality a part of the wall, they must always beconsidered in connection with room interiors, but their influence uponthe beauty of the average house is so small, that their treatment is acomparatively easy problem. 

In simple houses with plaster ceilings the tints to be used are easilydecided. The rule of gradation of colour from floor to ceilingprescribes for the latter the lightest tone of the gradation, and as theceiling stands for light, and should actually reflect light into theroom, the philosophy of this arrangement of colours is obvious. It isnot, however, an invariable rule that the ceiling should carry the sametint as the wall, even in a much lighter tone, although greater harmonyand restfulness of effect is produced in this way. A ceiling of creamwhite will harmonise well with almost any tint upon the walls, and atthe same time give an effect of air and light in the room. It is also agood ground for ornament in elaborately decorated ones. 

If the walls are covered with a light wall-paper which carries a floraldesign, it is a safe rule to make the ceiling of the same colour but alighter shade of the background of the paper, but it is not by any meansgood art to carry a flower design over the ceiling. One sometimes seesinstances of this in the bedrooms of fairly good houses, and the effectis naturally that of bringing the ceiling apparently almost to one'shead, or at all events, of producing a very unrestful effect. 

A wood ceiling in natural colour is always a good feature in a room ofdefined or serious purpose, like a hall, dining-room, or library, because in such rooms the colour of the side walls is apt to be strongenough to balance it. Indeed a wooden ceiling has always the merit ofbeing secure in its place, and even where the walls are light can bepainted so as to be in harmony with them. Plaster as a ceiling forbedrooms is open to the objection of a possibility of its detachingitself from the lath, especially in old houses, and in these it is wellto have them strengthened with flat mouldings of wood put on in regularsquares, or even in some geometrical design, and painted with theceiling. This gives security as well as a certain elaborateness ofeffect not without its value. 

For the ordinary, or comparatively inexpensive home, we need notconsider the ceiling an object for serious study, because it is soconstantly out of the line of sight, and because its natural colourlesscondition is no bar to the general colour-effect. 

In large rooms this condition is changed, for in a long perspective theceiling comes into sight and consciousness. There would be a sense ofbarrenness and poverty in a long stretch of plain surface or unbrokencolour over a vista of decorated wall, and accordingly the ceilings oflarge and important rooms are generally broken by plaster mouldings orarchitectural ornament. 

In rooms of this kind, whether in public or private buildings, decorative painting has its proper and appropriate place. A paintedceiling, no matter how beautiful, is quite superfluous and indeedabsolutely lost in a room where size prevents its being brought into thefield of the eye by the lowering of long perspective lines, but whenthe size of the room gives unusual length of ceiling, no effect ofdecoration is so valuable and precious. Colour and gilding upon aceiling, when well sustained by fine composition or treatment, isundoubtedly the highest and best achievement of the decorative painter'sart. 

Such a ceiling in a large and stately drawing-room, where the walls arehung with silk which gives broken indications of graceful design in playof light upon the texture, is one of the most successful of both modernas well as antique methods of decoration. It has come down in directsuccession of practice to the school of French decoration of to-day, andhas been adopted into American fashion in its full and complete practicewithout sufficient adaptation to American circumstances. If it weremodified by these, it is capable of absorbing other and better qualitiesthan those of mere fashion and brilliance, as we see in occasionalinstances in some beautiful American houses, where the ceilings havebeen painted, and the textiles woven with an almost imaginativeappropriateness of subject. Such ceilings as this belong, of course, tothe efforts of the mural or decorative painter, who, in conjunction withthe decorator, or architect, has studied the subject as connected withits surroundings. 

CHAPTER XI

FLOORS AND FLOOR-COVERINGS

Although in ordinary sequence the colouring of floors comes after thatof walls, the fact that--in important houses--costly and elaboratefloors of mosaic or of inlaid wood form part of the architect's plan, makes it necessary to consider the effect of inherent or natural coloursof such floors, in connection with applied colour-schemes in rooms. 

Mosaic floors, being as a rule confined to halls in private houses, needhardly be considered in this relation, and costly wood floors are almostnecessarily confined to the yellows of the natural woods. These yellowsrange from pale buff to olive, and are not as a rule inharmonious withany other tint, although they often lack sufficient strength orintensity to hold their own with stronger tints of walls and furniture. 

As it is one of the principles of colour in a house that the floor isthe foundation of the room, this weakness of colour in hard-wood floorsmust be acknowledged as a disadvantage. The floors should certainly beable to support the room in colour as well as in construction. It mustbe the strongest tint in the room, and yet it must have theunobtrusiveness of strength. This makes floor treatment a more difficultproblem, or one requiring more thought than is generally supposed, andexplains why light rooms are more successful with hard-wood floors thanmedium or very dark ones. 

There are many reasons, sanitary as well as economic, why hard-woodfloors should not be covered in ordinary dwelling-houses; and when thepores of the wood are properly filled, and the surface kept wellpolished, it is not only good as a fact, but as an effect, as itreflects surrounding tints, and does much to make up for lack ofsympathetic or related colour. Yet it will be found that in almost everycase of successful colour-treatment in a room, something must be addedin the way of floor-covering to give it the sense of completeness andsatisfaction which is the result of a successful scheme of decoration. 

The simplest way of doing this is to cover enough of the space with rugsto attract the eye, and restore the balance lost by want of strength ofcolour in the wood. Sometimes one or two small rugs will do this, andthese may be of almost any tint which includes the general one of theroom, even if the general tint is not prominent in the rug. If the useor luxury of the room requires more covered space, it is better to useone rug of a larger size than several small and perhaps conflictingones. Of course in this the general tone of the rug must be chosen forits affinity to the tone of the room, but that affinity secured, anyvariations of colour occurring in the design are apt to add to thegeneral effect. 

[Illustration: SQUARE HALL IN CITY HOUSE]

A certain amount of contrast to prevailing colour is an advantage, andthe general value of rugs in a scheme of decoration is that they furnishthis contrast in small masses or divisions, so well worked in with othertints and tones that it makes its effect without opposition to thegeneral plan. 

Thus, in a room where the walls are of a pale shade of copper, the rugsshould bring in a variety of reds which would be natural parts of thesame scale, like lower notes in the octave; and yet should add patchesof relative blues and harmonising greens; possibly also, deep gold, andblack and white;--the latter in minute forms and lines which only accentor enrich the general effect. 

It is really an interesting problem, why the strong colours generallyused in Oriental rugs should harmonise so much better with weaker tintsin walls and furniture than even the most judiciously selected carpetscan possibly do. It is true there are bad Oriental rugs, very bad ones, just as there may be a villain in any congregation of the righteous, butcertainly the long centuries of Eastern manufacture, reaching back tothe infancy of the world, have given Eastern nations secrets not to beeasily mastered by the people of later days. 

But if we cannot tell with certainty why good rugs fit all places andcircumstances, while any other thing of mortal manufacture must have itsplace carefully prepared for it, we may perhaps assume to know why themost beautiful of modern carpets are not as easily managed and assuccessful. 

In the first place having explained that some contrast, some fillip ofopposing colour, something which the artist calls _snap_, is absolutelyrequired in every successful colour scheme, we shall see that if we areto get this by simple means of a carpet, we must choose one whichcarries more than one colour in its composition, and colour introducedas design must come under the laws of mechanical manufacture; that is, it must come in as _repeating_ design, and here comes in the realdifficulty. The same forms and the same colours must come in in the sameway in every yard, or every half or three-quarter yard of the carpet. It follows, then, that it must be evenly sprinkled or it must regularlymeander over every yard or half yard of the surface; and this regularityresolves itself into spots, and spots are unendurable in a scheme ofcolour. So broad a space as the floor of a room cannot be covered bysections of constantly repeated design without producing a spottyeffect, although it can be somewhat modified by the efforts of the gooddesigner. Nevertheless, in spite of his best knowledge and intention, the difficulty remains. There is no one patch of colour larger thananother, or more irregular in form. There is nothing which has not itsexact counterpart at an exact distance--north, south, east and west, ornortheast, southeast, northwest and southwest--and this is why a carpetwith good design and excellent colour becomes unbearable in a room oflarge size. In a small room where there are not so many repeats, theeffect is not as bad, but in a large room the monotonous repetition isalmost without remedy. 

Of course there are certain laws of optics and ingenuities ofcomposition which may palliate this effect, but the fact remains thatthe floor should be covered in a way which will leave the mind tranquiland the eye satisfied, and this is hard to accomplish with what iscommonly known as a figured carpet. 

