CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 189I BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE OUN UMAitY-^IRCULATIOK Cornell University Library NK2110 .P26 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032639043 INTERIOR DECORATION ITS PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE INTERIOR DECORATION ITS PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE BY FRANK ALVAH PARSONS, B. S. PRESIDENT OF NEW YORK SCHOOL OF FINE AND APPLIED ART ILLUSTRATED DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY GABDEN CITY 1915 NEW YORK A-3o3^if2, COPYRIGHT 1916 DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY ALL RIOHTS RESERVED. INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LAN- GUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN OUN UritAXY^CIRCULATION THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY FRIEND WILLIAM M. ODOM WHOSE LOYAL AND SYMPATHETIC COOPERATION HAS DONE MUCH TO CRYSTALLIZE ITS CONTENTS FOREWORD MUCH confusion exists at the present time as to the artistic essentials of a modern house. A great deal has been written — perhaps more has been said — about this subject, and still it is vague to most of us. This vague- ness is partly because we have not realized fully that a house is but the normal expression of one's intellectual concept of fitness and his aesthetic ideal of what is beau- tiful. The house is but the externalized man; himself ex- pressed in colour, form, line and texture. To be sure, he is usually limited in means, hampered by a contrary and penurious landlord or by family heirlooms, and often he cannot find just what he wants in the trade; but still the house is his house. It is he Another reason for this vagueness is the extreme difficulty of parting with traditions. We all deplore this reluctance in others and then embrace our individual traditions the more closely. The first we must dispel are those concerning art; then we must try to find out what art really is. Another quite as necessary to over- come is the generally accepted idea that one must learn all he knows of colour, form and texture through "feel- ing." This doctrine has for generations kept the con- sciousness of thousands of people closed to the simplest principles of the language structure of colour and form. Being free of these misleading traditional beliefs, the vii FOREWORD way is open for learning to do what is not only essential, but natural. The periods, too, have been treated as strange and in- comprehensible, too deep and mysterious for anything but unquestioning admiration and slavish copy. The decorative idea is so completely hidden by the belief in and admiration for ornamental show, that the Baroque idea is the only one generally considered as decorative at all. These and other misconceptions are the reasons for this book. It is modestly hoped that it may be of service to somebody in pointing out what a house is really for and what it should express. It is designed also to make clear the essential qualities which are the life and soul of each of the decorative periods in history. More than anything else, perhaps, it attempts to ex- press simply the principles of colour and form harmony in such a way that any one, who desires to, may express with some degree of confidence his individual ideas. These ideas in terms of colour, form, line and texture form his ideal of interior decoration. Each of the illustrations submitted is an expression of some particular quality or qualities explained in the captions. The violation of other principles of arrange- ment in some cases detracts from the perfect unity of the room. Each illustration should be seen from this point of view also. viu CONTENTS PART I FAOB Introduction When, Where, and How to Decorate 3 CHAFTEB '• Colour and Its Relation to the Decorative Idea 17 "• The Principles of Form and Their Relation to the Decorative Idea 56 '"• Balance and Movement 78 IV- Emphasis and Unity 88 V- Scale, Motifs and Textures as They Relate to Furnishing and Decorating 97 PART n ^- Historic Art Periods and the Ideas Which They Represent 117 V"- The French Renaissance and the French Styles 131 vin- The French Styles 145 i^- The Regency and the Periods of Louis XV and XVI 154 X- The Tudor Period— The English Styles ... 170 XI- The Stuart Period and the Dutch Influence . . 180 ix CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE ^"- The Dutch Influence, or the Period of Queen Anne 186 XIII. 'jijjg Period of Individual Creation — Chippen- dale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, Adam and other Georgian Types 195 XIV. The Colonial Style 206 PART m XV- The Modern House 225 XVI- The Individual House 238 xvii- Some Special Suggestions Choice, Framing and Hanging Pictures, Hanging Curtains, Methods of Lighting, Choice of Deco- rative Objects, General Placement .... 251 Index 275 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A Modem Living-room in a Country House Frontispiece PACING PAGE The Proper Use of Decorative Ornament in Strength- ening and Beautifying the Architectural Effects of Stairway and Windows . . . 4 The Wrong Use of Ornament Applying Without Pur- pose or Reason . ... 4 Doorway Which Illustrates Structural Emphasis by Ornament 6 Doorway, Illustrating Over-emphasis of the Top by too Much Ornament 6 A Console Table, Good in Proportion 8 A Commode 8 Elevation Sketch of Simple Room in Which the Dec- orative Idea is Correctly Expressed .... 12 Historic Room, Illustrating the Principles of Success- ful Wall Decoration and Consistent, Structural Unity in the Arrangement of Furniture ... 14 A Descriptive Colour Chart 20 A Modern Library Whose Walls and Ceiling are Class- ics of Their Type 24 A Historic Room in the Style of Louis XVI .... 32 A Historic Room in French Style 32 Elevation Sketch in Black, White and One Colour . . 36 Bedroom in Country Inn 40 Elevation Suggesting Wall and Furniture Treatment for a Simple Dining-room in a Country House . 44 Charming Feminine Sitting-room 48 xi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PACING PAGE Man's Studio Living-room Arranged to Give the Effect of Simplicity, Quiet and Dignity Throughout . 52 Two Areas Equal and Monotonous . . . [page] 75 Two Areas Unrelated and Incomparable . . [page] 75 Two Areas Subtle, Comparable and Interesting [page] 75 Decorative Treatment, Expressing Simplicity, Dignity, Formality and Elegance 78 Elevation Colour Sketch of Dining-Room Which Illustrates Subtle Relationships in Wall Spacing . 80 Elevation Sketch for Young Girl's Bedroom ... 84 An Italian Chair Whose Lines Create an Opposition in Movement 88 A Chinese Chippendale Chair with Mixed Line Ar- rangements 88 Rhythmic Line Movement Found in Contour of Chair Throughout 92 Textile, Illustrating Rhythmic Movement Through- out the Pattern 92 Side Wall Elevation in Colour, with Excellent Back- ground Spacings 94 Simple Side Wall Elevation, Expressing Good Scale Relations 100 • Formal, Bisymmetric Wall Treatment, Illustrating Rest, Formality and Simplicity 102 Hallway and Dining-room in a Suburban House . 104 Living-room, Illustrating a Particxilarly Fine Sense of Scale Relations in Decorative Motifs .... 108 Woman's Sitting-room in Modern Style . . . . 110 A Modern Library Living-room 112 An Early Sienese Gothic Madonna and Child . . 120 An Early Tapestry with the Gothic Spirit and a Dec- orative Quality Most Apparent 120 A Painting Which Shows Plainly the Lingering Traces of Refinement 120 xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING FACE A Painting Where the Appeal of the Saint Is One of Human Sentiment 120 A Later Tapestry in Which the Humanistic Ideal Is Triumphant 120 Sketch Showing the Early Italian Renaissance . . . 132 Later Italian Renaissance, Adapted in Lighter Scale to a Modern Hall 132 Early ItaUan Room, Expressing Restraint and Strength of the Early Masculine Type 136 Early English Room, Expressing a Distinctly Mascu- line Feehng 136 A Beautiful Room in the Period of Louis XV . . . 160 Sketch for a Modern Drawing-room in Louis XV and XVI Styles 164 An Old English Cabinet Whose Material, Size and Structure Express the Qualities of the Elizabethan Period 176 A Colonial Hall, Expressing the Qualities of Simplicity, Sincerity and Restraint Suitable Bedroom for Two Boys Simple Bedroom Suitable for Guest's Chamber in Country House A Delightfully Simple Modem Bedroom with Feminine Touch, Expressing Qualities Essential to Rest and Sleep 228 Man's Bedroom, Expressing Restfulness, Individuality and Masculine QuaUty 228 Simple Elevation, Suggesting Wall and Furniture Treat- ment for Country Tearoom 230 Sketch for Louis XTV Dining-room 230 Modern Dining-room in a City Apartment, Express- ing Elegance, Dignity and Refinement . . 232 A Modern Dining-room, Showing the "Georgian and Chippendale Feeling" 232 xiii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PACING PAGE A Modern Living-room 234 A Modern Library Whose Luxurious Decorative Charm Lies in Its Unity of Treatment . . 236 A Modern Drawing-room in Which the Furniture shows Good Functional and Structural Arrange- ment .... 236 Bedroom of Marie Antoinette, Little Trianon . . 238 Bedroom of Louis XIV at Versailles . ... 238 Bed of Queen Elizabeth of England . . .238 Simple Decorative Choice and Arrangement of Ma- terials ... 240 Bedroom in Suburban House, Expressing Quaintness and a Charm of Decorative Arrangement . . 240 A Successful Adaptation of the Late Gothic and Ren- aissance in a Modern City House 242 A Young Man's Bedroom with Backgrounds of Wall Paper and Rug Expressing Restf ulness and Quiet . 244 Another Corner of the Same Bedroom .... 244 A Modern Dining-room Whose Strength Is Its Simplic- ity, Restfulness, Dignity and Consistency . . 246 A Modern Feminine Sitting-room, Restrained, Restful through Balance 248 Man's Living-room and Library Showing the Success- ful Combination of Italian, French and English Materials 248 xiv INTERIOR DECORATION PART I PART I INTRODUCTION WHEN, WHERE, AND HOW TO DECORATE THE very term "interior decoration" is misleading, and is the cause of much of the bad interpretation of the decorative idea for which it stands. Love of beauty and the desire to create it is a primal instinct in man. The personal pride and pleasure one takes in his own house is too generally acknowledged to need comment. If, however, one desires to possess a so-called artistic house, the making of such a house involves an under- standing of certain principles. In the first place there are two quite distinct classes with whom one must deal: first that of the art connois- seur, or artist collector of antique objects. While every man of this type is individual, there are principles of choice and arrangement by which he must be governed, be his taste ever so fine. His room is a personal expres- sion of his taste in the combining of things with different meanings, but it is quite impossible for the rank and file of those who live in ordinary homes to appreciate such an expression. Because of this first class the general public has not grasped the difference between a museum or depart- ment-store collection of objects, such as furniture, hangings, carpets, etc., and a room in which to live. Only an artist can be trusted to attempt such house 3 INTERIOR DECORATION furnishing. By an artist I do not mean a man who paints pictures merely. I mean a man who possesses the art quahty in such a degree that he may be able, not only to group art objects in any field, but also that he may have a sensitive appreciation of them in what- ever combination they may appear. The second class includes ninety-five per cent, of all people who use a house, and it is to them in particular that this book is given. We find among these a lack of the remotest conception of what decoration really is, for there are many ways in which this term may be, and is, misapplied. One person believes that ornament, pattern, or art objects placed anywhere, in any relation one to the other, must be deco- rative. Nothing is further from the truth. Be a thing ever so good, it may easily lose its charm through asso- ciation with the wrong things. Another person be- lieves that the more he buys and crowds his room with either new or expensive objects, the more decorative or decorated it becomes. This, too, is a fallacy. Not only is it not decorative to use too much or too many decora- tive things, but it prevents any one of the objects from having a decorative effect. Neither these things nor their cost, neither show, vogue, period, nor sentimental foolishness, are in the least concerned with an expression of the decorative idea. Decoration implies, first of all, something to decorate. By this we mean some definite form or arrangement to which decoration is to be applied, and a reason for applying it. It is not because I have a room that I rush to pile something onto or into it. It is because I need some things in certain places in this room. This 4 a < z H M H C! ^ / H to M ^ H O CO Q 15 a K- £0 H IE P o « C5 o B. THE WRONG USE OF ORNAMENT APPLYING WITHOUT PURPOSE OR REASON. THE ONLY EXCUSE BEING SHOW. 02 M t) -• a ■ (.J n a Si z H ^ 03 d > Q 5; W (« H ^ ai « ^ si H D t"-" >^ >- JS SI !2^ D H 1^ Cl d w w M >, H 3 H ^ p X >■ H H !<; s 2; 1^ d fei a 03 S) s > re g j^ ? tri H fe g fe § w K a M s; Q W i> h4 1^ w s IF -- jo~;^^->:^"*'"*'= — '- 2:;-:SfeJi..^=2* ^^fe*^^^^^-' M=Lj ^/ y_^jB» r 5§= '•-, ^ fe^^fei. ::^=-*ig^s^=£=^ THE DECORATIVE IDEA considered together in any one of these groups. Yet if red is the standard colour chosen, red orange, orange, and yellow orange are each related to it, and a third analogous family is seen. If blue, blue green, green, and yellow green are chosen a fourth group appears. The same thing is true in the consideration of purples. Blue, blue purple, purple, and red purple form a group; red, red purple, purple, and blue purple form another group. This method of producing a colour harmony is the simplest because the colour tones are themselves related in their inherent makeup. Even if two or more of them appear in quite intense tones, a concord or agreement in natural forces makes their harmonizing appear simpler, although it is in reality cruder, and it is generally very temperamental in its choice and use. If one intuitively chooses schemes in house decoration in which blue, blue green, green and yellow green dom- inate, it is apt to be for temperamental or climatic reasons, or, perchance, because of too much light in the particular locality in which the problem is worked out. If the soft browns, tans, or buffs in the realm of red orange, orange, and yellow orange are selected, the same conditions of temperament or location probably in- fluenced their choice. The introduction of the complementary colour would necessarily bring in the three or four elements of colour possibility. The analogous scheme never presents this chance. With the analogous scheme, however, it is possible to introduce complementary small notes or areas which may be called the accidentals in the estab- lished colour scheme. 