THE SQUARE
The square form is solid and firm, but tends to be monotonous. Square windows, fireplaces and wall s.p.a.ces, as well as square rooms in general and pictures, are usually uninteresting, and this applies to cubes as well. The big cubical chair, for instance, is something to be avoided.
THE TRIANGLE
The triangular form (in mantel clocks, lampshades, highboys, bookcase foundations, and sometimes where it appears in wall paper or Turcoman rug designs) expresses movement in repose admirably, and has real decorative values.
CURVED FORMS
Curved forms, the circle, the oval and the ellipse, are all agreeable.
There is in them "a hint of the mysterious dualism of life."
COLOR
Colors makes decorative shapes easy to see. (For the character of the colors and the principles of their effective combination the reader will find much useful information in the "Color Harmony and Design in Dress" included in this series.) Art, Nature and books will all help the interior decorator in the matter of color adjustment. Trim in most houses compels the adjustment of the color harmony to suit it. In general white paneling calls for the use of one warm and one cool color, while dark brown or black paneling needs two or more warm colors.
PROPORTION
All parts of a furnished room must help express one ideal of balance.
The realization of this ideal is proportion. A horizontal room calls for horizontal furniture and lines, a vertical room for vertical ones.
Every important decorative feature of a room must be selected in accordance with its proportion in general. The size of a room increases the form scale (or scale of the forms) represented by furniture, pictures, rugs, etc. In every room the important individual pieces, such as library table, piano, bed, dresser, must parallel one or another wall. Do not violate proportion and artistic effect by overcrowding.
CHAPTER III
INDIVIDUAL ROOMS OF THE HOUSE
THE DINING ROOM AND "WORK ROOMS"
The dining room, with which we were so directly concerned in the preceding portion of this book, offers a natural point of departure for considering the individual rooms of the house with regard to decoration. First, as to a dominant dining room color: The dining room should be a room of good cheer, a bright, happy room. But it should not be too bright. If it is on the sunny side of the house, let one of the colors dominate--white, cream white, blues, greens, grays or violet-- if on the shady side, gain warmth by the use of yellows (save lemon), orange, warm tans, russets, pinks, yellowish greens and reds. (This applies to all rooms.)
Do not use restless-patterned wall papers. Leather (used with paneling or above wainscot), modern tapestries, fabrics of all kinds are suitable for covering dining-room walls. If low, the ceiling should never be dark, since this makes the room appear still lower. (A breakfast room done in lacquer is very effective, however, if not too low.) A single large rug, harmonizing with the wall color scheme is admirable in any room. In the dining room, however, a figured carpet is often preferred for practical reasons: it stands wear and tear around the table better. Well-chosen paper (See Chapter II) often improves a badly proportioned room by optical illusion. The ideal lightings for dining rooms are side lights. Dining-room drop lights or domes are very trying to the eyes of those who dine, and are unbecoming. Side lights (adding candles for grace and charm) are far pleasanter to the eyes and look better.
In the dining room the table is the dominating furniture note. A round table, an oblong table or a square table may be the more desirable according to the shape of the room. But a round dining table may be harmonized with an oblong dining room by means of an oblong rug, with rounded medallion, by a round flower bowl, a round tray or even the wheels of the tea table. In the dining room, as elsewhere, repet.i.tion in color establishes the color tone of the room. In the dining room, as elsewhere, every individual room presents an individual case, to be worked out decoratively in accordance with the principles already given. One more color hint regarding the dining room, drawn from a modern authority: "When we think of the ideal dinner--the soft lights, the hospitable warmth, the sparkle of crystal, the gleam of silver, the quick talk and gay laughter of the guests--we think of _red,_ for that color is indissolubly bound in thought with the idea of richness, hospitality and excitement." Yet red, as we will see later, is a color to be used with great caution.
WORKING ROOMS VERSUS LIVING ROOMS
Before pa.s.sing to the other rooms of the house, we will pause to consider a more purely utilitarian group.
_The Kitchen_.--These rooms which are strictly utilitarian, more or less escape decorative control. The kitchen, aside from the elements of proportion in arrangement of its furnishings, is not properly a room for decoration. A cheerful color, plenty of light--a practical essential--and practical arrangement of its furniture and equipment are of more importance than the decorative element. Neatness, color harmony and a restful eye effect should be obtained. This applies as well to the butler"s pantry. Pantry and kitchen should always be shut off from the dining room, so that the latter"s decorative values are not affected by them.
_The Bathroom_.--Tiled or hardwood flooring, painted or glazed washable walls, sanitary plumbing, gla.s.s shelves, washable cotton rugs and bath mats, all the modern conveniences in keeping with the purposes of the room, thrust the decorative element into the background. The curtains must be simple and quite easily washed.
_The Home Sewing Room_.--The home sewing room, too, may be viewed decoratively as well as practically. A sunny room with western exposure, kalsomined in pale warm gray, the floor covered with cream- colored matting, windows fitted with white Holland shades--a combination restful to the eye--and furnished with hard-wood framed, cane-bottomed chairs.