If carpet is to be used, it seems, then, that the simplest way is toselect a good monochrome in the prevailing tint of the room, but severalshades darker. Not an absolutely plain surface, but one broken with someunobtrusive design or pattern in still darker darks and lighter lightsthan the general tone. In this case we shall have the room harmonious, it is true, but lacking the element which provokes admiration--theenlivening effect of contrast. This may be secured by making the centreor main part of the carpet comparatively small, and using a very wideand important border of contrasting colour--a border so wide as to makeitself an important part of the carpet. In large rooms this plan doesnot entirely obviate the difficulty, as it leaves the central spacestill too large and impressive to remain unbroken; but the remedy may befound in the use of hearth-rugs or skin-rugs, so placed as to seemnecessities of use. 

As I have said before, contrast on a broad scale can be secured bychoosing carpets of an entirely different tone from the wall, and thisis sometimes expedient. For instance, as contrast to a copper-colouredwall, a softly toned green carpet is nearly always successful. This onecolour, green, is always safe and satisfactory in a floor-covering, provided the walls are not too strong in tone, and provided that thegreen in the carpet is not too green. Certain brownish greens possessthe quality of being in harmony with every other colour. They are themost peaceable shades in the colour-world--the only ones withoutpositive antipathies. Green in all the paler tones can claim the titleof peace-maker among colours, since all the other tints will fight withsomething else, but never with green of a corresponding or even of amuch greater strength. Of course this valuable quality, combined with anatural restfulness of effect, makes it the safest of ordinaryfloor-coverings. 

In bedrooms with polished floors and light walls good colour-effects canbe secured without carpets, but if the floors are of pine and needcovering, no better general effect can be secured than that of plain ormixed ingrain filling, using with it Oriental hearth and bedside rugs. 

The entire second floor of a house can in that case be covered withcarpet in the accommodating tint of green mentioned, leaving the variouscolour-connections to be made with differently tinted rugs. Good pinefloors well fitted and finished can be stained to harmonise with almostany tint used in furniture or upon the wall. 

I remember a sea-side chamber in a house where the mistress had greatnatural decorative ability, and so much cultivation as to prevent itsrunning away with her, where the floor was stained a transparent olive, like depths of sea-water, and here and there a floating sea-weed, or aform of sea-life faintly outlined within the colour. In this room, which seemed wide open to the sea and air, even when the windows wereclosed, the walls were of a faint greenish blue, like what is called_dead_ turquoise, and the relation between floor and walls was soperfect that it remained with me to this day as a crowning instance ofsatisfaction in colour. 

It is perhaps more difficult to convey an idea of happy choice orselection of floor-colour than of walls, because it is relative towalls. It must relate to what has already been done. But inrecapitulation it is safe to say, first, that in choosing colour for aroom, soft and medium tints are better than positively dark or brightones, and that walls should be unobtrusive in design as well as colour;secondly, that floors, if of the same tint as walls, should be muchdarker; and that they should be _made apparent_ by means of thisstrength of colour, or by the addition of rugs or borders, although therelation between walls and floor must be carefully preserved andperfectly unmistakable, for it is the perfection of this relation of onecolour to another which makes home decoration an art. 

There is still a word to be said as to floor-coverings, which relates tohealthful housekeeping instead of art, and that is, that in all caseswhere carpets or mattings are used, they should be in rug form, notfitted in to irregular floor-spaces; so as to be frequently and easilylifted and cleaned. The great, and indeed the only, objection to the useof mattings in country or summer houses, is the difficulty of frequentlifting, and removal of accumulated dust, which has sifted through tothe floor--but if fine hemp-warp mattings are used, and sewn intosquares which cover the floor sufficiently, it is an ideal summerfloor-covering, as it can be rolled and removed even more easily than acarpet, and there is a dust-shedding quality in it which commends itselfto the housekeeper. 

CHAPTER XII

DRAPERIES

Draperies are not always considered as a part of furnishings, yet intruth--as far as decorative necessities are concerned--they should comeimmediately after wall and floor coverings. The householder who is inhaste to complete the arrangement of the home naturally thinks first ofchairs, sofas, and tables, because they come into immediate personaluse, but if draperies are recognised as a necessary part of the beautyof the house it is worth while to study their appropriate character fromthe first. They have in truth much more to do with the effect of theroom than chairs or sofas, since these are speedily sat upon and passout of notice, while draperies or portières are in the nature ofpictures--hanging in everybody's sight. As far as the element of beautyis concerned, a room having good colour, attractive and interestingpictures, and beautiful draperies, is already furnished. Whatever elsegoes to the making of it may be also beautiful, but it must beconvenient and useful, while in the selection of draperies, beauty, bothrelative and positive, is quite untrammelled. 

As in all other furnishings, from the æsthetic point of view colour isthe first thing to be considered. As a rule it should follow that of thewalls, a continuous effect of colour with variation of form and surfacebeing a valuable and beautiful thing to secure. To give the full valueof variation--where the walls are plain one should choose a figuredstuff for curtains; where the wall is papered, or covered with figures, a plain material should be used. 

There is one exception to this rule and this is in the case of wallshung with damask. Here it is best to use the same material for curtains, as the effect is obtained by the difference between the damask hung infolds, with the design indistinguishable, or stretched flat upon awall-surface, where it is plainly to be seen and felt. Even where damaskis used upon the walls, if exactly the same shade of colour can be foundin satin or velvet, the plain material in drapery will enhance the valueof design on the walls. 

This choice or selection of colour applies to curtains and portières assimple adjuncts of furnishing, and not to such pieces of drapery as arein themselves works of art. When a textile becomes a work of art it isin a measure a law unto itself, and has as much right to select its owncolour as if it were a picture instead of a portière, in fact if it issufficiently important, the room must follow instead of leading. Thismay happen in the case of some priceless old embroidery, some relic ofthat peaceful past, when hours and days flowed contentedly into a schemeof art and beauty, without a thought of competitive manufacture. Itmight be difficult to subdue the spirit of a modern drawing-room intoharmony with such a work of art, but if it were done, it would be a veryshrine of restfulness to the spirit. 

Fortunately many ancient marvels of needlework were done upon whitesatin, and this makes them easily adaptable to any light scheme ofcolour, where they may appear indeed as guests of honour--invited fromthe past to be courted by the present. It is not often that such piecesare offered as parts of a scheme of modern decoration, and the fingersof to-day are too busy or too idle for their creation, yet it sometimeshappens that a valuable piece of drapery of exceptional colour belongsby inheritance or purchase to the fortunate householder, and in thiscase it should be used as a picture would be, for an independent bit ofdecoration. 

To return to simple things, the rule of contrast as applied to paperedwalls, covered with design, ordains that the curtains should undoubtedlybe plain and of the most pronounced tint used in the paper. If the wallsof a room are simply tinted or painted, figured stuffs of the samegeneral tone, or printed silks, velvets, or cottons in which thepredominant tint corresponds with that of the wall should be used. Theserelieve the simplicity of the walls, and give the desirable variation. 

Transparent silk curtains are of great value in colouring the lightwhich enters the room, and these should be used in direct reference tothe light. If the room is dark or cold in its exposure, to hang thewindows with sun-coloured silk or muslin will cheat the eye andimagination into the idea that it is a sunny room. If, on the contrary, there is actual sunshine in the room, a pervading tint of rose-colour ordelicate green may be given by inner curtains of either of thosecolours. These are effects, however, for which rules can hardly begiven, since the possible variations must be carefully studied, unless, indeed, they are the colour-strokes of some one who has that genius forcombination or contrast of tints which we call "colour sense. "

After colour in draperies come texture and quality, and these needhardly be discussed in the case of silken fabrics, because silk fibrehas inherent qualities of tenacity of tint and flexibility of substance. Pure silk, that is silk unstiffened with gums, no matter how thickly andheavily it is woven, is soft and yielding and will fall into foldswithout sharp angles. This quality of softness is in its very substance. Even a single unwoven thread of silk will drop gracefully into loops, where a cotton or linen or even a woollen thread will show stiffness. 

Woollen fibre seems to acquire softness as it is gathered into yarns andwoven, and will hang in folds with almost the same grace as silk; butunfortunately they are favourite pasture grounds as well asburying-places for moths, and although these co-inhabitants of ourhouses come to a speedy resurrection, they devour their very graves, andleave our woollen draperies irremediably damaged. It is a pity thatwoollen fabrics should in this way be made undesirable for householduse, for they possess in a great degree the two most valuable qualitiesof silk: colour-tenacity and flexibility. If one adopts woollen curtainsand portières, constant "vigilance is the price of safety, " andconsidering that vigilance is required everywhere and at all times inthe household, it is best to reduce the quantity whenever it ispossible. 