45 INTERIOR DECORATION The second phase of colour harmony is known as com- plementary, this being harmony of contrast. Full in- tense complements are dissimilar in every particular. No part of yellow or its qualities is found in purple, no quality of blue in orange, nor of red in green. As full intense normal colours these are totally unrelated and are the most inharmonious possible colour tones when used next to each other without any separation by a neutral tone. Nothing can be cruder, harsher, or more commonplace than a rug in red and green. With these colour tones in juxtaposition it is impossible for the eye to accept the resulting condition, and every one knows the vibration or blurred effect produced by an attempt to accommodate the eye to such a colour combination. The same is true of orange and blue and purple and yellow, though, perhaps, in a somewhat lesser degree because of the luminosity quality of colour which is to be considered later. Neutralization, or the use of neutralized colour tones in complements, is the method by which harmony is obtained. One-half neutral green and one-half neutral red are harmonious because each has introduced into it one-haK of the other colour qualities of the spectrum. The one-half neutral colours may be supplemented with other tones of the same colours, more or less neutralized, and the harmony remains. It is a question of the de- gree of inter-relationships in the number of tones used, their relative areas, and the juxtaposition of tones ap- pearing in the composition. Full intense colours should not be brought near each other. The less intense are more harmonious when closely associated. Those still less intense are the best backgrounds for the exploitation 46 THE DECORATIVE IDEA of the more intense ones. The small areas of intense colour show best and are strongest in their emphasis against the more neutralized ones of the complementary colour. Concrete instances of the application of the comple- mentary scheme to specific rooms will be given during the discussion of such rooms in later chapters. As a working basis, however, it is essential to know the terms employed, and to recognize the use and misuse of these fundamental methods of creating colour harmonies. A third type, still under the head of harmony of contrast, is called the triad scheme. This scheme in- volves the choice and use of three colour tones selected from the spectrum based on the equilateral triangle and it requires an intricate knowledge of neutralization, localization of areas, and emphasis distribution. It is a scheme too difficult to explain clearly in this fundamen- tal treatment of colour. The two types of harmony first discussed are those most generally in use and are sufficient for all ordinary problems if understood and applied. All are not alike sensitive to colour appeal. Each one of us differs from all others in how much or what will give us just sufficient stimulation. It is a constant source of psychological interest to adjust to each person's taste and needs the colours used. This is an individual problem and can be solved successfully only when the decorator sees first the person whose tastes and needs are to be consulted. The question of materials must next be considered, and then the decora- tor must bring into use all his knowledge of colour forces. In this way he will arrive at the best result 47 INTERIOR DECORATION both as regards the pleasure and comfort of his client and the further growth of his own colour appreciation. There is still one element of power which a colour tone possesses that it may be well to consider at this point. By the arrangement of the spectrum circuit, yellow, being the nearest to light or white, is the lightest normal colour in value. It is the first colour tone in sequence of values running from yellow to green, blue and purple on one side, and from yellow, orange and red to purple on the other. Purple is the darkest in value of the normal colour tones and the nearest to black. Black, being the ab- sence of light and the absence of colour, is darkness, while purple approaches this blackness more nearly than any other. Light is the opposite element of darkness or shadow; therefore, yellow contains the greatest lighting power of any normal spectrum colour. While orange and green are of the same value in the spectrum circuit, orange has a greater lighting power because of the in- troduction of red, which is a greater light producer than blue. The order, then, of this light-giving quality, which I shall call luminosity, may be stated as follows : yellow, orange, green, red, blue, and purple. The luminosity of a colour is worthy of consideration in interior decoration where the amount of light which the room receives is a matter for conservation. This would also be important when a light room is so glaringly bright that it is impossible to obtain desired results in colour keying. At the normal maturity point the relative luminosity 48 THE DECORATIVE IDEA of colours runs approximately as follows: yellow 12; orange 9; green 7; red 5; blue 3; and purple 1. While these numbers are not exact, they are near enough for practical purposes in determining what effect luminosity has on the choice of colour. Artificial light, shining through a yellow shade lined with white, has a much more penetrating and far-reach- ing effect than the same light shining through a green shade lined with white, the textures of the material being the same. If blue or purple were used, the light- ing effect would be greatly lessened, in fact it would be in the above mentioned ratio, were the colours of nor- mal hue and intensity. If purple is used, particularly blue purple, with artificial light, representing nearly a yellow orange, the light not only fails to do its work as an illuminating agent, but it becomes neutralized, grayed, softened and destroyed. Any one interested in seeing results of this quality power should experiment with different full intense colours and the same light, noticing the effect of each upon adjacent objects in the room. It must also be observed that the quality of the light filtered through these different colour tones is changed or modified greatly in hue and value, and also frequently in in- tensity, thereby creating a new light which will in turn modify the colours of all objects upon which it shines. Far too little care is given to the selection and use of colour as it is affected by lighting. A knowledge of the principles of relationship, result- ing from a study of hue, value and intensity is the key to a right choice of colour schemes. It will insure the production of any colour effect desired. 49 INTERIOR DECORATION The danger of upsetting completely the room scheme by the use of the wrong colour in a lamp shade, the wrong window hangings, or any other thing through which light is filtered, is increased tenfold when the background is too intense in colour. Remember that the background of a room must be less intense than the ob- jects which are to appear against it, or the objects themselves lose their force as decorative things. It is well probably to notice here a reason for the one striking diflference between a warm and cold background in its general colour eflfect. All good decorators and artistic people in general know that there is a pleasanter general aspect in a room where the background is keyed to yellow or orange rather than to green or blue; that is if the background is gray, or so nearly so that it seems to be gray. It is difiicult if the gray is a blue gray, or in other words a neutralized blue, to get between the objects of furniture and the room a general eflfect of colours keyed together. On the other hand, if the gray is a yellow gray or orange gray, be it never so nearly neutral, there seems to be in this colour itself an invitation to furnishing objects to become a part of the general scheme of colour. This is due to two facts: first, all wood naturally falls into the warm side of the spectrum, highly neutral- ized. Floors are usually treated in warm colour, and often many of the other decorative colours in the room are on the warm side of the spectrum. This establishes a common element or a relationship which at once in- vites harmony. If into such a room blues or greens are introduced, it is usually in upholstery, hangings, rugs, or other decorative features, and one can aflford to em- 50 THE DECORATIVE IDEA phasize the decorative feature by exactly that contrast, while the constructive features would outline in an ugly manner against the background if the same contrast were introduced in their case. Another reason why the warm tones are in general more satisfactory is that the kind of reflected light which they radiate as natural light, which is very often cool, cold, and forbidding, is reflected from them. It also simplifies keying with shades when artificial lighting is required. This explanation will make it easier for any one who feels the lack of relationship existing between furnish- ings and background to select or treat backgrounds in such a way that the furnishings of the room are more harmonious. They may thus without effort be drawn into the general scheme of unity in colour which every good room must express. There is one other aspect of colour that we must touch upon here so that the thought of colour as it relates to the decorative idea may be more nearly complete. If, however, each subject were explained and illustrated in all its possible phases, it would require a separate volume. History is a record of the lives or activities of peoples of an earlier time and of the civilization they have evolved. It is expressed in literature, music, architec- ture, sculpture, furniture, textiles, and also in the lesser crafts. Its art expression has been unlike in different eras, and quite dissimilar in the case of diverse nations, while individuals of the same nation have frequently shown distinct variations. Perhaps the national feeling for a type of expression may be as easily seen in colour as in any form of expres- 51 INTERIOR DECORATION sion. How this national preference, when acting with other concrete forces, has produced periods in art and historical or decorative styles, is a matter for later con- sideration. Now, however, it is pertinent to see some- thing of the way colour has expressed the standardized quality of feeling which a nation possessed at the time the period form was crystallized. The people of the Spanish Peninsula have for many centuries been quite unmixed, since the Moorish in- vasion, with races of diflFerent blood. Different ideals and customs, native instincts, climatic conditions, par- tial isolation and the religious and social practices of these people have all tended to establish and maintain certain unbroken traditions in all forms of expression. The result of traditional living, inherited and pro- moted by environment, tends to establish a national temperament. We all recognize the extreme fond- ness of such races for intense colours and almost always colours on the warm side of the spectrum cir- cuit. The use of yellow, red, and orange to excite the already infuriated bull is one of the visible manifesta- tions of the conscious knowledge on the part of the people of the effect on the animal instinct of these warm colour combinations. Colour is a stimulant to the aesthetic sense. It is certain that this race of people is stimulated by these colours more than by cold colours; hence the choice of red, yellow, gold, orange, etc., in so much of the art expression of their period styles. The natives of Italy are a far less homogeneous people. Southern Italy — so thoroughly Greek at times as to be almost a part of Greece itself, and influenced always by the Orient and the African Barbary states 52 '^ O H to K H O H CO ■< Q W O < S g H rt 5 o '.^ o S a Ah ;? g g ->i ? 3 o < M a H H c H ^ = ■< f^ o EMPHASIS AND UNITY by the individual, for the final test of aesthetic appeal is in the power of significant colour combination or of form to stimulate the activity of the aesthetic sense. When objects are to appear as decorative features in colour upon a cabinet, bookcase, shelf or table, there is abundant chance for arranging two, three or five objects differing in colour, size and form. If there are five objects there is a single one, with two on either side, arranged in such a way that there is a perfect feeling of rest in the arrangement. No finer training is possible than the arranging of such groups. If the objects differ considerably in colour, perhaps in hue and intensity, the problem is stUl more interesting. If there is also great variation in value the problem is too involved to grasp easily. Two of the three qualities of colour make sufficient contrast between objects that are to be considered as parts of a unit, and even these two should not under general conditions be too violently contrasted. It is a good thing to cultivate the habit of seeing subtle re- lationships and allowing subtle relationships to do the work under ordinary circumstances. Never use violent contrasts in any of the colour qualities except as under- stood emphasis necessities, or as consciously felt stimuli to the colour sense. A judicious use of colour is essential, as a judicious use of anything else is essential, to its fullest usefulness. An orgy of colour, like an orgy of other natural qualities, unfits one to appreciate its force and exhausts that force in unnecessary activity. Contrasted shapes must be balanced. A round form appearing against an oblong wall makes a stronger bid 89 INTERIOR DECORATION for attention than an oblong form of exactly the same area and exactly the same colour as the circular one. Some power of attraction added to shape must be given the oblong form before it can make as strong an appeal as the circular one or become a balance for it. In sensing an occult balance this must be considered as well as relative sizes. All other things being equal, objects of the same size present the same attractive power. Sometimes, however, a small object, brilliant or intense in colour, may be balanced by a much larger one less intense in colour, when other attractive forces are the same in each. Texture, too, has a special attraction interest. When the wall is of a soft, flat, smooth texture, and two pieces of pottery are to appear on it, one having almost exactly the same feeling in texture as the wall and the other con- trasted by being much coarser, heavier, rougher and more porous in appearance, even if size, shape and col- our are identical, the contrasted texture gives one a stronger force appeal than the other. This quality of textural difference is a matter for consideration later, but one that seriously enters into the perfect feeling for balanced arrangement. The principle known as movement is, in composition or design, the opposite of balance and destroys the idea which balance creates. When the human figure stands erect — ears, shoulders, hips and heels in the same vertical line — it is in harmony with the law of gravitation and is at rest. No effort is required to stand erect when one is in this position. The law of gravitation does the work. If the body is laid flat upon the floor the same law, acting on the floor, 90 EMPHASIS AND UNITY the body and the rest of the universe, makes action or effort on the part of man unnecessary. Stand and in- cline the body forward by throwing the left leg out as if to run, and the body assumes a position in which there is the appearance of its being about to perform some act requiring motion. If it were to tip back of the vertical line the same feeling would be created, and an effort be required in order to remain in this position. The figure thus posed is said to be in action. When an inclined or oblique line appears in composi- tion with vertical and horizontal ones, the same feeling of action or motion is expressed. This is because it is out of line with gravitation and out of line with the structural ideas with which it is in composition. Hang upon the wall at the left side a definitely verti- cal striped wall paper or textile, hang