CHAPTER IV
LIVING ROOM, DRAWING ROOM AND LIBRARY
We now return to the rooms where decoration is the rule. While always remembering that connecting rooms must harmonize with one another in color, individual colors may always be appropriately chosen for certain rooms, because they express the dominant mood and character of the room in question. Thus, for the living room or drawing room, the yellows, oranges and golden browns, which combine the cheer of yellow and the warmth of red, are excellent. If a restful instead of a cheerful quality is desired for the living room or drawing room, green may be made the dominant hue. Yellow is a joyous tint, also a good breakfast- room hue. It will harmonize in the living room with plain fumed oak, willow furniture and cretonne hangings as well as with painted and paneled ivory walls, old Chinese rugs, damask hangings and satinwood and lacquered furniture. But furniture, bric-a-brac and walls always _must_ be good in line and color. For proper floor balance use a large rug in a large living room, and several small ones in a small one. Furniture, too, should be chosen in view of the emphasis each individual piece has; and its relations to the room in general. The effect of stiffness is not overcome by placing heavy pieces of furniture askew in a room. Yet this is often done. Scale and proportion should always dictate the choice of furniture, lamps and pictures. Each has its place in the general decorative scheme. Red is a hard color for the eyes. Many a red living room has been the cause of chronic headache. Not that red need be entirely tabooed. A living room for example, paneled in oak, with a soft red-toned Oriental rug, red draperies, a touch of red in a stained gla.s.s window panel, and red cushioned window seat will have far more warmth and charm than a room whose walls are completely covered with red.
_The Hall and Library_.--Red, however, makes a hall seem hospitable and full of welcome. It is also a good library color. In halls where walls are papered or paneled with stripes or draperies rich red may appear in the ground of an Oriental rug on the floor, and be matched in the hue of the portieres or stair runner. With damask or tapestry, or large-figured duplex papered hall walls, a soft-toned red rug, with hangings and stair runner matching it, is best. The walls should show a neutral tint, and red will dominate with pleasing effect.
In the library, in winter, with a glow from the open fire playing over a red rug, "revealing shadowy outline of bookcases, and dim velvet draperies, as a deep-shaded lamp throws a beam of light over the arm of a big reading chair," red seems indeed an ideal color for the room.
CHAPTER V
BED ROOM, NURSERY AND PLAY ROOM
For the bedroom, though other colors such as green and violet, in particular (save red, which is a poor bedroom hue) are not barred, blue is an ideal color, expressive of repose and tranquil ease. In the bedroom, however, as in all other rooms, the light and location must always be considered in establishing the color note. Curtains either make or mar a room, especially a bedroom. Bedroom curtains, whether of expensive or cheap material, must emphasize the restful charm of the room. If a bedroom (or other room) is plain in color, the curtains may be either plain or figured. But it is dangerous when wall designs of bedrooms is apt to convey a feeling of restlessness. The bedroom may be provided with one large or several smaller rugs as a floor covering, according to size. Plain rugs are more restful in effect, and with plain walls and chintz often present a charming effect.
NURSERY AND PLAY ROOM
These children"s rooms should always give out a gay and cheerful atmosphere. To obtain this wall papers with colorful friezes with characters from fairy tale, Mother Goose or Noah"s Ark, may be used above a simple wainscot. Painted walls with stenciled designs are also attractive. Small chairs and tables with good lines, a bookcase, a toy cupboard, a sand table, and window boxes where the children may plant seeds, are all possible decorative units of such a room. The general color scheme must be soft and cheerful, plain linoleum is the best floor covering, the few pictures should hang low, and the window curtains should be of white muslin, with side hangings (down to sill) with some special nursery design in cretonne.
CHAPTER VI
SOME HINTS ANENT PERIOD FURNITURE
Period furniture is a means to a decorative end. It is a _part_ of the decoration of a room, and must be adapted to its lines and proportions. Halls for instance, call for tall chairs and cabinets and long and narrow wall tables. Pictures and bric-a-brac are out of place in the hall. In the living room, where s.p.a.ciousness and repose are wanted, substantial, comfortable chairs, long, low sofas, cabinets and tables, and no fussy furniture adjuncts are demanded. Similarly in the dining room, the furniture lines should make the room a more comfortable and restful one in which to eat; and bedroom furniture must in all decorative ways carry out the idea of rest and sleeping. If period furniture is used, the drawing room usually gives the dominant note, which should be carried out (in more or less modified form) throughout the other rooms. Do not make too abrupt contrasts in using period furniture. Late Louis XVI and Early Empire have much in common.
But it is a shock to find Louis XV and Late Empire in the same room.
Sheraton and Rococo, Early Jacobean oak and late eighteenth century English mahogany do not mix. If your rooms are Colonial use Colonial or Georgian styles of furniture. For ball rooms, small reception rooms, and the boudoirs of blooming young beauty--not those of dignified old age--Louis XV is to be commended. Formal dining rooms stand Louis XV and Louis XVI styles very well. On the other hand the simple beauty of line of Adam, Sheraton, Heppelwhite and Chippendale are better suited to simpler rooms--though they may be quite as subtly and perfectly finished. In general, the choice of all furniture--chairs, tables, beds, mirrors--should be influenced by the size of the house and rooms, individual circ.u.mstances and individual taste, where the last does not conflict with established laws of decoration.
CONCLUSION
Interior Decoration is a very extensive and complicated subject. What we have here attempted to do has been to give an idea of the general principles underlying it, together with as many direct and practical hints and suggestions as has been possible within the limits allotted.