This throws us back upon cottons and linens for inexpensive hangings, and in all the thousand forms in which these two fibres are manufacturedit would seem easy to choose those which are beautiful, durable, andappropriate. But here we are met at the very threshold of choice withthe two undesirable qualities of fugitive colour, and stiffness oftexture. Something in the nature of cotton makes it inhospitable todyes. If it receives them it is with a protest, and an evident intentionof casting them out at the earliest opportunity--it makes, it is true, one or two exceptions. It welcomes indigo dye and will never quiterelinquish its companionship; once received, it will carry its coloursthrough all its serviceable life, and when it is finally ready to fallinto dust, it is still loyally coloured by its influence. If it ischeated, as we ourselves are apt to be, into accepting spurious indigo, made up of chemical preparations, it speedily discovers the cheat andrefuses its colouring. Perhaps this sympathy is due to a vegetablekinship and likeness of experience, for where cotton will grow, indigowill also flourish. 

In printed cottons or chintzes, there is a reasonable amount of fidelityto colour, and if chintz curtains are well chosen, and lined to protectthem from the sun, their attractiveness bears a fair proportion to theirdurability. 

An interlining of some strong and tried colour will give a very soft andsubtle daylight effect in a room, but this is, of course, lost in theevening. The expedient of an under colour in curtain linings willsometimes give delightful results in plain or unprinted goods, andsometimes a lining with a strong and bold design will produce a charmingshadow effect upon a tinted surface--of course each new experiment mustbe tried before one can be certain of its effect, and, in fact, there israther an exciting uncertainty as to results. Yet there are infinitepossibilities to the householder who has what is called the artisticinstinct and the leisure and willingness to experiment, and experimentsneed not be limited to prints or to cottons, for wonderful combinationsof colour are possible in silks where light is called in as an influencein the composition. One must, however, expect to forego these effectsexcept in daylight, but as artificial light has its own subtleties ofeffect, the one can be balanced against the other. In my owncountry-house I have used the two strongest colours--red and blue--inthis doubled way, with delightful effect. The blue, which is the facecolour, presenting long, pure folds of blue, with warmed reddish shadowsbetween, while at sunset, when the rays of light are level, thevariations are like a sunset sky. 

It will be seen by these suggestions that careful selection, and someknowledge of the qualities of different dyes, will go far towardmodifying the want of permanence of colour and lack of reflection incottons; the other quality of stiffness, or want of flexibility, isoccasionally overcome by methods of weaving. Indeed, if the manufactureror weaver had a clear idea of excellence in this respect, undoubtedlythe natural inflexibility of fibre could be greatly overcome. 

There is a place waiting in the world of art and decoration for what inmy own mind I call "the missing textile. " This is by no means a fabricof cost, for among its other virtues it must possess that of cheapness. To meet an almost universal want it should combine inexpensiveness, durability, softness, and absolute fidelity of colour, and these fourqualities are not to be found in any existing textile. Three ofthem--cheapness, strength, and colour--were possessed by theold-fashioned true indigo-blue denim--the delightful blue which fadedinto something as near the colour of the flower of grass, as deadvegetable material can approach that which is full of living juices--thepossession of these three qualities doubled and trebled the amount ofits manufacture until it lost one of them by masquerading in anilineindigo. 

Many of our ordinary cotton manufactures are strong and inexpensive, anda few of them have the flexibility which denim lacks. It was possessedin an almost perfect degree by the Canton, or fleeced, flannels, manufactured so largely a few years ago, and called art-drapery. Itlacked colour, however, for the various dyes given to it during itsbrief period of favouritism were not colour; they were merely _tint_. That strong, good word, colour, could not be applied to the mixed andevanescent dyes with which this soft and estimable material clotheditself withal. It was, so to speak, invertebrate--it had no backbone. Besides this lack of colour stanchness, it had another fault whichhelped to overbalance its many virtues. It was fatally attractive tofire. Its soft, fluffy surface seemed to reach out toward flame, and thecontact once made, there ensued one flash of instantaneous blaze, andthe whole surface, no matter if it were a table-cover, a hanging, or thewall covering a room, was totally destroyed. Yet as one must have had orheard of such a disastrous experience to fear and avoid it, thisproclivity alone would not have ended its popularity. It was probablythe evanescent character of what was called its "art-colour" which endedthe career of an estimable material, and if the manufacturers had knownhow to eliminate its faults and adapt its virtues, it might still havebeen a flourishing textile. 

In truth, we do not often stop to analyse the reasons of prolongedpopular favour; yet nothing is more certain than that there is reason, and good reason, for fidelity in public taste. Popular liking, ifcontinued, is always founded upon certain incontrovertible virtues. If amanufacture cannot hold its own for ever in public favour, it is becauseit fails in some important particular to be what it should be. Productsof the loom must have lasting virtues if they would secure lastingesteem. Blue denim had its hold upon public use principally for thereason that it possessed a colour superior to all the chances andaccidents of its varied life. It is true it was a colour which commendeditself to general liking, yet if as stanch and steadfast a green or redcould be imparted to an equally cheap and durable fabric, it would findas lasting a place in public favour. 

It is quite possible that in the near future domestic weavings may cometo the aid of the critical house-furnisher, so that the qualities ofstrength and pliability may be united with colour which is bothwater-fast and sun-fast, and that we shall be able to order not only thekind of material, but the exact shade of colour necessary to theperfection of our houses. 

To be washable as well as durable is also a great point in favour ofcotton textiles. The English chintzes with which the high post bedsteadsof our foremothers were hung had a yearly baptism of family soap-suds, and came from it with their designs of gaily-crested, almost life-sizepheasants, sitting upon inadequate branches, very little subdued by theprocess. Those were not days of colour-study; and harmony, applied tothings of sight instead of conduct, was not looked for; but when we copythe beautiful old furniture of that day, we may as well demand with itthe quality of washableness and cleanableness which went with all itsbelongings. 

It is always a wonder to the masculine, that the feminine mind has suchan ineradicable love of draperies. The man despises them, but to thewoman they are the perfecting touch of the home, hiding or disguisingall the sharp angles of windows and doors, and making of themopportunities of beauty. It is the same instinct with which she tries tocover the hard angles and facts of daily life and make of them virtuousincitements. As long as the woman rules, house-curtains will be a joyand delight to her. Something in their soft protection, grace of line, and possible beauty of colour appeals to her as no other householdbelonging has the power to do. The long folds of the straight hangingcurtain are far more beautiful than the looped and festooned creationswhich were held in vogue by some previous generations, and indeed arestill dear to the hearts of professional upholsterers. The simpler thetreatment, the better the effect, since natural rather than distortedline is more restful and enjoyable. Quality, colour, and simple gracefullines are quite sufficient elements of value in these important adjunctsof house furnishing and decoration. 

CHAPTER XIII

FURNITURE

Although the forms and varieties of furniture are infinite, they caneasily be classified first into the two great divisions of good and bad, and after that into kinds and styles; but no matter how good thedifferent specimens may be, or to what style they may belong, each oneis subject again to the ruling of fitness. Detached things may be boththoroughly pleasing and thoroughly good in themselves, but unless theyare appropriate to the place where, and purpose for which they are used, they will not be beautiful. 

[Illustration: COLONIAL CHAIRS AND SOFA (BELONGING TO MRS. RUTH MCENERYSTUART)]

It is well to reiterate that the use to which a room is put must alwaysgovern its furnishing and in a measure its colour, and that whatever weput in it must be placed there because it is appropriate to that use, and because it is needed for completeness. It is misapplication whichmakes much of what is called "artistic furnishing" ridiculous. Anold-fashioned brass preserving-kettle and a linen or wool spinning-wheelare in place and appropriate pieces of furnishing for a studio; the onefor colour, and the other for form, and because also they may serve asmodels; but they are sadly out of place in a modern city house, or evenin the parlour of a country cottage. 

We all recognise the fact that a room carefully furnished in one stylemakes a oneness of impression; whereas if things are brought togetherheterogeneously, even if each separate thing is selected for its ownspecial virtue and beauty, the feeling of enjoyment will be far lesscomplete. 

There is a certain kinship in pieces of furniture made or originated atthe same period and fashioned by a prevailing sentiment of beauty, whichmakes them harmonious when brought together; and if our minds are insympathy with that period and style of expression, it becomes a greatpleasure to use it as a means of expression for ourselves. Whateverappeals to us as the best or most beautiful thought in manufacture wehave a right to adopt, but we should study to understand thecircumstances of its production, in order to do justice to it andourselves, since style is evolved from surrounding influences. It wouldseem also that its periods and origin should not be too far removed fromthe interests and ways of our own time, and incongruous with it, becauseit would be impossible to carry an utterly foreign period or method ofthought into all the intimacies of domestic life. The fad of furnishingdifferent rooms in different periods of art, and in the fashion ofnations and peoples whose lives are totally dissimilar, may easily becarried too far, and the spirit of home, and even of beauty, be lost. Ofcourse this applies to small, and not to grand houses, which are alwaysexceptions to the purely domestic idea. 