at the other end of the room a textile in which there is a definitely curved line extending from top to bottom, either in the form of the Italian or Louis XIV decorative motif, or of a vine arrangement such as may be found in the textiles of the Jacobean period or some modern wall papers. Look at the first illustration about halfway from the floor to the ceiling. The eye naturally tends at once to follow the vertical stripe to the ceiling; the tendency is next to follow it down to the floor. The eye naturally moves up and down in a straight line because it is one that extends unbroken in a certain direction. Partly be- cause of the structural idea and partly by reason of innate human curiosity, the eye will travel to the end of this line. If you look at the second illustration, you will find it impossible for the eye to make a straight line from 91 INTERIOR DECORATION the centre of the room to the top, or the bottom of the room to the top. The eye tends to follow the direction of the strongest line, the curved one which I have de- scribed. This tendency by which the eye is led from one point to another by a continuous line, or one nearly so, is called movement, and this movement from one place to another, in this or that direction, consciously or unconsciously, detracts from the sense of rest or repose. If the function of the room is to secure repose, neither of these movements will be introduced in strong and vigorous eflEects without destroying the idea for which the room exists. If dignity and formality are the chief characteristics of the room, the wandering curve will tend to make it less so than if the movement were a strictly vertical and horizontal one. The lines of triangular picture wires, erratic Unes created by draperies, oblique placing of rugs with reference to floor edges and other arrangements which have been treated under structural unity, create, each in itself, a movement contrary to the general one estab- lished by the room structure. Each movement in a direction different from that of all the others creates a maze or forest of direction movements. This results in confusing the selection, and a solution, conscious or unconscious, of the composition idea becomes impossible. Such a room is not one in which to rest. It is not lines alone that create movement; spots of colour or arrangements of forms, close enough together to be associated as parts of a whole, lead the eye from 92 EMPHASIS AND UNITY one point to another through a sequence in the same way. In some designs which are to be used for decorative purposes movement is most desirable, for, in the fact that the eye does naturally go from one part of the design to the other, there is an incentive to interest throughout the entire scheme. When the opposite idea, however, is the aim, care must be taken that no such movement be created. For example, many people fancy that, given three or four small pictures, they must be hung together or adjacent to each other as a group upon the wall; that if each picture is, for example, nine inches high, the first one at the left should be placed low, the next one four inches away from it and two inches higher, the next four inches from that and two inches higher, and the last one in the same way, at a distance of four inches, and two inches higher. They believe that an artistic result must be obtained because this arrange- ment surely is not stiff. No, it is not stiff; neither is it desirable from any standpoint. Structurally these pictures should be straight across the top. The reason for this will be given later. If they are of the same size there is no excuse for their not being straight at the top or bottom. If any motion is to be created across the room from right to left, it should be straight across rather than up and down stairs, which would be tiresome if taken far. The same objectionable movement often results from arranging furniture after this manner. Another place where it is undesirable to create end- less journeys is upon the floor. I have remarked be- 93 INTERIOR DECORATION fore that the quieter the floor appearance is the more it accords with the idea of a place on which the feet may rest and furniture may be placed. One of the most disturbing things to be found in a room is a rug the pattern of which, by its erratic lines or spotted effects, leads the eye horizontally, vertically and diagonally all at the same time. This type of design is much worse when it appears in spotted wall covers. For instance, in the case of bouquets of flowers placed several feet apart, one above the other, showing as clearly defined spots that form a sequence which may be followed in any direction, each spot leading to an adjacent one in the same line. No one ever suspected until his attention was called to it, probably through experience, the amount of energy wasted by the American nation in useless count- ing, consciously and unconsciously, of spotted wall papers, spotted floors and badly arranged decorative motifs on the wall. The fact to grasp is that these arrangements exist to produce certain results, and movement prevents balanced arrangement and the resultant quiet, restful effect of finished motion. If the mistake is made of allowing this movement idea to creep in in ever so small a way, it must, inasmuch as it has entered into a scheme, bring with it the qualities for which it stands. Understand this, and introduce the opposite of those qualities, if they are desirable, in the particular room under consideration. It may be interesting to those who find pleasure in the study of pictures to know that this is one of the most useful of all principles of composition to him who EMPHASIS AND UNITY would use the accessory objects in his pictures to em- phasize the centre of interest or the key idea for which the picture stands. Take, for example, many of the religious pictures of early Italian art. Some of them contain from three to one hundred figures, including perhaps the mother, the child, and the rest of the Holy Family, saints, angels and other persons. The function of each of these figures as a matter of composition is to emphasize some precept or ideal for which the picture stands as a whole. We will suppose, for the sake of argument, that the Christ idea is to be brought out or the child Christ idea is to be emphasized. The child is small, not brilliantly coloured, and lies quietly in the mother's arms. The bend of the head, the gaze of the eyes, compel the observer of the picture to find interest in the very thing in which the mother is most interested. Other members of the family, saints and attendants, are generally interested and looking directly at or bending their body toward either mother or child. If they are not, one is looking at another and either pointing to the object of most importance or, by look- ing at another who is absorbed in contemplation of this object, compels you to foUow his gaze. This setting of composition, arranging of forms, comparison of lines and use of gaze attraction is em- phasized always in the best stage performances in which more than one or two persons are concerned in the exposition of an idea. Every principle of composition and arrangement exists to make clear some given quality or idea. These principles also assist in producing a corresponding 95 INTERIOR DECORATION mental state in any person who is active in sensing such quaUties. Conformity to these principles will re- sult in producing qualities related to the idea for which an expression is sought. Disregard of them may have a result quite opposed to those ideas which may be struggling for expression. Movement, then, is the complement of balance. Balance exists to produce rest and ail those qualities which are intimately related to it. Movement exists to destroy balance, to create unrest, to lead the in- dividual in certain directions from one thing to another to keep him on the alert, and it ends by bringing him to some particular point. Let us not confuse these two vital principles or fail to see their import in the arrangement of colours, forms, lines and textures in any problem where the dec- orative idea is the one to be considered. 96 PART I CHAPTER V SCALE, MOTIFS AND TEXTURES AS THEY RELATE TO FURNISHING AND DECORATING MENTION has been made of the effects produced in decorative units where the scale or relative sizes of its elements are well or badly chosen. A more de- tailed treatment of this subject is not likely to make us too careful in our selections in this field of expression. The term scale is broader in its meaning than the mere word implies. It means not only that every ele- ment of each separate article must be in the right proportion to every other element of that article, but that every object used in the room unit must have the same perfect scale relation to every other object used and to the room itself. Furthermore, this scale feeling extends not only to the appearance or to the forms, sizes and colours in their aesthetic effects, but also to these as each expresses its particular function idea. Examine the treatment as it is applied to a chair, for instance. First, this given chair must have general proportions which are both pleasing and possible in its functional capacity. The proportion of height to width, and of each of these to the depth of the chair as a whole, must be considered. The dimensions of the back, of the seat, the height of the seat from the floor, 97 INTERIOR DECORATION the design of the arms, if there be any arms, must be so related that the chair will fulfill its functional idea of comfort. Then all of its parts by their perfect scale relation, each to each, will awaken through their significant forms a sense of aesthetic pleasure. The proportion, too, of the legs to the cross bars of the chair; of the members of the back to those parts and to each other; the mouldings (if there are any) to all these and to each other should be a subject for care- ful individual study no matter how small the detail may be. American furniture shows a woful lack of knowledge of such details, a lack of sincerity in express- ing an idea and a neglect of aesthetic proportion. If the chair is perfectly suited by its proportion and its forms to the idea for which it stands, and if these form relations are so pleasing by comparison that an aesthetic sensation is produced, the chair has ful- filled the law, so far as its scale relation is concerned, as a separate unit. But this is not the final tribunal before which this particular chair comes in composition with other chairs and other articles of furniture mak- ing up the room unit. If the chair under discussion is to be covered with upholstery material and this material has decorative units of ornament upon its surface, these also must show a scale feeling. These have the same artistic relation- ship as that which exists between other members of the same general whole. Very often a chair with slim, delicate, refined legs will be found in historic periods with backs far too heavy, or vice versa, and while the chair is perhaps an expression of some stage of development during the period, it is an ugly aggre- 98 SCALE, MOTIFS AND TEXTURES gate of scale relationships and an inartistic model for present-day use. Sometimes when these parts are well related in scale the period demanded a textile the design of which was far too heavy, or perhaps too weak, for the structural scale elements of the chair. There is a question, then, of choosing between bad forms, bad sizes, and poorly related scales as the expres- sion of some period when these forms were not clearly sensed, or of so relating these parts in scale that they shall represent not only their functional idea but also an aesthetic scale relationship. There can be no ques- tion as to which to choose. The slavish acceptance or copy of a period article of furniture or decoration, bad in any part, but copied because of its period sig- nificance, bespeaks bad taste. It shows also a bad tendency on the part of the person who prefers to copy and hold intact badly expressed ideas, rather than to try to grasp the idea, modifying and improving it as much as he is able to under particular circumstances. It should be made quite clear at this point that there are no periods in which one cannot find, and find often, the grossest inconsistencies in some phase of national expression. At no period and at no time have people succeeded in keeping a perfect balance of ideas; there- fore, in no period have they made a perfect balance in expressing those ideas. Sometimes, as in the High Greek period, proportion has been fundamental in all things and appears in its most highly developed form. At other times rhythm and grace of line have been the dominant thought, and dancing, waving-line combinations have been carried to their greatest degree of perfection. This occurred in 99 INTERIOR DECORATION the period of Louis XIV, when proportion and scale rela- tions between rooms and their furnishings were often totally ignored in the matter of assembling objects as a room unit. A single chair sometimes carried out in every particu- lar the scale idea, but it was placed in a room in which the scale relation was absolutely unsensed and at times it was associated with articles of furniture having the same defect. Then, too, it frequently occurred that naturalistic decorative motifs were woven in the tapestry covering the seats of a Louis XV chair, decorations large enough in motif and strong enough in colour to have dominated a huge formal chair of the period of the High Renaissance in Italy. The reason for studying scale from period standpoints is to establish the fact that certain scale relations are consistent and harmonious, and therefore pleasing, and that a violation of these scale relations is bound to de- stroy the consistency, the harmony and the pleasure re- sulting from scale as an artistic consideration. One is quite likely to come across badly related things in the most ordinary furnishings of the most ordinary houses as well as in the most elaborate ones where periods and types are more thoughtlessly mixed. A table generally has a larger leg than a chair, but the ratio of size between the leg and the chair should have a bearing on the general size of the table as it relates to the general size of the chair; or, rather, the general contour, size and thickness of material in any article of furniture establishes a relationship between its dimensions as a whole and the dimensions of its parts, such as its legs, its top, its slats or its panels. 100 rn :^^SJ^ A-^-*" -*iff..--.