There are many reasons why one should be in sympathy with what is calledthe "colonial craze"; not only because colonial days are a part of ourhistory, but because colonial furniture and decorations were deriveddirectly from the best period of English art. Its original designerswere masters who made standards in architectural and pictorial as wellas household art. The Adams brothers, to whom many of the best forms ofthe period are referable, were great architects as well as greatdesigners. Even so distinguished a painter as Hogarth delighted incomposing symmetrical forms for furniture, and preached persistently thebeauty of curved instead of rectangular lines. It was, in fact, a periodin which superior minds expressed themselves in material forms, whenFlaxman, Wedgwood, Chippendale and many others of their day, trueartists in form, wrote their thoughts in wood, stone, and pottery, andbequeathed them to future ages. Certainly the work of such minds in suchcompany must outlast mere mechanical efforts. It is interesting to note, that many of the Chippendale chairs keep in their under construction thesquare and simple forms of a much earlier period, while the upper part, the back, and seats are carved into curves and floriated designs. Onecannot help wondering whether this square solidity was simply areminiscence or persistence of earlier forms, or a conscious return tothe most direct principles of weight-bearing constructions. 

All furniture made under primitive conditions naturally depends uponperpendicular and horizontal forms, because uninfluenced constructionconsiders first of all the principle of strength; but under the variedinfluences of the Georgian period one hardly expects fidelity to firstprinciples. New England carpenters and cabinet-makers who had wroughtunder the masters of carpentry and cabinet-work in England brought withthem not only skill to fashion, but the very patterns and drawings fromwhich Chippendale and Sheraton furniture had been made in England. OurEnglish forefathers were very fond of the St. Domingo mahogany, broughtback in the ship-bottoms of English traders, but the English workmenwho made furniture in the new world, while they adopted this foreignwood, were not slow to appreciate the wild cherry, and the differentmaples and oak and nut woods which they found in America. They werewoods easy to work, and apt to take on polish and shining surface. Thecabinet-makers liked also the abnormal specimens of maple where thefibre grew in close waves, called _curled_ maple, as well as the greatroots flecked and spotted with minute knots, known as dotted maple. 

All these things went into colonial furniture, so beautifully cut, socarefully dowelled and put together, so well made, that many of thethings have become heirlooms in the families for which they wereconstructed. I remember admiring a fine old cherry book-case in Mr. Lowell's library at Cambridge, and being told by the poet that it hadbelonged to his grandfather. When I spoke of the comparative rarity ofsuch possessions he answered: "Oh, anyone can have his grandfather'sfurniture if he will wait a hundred years!"

Nevertheless, with modern methods of manufacture it is by no meanscertain that a hundred years will secure possession of the furniture webuy to-day to our grandchildren. In those early days it was notuncommon, it was indeed the custom, for some one of the men who werecalled "journeymen cabinet-makers"--that is, men who had served theirtime and learned their trade, but had not yet settled down to a fixedplace and shop of their own--to take up an abode in the house with thefamily which had built it, for a year, or even two or three years, carrying on the work in some out-house or dependence, choosing andseasoning the wood, and measuring the furniture for the spaces where itwas to stand. 

There was a fine fitness in such furnishing; it was as if the differentpieces actually grew where they were placed, and it is small wonder thatso built and fashioned they should possess almost a human interest. Direct and special thought and effort were incorporated with thefurniture from the very first, and it easily explains the excellencesand finenesses of its fashioning. 

There is an interesting house in Flushing, Long Island, where suchfurniture still stands in the rooms where it was put together in 1664, and where it is so fitted to spaces it has filled during the passingcenturies, that it would be impossible to carry it through the narrowdoors and passages, which, unlike our present halls, were made for thepassing to and fro of human beings, and not of furniture. 

[Illustration: COLONIAL MANTEL AND ENGLISH HOB-GRATE (SITTING-ROOM INMRS. CANDACE WHEELER'S HOUSE)]

It is this kind of interest which attaches us to colonial furniture andadds to the value of its beauty and careful adaptation to humanconvenience. In the roomy "high boys" which we find in old houses thereare places for everything. They were made for the orderly packing andkeeping of valuable things, in closetless rooms, and they were madewithout projecting corners and cornices, because life was lived insmaller spaces than at present. They were the best product of athoughtful time--where if manufacture lacked some of the machinery andappliances of to-day, it was at least not rushed by breathlesscompetition, but could progress slowly in careful leisure. Of course wecannot all have colonial furniture, and indeed it would not be accordingto the spirit of our time, for the arts of our own day are to beencouraged and fostered--but we can buy the best of the things whichare made in our time, the best in style, in intention, in fittingness, and above all in carefulness and honesty of construction. 

For some reason the quality of durability seems to be wanting in modernfurniture. Our things are fashioned of the same woods, but something inthe curing or preparation of them has weakened the fibre and made itbrittle. Probably the gradual evaporation of the tree-juices whichold-time cabinet-makers were willing to wait for, left the shrunkensinews of the wood in better condition than is possible with our hurriedand violent kiln-dried methods. What is gained in time in the one placeis lost in another. Nature refuses to enter into our race for speedycompletion, and if we hurry her natural processes we shorten our leaseof ownership. 

As a very apt illustration of this fact, I remember coming intopossession some twenty years ago of an oak chair which had stood, perhaps, for more than two hundred years in a Long Island farm-house. When I found it, it had been long relegated to kitchen use and wascovered with a crust of variously coloured paints which had accumulatedduring the two centuries of its existence. The fashion of it was rare, and had probably been evolved by some early American cabinet-maker, forwhile it had all and even more than the grace of the high-backedChippendale patterns, it was better fitted to the rounded surfaces ofthe human body. It was a spindle chair with a slightly hollowed seat, the rim of the back rounded to a loop which was continued intoarm-rests, which spread into thickened blades for hand-rests. Being verymuch in love with the grace and ease of it, I took it to a manufacturerto be reproduced in mahogany, who, with a far-sighted sagacity, floodedthe market with that particular pattern. 

We are used--and with good reason--to consider mahogany as a durablewood, but of the half-dozen of mahogany copies of the old oak chair, each one has suffered some break of legs or arms or spindles, while theoriginal remains as firm in its withered old age as it was the day Irescued it from the "out-kitchen" of the Long Island farm-house. 

For the next fifty years after the close of our colonial history, thecolonial cabinet-makers in New England and the northern Middle Statescontinued to flourish, evolving an occasional good variation from whatmay be called colonial forms. Rush-and flag-bottomed chairs and chairswith seats of twisted rawhide--the frames often gilded and painted--sometimes took the place of wrought mahogany, except in the best roomsof great houses. Many of these are of excellent shape and construction, and specially interesting as an adaptation of natural products of thecountry. Undoubtedly, with our ingenious modern appliances, we couldmake as good furniture as was made in Chippendale and Sheraton's day, with far less expenditure of effort; but the demon of competition intrade will not allow it. We must use all material, perfect or imperfect;we cannot afford to select. We must cover knots and imperfections withcomposition and pass them on. We must use the cheapest glue, and save aninfinitesimal sum in the length of our dowels; we must varnish insteadof polishing, or "the other man" will get the better of us. If we didnot do these things our furniture would be better, but "the other man"would sell more, because he could sell more cheaply. 

Since the revived interest in the making of furniture, we find anoccasional and marked recurrence to primitive form--on each occasion theapparently new style taking on the name of the man who produced it. 

In our own day we have seen the "Eastlake furniture" appear anddisappear, succeeded by the "Morris furniture, " which is undoubtedlybetter adapted to our varied wants. At present, mortising and dowellinghave come to the front as proper processes, especially fortable-building; and this time the style appears under the name of"Mission furniture. " Much of this is extremely well suited for cottagefurnishing, but the occasional exaggeration of the style takes one backnot only to early, but the earliest, English art, when chairs wereimmovable seats or blocks, and tables absolute fixtures on account ofthe weighty legs upon which they were built. In short, the careful andcultivated decorator finds it as imperative to guard against exaggeratedsimplicity as unsupported prettiness. 

Fortunately there has been a great deal of attention paid to goodcabinet work within the last few years, and although the method of itsmaking lacks the human motive and the human interest of former days--itis still a good expression of the art of to-day, and at its best, worthyto be carried down with the generations as one of the steps in theevolutions of time. What we have to do, is to learn to discriminatebetween good and bad, to appreciate the best in design and workmanship, even although we cannot afford to buy it. In this case we should learnto do with less. As a rule our houses are crowded. If we are able tobuy a few good things, we are apt instead to buy many only moderatelygood, for lavish possession seems to be a sort of passion, orbirthright, of Americans. It follows that we fill our houses withheterogeneous collections of furniture, new and old, good and bad, appropriate or inappropriate, as the case may be, with a result ofliving in seeming luxury, but a luxury without proper selection or truevalue. To have less would in many cases be to have more--moretranquillity of life, more ease of mind, more knowledge and more realenjoyment. 

There is another principle which can be brought into play in this case, and that is the one of buying--not a costly kind of thing, but the bestof its kind. If it is a choice in chairs, for instance, let it be thebest cane-seated, or rush-bottomed chair that is made, instead of thesecond or third best upholstered or leather-covered one. If it is aquestion of tables, buy the simplest form made of flawless wood and withbest finish, instead of a bargain in elaborately turned or scantilycarved material. If it is in bedsteads, a plain brass, or good enamellediron or a simple form in black walnut, instead of a cheap inlaidwood--and so on through the whole category. A good chintz or cotton isbetter for draperies, than flimsy silk or brocade; and when all is donethe very spirit of truth will sit enthroned in the household, and weshall find that all things have been brought into harmony by her laws. 

[Illustration: SOFA DESIGNED BY MRS. CANDACE WHEELER FOR NEW LIBRARY IN"WOMAN'S BUILDING, " COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION]

Although the furnishing of a house should be one of the most painstakingand studied of pursuits, there is certainly nothing which is at the sametime so fascinating and so flattering in its promise of futureenjoyment. It is like the making of a picture as far as possibility ofbeauty is concerned, but a picture within and against which one's life, and the life of the family, is to be lived. It is a bit of creative artin itself, and one which concerns us so closely as to be a very part ofus. We enjoy every separate thing we may find or select or procure--notonly for the beauty and goodness which is in it, but for itscontribution to the general whole. And in knowledge of applied andmanufactured art, the furnishing of a house is truly "the beginning ofwisdom. " One learns to appreciate what is excellent in the new, fromstudy and appreciation of quality in the old. 

It is the fascination of this study which has made a multiplication ofshops and collections of "antiques" in every quarter of the city. Many awoman begins from the shop-keeper's point of view of the value of mereage, and learns by experience that age, considered by itself, is adisqualification, and that it gives value only when the art whichcreated the antique has been lost or greatly deteriorated. If one canfind as good, or a better thing in art and quality, made to-day--by allmeans buy the thing of to-day, and let yourself and your children becredited with the hundred or two years of wear which is in it. We caneasily see that it is wiser to buy modern iridescent glass, fitted toour use, and yet carrying all the fascinating lustre of ancient glass, than to sigh for the possession of some unbuyable thing belonging todead and gone Caesars. And the case is as true of other modern art andmodern inventions, if the art is good, and the inventions suitable toour wants and needs. 

Yet in spite of the goodness of much that is new, there is a subtlepleasure in turning over, and even in appropriating, the things that areold. There are certain fenced-in-blocks on the east side of New YorkCity where for many years the choice parts of old houses have beendeposited. As fashion and wealth have changed their locality--treadingslowly up from the Battery to Central Park--many beautiful bits ofconstruction have been left behind in the abandoned houses--eitherdisregarded on account of change in popular taste, or unappreciated byreason of want of knowledge. For the few whose knowledge was competent, there were things to be found in the second-hand yards, precious beyondcomparison with anything of contemporaneous manufacture. 

There were panelled front doors with beautifully fluted columns andcarved capitals, surmounted by half-ovals of curiously designed sashes;there were beautifully wrought iron railings, and elaborate newel-postsof mahogany, brass door-knobs and hinges, and English hob-grates, andcrystal chandeliers of cost and brilliance, and panelled wainscots ofoak and mahogany; chimney-pieces in marble and wood of an excellencewhich we are almost vainly trying to compass, and all of them to bebought at the price of lumber. 

These are the things to make one who remembers them critical about thecollections to be found in the antique shops of to-day, and yet suchshops are enticing and fashionable, and the quest of antiques will go onuntil we become convinced of the art-value and the equal merit of thenew--which period many things seem to indicate is not far off. In thosedays there was but one antique shop in all New York which was devoted tothe sale of old things, to furniture, pictures, statuary, and whatRuskin calls "portable art" of all kinds. It was a place where one mightgo, crying "new lamps for old ones" with a certainty of profit in thetransaction. In later years it has been known as _Sypher's_, andalthough one of many, instead of a single one, is still a place offascinating possibilities. 

To sum up the gospel of furnishing, we need only fall back upon theprinciples of absolute fitness, actual goodness, and real beauty. If thefurniture of a well-coloured room possesses these three qualities, theroom as a whole can hardly fail to be lastingly satisfactory. It must beremembered, however, that it is a trinity of virtues. No piece offurniture should be chosen because it is intrinsically good orgenuinely beautiful, if it has not also its _use_--and this rule appliesto all rooms, with the one exception of the drawing-room. 

The necessity of _use_, governing the style of furnishing in a room, isvery well understood. Thus, while both drawing-room and dining-room mustexpress hospitality, it is of a different kind or degree. That of thedrawing-room is ceremonious and punctilious, and represents the familyin its relation to society, while the dining-room is far more intimate, and belongs to the family in its relation to friends. In fact, as thedining-room is the heart of the house, its furnishing would naturally bequite different in feeling and character from the drawing-room, althoughit might be fully as lavish in cost. It would be stronger, lessconservative, and altogether more personal in its expression. Familyportraits and family silver give the personal note which we like torecognise in our friends' dining-rooms, because the intimacy of the roommakes even family history in place. 

In moderate houses, even the drawing-room is too much a family room toallow it to be entirely emancipated from the law of use, but in houseswhich are not circumscribed in space, and where one or more rooms areset apart to social rather than domestic life, it is natural and properto gather in them things which stand, primarily, for art andbeauty--which satisfy the needs of the mind as distinct from those ofbodily comfort. Things which belong in the category of "unrelatedbeauty" may be appropriately gathered in such a room, because the use ofit is to please the eye and excite the interest of our social world;therefore a table which is a marvel of art, but not of convenience, ora casket which is beautiful to look at, but of no practical use, are inaccordance with the idea of the room. They help compose a picture, notonly for the eyes of friends and acquaintances, but for the education ofthe family. 

It follows that an artistic and luxurious drawing-room may be a truefamily expression; it may speak of travel and interest in the artisticdevelopment of mankind; but even where the experiences of the familyhave been wide and liberal, if the house and circumstances are narrow, aluxurious interior is by no means a happiness. 

It may seem quite superfluous to give advice against luxury infurnishing except where it is warranted by exceptional means, becauseeach family naturally adjusts its furnishing to its own needs andcircumstances; but the influence of mere beauty is very powerful, andmany a costly toy drifts into homes where it does not rightly belong andwhere, instead of being an educational or elevating influence, it is asource of mental deterioration, from its conflict with unsympatheticcircumstances. A long and useful chapter might be written upon "art outof place, " but nothing which could be said upon the subject would applyto that incorporation of art and beauty with furniture and interiorsurrounding, which is the effort and object of every true artist andart-lover. 

The fact to be emphasised is, that _objects d'art_--beautiful inthemselves and costly because of the superior knowledge, artisticfeeling, and patient labour which have produced them--demand care andreserve for their preservation, which is not available in a householdwhere the first motive of everything must be ministry to comfort. Artin the shape of pictures is fortunately exempt from this rule, and maydignify and beautify every room in the house without being imperilled bycontact in the exigencies of use. 

Following out this idea, a house where circumstances demand that thereshall be no drawing-room, and where the family sitting-room must alsoanswer for the reception of guests, a perfect beauty and dignity may beachieved by harmony of colour, beauty of form, and appropriateness topurpose, and this may be carried to almost any degree of perfection bythe introduction and accompaniment of pictures. In this case art is apart of the room, as well as an adornment of it. It is kneaded intoevery article of furniture. It is the daily bread of art to which we areall entitled, and which can make a small country home, or a smallercity apartment, as enjoyable and elevating as if it were filled with theluxuries of art. 

[Illustration: RUSTIC SOFA AND TABLES IN "PENNYROYAL" (IN MRS. BOUDINOTKEITH'S COTTAGE, ONTEORA)]

But one may say, "It requires knowledge to do this; much knowledge inthe selection of the comparatively few things which are to make up suchan interior, " and that is true--and the knowledge is to be proved everytime we come to the test of buying. Yet it is a curious fact that thereally _good_ thing, the thing which is good in art as well asconstruction, will inevitably be chosen by an intelligent buyer, insteadof the thing which is bad in art and in construction. Fortunately, onecan see good examples in the shops of to-day, where twenty years ago atbest only honest and respectable furniture was on exhibition. One mustrely somewhat on the character of the places from which one buys, andnot expect good styles and reliable manufacture where commercialsuccess is the dominant note of the business. In truth the careful buyeris not so apt to fail in quality as in harmony, because grade as well asstyle in different articles and manufactures is to be considered. Whatis perfectly good in one grade of manufacture will not be in harmonywith a higher or lower grade in another. Just as we choose our grade offloor-covering from ingrain to Aubusson, we must choose the grade ofother furnishings. Even an inexperienced buyer would be apt to feelthis, and would know that if she found a simple ingrain-fillingappropriate to a bed-chamber, maple or enamelled furniture would belongto it, instead of more costly inlaid or carved pieces. 