-i; H > M H <1 M n u H o >< n C! ^; SI hH rn , W Q ^ W rt s rr w ;« « H PM !?; X ?i H HH W Z o s o H ^; -< < > s % w o ^ ^ H w a M g CO r/) Oh S 1^ le H SCALE, MOTIFS AND TEXTURES Having established this relationship, a chair which is one-fourth as big as a cabinet or a table should have a leg not as big as the table but in a scale somewhat corres- ponding to its size, as its size relates to the table dimen- sions. A notable example of lack of feeling in scale is the manner in which the tops of tables jut beyond their structural leg formation. Certain periods in the Italian Renaissance have established a projection long enough to seem to be adequate for the scale and height of the table itself. This same strict adherence to scale in its jut may be seen in the roofs of Italian palaces of the same period, notably in those of the Strozzi, Antinori and Riccardi in Florence. These have cornices projecting in a scale charmingly related to the scale of the f agade, the height of the building, the material of which it is made and to the general proportions of the exterior of the building. By comparing Italian tables with those of the Eliza- bethan or Early Renaissance in England, where the pro- jection is from two to three inches, instead of eight or nine inches, one easily perceives the cut or dwarfed feel- ing of the top. One gets an impression of lack of material as well as lack of proportion in the top as it re- lates to the rest of the table. It is a curious and interesting study to note this one instance of scale relationship through the remainder of the English periods. Starting with the Italian as a basis and taking the Elizabethan as a matter of com- parison, let us look at the ways in which the Jacobean period worked out this idea. As the material lessened in amount, in thickness and in scale, the top extended a 101 INTERIOR DECORATION bit, and a better relation in scale resulted than in the Elizabethan period, where the proportion, so far as the top is concerned, seemed to be entirely lost. In the Queen Anne and Georgian styles one can readily see the effect as each interpreter saw it of the scale relation of the object and the scale feeling of its meiterial influencing the matter of the distance in the extension of the top. This relation is quite as apparent in cabinets, dressers, chests of drawers and writing tables, which articles of furniture were developed with the need for them as civilization advanced. With this period illustration in mind, one should ex- amine his own furniture and the furniture of others to see whether in each case he considers every part and detail to be in perfect scale relation to every other part. If some one feature is unduly prominent or so undersized that it loses its functional power or fails to play its part in the construction of a significant form, or to conform to the rule of unity in scale, he will then discover it. Having looked over each article, one should see these different articles as they relate to each other; and more important still, should consider whether the single ar- ticles of furniture are too large or too small for the room in which they are placed. It often happens that assembling many horizontal pieces of furniture in a room which is as tall as it is wide or long creates a very queer feeling. The same feeling would be created in the room if all the articles it contained were vertical in their effect. To understand how to make a room look larger or smaller than it is, is to help know how to choose furniture in correct scale relationships — first, to the room itseK, 102 SCALE, MOTIFS AND TEXTURES and then to every other article with which it must be associated. Constant care is necessary to determine anything like a reasonable standard of scale relationship unless one is trained through years of study by either drawing, measuring or calculating in some way the exact relation of details as they have to do with each other in the construction of any unit. In analyzing the concept or mental picture one has of any object which he sees or sound which he hears, he is quite likely to forget that consciousness is the result of impressions received in five ways. These five ways, represented by the five senses — sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste — are the avenues through which our ideas or impressions of external things come. Some persons see more correctly than they hear; others hear more correctly than they see; many gain a large part of their ideas of objects from the tactile sense, or the sense of touch. We are quite likely to believe that all ideas come from the sense of sight, if we see more correctly than we hear, or gain ideas more easily that way than by any other. To all persons many ideas come originally through the sense of touch. This fact has given to all visual objects a quality which we call texture. That is, because we have touched a round object some time and a,cquired the idea of rotundity, we see an object as round, men- tally, when one is presented to the sense of sight. The quality of roughness, smoothness, flexibility, rigidity, and similar qualities, were first acquired through the sense of touch. A burlap cloth looks rougher than an India silk; chiffon looks more flexible than taffeta; oak appears 103 INTERIOR DECORATION coarser, firmer and more rugged than mahogany or boxwood; ohve wood has a silk-faced look; Italian wal- nut approaches this but still shows traces of grain, making it somewhat coarser because of this. A tightly woven linen looks and feels firm, more de- cided, harder, less yielding and less graceful in its possi- bilities than charmeuse silk, the qualities of which are exactly opposite to those described. Wood, textiles, metals, potteries and all made objects have a quality known as texture which is fundamental in the idea of harmony between objects which are to be used together. It must not be understood that all things that are to be used together must have precisely the same texture feeling. If they did, the result would be a monotonous textile composition. Consistent va- riety, however, must obtain. If, on the other hand, the wood in a room has the feeling of oak, the hangings the feeling of chiflfon or charmeuse, the rug the texture of hemp or heavy wool, while the ornaments represent the texture of bisque or Sevres ware, there can be little hope of textural har- mony in the composition. To be sure, putting these in the right colour may lessen the textural significance, since scaling them properly and pleasingly makes the textural difference less noticeable. To arrange them in perfect composition helps to make good effects out of bad ones. A complete criticism or analysis of a situa- tion can never be made until the question of texture has been considered either intellectually or through the sense of feeling. Some people, who are sensitive enough, know imme- diately when textures are too unrelated to be harmoni- 104 HALLWAY AND DINING-ROOM IN A SUBURBAN HOUSE; GOOD EX- CEPT RUG (too strong AND AGGRESSIVE) AND THE DECADENT PLANT STAND AT THE LEFT, WHOLLY OUT OF HARMONY WITH ALL OTHER DETAILS IN THE ROOM. SCALE, MOTIFS AND TEXTURES ous. More, however, are oblivious to this distinction and cannot remedy even the simplest inconsistency because they are unable to see what is wrong. There is, of course, a third class — those who never know any- thing is wrong, and this discussion may serve to awaken in such at least a spirit of investigation. To show how important the cultivation of this sensi- tiveness is, let me remind you that there are certain countries in which the development of the tactile sense is considered so important that special lessons are given in the following way : all children, until they reach the ages of twelve or fourteen years, are put in a class, blindfolded, and led to tables on which are placed, in mixed piles, pieces of straw braid varying in degrees of textile coarseness, undressed pieces of wood, differ- ent qualities of lace, silk and other textiles, feathers, soft and stiff, and materials of various kinds which one is likely to encounter in furnishing a house or clothing the body. Children are asked to select a wood and a silk that feel right together, then to add to these something in metal or pottery, a piece of lace, a feather, a bit of straw, or other material, until they have found, by feeling, such things as they consider texturally harmonious. With the bandage removed, they then compare what they have chosen by feeling with what they would choose by sight, and are so led to sense relationships in these combinations. If this training is continued for some time, it is clear that the habit must be formed of recognizing relationships, as well as of investigating those relationships before accepting anything as good. After a time, of course, this becomes an unconscious 105 INTERIOR DECORATION process. No process of analysis should be a conscious one when it has reached the stage of development where it can be made a part of the unconscious or sub- conscious self. Only when these things are a part of the subconscious self are they really effective in de- veloping the art idea. Training the mind to sense one quality at a time, and that thoroughly, is a step in the development of the final idea. When, however, the perception of this quality has become a habit it is time to sense with like accuracy the next quality, then the next and the next, and so on, until one unconsciously feels a good and correct thing and, equally, is able to decide at once when a thing is not right or correct, or that this, that or the other quality is wrong in feeling. The value of this viewpoint to the interior decorator, or to the per- son who would appreciate art in any applied form, is absolutely immeasurable. Only the genius can appre- ciate, create and criticise in any field, but in any one may be developed to a considerable degree the ability to appreciate, to create and to criticise, if he accepts one thing at a time and trains himself to perceive cor- rectly. A right application of this textural sense will show that one cannot put olive wood and antique oak in the same unit without at least a considerable manip- ulation of space between them. Burlap and chiffon will not enter harmoniously into a texture scheme, even if they are both made of silk and have the same colour. It will be much harder to harmonize them if one hap- pens to be done in cheap cotton and the other in ex- pensive silk while their colours differ. Pieces of orna- 106 SCALE, MOTIFS AND TEXTURES ment like bisque and wrought iron are by their textures somewhat inharmonious, but not more so than are other articles of furniture or upholstery which we daily attempt to put together. This description of texture is not meant to be com- plete. It is intended simply to arouse in the mind of the reader a realization of the importance of recognizing this quality and its power in the artistic concept. It may also bring about a consciousness of harmony in texture or its lack. Before leaving the general fundamentals of this sub- ject for the historic and specific ones, it is essential to have a common perception of what is meant by raotifs in decoration. It is sometimes easier to see the significance of this if one thinks first of the motif as it appears in musical composition. A short passage or two perhaps conveys, or is meant to, the fundamental theme or idea around which the composition is built. To the person who understands music this short passage is the key or cue and is the source of the enlargements, the broadenings, the accessories and the tracings of all that comes after it. One sees the same thing in a literary composition. There must be a theme upon which to write, a motif around which all parts of the composition are woven. In decoration there must also be a theme or motif, a something which expresses the fundamental idea but which is changed, enlarged, broadened, coloured, cut, added to, and finally, with all its parts, woven into a decorative whole. The decorative motif as it refers to ornament may be said to originate in one of two sources: the first 107 INTERIOR DECORATION source, nature, is one from which many periods have taken their inspiration and which some periods have misused, since by their treatment in materials nature lost its own individuality and was misrepresented in the attempt to make decoration nature. On the other hand, nature did not become decoration. As Goethe has said, "Art is art because it is not na- ture." Therefore, to become art or decoration, na- ture must lose its fundamental characteristics. This is one of the most difl&cult things to grasp in the whole realm of decorative art. So thoroughly are people — and it is right that they should be — imbued with a love for nature as nature, that it is impossible for them to leave nature to nature's realm and to realize that nature cannot, as nature, be art, since nature is God's realm and art is man's. It is man's function to select from nature bits of the great whole and to arrange them for his needs in an ar- tistic way. This he may do in his garden, his grounds, or in a vase on his library table, but it is not his func- tion in foreign materials to attempt to make his garden or his grounds or his vase of flowers look as they would look or did look when they were created in their own natural environment as a part of the scheme of nature rather than of man's adaptation of it. So long, there- fore, as a rose is a rose, whether it is in the garden or on the table, it looks practically the same; but its appear- ance is very different as a rose, or as one of two or three roses, in a vase on the table, from what it was as one of five hundred or a thousand on a bush, where the en- vironment of the bush had also its effect. This is not so hard to see, however, as the next 108 K <1 !« > K ; H O o H P H K ° n !? O H H W H <1 ■ m H H w H m M to £C O PL, S " !5 O M ■ w o o H O o g p H O h-l |l4 s a H O < Ph ^ K SCALE, MOTIFS AND TEXTURES step in which the rose is to be translated into a carpet, a damask or a painted dish. While it is possible for the rose to become decorative in the vase, it is impos- sible for it to be so if man attempts to create a rose, exactly as God created it, and do so with wool, silk or china. To be sure, the wax flowers of fifty years ago were nearer like nature than the hair ones of seventy-five years ago or the shell ones of one hundred years ago, but, for my part, of the three I believe the shell ones to be the most decorative, for they, at least, had the distinction of not looking like that which they were not. As sincerity is the first principle of art, I see in thena some possibility of decorative effect. Nature, then, is the first source from which deco- rative ornament has been drawn, and such ornament is called naturalistic ornament. Volumes could be written on what has happened in every field of art expression when nations have drawn their ideals from naturalism. Then idealism has given place to realism, symbolism to naturalism, while spirituality and sestheticism have given place to materialism and sensualized nature. This is not the place to discuss the philosophy of the naturalistic ornament, but it readily will be seen what happens when a nation has reached a point where its natural life interests find their best expression in purely naturalistic ornamental forms. Perhaps one might cite the Roman Empire, the high period of the French Renaissance, the naturalistic Victorian period in England, and the black walnut and painted china periods in the United States. The second source for ornament is found in the ab- 109 INTERIOR DECORATION stract idea. The Greeks, through centuries of evolu- tion, produced ornament of pure form. Its beauty is in its proportion, in the exquisite relationships of ab- stract sizes, shapes and lines. It never was nature and never purported to be. Its charm, which is classic, lies in its impersonality or abstraction and in its ex- quisite abstract relationships. The Mohammedans evolved for religious reasons an Arabesque system of ornament in which no natural motif is found. Its surface charm, which is undeniable, is due to the intricate relationships of abstract motifs in which naturalism has played no part and nature has not been defamed. Other periods, following these two early ones, have also developed abstract ornament which never was and never purported to be natural in its origin. These two sources, symbolically and decoratively, are the well springs out of which human ingenuity has created ornament shapes through all ages. Man's love for nature and nature's forms of expression, to- gether with his religious ideals which connect natural objects with the divine idea, has introduced nearly always into the art of nations animal and plant forms as a part of their decorative plan. The ancient Egyptians used the human figure, birds, animals, and trees, each representing an externalized divinity as a part of their hieroglyphic scheme. They treated these objects in flat single tones drawn without perspective and modified in form, size and shape in such a way that they fitted rather pleasingly together and assumed a somewhat decorative appearance. The Assyrians were wont to use chariots, human 110 * B H fci ri >^ O H ►^ R Q !