It may be well to reiterate the fact that the predominant use of eachroom in a house gives the clew to the best rules of treatment indecoration and furniture. For instance, the hall, being an intermediatespace between in and out of doors, should be coloured and furnished indirect reference to this, and to its common use as a thoroughfare by allmembers of the family. It is not a place of prolonged occupation, andmay therefore properly be without the luxury and ease of lounges andlounging-chairs. But as long as it serves both as entrance-room to thehouse and for carrying the stairways to the upper floors, it should betreated in such a way as to lead up to and prepare the mind for whateverof inner luxury there may be in the house. At the same time it shouldpreserve something of the simplicity and freedom from all attempt ateffect which belong to out-of-door life. The difference between itsdecoration and furniture and that of other divisions of the houseshould be principally in surface, and not in colour. Difference ofsurface is secured by the use of materials which are permanent anddurable in effect, such as wood, plaster, and leather. These may all becoloured without injury to their impression of permanency, although itis generally preferable to take advantage of indigenous or "inherentcolour" like the natural yellows and russets of wood and leather. Whenthese are used for both walls and ceiling, it will be found that, togive the necessary variation, and prevent an impression of monotony anddulness, some tint must be added in the ornament of the surface, whichcould be gained by a forcible deepening or variation of the generaltone, like a deep golden brown, which is the lowest tone of the scale ofyellow, or a red which would be only a variant of the prevailing tint. The introduction of an opposing or contrasting tint, like pale blue insmall masses as compared with the general tint, even if it is in sosmall a space as that of a water-colour on the wall, adds the necessarycontrast, and enlivens and invigorates a harmony. 

No colour carries with it a more appropriate influence at the entranceof a house than red in its different values. Certain tints of it whichare known both as Pompeiian and Damascus red have sufficient yellow intheir composition to fall in with the yellows of oiled wood, and givethe charm of a variant but related colour. In its stronger and deepertones it is in direct contrast to the green of abundant foliage, andtherefore a good colour for the entrance-hall or vestibule of acountry-house; while the paler tones, which run into pinks, hold thesame opposing relation to the gray and blue of the sea-shore. If wallsand ceiling are of wood, a rug of which the prevailing colour is redwill often give the exact note which is needed to preserve the room frommonotony and insipidity. A stair-carpet is a valuable point to make in ahall, and it is well to reserve all opposing colour for this one place, which, as it rises, meets all sight on a level, and makes its contrastdirectly and unmistakably. A stair-carpet has other reasons for use in acountry-house than æsthetic ones, as the stairs are conductors of soundto all parts of the house, and should therefore be muffled, and becausea carpeted stair furnishes much safer footing for the two familyextremes of childhood and age. 

The furniture of the hall should not be fantastic, as somecabinet-makers seem to imagine. Impossible twists in the supports oftables and chairs are perhaps more objectionable in this firstvestibule or entrance to the house than elsewhere, because the mind isnot quite free from out-of-door influences, or ready to take pleasure inthe vagaries of the human fancy. Simple chairs, settles, and tables, more solid perhaps than is desirable in other parts of the house, arewhat the best natural, as well as the best cultivated, taste demands. Ifthere is one place more than another where a picture performs its fullwork of suggestion and decoration, it is in a hall which is otherwisebare of ornament. Pictures in dining-rooms make very little impressionas pictures, because the mind is engrossed with the first and naturalpurpose of the room, and consequently not in a waiting and easilyimpressible mood; but in a hall, if one stops for even a moment, thethoughts are at leisure, and waiting to be interested. Aside from thecolour effect, which may be so managed as to be very valuable, pictureshung in a hall are full of suggestion of wider mental and physical life, and, like books, are indications of the tastes and experiences of thefamily. Of course there are country-houses where the halls are builtwith fireplaces, and windows commanding favourite views, and are reallyintended for family sitting-rooms and gathering-places; in this case itis generally preceded by a vestibule which carries the character of anentrance-hall, leaving the large room to be furnished more luxuriously, as is proper to a sitting-room. 

The dining-room shares with the hall a purpose common to the life of thefamily, and, while it admits of much more variety and elaboration, thatwhich is true of the hall is equally true of the dining-room, that itshould be treated with materials which are durable and have surfacequality, although its decoration should be preferably with china ratherthan with pictures. It is important that the colour of a dining-roomshould be pervading colour--that is, that walls and ceiling should bekept together by the use of one colour only, in different degrees ofstrength. 

For many reasons, but principally because it is the best material to usein a dining-room, the rich yellows of oiled wood make the most desirablecolour and surface. The rug, the curtains, the portières and screen, canthen be of any good tint which the exposure of the room and thedecoration of the china seem to indicate. If it has a cold, northernexposure, reds or gold browns are indicated; but if it is a sunny andwarm-looking room, green or strong India blue will be found moresatisfactory in simple houses. The materials used in curtains, portières, and screens should be of cotton or linen, or some plainwoollen goods which are as easily washable. A one-coloured, heavy-threaded cotton canvas, a linen in solid colour, or evenindigo-blue domestic, all make extremely effective and appropriatefurnishings. The variety of blue domestic which is called denim is thebest of all fabrics for this kind of furnishing, if the colour is nottoo dark. 

The prettiest country house dining-room I know is ceiled and wainscotedwith wood, the walls above the wainscoting carrying an ingrain paper ofthe same tone; the line of division between the wainscot and wall beingbroken by a row of old blue India china plates, arranged in groups ofdifferent sizes and running entirely around the room. There is one smallmirror set in a broad carved frame of yellow wood hung in the centre ofa rather large wall-space, its angles marked by small Dutch plaques; butthe whole decoration of the room outside of these pieces consists ofdraperies of blue denim in which there is a design, in narrow whiteoutline, of leaping fish, and the widening water-circles and showerydrops made by their play. The white lines in the design answer to thewhite spaces in the decorated china, and the two used together inprofusion have an unexpectedly decorative effect. The table and chairsare, of course, of the same coloured wood used in the ceiling andwainscot, and the rug is an India cotton of dark and light blues andwhite. The sideboard is an arrangement of fixed shelves, but coveredwith a beautiful collection of blue china, which serves to furnish thetable as well. If the dining-room had a northern exposure, and it wasdesirable to use red instead of blue for colouring, as good an effectcould be secured by depending for ornament upon the red Kaga porcelainso common at present in Japanese and Chinese shops, and using with itthe Eastern cotton known as _bez_. This is dyed with madder, and exactlyrepeats the red of the porcelain, while it is extremely durable both incolour and texture. Borders of yellow stitchery, or straggling fringesof silk and beads, add very much to the effect of the drapery and to thecharacter of the room. 

[Illustration: DINING-ROOM IN "STAR ROCK" (COUNTRY HOUSE OF W. E. CONNOR, ESQ. , ONTEORA)]

A library in ordinary family life has two parts to play. It is not onlyto hold books, but to make the family at home in a literary atmosphere. Such a room is apt to be a fascinating one by reason of this veryvariety of use and purpose, and because it is a centre for all thefamily treasures. Books, pictures, papers, photographs, bits ofdecorative needlework, all centre here, and all are on most orderlybehaviour, like children at a company dinner. The colour of such a roommay, and should, be much warmer and stronger than that of a parlour pureand simple, the very constancy and hardness of its use indicating tintsof strength and resistance; but, keeping that in mind, the rules forgeneral use of colour and harmony of tints will apply as well to a roomused for a double purpose as for a single. Of course the furnitureshould be more solid and darker, as would be necessary for constant use, but the deepening of tones in general colour provides for that, and forthe use of rugs of a different character. In a room of this kind perhapsthe best possible effect is produced by the use of some textile as awall-covering, as in that case the same material with a contrastedcolour in the lining can be used for curtains, and to some extent in thefurniture. This use of one material has not only an effect of richnesswhich is due to the library of the house, but it softens and bringstogether all the heterogeneous things which different members of a largefamily are apt to require in a sitting-room. 

To those who prefer to work out and adapt their own surroundings, it iswell to illustrate the advice given for colour in different exposures byselecting particular rooms, with their various relations to light, use, and circumstances, and seeing how colour-principles can be applied tothem. 

We may choose a reception-hall, in either a city or country house, sincethe treatment would in both cases be guided by the same rules. If in acity house, it may be on the shady or the sunny side of the street, andthis at once would differentiate, perhaps the colour, and certainly thedepth of colour to be used. If it is the hall of a country house thedifference between north or south light will not be as great, since aroom opening on the north in a house standing alone, in unobstructedspace, would have an effect of coldness, but not necessarily of shadowor darkness. The first condition, then, of coldness of light would haveto be considered in both cases, but less positively in the country, thanin the city house. If the room is actually dark, a warm or orange toneof yellow will both modify and lighten it. 