^ S Iz; H S « 2 O O S to Qi O Z; M CO to « CM K O H S S O o to !z; o w CO 10 < g a H 5 I? H i ^ SCALE, MOTIFS AND TEXTURES beings and implements of war to illustrate their caste systems and various social forms in bas relief. In this manifestation of their art they used many of nature's symbols. The danger came when realism demanded a perfect exposition in pictorial effect of every detail as it was, rather than as it should be to suit the conditions under which it was to be used. At times certain nations have appreciated the relation of the decorative motif to the material in which it was to be rendered. In Gothic tapestries ornament was arranged decoratively. The decadent Italian Renaissance conceived tapestries only as a picture of social life, and it lost almost entirely its decorative effect. The translation of the rose or the lily onto the ma- terial of a carpet, wall paper, or a plate is impossible unless the rose be modified into the feeling or meaning of the material in which it is to appear. I believe it was Ruskin who said that "Conventionalization is the translation of nature into man's material." A con- ventionalized motif is that decorative motif which has been so modified in shape, size, colour and proportion that it is exactly suited to the material in which it is rendered. The significant fact to grasp in this matter is the difference between a motif which attempts to picture details which are beyond its power to portray, and which are non-essential, and one that seeks to relate itself perfectly to the material in which it is expressed while it suggests rather than depicts those details which every intelligent person knows exist. Conventionalized motifs, then, are motifs which can 111 INTERIOR DECORATION exist in any material but not in nature, and a desire for a perfectly naturalistic picture in these things seems un- believable in a civilized people. Perhaps there is no family of any culture in this country that does not believe some one Madonna to be a beautiful picture. Perhaps the Mona Lisa has as large a number of admirers as any portrait in existence. It is well to ask ourselves how many pictures of the chosen Madonna or the Mona Lisa we should be willing to have in our living-room or our bedroom at the same time. I am sure no one would choose more than one. How, then, can people consistently desire several him- dred worse pictures of roses, or other flowers badly drawn, badly arranged, and badly carried out in material? It needs but a little thought to lead one to see that only in masterpieces of historic art has there been an ap- proach to the use of nature in a realistic way so that the result is an artistic and decorative effect. Perhaps this is the best place in this discussion to call attention to the necessity for care in the selection of different motifs that are to go into the same room. It is easy to see that varying degrees of naturalistic treatment and conventional arrangement in rugs, chairs, hangings, wall coverings, etc., would inevitably intro- duce into a room impossible combinations of decorative ornament. The ornament of the rug, which is usually abstract, particularly in the Oriental types, is hard to harmonize with conventional Art Nouveau upholstery and hang- ings and with naturalistic wall paper. The abstract and the conventional may sometimes appear together if neither is too prominent. The very conventional and 112 H „ H S - - 9 w H W W '^ 1-! PL, P o o p « H 01 "A O U M H Q O o O H < Q h-i o H g fa H O M Q P o « »!5 O fa is ANOTHER CORNER OF THE SAME BEDROOM, ILLUSTRATING CON- VENIENCE AND DECORATIVE PLACINGS AND WINDOW DECORATIVE TREATMENT. THE INDIVIDUAL HOUSE which it becomes a related part. Harmony between the landscape and the house is fundamentally important from the standpoint of the exterior. Another important premise is the function of the room. If one has decided to paper several rooms in his house, and he visits a wall-paper shop with this in mind, he will often find a salesman who displays his wares, declaring: "We are using these papers this season more than any others," or, "This colour is all the rage." Sometimes, too, textures figure as yearly fads. Japanese grass cloths, glazed papers, foliage, matted surface, etc., all have had their day. The function of the room is a question that is fundamental and has nothing to do with what is selling best or what is newest. If a paper is for a bedroom, let it express the bedroom idea of sleep and rest. The value of the paper, light or dark, is a matter of taste, sometimes a matter affected by the age of the occupant. It may also be modified in value by the amount of light in the room and by the fact of being a country house or a town house. But two things are essential in this room — rest and sleep — and it matters not what the style is, these qualities should be present. If the hue is to be decided by the direction and amount of light admitted to the room, by the objects that are already there, and by the per- sonal preference of the occupant of the room, there are three influences any one of which may be entirely antagonistic to the other two. Who shall decide which one to sacrifice.'' Rest and sleep comes first — then personal choice without doubt. If the room has very little light, the colour may be a little more intense than it otherwise should be, but the 245 INTERIOR DECORATION background colour is fixed by the law of background, not personal whim. Neither southern exposures nor the vogue of the day will make a too intense back- ground right for rest or sleep in any house. Function, then, is fundamental wherever a room is, or whoever occupies it. What is true of one of a type of room is true of the others of the same type. Another obstacle that often interferes with the selec- tion of material has been somewhat discussed in the previous chapter. This is the fact that objects already in the room must be retained there as associates of the new ones. The study of historic periods shows one so clearly the quality value of every article of furniture that one should be familiar with furnishings as quality expressions. The straight-lined architectural features of an Italian chair or a Mission desk present a firm, unrelenting, yet simple quality eflfect which should immediately be recognized. The qualities of an object should be detected at sight. Everything in furniture and furnishing means something. This elemental meaning is the expression of an idea, and it is quite simple to find other ideas which in combination express a whole. Some of us remember a game played with letters of the alphabet cut and pasted on small cardboard squares. One way of using these was to take a certain number of letters and see how many words could be made out of these letters. Another was to take a certain word and see how many other words could be made from the letters of that word. Each letter in each case expressed an idea. The word "simple," for example, contains six letters, each different in its meaning and form from the other five. If any four of these letters were 246 >< o m O w H H << tc M rf) O o o u H Q * to THE INDIVIDUAL HOUSE whether she ought to have it or not. Manifest antag- onism is not the method by which to obtain the desired result, but a gradual elimination of one idea and the substitution of another. This is tact. What is true of colour is apparently so in other fields. Some personalities are expressed in erratic motions; such persons, for their peace of mind, should be set in a perfectly balanced, well-held and consistent room. To so lead and influence the client that he be- lieves the room to be arranged according to his own idea is the work of th^ clever decorator. When the right set- ting for the personality is attained, the client is, almost without exception, pleased, even though he may have rebelled during the process. The essentials of a room are far too significant to permit a personal fancy to interfere with right usage. The matter of backgrounds, the method of hanging curtains, the consistent structural arrangement of furniture, modifications of this structure by the freer elements, the balanced arrangement for rest and the proper placeraent of decorative objects are not open to personal whim. They are governed by common sense and the laws of choice and arrangement which are fundamental in any right design. But the final hue choice in colour, how dark or how light the room shall be, or what shall be the dominating characteristic of the room, are questions for personal choice. The personal touch, too, is shown, or should be, in the smaller articles in the room, which by their choice and placement indicate the character of the occupant. This personal touch is found in the selection, framing and hanging of pictures, although the way they are 249 INTERIOR DECORATION hung and framed is largely a matter of impersonal choice. The personal touch again is felt in the selection and arrangement of flowers. Both these subjects will be treated later in detail, but a person who habitually selects and uses lilies is a very diflPerent person from one who uses carnations, or one who would chose American beauty roses — not to mention orchids. A few photographs, too, if properly framed add a personal touch to the quality of a living-room. Pieces of pottery or other decorative objects sometimes give just the note that makes the room the visible expression of the inward thought of the person who occupies the room. Personality should not interfere with the fundamen- tals of selection or arrangement which are necessary to good taste. The larger facts are not determined by personal preference, but the way in which they are interpreted varies with personality, and the smaller or more decorative objects in the room may be very per- sonal if they are not ostentatiously displayed, or if there are not too many of them in too prominent a place. The same thing is true of people. In the main, our friends are all alike. The fundamental facts of their structure, mental and physical, and of their decorative qualities, mental and physical, are the same. Per- sonal traits do not change fundamental facts. It is, however, essential that decorators should understand not only their business but their clients. Those, also, who have houses should not understand themselves and their own whims alone, they should also under- stand the laws which govern choice and arrangement in all houses. 250 PART III CHAPTER XVII SOME SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS CHOICE, FRAMING AND HANGING PIC- TURES, HANGING CURTAINS, METHODS OF LIGHTING, CHOICE OF DECORATIVE OBJECTS, GENERAL PLACEMENT FOR many years pictures alone were regarded as fine art. Art study meant picture painting, while art ap- preciation was synonomous with picture discussion. The realization that art quality in pictures is identical with art quality in chairs and rugs has been gradual. This realization will lead to a better choice and a more consistent use of pictures in interior decoration. One needs to have not only a feeling for a beautiful picture, but a sense of its fitness as a wall decoration, and of its harmony with any type of furnishings to be used with it. During the historical periods painting developed with other branches of art. The High Renaissance in Italy found expression for its qualities in pictures, furniture, textiles and other art objects simultaneously. The painters of the days of Louis XV, like Watteau and Fraganard, expressed precisely the qualities in their pictures that the cabinetmakers, the textile weavers and the metal workers expressed in their fields. Thus 251 INTERIOR DECORATION are periods clearly defined, but it is sufficient for us to see the correspondence between pictures and other ob- jects of art expressing the same idea. Strictly period rooms should have strictly period pictures; not always pictures painted in that period, for many period pictures, like period furniture, were poor expressions of the period idea; but what they should have is a picture whose spirit and feeling are precisely that expressed by the other articles in use during that period. In rooms, however, in which the strict period idea is not intended, a wider range of picture choice is possible. There is no reason, however, for a wild and unrelated choice in pictures any more than in other decorative objects. The same harmony of idea should be apparent that is felt in any other quality that the room expresses. These are the funda- mental points in the choice of pictures for interior dec- oration. Another and closely related element is the medium in which the picture is expressed. There are oils, water colours, prints, photographs, etchings and steel engravings. These textures have about the same relation to each other that burlap, linen, cotton bed- ticking, chiffon and cane-seated chairs have. It is impossible to harmonize them all in the one room, or, in fact, to bring any two or three of them closely together. If there is one oil painting in the ordinary room, it is a delicate matter to introduce any other picture in any other medium. Of course, it is possible that a water colour might be broadly enough treated and of a subject closely enough allied to make it possible. A photo- graph of an oil painting, similarly treated, in a similar 9,5% SOME SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS spirit, might be, under some conditions, used. Very rarely is it possible to combine any of these excepting prints with photographs, etchings with steel engravings, or, occasionally, a water colour with oil. Too many pictures together in any media indicate bad taste. We can learn much from the Japanese in that regard. They hang one picture at a time of the right size in the right place and, after having enjoyed that for some time, change it for another, and another; but they never present their pictures in herds or droves. As to frames, what they are and what they should be, volumes could be written. The birth and evolution of the picture frame is a subject that no one has, so far, exploited The function of the frame is to hold the picture in place, demark it slightly from the wall on which it is hung, but still relate it to the wall, and make easy the transition from it to the picture. When a picture frame does this, and in no way detracts from the picture itself, it is good. When it attracts atten- tion by its garish glitter, its erratic ornament, or its prodigious size, at the expense of the picture itself, it is one of the surest indexes of bad taste on the part of the owner. Whatever is on the wall is a part of it or it is not dec- orative. Right here let it be said that those frames which project forward like an unnatural growth cease to be decorative. One feels them to be a thing separate from the wall itself. In the good days, when pictures were really decorations, they were either painted on the wall, painted to fit wall spaces, or hung in panels or other spots to which they were suited in size and shape. Of late, owing to the influence of the Decadent Renais- 253 INTERIOR DECORATION sance, they have been surrounded by ornate, vulgar and expensive gilt frames whose only excuse for being was their showiness and their cost. The sooner this over-ornamented style in picture frames is eliminated, the sooner pictures will take their rightful place as a factor in the decorative idea. It is because of these abuses that pictures have fallen somewhat into disuse by all good decorators and most sensible house furnishers. For years the gilt frame held the field. Of late there has been a decided improvement, and when gilt is used it is now toned either warm or cool, and very much dulled, so that it seems, in many instances, to relate, somewhat, to the picture itself, being similarly keyed. Quite frequently, even now, it is not sufficiently keyed so that it has any relation to the wall surface upon which it is hung. Both the picture and the wall should be taken into consideration in the choice of a frame with reference to its value and intensity relationship. The motifs of decoration upon gilt picture frames are generally of a historic character, some Florentine, some French and others Flemish. These motifs are the same that appeared in furniture and other art objects and, of course, are expressive of the period ideas for which they stood. It is a strange fancy to have taken these historic motifs, enlarged them and made them more prominent, and then to have worked them into a picture frame. These frames are often of totally unrelated periods, and are used on pictures expressing ideas so foreign to those expressed by the motifs that they are quite antagonistic in character. Frequently a Decadent Renaissance frame is seen about such a picture as a Millet, or a French Louis XV 254 SOME SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS frame on a Holbein. What could be more ridiculous than such combinations as these, and why will the in- telligent public submit to such things because a picture framer or a so-called artist does not know any better? This is a field in which the common sense of the public can be relied upon to make a change as soon as it is aroused to a consciousness of the truth. Water colours are sometimes well framed in dull, flat gilt frames, and sometimes in wooden ones. Jap- anese prints are generally good in dead black, flat wood mouldings. In photographs there is a very wide range. Browns are the favoured tones. The frames should be wood, in the same hue, not more intense, and of a value a little lighter than the darkest tone in the picture. This will always produce an agreeable result. The size, width and strength of the mouldings de- pend upon several things and are too much a question of feeling to admit of a hard and fast rule. Large, single objects require a wider and stronger frame than delicate small ones in the same picture size. Violent motions of water, trees or animals require a stronger sustaining power than the subdued or quiet sunset or May-day farm scenes. Strong and vivid colour re- quires a stronger frame than neutral and finely blended combinations. Where strength and motif action pre- vail there width and prominence in frame appear; where quiet, closely harmonious combinations exist, a less powerful frame or support is required. Usually the frames selected are too wide and, more often than not, too much ornamented and too brilliant or intense in colour. The matted picture has had its day. Only in rare instances now is it used. An occasional water colour, 255 INTERIOR DECORATION for example, a gem or jewel, being too tiny to frame, is placed upon a mat that is quite inconspicuous and related in tone to both the water colour and the frame about it. This makes an easy transition from the picture to the frame. The same thing may be said of etchings. Photographs and prints are no longer mounted on mats but are framed, as they should be, close to the picture. The fallacy of mounting small photographs or other pictures on two or more colours, or of leaving a white or a black streak around the photograph to form another frame has long since been felt. One moulding or frame is sufficient in most instances. In rare cases a narrow gilt edge inside the wood is permissible. The intense red and green as well as the pure white mats of the olden days are gone forever, with the rest of their Vic- torian associates. Hanging pictures is an art. In general, oils and other large pictures should be hung, when possible, so that the eye of the average person standing will be about opposite the centre of the picture. This is as high as pictures under ordinary circumstances can be hung. Reference has before been made to the way they should be hung. If wire or cord be used, let two appear, each parallel with the side of the frame, and each extending, in harmony with other vertical lines, to a hook at the picture moulding. Make this hang- ing just as inconspicuous as possible. Tone the wires to the wall if possible so that they are practically in- visible. Anything which serves to emphasize the wire or picture hook is not only ugly but inconsistent. When pictures are to be hung in groups they must 256 SOME SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS be very carefully chosen. Most of us have small photographs or other pictures so personal that we think we cannot part with them and must hang them. We have no place on the wall suited to them in size or shape. We must, therefore, put two or three together, though this should be done as rarely as possible. Several groups of these upon a wall are non-decorative and generally express bad form. W^hen groups are to be hung, say two or three, there are two things vitally important: first, the tops of these pictures must be on a straight line; second, they must be hung quite close together, say two or three inches apart, so that they seem easily to unite and form one decorative spot. To scatter or spatter them about is to use the whole decora- tive effect as a wall spot. These are generally better framed to stand on a table or cabinet than to arrange as wall decorations. An important question is what shall appear under pictures if they are hung upon a wall. Sometimes we see them hung without any relation whatever to furni- ture pieces, that is, they are hung in any place on the wall where there seems to be a bare spot. A picture of any considerable size with a frame of any perceptible weight is not very decorative on the wall unless directly under it is some article of furniture to which it seems to belong. A picture should be hung for example over a cabinet or console. The picture alone would be an impossible excrescence, but if some articles are used on the cabinet or console which bring the group somewhere near the picture, then the console, the decorative articles and the picture together form an agreeable decorative group. 257 INTERIOR DECORATION Pictures must be hung flat to the wall in order to form a part of the wall. There is only one excuse for allowing them to dip at the top, and that is that they may get a better light. This, however, does not in the least influence the matter of decoration. When pic- tures are hung in this way the room exists for the pic- ture, and not the picture for the room, for they are not decoratively placed when they are so hung. Let us try to select pictures that are in subject, in treatment and in framing, harmonious with each other and also with the various objects we are using with them in the room. Let us look to it that they are properly hung — flat, with two wires, if any — properly grouped, and related to other objects by their placement in the room. Under such conditions few pictures are essential in most rooms. Too many pictures have as bad an effect as too many of anything else, and a bad treatment of pictures is worse than a bad treatment of other things, because pictures are more capable of ex- tremes in good and bad than most articles, and there are more ways to misuse them because of their great range possibility. The greatest care is necessary then to limit the number, carefully decide the treatment, or, when in doubt, use none. Next in importance to the background of a room is the matter of its curtains or hangings. From one view- point they are really a part of the background. From another angle, however, they are more than this: they are the first decorative idea used with the walls and trim as a background for them. A discussion of cur- tains and hangings involves two questions: what to hang and how to hang it. 258 SOME SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS While no specific rules can be given as to what shall be used, some hints may be helpful. In the first place, there is the question of their relation to the function of the window. If my room is already too dark or too light, I must choose my hangings with this as a modifying idea. If considerable latitude in this regard is possible, then less attention should be given to the thinness or thick- ness and the general textural weight of the material used. The question of lighting also affects the colour. It must be remembered that yellow produces light; black absorbs it. Blues, reds and violets are nearer black and, therefore, more powerful in absorbing colour than in reflecting it. All this must be considered before the colour is finally determined. Hangings must also be considered as a decorative note. If the walls are proper backgrounds — plain, simple and free from objects which attract undue at- tention — the curtains may be stronger in colour and more striking in pattern, and still be of a most fasci- nating decorative quality. Printed linens, damasks, brocades, brocatelles, etc., according to the character of the room, may be used with simple backgrounds to produce a simple decorative effect. If the patterns show a floral treatment the decorative effect is better when the curtains are drawn aside, thus presenting a charming colour effect without the introduction of the naturalistic idea in a too promi- nent way. If more than one set of curtains is to be hung, the inner pair may be net, fine plain lace, thin silk or case- ment cloth, according to the textural quality needed in the design idea. The outer or heavy hanging, 259 INTERIOR DECORATION which is more within the room, may be of any of the heavy materials before mentioned. This outer hang- ing serves three purposes: it adds a note of richness and elegance to the decorative idea, it may be used to regulate the amount of light during the daytime, and when closely drawn at night gives to the room an air of seclusion and privacy as well as richness that is hard to obtain in any other way. How to hang curtains is a little harder to determine. Window trims and other extenuating circumstances differ so radically that a general law is likely to be mis- applied. Sometimes woodwork is so bad in colour, or so hideous in treatment, that it is a joy to arrange the heavy hangings in such a way that the window trim is entirely covered. This is true sometimes of doors. If the windows are particularly small in scale for the room, this same treatment may be used to advantage. When a note of larger decorative area is desirable, it may be attained in this way also. In general, however, the inside curtain — that is, the one next the glass — should be hung inside the window casing. This is done by extending a small brass rod across the top well within the window casing toward the glass. If cords and travellers are obtainable, the inner curtain should be plaited in single plaits at inter- vals, so that when the curtains are hung in place they will exactly fill the window space when drawn together in the centre. This allows the curtain to hang in folds regularly arranged and pleasingly placed. When the curtains are drawn, the window space is filled and, when pulled apart, the curtain easily adjusts itself in a decorative way. 260 SOME SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS The material should be arranged with a heading at the top, stiffened in some way so that it obscures the brass pins which are fastened into the back of the cur- tain. On the rod there are small brass rings into which these pins are fastened and the mechanics of the cur- tain are hidden by the heading at the top. The cur- tains should be of such a length that they just escape the window sill. They may be pulled close or left wide open without any effort; and they fit their space and place as a decorative idea. In hanging curtains one should always bear in mind that the function of the window must not be interfered with; neither must the function of the curtain. The material must be so arranged that the largest measure of decorative effect is obtained. The above suggestions, if followed, will lead to this result. Sometimes the outer or heavy hangings may also be hung within the window casing in the same way as the inner hangings, excepting that the former should be placed near the edge of the casing toward the room. When the rod is placed at the extreme outer edges of the casing, it should be raised far enough toward the top to conceal the casing. In this case, small brackets are used which will be covered by the hanging. The same era that produced clumsy picture frames, gorgeous and ostentatious, and produced badly pro- portioned grills and other atrocities, invented also the wooden curtain pole, with its brass ends and other trimmings. Discard these and all objects of their kind as impossible to the decorative sense. The brass rods should be no larger than is essential to perform their function. If possible, they should be dulled in 261 INTERIOR DECORATION colour until they are unobtrusive and show little against the background. The rings, pins and other trappings should be kept on the side nearest the glass and out of sight, as all other machinery must be where art or dec- orative quality is concerned. It may be inferred from this that two sets of curtains are generally desirable. This is not always the case. In some places, and under some conditions, window shades or blinds are essential. It is a pity that this is so because of their extreme ugliness. When they are used they should be kept rolled up and out of sight, excepting when performing their necessary function. With two sets of curtains it is less necessary to use shades. There are times also when the window is so small, the lighting capacity so inadequate, and the scale of the room and furniture so light that it is a mistake to have more than one pair of hangings. In an extreme case of this kind a thin net or muslin might answer the pur- pose. If a shade or blind is used, this should be hung within the casing. Probably no one material is as effective in as many ways and under as varied conditions for a single cur- tain as what is known as English casement cloth. This is good in the country, in the town house, in the North and in the South. It is available for a moderate price and is good enough to use almost anywhere. When one pair of curtains is used, almost without exception, these curtains should stop at the casement line. With the two pairs, the preference is for the heavy hangings to escape the floor by an inch or two. This is decorative and hygienic. It must be borne in mind, whatever the problem is, 262 SOME SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS that the right idea in hangings is of the first importance in interior decoration after the background has been