Gold-coloured or yellow canvas with oak mouldings lighten and warm thewalls; and rugs with a preponderance of white and yellow transform adark hall into a light and cheerful one. It must be remembered that fewdark colours can assert themselves in the absolute shadow of a northlight. Green and blue become black. Gold, orange, and red alone havesufficient power to hold their own, and make us conscious of them indarkness. 

In a hall which has plenty of light, but no sun, red is an effective andnatural colour, copper-coloured leather paper, cushions and rugs orcarpets of varying shades of red, and transparent curtains of the sametint give an effect of warmth and vitality. Red is truly a delightfulcolour to deal with in shadowed interiors, its sensitiveness to light, changing from colour-tinted darkness to palpitating ruby, and even toflame colour, on the slightest invitation of day-or lamp-light, makes itlike a living presence. It is especially valuable at the entrance of thehome, where it seems to meet one with almost a human welcome. 

If we can succeed in making what would be a cold and unattractiveentrance hospitable and cordial by liberal use of warm and strongcolour, by reversing the effort we can just as easily modify the effectof glaring, or overpowering, sunlight. 

Suppose the entrance-hall of the house to be upon the sunny side of thestreet, where in addition to the natural effect of full rays of the sunthere are also the reflections from innumerable other house-fronts andhouse-windows. 

In this case we must simulate shadow and mystery, and this can be doneby the colour-tones of blues and greens. I use these in the pluralbecause the shadows of both are innumerable, and because all, exceptperhaps turquoise and apple-green, are natural shadow-tints. Green andblue can be used together or separately, according to the skill andwhat is called the "colour-sense" with which they are applied. 

To use them together requires not only observation of colour-occurrencesin nature but sensitiveness to the more subtle out-of-door effects, resulting from intermingling of shadows and reflection of lights. Welldone, it is one of the most beautiful and satisfactory of achievements, but it may easily be bad by reason of sharp contrasts, or unmodifiedjuxtaposition. 

But a room where blue in all its shades from dark to light alonepredominates, or a room where only green is used, bright and gray tonesin contrast and variation is within the reach of most colour-lovingmortals, and as both of these tints are companionable with oak and gold, and to be found in nearly all decoration materials, it is easy toarrange a refined and beautiful effect in either colour. 

It will require little reflection to show that a hall skilfully treatedwith green or blue tints would modify the colour of sunlight, withoutgiving a sense of discord. It would be like passing only from sunlightto grateful shadow, and this because in all art the actualrepresentation shadow-colour would be blue or green. The shadow of atree falling upon snow on a sunny winter day is blue. The shadow of asunheated rock in summer is green, and the success of either of theseschemes of decoration would be because of adherence to an actualprinciple of colour, or a knowledge of the peculiar qualities of certaincolours and their proper use. It would be an intelligent application ofthe medicinal or healing qualities of colour to the constitution of thehouse, as skilful physicians use medicines to overcome constitutionaldefects or difficulties in man. 

This may be called _corrective_ treatment of a room, and may, ofcourse, include all the decorative devices of ornament, design andfurniture, and although it is not, strictly speaking, decoration, itshould certainly and always precede decoration. 

It is sad to see an elaborate scheme of ornament based upon badcolour-treatment, and unfortunately this not infrequently happens. 

It is difficult to give a formula for the decoration of any room inrelation to its colour-treatment, except by a careful description ofcertain successful examples, each one of which illustrates principlesthat may be of use to the amateur or student of the art. 

One which occurs to me in this immediate connection is a dining-room inan apartment house, where this room alone is absolutely without what maybe called exterior light. Its two windows open upon a well, the brickwall of which is scarcely ten feet away. Fortunately, it makes a part ofthe home of a much travelled and exceedingly cultivated pair of beings, the business of one being to create beauty in the way of pictures andthe other of statues, so perhaps it is less than a wonder that thissquare, unattractive well-room should have blossomed under their handsinto a dining-room perfect in colour, style, and fittings. I shall giveonly the result, the process being capable of infinite small variations. 

At present it is a room sixteen feet square, one side of which isoccupied by two nearly square windows. The wood-work, including afive-foot wainscot of small square panels, is painted a glitteringvarnished white which is warm in tone, but not creamy. The upper halvesof the square windows are of semi-opaque yellow glass, veined andvariable, but clear enough everywhere to admit a stained yellow light. Below these, thin yellow silk curtains cross each other, so that thewhole window-space radiates yellow light. If we reflect that the colourof sunlight is yellow, we shall be able to see both the philosophy andthe result of this treatment. 

The wall above the wainscot is covered with a plain unbleached muslin, stencilled at the top in a repeating design of faint yellow tile-likesquares which fade gradually into white at a foot below the ceiling. Atintervals along the wall are water-colours of flat Holland meadows, orblue canals, balanced on either side by a blue delft plate, and in acorner near the window is a veritable blue porcelain stove, which oncefaintly warmed some far-off German interior. The floor is polished oak, as are the table and chairs. I purposely leave out all the accessoriesand devices of brass and silver, the quaint brass-framed mirrors, theivy-encircled windows, the one or two great ferns, the choice bluetable-furniture:--because these are personal and should neither beimitated or reduced to rules. 

The lesson is in the use of yellow and white, accented with touches ofblue, which converts a dark and perfectly cheerless room into a glitterof light and warmth. 

The third example I shall give is of a dining-room which may be calledpalatial in size and effect, occupying the whole square wing of awell-known New York house. There are many things in this house in theway of furniture, pictures, historic bits of art in different lines, which would distinguish it among fine houses, but one particular roomis, perhaps, as perfectly successful in richness of detail, picturesqueness of effect, and at the same time perfect appropriatenessto time, place, and circumstances as is possible for any achievement ofits kind. The dining-room, and its art, taken in detail, belongs to theVenetian school, but if its colour-effect were concentrated upon canvas, it would be known as a Rembrandt. There is the same rich shadow, covering a thousand gradations, --the same concentration of light, andthe same liberal diffusion of warm and rich tones of colour. It is agrand room in space, as New York interiors go, being perhaps forty tofifty feet in breadth and length, with a height exactly proportioned tothe space. It has had the advantage of separate creation--being "thoughtout" years after the early period of the house, and is, consequently, aconcrete result of study, travel, and opportunities, such as fewfamilies are privileged to experience. Aside from the perfectproportions of the room, it is not difficult to analyse the art whichmakes it so distinguished an example of decoration of space, and decidewherein lies its especial charm. It is undoubtedly that of colour, although this is based upon a detail so perfect, that one hesitates togive it predominant credit. The whole, or nearly the whole west end ofthe room is thrown into one vast, slightly projecting window of clearleaded glass, the lines of which stand against the light like a weavingof spiders' webs. There is a border of various tints at its edge, whichsoftens it into the brown shadow of the room, and the centre of eachlarge sash is marked by a shield-like ornament glowing with colour likea jewel. The long ceiling and high wainscoting melt away from thisleaded window in a perspective of wonderfully carved planes of antiqueoak, catching the light on lines and points of projection and quenchingit in hollows of relief. 

[Illustration: DINING-ROOM IN NEW YORK HOUSE SHOWING LEADED-GLASSWINDOWS]

These perpendicular wall panels were scaled from a room in a Venetianpalace, carved when the art and the fortunes of that sea-city were attheir best, and the alternately repeating squares of the ceiling werefashioned to carry out and supplement the ancient carvings. If this werea small room, there would be a sense of unrest in so lavish a use ofbroken surface, but in one large enough to have it felt as a whole, andnot in detail, it simply gives a quality of preciousness. The softbrowns of the wood spread a mystery of surface, from the edge of thepolished floor until it meets a frieze of painted canvas filled withlarge reclining figures clad in draperies of red, and blue, andyellow--separating the walls from the ceiling by an illumination ofcolour. This colour-decoration belongs to the past, and it is a questionif any modern painting could have adapted itself so perfectly to thespirit of the room, although in itself it might be far more beautiful. It is a bit of antique imagination, its cherub-borne plates of fruit, and golden flagons, and brown-green of foliage and turquoise of sky, andcrimson and gold of garments, all softened to meet the shadows of theroom. The door-spaces in the wainscot are hung with draperies of crimsonvelvet, the surface frayed and flattened by time into variations of red, impossible to newer weavings, while the great floor-space is spread withan enormous rug of the same colour--the gift of a Sultan. A carved tablestands in the centre, surrounded with high-backed carved chairs, theseats covered with the same antique velvet which shows in theportières. A fall of thin crimson silk tints the sides of thewindow-frame, and on the two ends of the broad step or platform whichleads to the window stand two tall pedestals and globe-shaped jars ofred and blue-green pottery. The deep, ruby-like red of the one and themixed indefinite tint of the other seem to have curdled into the exactshade for each particular spot, their fitness is so perfect. 

The very sufficient knowledge which has gone to the making of thissuperb room has kept the draperies unbroken by design or device, givingcolour only and leaving to the carved walls the privilege of ornament. 

It will be seen that there are but two noticeable colour-tones in theroom--brown with infinite variations, and red in rugs and draperies. 

There is no real affinity between these two tints, but they are here sowell balanced in mass, that the two form a complete harmony, like thebrown waves of a landscape at evening tipped with the fire of a sunsetsky. 

Much is to be learned from a room like this, in the lesson of unity andconcentration of effect. The strongest, and in fact the only, mass ofvital colour is in the carpet, which is allowed to play upwards, as itwere, into draperies, and furniture, and frieze, none of which show thesame depth and intensity. To the concentration of light in the one greatwindow we must give the credit of the Rembrandt-like effect of the wholeinterior. If the walls were less rich, this single flood of light wouldbe a defect, because it would be difficult to treat a plain surface withcolour alone, which should be equally good in strong light and deepshadow. 

[Illustration: DINING-ROOM IN NEW YORK HOME SHOWING CARVED WAINSCOTTINGAND PAINTED FRIEZE]

Then, again, the amount of living and brilliant colour is exactlyproportioned to that of sombre brown, the red holding its value bystrength, as against the greatly preponderating mass of dark. On thewhole this may be called a "picture-room, " and yet it is distinctlyliveable, lending itself not only to hospitality and ceremoniousfunction but also to real domesticity. It is true that there is acertain obligation in its style of beauty which calls for fine mannersand fine behaviour, possibly even, behaviour in kind; for it is in thenature of all fine and exceptional things to demand a correspondingfineness from those who enjoy them. 

I will give still another dining-room as an example of colour, which, unlike the others, is not modern, but a sort of falling in of oldgentility and costliness into lines of modern art--one might almost sayit _happened_ to be beautiful, and yet the happening is only anadjustment of fine old conditions to modern ideas. Yet I have known manyas fine a room torn out and refitted, losing thereby all the inherentdignity of age and superior associations. 

A beautiful city home of seventy years ago is not very like a beautifulcity home of to-day; perhaps less so in this than in any other country. The character of its fineness is curiously changed; the modern house isfitted to its inmates, while the old-fashioned house, modelled upon theearly eighteenth century art of England, obliged the inmates to fitthemselves as best they might to a given standard. 

The dining-room I speak of belongs to the period when Washington Square, New York, was still surrounded by noble homes, and almost the limit ofluxurious city life was Union Square. The house fronts to the north, consequently the dining-room, which is at the back, is flooded withsunshine. The ceiling is higher than it would be in a modern house, andthe windows extend to the floor, and rise nearly to the ceiling, farindeed above the flat arches of the doorways with their rococoflourishes. This extension of window-frame, and the heavy and elaborateplaster cornice so deep as to be almost a frieze, and the equallyelaborate centre-piece, are the features which must have made it a roomdifficult to ameliorate. 

I could fancy it must have been an ugly room in the old days when itswalls were probably white, and the great mahogany doors were spots ofcolour in prevailing spaces of blankness. Now, however, any one at alllearned in art, or sensitive to beauty, would pronounce it a beautifulroom. The way in which the ceiling with its heavy centre-piece andplaster cornice is treated is especially interesting. The whole of thisis covered with an ochre-coloured bronze, while the walls anddoor-casings are painted a dark indigo, which includes a faint trace ofgreen. Over this wall-colour, and joining the cornice, is carried astencil design in two coloured bronzes which seem to repeat the lightand shadow of the cornice mouldings, and this apparently extends thecornice into a frieze which ends faintly at a picture-moulding somethree feet below. This treatment not only lowers the ceiling, which isin construction too high for the area of the room, but blends it withthe wall in a way which imparts a certain richness of effect to all thelower space. 

The upper part of the windows, to the level of the picture-moulding, iscovered with green silk, overlaid with an appliqué of the same in adesign somewhat like the frieze, so that it seems to carry the friezeacross the space of light in a green tracery of shadow. The same greenextends from curtain-rods at the height of the picture-moulding intolong under-curtains of silk, while the over-curtains are of indigocoloured silk-canvas which matches the walls. 

The portières separating the dining-room from the drawing-room are of awonderfully rich green brocade--the colour of which answers to the greenof the silk under-curtains across the room, while the design rangesitself indisputably with the period of the plaster work. The blue andgreen of the curtains and portière each seem to claim their own in themixed and softened background of the wall. 

The colour of the room would hardly be complete without the threebeautiful portraits which hang upon the walls, and suggest their part ofthe life and conversation of to-day so that it stands on a proper planewith the dignity of three generations. The beautiful mahogany doors andelaboration of cornice and central ornament belong to them, but theharmony and beauty of colour are of our own time and tell of the generalknowledge and feeling for art which belongs to it. 

I have given the colour-treatment only of this room, leaving out theeffect of carved teak-wood furniture and subtleties of china andglass--not alone as an instance of colour in a sunny exposure, but as anexample of fitting new styles to old, of keeping what is valuable andbeautiful in itself and making it a part of the comparatively new art ofdecoration. 

[Illustration: SCREEN BY DORA WHEELER KEITH SCREEN AND GLASS WINDOW INHOUSE AT LAKEWOOD (Belonging to Clarence Roof, Esq. )]

There is a dining-room in one of the many delightful houses inLakewood, N. J. , which owes its unique charm to a combination ofposition, light, colour, and perhaps more than all, to the cleverdecoration of its upper walls, which is a fine and broad composition ofswans and many-coloured clusters of grapes and vine-foliage placed abovethe softly tinted copper-coloured wall. The same design is carried insilvery and gold-coloured leaded-glass across the top of the wide westwindow, as shown in illustration opposite page 222, and reappears with ashield-shaped arrangement of wings in a beautiful four-leaved screen. 

The notable and enjoyable colour of the room is seen from the veryentrance of the house, the broad main hall making a carpeted highway tothe wide opening of the room, where a sheaf of tinted sunset light seemsto spread itself like a many-doubled fan against the shadows of thehall. 

All the ranges and intervals, the lights, reflections, and darkspossible to that most beautiful of metals--copper--seem to be gatheredinto the frieze and screen, and melt softly into the greens of thefoliage, or tint the plumage of the swans. It is an instance of the kindof decoration which is both classic and domestic, and being warmed andvivified by beautiful colour, appeals both to the senses and theimagination. 

It would be easy to multiply instances of beautiful rooms, and each onemight be helpful for mere imitation, but those I have given have eachone illustrated--more or less distinctly--the principle of colour asaffecting or being affected by light. 

I have not thought it necessary to give examples of rooms with easternor western exposures, because in such rooms one is free to consultone's own personal preferences as to colour, being limited only by thegeneral rules which govern all colour decoration. 

I have not spoken of pictures or paintings as accessories of interiordecoration, because while their influence upon the character and degreeof beauty in the house is greater than all other things put together, their selection and use are so purely personal as not to call for remarkor advice. Any one who loves pictures well enough to buy them, canhardly help placing them where they not only are at their best, butwhere they will also have the greatest influence. 

A house where pictures predominate will need little else that comesunder the head of decoration. It is a pity that few houses have thisadvantage, but fortunately it is quite possible to give a picturequality to every interior. This can often be done by following the leadof some accidental effect which is in itself picturesque. The placing ajar of pottery or metal near or against a piece of drapery which repeatsits colour and heightens the lustre of its substance is a small detail, but one which gives pleasure out of all proportion to its importance. The half accidental draping of a curtain, the bringing together ofshapes and colours in insignificant things, may give a character whichis lastingly pleasing both to inmates and casual visitors. 

Of course this is largely a matter of personal gift. One person may makea picturesque use of colour and material, which in the hands of anotherwill be perhaps without fault, but equally without charm. Instances ofthis kind come constantly within our notice, although we are not alwaysable to give the exact reasons for success or failure. We only know thatwe feel the charm of one instance and are indifferent to, or totallyunimpressed by, the other. 

It is by no means an unimportant thing to create a beautiful andpicturesque interior. There is no influence so potent upon life asharmonious surroundings, and to create and possess a home which isharmonious in a simple and inexpensive way is the privilege of all butthe wretchedly poor. In proportion also as these surroundings becomemore perfect in their art and meaning, there is a correspondingelevation in the dweller among them--since the best decoration mustinclude many spiritual lessons. It may indeed be used to further vulgarambitions, or pamper bodily weaknesses, but truth and beauty are itsessentials, and these will have their utterance.