determined. It may be wise, while discussing the hangings as they relate to the window trim, to say something in regard to the treatment of wood as it is a part of the back- ground. Wood may be considered from two points of view only: first, the natural wood, and second an arti- ficial treatment of it. There was a time when it was considered a sin to obscure in any way a natural grain or other unusual and ofttimes ugly marks which nature had impressed on wood. A grain had to be brought out clearly and distinctly. Besides this, it was varnished or glazed until it appeared like wood under glass. Not so many years ago we even went so far as to paint the surface of wood, imitating its colour and streaking it with fine tooth and coarse tooth combs, creating grains more grotesque and improbable than original ones could be. This insincere attempt to copy nature is the worst of all. In any kind of wood there are beautiful and ugly pieces. The beautiful ones are the characteristic ones which are not grotesque miscarriages in nature. These woods — often beautiful in colour, charming in texture and pleasing withal — may be made ugly by any of the treatments above mentioned. Let them be treated in an oil or French finish in such a way that their salient qualities appear, their texture is in no way dis- turbed and their surface looks like wood, neither glass nor any other material being suggested by it. This is the proper treatment for natural wood. INTERIOR DECORATION Often it is impossible to arrive at decorative effects without changing materially the colour of the wood; still natural wood or unpainted wood has its place in the decorative idea. Certain methods of staining wood are successful in keying it to backgrounds which must be used if the idea of the room is not destroyed. Great care should be taken, however, that an impossi- ble wood colour is not used if the wood is to show its grain and look natural in all but its colour. If the conventional stain is used it must in some way conven- tionalize the other qualities of the wood in order that they should be harmonious. The second treatment of wood I shall call artificial. During periods in history that have reached high states of social charm, where manners, customs and life ex- pressions were more or less artificial, it has been found necessary to do away with the grains and other natural qualities of wood in order that it, too, should express the same artificial life. In the Baroque Renaissance gilt treatment became a craze. Fruits, vegetables, wood and persons — all were done in gilt. This necessitated the covering of wood with gold leaf that unity in treatment might obtain. The periods of Louis XIII and XIV are exuberant with artificial woods made so by the gilt treatment. During the periods of Louis XV and XVI, as well as the Eng- lish periods of Hepplewhite and Adam, paint and enamel was found to be a suitable material for ex- pressing the artificial idea. Painted woods did not longer claim to be woods. They represented an artificial surface, structural per- haps in its form, decorative in its appearance but veiled 264 SOME SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS or hidden as to its actual material. This is perfectly legitimate and when followed consistently forms one of the most attractive and most flexible treatments of wood so far as interior decoration is concerned. A room can often be given a suitable background if an ordinary wall paper, soft and grayed in tone, is sup- plemented by a trim, either deep ivory white, or, better still, by a colour as nearly as possible like the wall covering. This, with a ceiling the same colour, but one shade lighter, and a floor of the same tone, but darker, is one of the most charming backgrounds imaginable for many types of modern rooms. To consider wood as trim and not give a word to the . use of wood in furniture would be to leave the subject too incomplete. Some periods expressed themselves most clearly by leaving the wood in its natural state, or nearly so; others treated it so that the naturalistic tendency might be somewhat obscured, while in the later French and English periods the surfaces were entirely covered by gilt or enamel in order that they might be brought into closer harmony with other materials. Even in a brief treatment of this subject one general statement may be made. In no case, excepting in very refined and artificial Georgian types, and in those Louis XV styles in which a clear and transparent sur- face was essential, is there reason for varnishing or glazing woods. It is not enough to know that a depart- ment store or a furniture factory has turned out pieces with a certain varnished treatment. An expert finish of wood is essential in order that the wood may take its place in the decorative scheme. 265 INTERIOR DECORATION The lighting of a room is of fundamental importance in the general effect. Too much thought cannot be given to the amount of light, its kind and its distribu- tion. In the disposal of daylight we have no present concern, but the matter of artificial lighting is of the utmost importance to every house owner and to every interior decorator. Since colour is light, without it there is no colour, and by it all colour combinations may be impaired. Since the eye sees colour only, light is the element most important in interior decora- tive effects. Let uS consider some of the ways in which rooms have been lighted. The most impossible thing for the ordi- nary small room is the central chandelier. The chande- lier of Louis XIV and XV with its glass prisms sparkling amidst the lights is an idea that is consistent with the background, furnishings and clothing of the people for whom the setting was planned. This same chande- lier idea translated into Jacobean terms is quite another matter. To put it into modern apartment house dec- oration is an even more difficult problem. It is not necessary to discuss in detail the hideous things that have been chosen as lighting fixtures. They are in many cases grotesque beyond words. This, however, is not their worst fault. They light a room in such a way that, unless everything is concentrated in the centre of the room, it is impossible to produce pleasing effects, as well as irrational to expect to make use of the lights. Side bracket lighting is a great improvement over the chandelier, if the room is small enough to get suffi- cient light in this way. A later invention is called the 266 SOME SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS indirect lighting system. It has the great advantage of producing a pleasing light on the floor or near it, but also the much greater disadvantage of unduly lighting the last place in the world that should be lighted. Of what use is a brilliantly lighted ceiling, and how can one expect to keep his attention on the lower part of the room when the upper part is brilliantly lighted? Besides being inartistic, it is an unwarranted waste of light. None of these systems so far seems to be adequate in function or beauty. True, an occasional man says he has never seen a room too light. It might be remarked that every one does not need to be knocked down to know that he is hit, neither is it necessary in every case to fire a cannon to make one recognize that a noise has been made. It is equally needless to use all the light it is possible to get to obtain functional fitness or charming combination. What we see depends wholly on what we are and what we see with. The most successful way of lighting a room is by side lights, well placed, and by lamps — electric or other- wise — distributed judiciously about the room. The size of the room and its function determine largely the number and placement of these lamps. It is possible in such an arrangement to have light enough for any purpose at any time, little enough for comfort and rest when desired, and exactly the right amount in the right place to bring out any group of things in the room or the entire room as may be desired. These lamps should be placed for reading, sewing, writing, or to call attention to groups of furniture or decorative objects, as the case may be. This — and this way only — is successful in bringing out the charm 267 INTERIOR DECORATION which every living-room should possess in the evening. The shading of these lamps, and the side lights as well, is a matter of great moment. In fact, more depends upon this, probably, than upon the placement of the lamps. No one colour is always good in all places and under all circumstances, but all soft, neutralized tones of yellow, yellow orange, orange, red orange, yellow green, green and blue green are quite possible under certain conditions. The yellows and orange tones, of course, have the widest range of usefulness. These need not be brilliant in intensity, nor can one say they should be light or dark in value. The texture of the material depends upon the textural decorative idea of the room. Sometimes China silk is light and graceful enough in feeling, and sometimes a brocade, taffeta, damask and even paper parchment has been used with astonishing decorative effect when the texture of the room was con- sidered as a quality in the design. One thing is almost certain. The shades must be covered not only around the sides but on the top with the material and lined with white. Often two thick- nesses of the material are used with the white lining to concentrate the light and throw it down upon the objects one desires to light brilliantly. This soft, soothing light properly distributed about the room makes reading and writing in certain parts of the room a delight, while other portions of the room are lighted in such a manner that rest, calm and repose are the feelings induced. Lighting, then, should be considered, like every- thing else, a matter of fitness and a method of tying together the apparently unrelated elements of a 268 SOME SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS room in one unit of keyed colour so that not only beauty, but pleasure through it, is the inevitable out- come. There is an opportunity for fine distinction in the selection and arrangement of bric-a-brac or ornament. The room, when finished, is a unit, or should be. This does not mean that it should contain one idea only. It means that only such qualities of colour, form, line and texture should be associated together as accord in spirit and are harmonious. The principles of colour and form as discussed in Part I should aid one in deciding when things are com- fortable as parts of a general whole. It does not take a very keen sense of appreciation to see that a picture of the period of Henry II and Marie de Medici is quite out of harmony with a Gothic chest panel or a Gothic figure. Nor does it take much imagination to see that the curved-line, symbolic, and imaginative detail of the Gothic period is quite out of concord with the dancing, sprightly gayety of the curves used in the time of Louis XV. Sevres ware, in its texture, colour and import, is a part of the period of Louis XV. It is as forbidding with some other pottery or ornament opposed to it in spirit as the other articles of furniture which we have named. Old Chinese pottery of the Ming dynasty is useful in Itahan, Early English, Early French and modern rooms to as large an extent as any one orna- ment type. That is because it is of a refined, subdued colour, graceful shape and no obtrusive design. It would scarcely find a place, however, in the late French or late Georgian styles, where daintiness and light and 269 INTERIOR DECORATION daring treatments are the particular charm of these periods. It is safe to say that too many such things are used in most rooms. In very luxurious ones this is almost certain to be true. There is an equal chance to overdo this matter in the cheapest kind of material. The department stores and other shops place on sale so much wildly formed, badly covered, cheaply manu- factured stufif, which they call pretty, that people with a desire for beauty, and not too much taste culti- vation, are quite likely to fall a prey. There can scarcely be too few pieces of ornament unless one is certain such pieces are beautiful in themselves, in harmony with the riest of the room and positively es- sential as a decorative note in the general scheme. With this key no one can go far astray. There are herds of cows, droves of sheep, flocks of birds and regiments of men; but what shall we caU the general use of flowers in compressed masses as they are commonly used with the idea that they are decorative? When the Japanese are able to see two flowers in one vase they have arrived at an extravagant use of these the most beautiful of nature's materials. Three are seen together very rarely. How often one is appalled at the number of roses that it is possible to squeeze into one small jar. ^^^len it is not possible to get them all in, of course they can be thrown around upon the table. There also seems to be some lack of consideration as to where the crowded bowl shall finally find a resting-place. Flowers, for the sake of flowers in a room, are not decorative. They are decorative when they are of the kind in colour, 270 SOME SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS textural feeling and arrangement to harmonize with the place in which they are put; otherwise they are an unrelated element in the room. Vases, which are as attractive in themselves as flowers are by themselves, are bad decorative adjuncts. There is no better way to show flowers than to use them in glass vases, where their beautiful stems are as delightful as the flowers themselves. Use few in one place; care- fully select them as to kind; put them together well in the vase, and carefully place them with reference to their surroundings. This will give flowers a place in the scheme of interior decoration befitting their beauty and also respecting their nature quality. Somebody will ask: "What about china for a dining-room?" All the way along it has seemed easier to cite bad things in china than in any other medium. By this time it must be clear that even china must be subject to the same laws of selection as other articles of furnishing and fitting. When plain white china is used there can be no great discord. Plain white, however, does not always seem to be strong enough structurally for the scale of the table and other dinuig-room accessories. The struc- tural effect may be greatly strengthened and the dec- orative idea appear when a plain gilt band is used, or something so nearly approaching this that strengthen- ing of structure is the fundamental impression one re- ceives from it. Let us remember that china is no place to show pic- tures and that if pictures on dishes become more im- portant than the dishes themselves, the same conditions must obtain as those in which the picture frame is more 271 INTERIOR DECORATION important than the picture, or the carving on the chair more appealing than its proportion or the comfort derived from sitting in it. If flov/ers must be used in any other way than that described, their decorative material should be structurally applied, carefully censored as to amount, and the motifs so convention- alized that they are unquestionably "nature adapted to the material in which it is expressed." These simple details are submitted in a practical way that it may be clear to him who reads that the smallest detail is not unimportant in the final criticism of any room. This criticism must leave the mind convinced that the room is a unit: a unit, first, in its function idea perfectly expressed, and second, a unit in beauty of expression, no element of which can be taken from it, and to which no element can be added without destroying the fundamental idea. Every house ever built was really a period house. The modern American house, like any other period house, must, first of all, be considered with reference to the way in which it is to be used. Man now looks not to the past to find something to copy or to graft on to some irregular background as an adequate expression of modern life, neither is he satisfied with mere housing or sheltering qualities. The house appears to the educated thinking man as a necessity and as an en- vironment for mental comfort and natural growth. Decorators and owners alike are coming to see that life in this country is expressed in scientific terms; that with the present viewpoint, as a people we cannot develop a consciousness capable of feeling the art quality as did the Italians during the Renaissance 272 SOME SPECIAL SUGGESTIONS period. Nor can we realize the imaginative possibilities in it as expressed in the Gothic period. They are seeing more surely the psychological relation between man and his works and the indisputable power of environ- ment in determining one's future efficiency. They are getting also nearer to the truth that prin- ciples are expressed in the language of colour and form as truly as they are in musical tones or through words or other symbols which express man's ideas. They are going to test the house, its furnishings, and its de- corations, by the common-sense standard of functional modern fitness as well as from the intellectual and emo- tional standpoint of beauty, realizing the power of beauty in life development. This opens a new chapter in the field of interior decoration. With these conditions in mind, every individual should approach his own problem. He will remember, then, that his house expresses himself, his intelligence, his ideas of art, his best conceptions of the aesthetic idea, and, so far as his means will allow, the qualities of materials which are best suited to fulfill this three- fold ideal. This viewpoint dignifies the personal idea and places it foremost in the consideration of the decora- tion of a modern house. In the next place he will con- sider carefully the individual function of every room and how he can most consistently express this func- tional idea. The geography of a house, and all it exacts, one's present incumbrances, their limitations and their pos- sibilities, together with the knowledge of periods and all that they imply, these are also considerations of importance to him who would realize the perfect ideal 273 INTERIOR DECORATION of the house, and each room in the house, as a personal creation and a form of self-expression. All this must be given in the language of colour, form, line and texture, governed by the principles which are the very structure of this language. Letting one's feelings and imagination be governed by his intelligence, the house will be sincere, consistent and suited to the person associated with it and living in it. It can be in this way no better, and should be no worse, than the individual whose personal creation it is. THE END 274 INDEX INDEX Adam brothers. Work of the, 204-205 Aesthetic judgment, 13 American colour feehng, 54 American house. The modem, 272 Anglo-Saxon simplicity, 172 Anne of Austria, 143 Anne, Period of Queen, see Queen Anne period Antiquity not beauty, 14 Arabesque ornament, 110 Arcs of circle and ellipse, 65 Area divisions, 74-76 Arrangement, Taste in, 11 Art, 13-15 Art periods, 117-130 Art periods, see also Periods Artistic homes no luxury, 227 Artist's furnishings. The, 3 Assyrian ornament. 111 Astragal motif, 150 Aunt Jane's table, 230 Background, The, 32, 50-61, 229 Backgrounds, A rule for, 40 Backgrounds of Louis XIV period, 150 Backgrounds of Louis XV period, 158 Backgrounds of the Little Trianon, 166 Bad taste. Conservative, 234 Bad taste. Examples of, 232 Bad taste, see also Taste Balance, 78-87 Balance of shapes, 89 Balance of sizes, 90 Balance of textures, 90 Banquet hall furniture, 178 Baroque Henry IV period, 140 Buckingham, Duke of, 143 Beauty defined, 13, 14, 240 Beauty and use, 8 Bedroom wall papers, 245 Bedrooms, 6 Binary coloiu:s, 22 Bird patterns, 11 Bisymmetric balance experiments, 79- 82 Black, 27, 37-38 Black wahiut period, 70, 216-219 Blue, 24-25, 37 Blue, see also Primary colours Boleyn, Anne, 176 Book page margins, 76 Bourgeois Henry IV period, 140 Bric-a-brac, 236, 269-270 British art, see Enghsh art Buff, see Yellow Building materials, 244 "Cabinetmaker's and Upholsterer's Guide, The," 200 Cabriole leg. The, 155, 190-191 Carpets, 9, 218 Carpets, see also Rugs Catherme de Medici, 137 Ceiling colour, 30 Ceiling, wall and floor. Law for, 33 Chan- design, 97-\00 Chau- placmg, 60-61 Chairs, Italian Renaissance, 36, 57 Chairs of Louis XV, 159 Chairs of Louis XVI, 69 Chairs, Tudor, 182 Chambers, Sir William, 198 277 INDEX Chandeliers, 266 Charles 11, 184 Chunney piece. The, 10 Chinaware, Good taste in, 271 Chinese-Chippendale, 198 Chinese pottery. Old, 269 Chippendale, Work of Thomas, 196-199, 202 Churches, see also Meeting-houses Circle arcs, ,65 City house. The, 22, 24, 243 Classic art. True and false, 124 Classic idea in Louis XIV architecture, 149 Classic motifs eliminated, 159 Classic restoration. A, 164 Clock, The Colonial, 214 Collector's furnishings. The, 3 Colonial style. The, 32, 181, 206-222 Colour, 17-55, 88, 89, 151, 156, 162, 249 Colour and light, 20 Colour and personaUty, 249 Colour and sound, 19 Colour attraction, 88 Colour httle understood, 18 Colour quaUties, The three, 27-43 Coloured objects. Arrangement of, 89 Colours, Cool and warm, 28, 29, 50-51 Colours of Louis XIV period, 151 Colours of Louis XV period, 162-163 Colours of the regency, 156 Colour, see also Hue, Intensity, Value Commercial-social art influence, 121, 133 Complementary colours, 38, 46-47 Composition, 56, 95 Connoisseur's rooms. The, 3 Consciousness and the senses, 103 Conservatism, Ill-judged, 234 Consistency in Greek art, 123 Consistent shapes and sizes, 63 Consistent structural writing, 58 Contrasts in size, 74 278 Conventionalization defined. 111 Conventionalizing necessary, 11 Cool colom-s, 28 Country houses. Red in, 24 Country house. The, 243 Cream, see Yellow Cromwellian furniture, 183 Curtein hanging, 63, 260-262 Curtain rods and rings, 261 Curtains, Inner and outer, 260-261 Curtains, see also Hangings Curved-line furniture, 69 Curved lines, 64, 189, 219-220 Decorating problem, 12 Decorating trade, 233 Decoration and ornamentation, 10 Decoration and structure, 9-10 Decoration fallacies, 4 Decoration, Individualism in, 238-250 Decoration, Intemperate, 161 Decoration, Modem, 225-237 Decoration, Reasonable, 5 Decoration, Steps in tasteful, 229-237 Decoration, What is, 14 Decorative arrangement, 11 Decorative period qualities, 118 Decorators and personaUty, 248-250 Decorator's opportmiity. The, 228-231 Decorator's stumbling blocks. The, 230- 236 Democratic ideals and English art, 173 Dentil motif, 150 Design defined, 56 Diane de Poitiers, 136 Dining-rooms, 5 Dishes, Flowered, 8 Divisions, Mechanical and artistic, 78- 76 Door casings, 9 Drawing-rooms, 6 Dutch Colonial, see Middle Colonial Dutch influence on Queen Anne period, 187-191 INDEX Ecru, see Yellow Edict of Nantes, 139, 146 Egg-and-art motif, 150 Egyptian ornament, 110 Elephant's breath, see Purple EUipse arcs, 65 Elizabethan style. Application of the, 179 Elizabethan furniture, 177 Elizabethan interiors, 177 Elizabethan period, see also Tudor period Elizabethan textiles, 179 Enghsh art, 171-174 English artistic feeling, S3 English casement cloth, 262 English idea of home, 174 English individuaUsm, 196 English styles in America, 221 Environment, Importance of, 227 Fasade study, 68-59 "Feminine" colours, 54 Feminine influence, see Women, Art for. Fitness in decoration, 8-9 Fitness of art objects, 118 Flemish curve. The, 155 Flemish influence, 143, 182 Flemish scroll, 160, 182 Floor, ceiling and wall. Law for, 33 Floor colour, 30 Floor lines, 59 Flower patterns, 11 Flower selection and arrangement, 270 Flowered furnishings, 8-9 Flowers and personaUty, 250 Form, Principles of, 56-77 Forms, straight-line and curved-line, 66 Frames for pictures, 253-256 France, the home of Gothic, 131 Francis I and his period, 132, 135 Franklin, Benjamin, 213 French artistic feeling, 53 French influence on Colonial style, 213 French Renaissance, 11, 128, 131-153 French styles, 145-153 French styles in America, 220 Fruit patterns, 11 Function idea dominates, 4-7, 239-240 Furniture arrangement, 60-63, 87 Fimriture, "Black walnut," 70 Furniture colour, 30 Furniture, Elizabethan, 177 Furniture, Itahan Renaissance, 69 Furniture, Mission, 70 Furniture of Francis I, 136 Furniture of Henry II, 137 Furniture of Henry VII, 174 Furniture of Louis XIV, 151 Furniture of Louis XV, 69, 159 Furniture of Louis XVI, 69, 166-167 Furniture of New England, 209-210 Furniture of Queen Anne, 190-192 Furniture, Treatment of wood in, 165 Furniture, Tudor, 182-183 Furniture, see also Chippendale, Hepple- white, Sheraton "Gentleman's and Cabinetmaker's Di- rector, The," 197 Geographical considerations important, 241-244 Gilding woodwork, 264 Gilt picture frames, 254-256 Glazed furniture, 265 Gold colour, 27 Golden Mean, The, 73 Good taste, see Bad taste and Taste, Gothic art, 125, 131 Grain, The, in woodwork, 263 Gravitation law and balance, 78 Gray, The neutral, 21, 27 Greek art intellectual, 72 Greek consistency, 123 Greek deduction. The, 73 Greek idea. The, 121-124 Greek ideals of beauty, 71-73 Greek law. The, 73 279 INDEX Greek law of areas, 76 Greek moderation, 122 Greek ornament, 110 Greek simplicity and sincerity, 123 Green, 25 Green, see Binary colours Grill work, 70 Hair flowers, 109 Hanging pictm-es, 256-258 Hangings, 34-35, 229, 258-263 Hangings, see also Curtains Harmonious forms, 66 Harmonious furnishing, 246 Harmony in decoration, 16 Harmony in picture selection, 252 Harmony is beauty, 241 Harmony of colours, 43-48 Heirlooms, Tasteless, 230 Hellenic, see Greek Henry II period, 136-137 Henry IV period, 137-141 Henry VII, Architecture of, 174 Henry VIII and his period, 172, 173, 176 Hepplewhite's style and ideab, 199-203 Historic background of Colonial, 207 Historic background of English art, 171 Historic periods in art, 55, 117-130 History expressed in art, 51, 118 Holbein portraits, 178 Home idea in England, 174 House furnishing. Modem, 225-237 House, The modem American, 272 Houses not museums, 3 Hue, a colour quality, 27-31 Huguenots, The, 138, 146 Humanistic influence, 126 Ideal Proportion, The, 73 Inconsistency, 100 Indirect lighting system, The, 267 Individualism in decoration, 238-250 Individualism in England, 196 Individual's colour needs, The, 47 280 Individual's problem. The, 273 Intensity, a colour quality, 37-43 "Interior decoration" misleading, 3 Interior decoration. Modem, 225-237 Interiors by the Adams brothers, 205 Interiors, Elizabethan, 177 Interiors, French, in America, 220 Interiors of New England, 209 Interiors, Tudor, 183 Italian colour feeling, 52 Italian influence in Henry VHI period, 176 Italian influence in modem America, 222 Italian Renaissance, 127, 132 Italian Renaissance chairs, 36 Italian Renaissance furniture, 36, 57, 69 Jacobean period inspired Colonial, 181 Jacobean period, see also Stuart period James I period. Restraint of, 180 Japanese occult balance, 83 Japanese prints. Frames for, 255 Japanese restraintin picture, 253 Japanese size feeling, 71 Keying a colour, 29-31 Lace curtains, 34-35 Lafayette, Marquis de, 213 Lamps and lamp shades, 267-268 Landlords without taste, 232 La ValUere, Madame de, 147 Lavender, see Purple Lemon, see YeUow Leonardo's statement of proportion, 73 Light and colour, 20 Light-giving colours, 48-49 Lighting arrangements, 266-269 Lighting conditions, 244 Lilac, see Purple Line harmony, 57 Line simplification, 61 Lines in good composition, 65 lines in mgs, 70 INDEX Little Trianon, 165-166 Living-rooms, 6 London smoke, see Purple Loviis XII, forerunner of French Renais- sance, 132 Louis XIU, Period of, 142, 144 Louis XIV, 119 Louis XIV period, 119, 145-153 Louis XIV rhythm, 100 Louis XV fiu:mture, 57, 69 Louis XV period. The, 156-164 Louis XV period and occult arrange- ment, 83 Louis XV, Personality and court of, 157 Louis XVI chairs, 69 Louis XVI period, 164-169 Louis XVI, Personality of, 165 Louis XVI style influences Colonial, 213 Louvre, The, 149 Luminosity in colour, 48-49 Magna Charta, 173 Mahogany, Use of, 32, 189, 191 Maintenon, Madame de, 147 Marble-topped tables, 217 Margins, Book-page, 76 Marie Antoinette, 165-166, 213 Marie de MMici, 138-140 "Masculine" coloiu's, 54 Materialism of Louis XV period, 166 Materials and patterns, 11 Matted pictures, 36, 255-256 Mazarin, Cardinal, 145 Mauve, see Purple Medicis, The, see Catherine de M6dici, and Marie de Medici Mediums, Harmony in picture, 252 Meeting-houses of New England, 208 Middle Colonial, 212 Military formality of Louis XTV period, 152 Mirrors, Colonial, 215 Mirrors, Queen Anne, 192 Mission style, 70 Moderation in Greek art, 122 Modem house. The, 225-237 Mohammedan ornament, 110 Montespan, Madame de, 146 Motif scales, 113 Motif badly combined, 112 Motifs good and bad. 111 Motifs : musical, Uterary and decorative, 107 Motifs of Louis XIV, 150 Motifs on gilt picture frames, 254 Motifs, Restraint in use of, 113 Mouldings of picture frames, 256 Mount Vernon, 213 Movement, 90-93, 96 Museum house. The, 3 Musical symbols, 17 National feeling and colour, 5ir-5S Naturalism, Decadent, 141 Naturalism, Hellenic and humanistic. 126 Naturalism not art, 11, 108 Naturalistic motifs, 161 Naturalistic ornament, 109 Nature copying, 11 Needlework of Queen Anne period, 192 Nevjtral tones, 27 Neutralization of colours, 38-39, 46 New England Puritans, 207-211 New Renaissance in America, 222 Non-bisymmetric arrangement, 159 "Normal coloiu-," Meaning of, 27 Northern Colonial, 208 Northern house. The, 243 Oblique lines, 91 Oblongs and squares, 66 Occult balance, 82-86, 159 Orange, 25 Orange, see also Binary colours Oriental rugs, 35-36 Oriental rugs, see also Rugs Orientation, Problems of, 242 281 INDEX Ornament, Abstract, 110 Ornament must suit material, 11 Ornament of Louis XVI, 167 Ornament, Restraint in, 270 Ornamentation and decoration, 10 Oval curves, 65 Painted woodwork, 264 Paintings not art, 15 Parlours of New England, The, 214 Pattern must suit material, 11 Period copyists, 235 "Period" defined, 119 Period pictures in period rooms, 252 Periods, How to study, 119-120, 128- 130 Periods in general, 117-130 Periods of English art, 175 Periods, The three stages of, 135 PersonaUty in decoration, 238-250 Petit Trianon, see Little Trianon Photographs and personality, 250 Photographs, Frames for, 255 Piano placing, 87 Picture composition, 95 Picture frames, 253-256 Picture hanging, 62-63, 93, 256-258 Pictiu'c language, 17 Picture mats, 36 Picture mediums. Harmony in, 252 Picture placing, 66-67, 68, 257 Pictures in decorating, 251-258 Pigments, 21 Political art impulse. The, 121 Pompadour, Madame de, 157 Portiere hanging, 11 Portieres, see also Hangings, Curtains Portraits, Elizabethan, 178 Pottery of the regency, 156 Pottery, Old Chinese, 269 Primary colours, 21-25 Printed linen of Louis XV, 162 Proportion in High Greek period, 99 Puritan influence on Tudor period, 185 Piuitans of New England, see New England Puritans Purple, 26-27 Purple, see also Binary colours Queen Anne period, 186 Red, 23-24 Red, see also Primary colours Regency period. The, 154 Religious art impulse. The, 120 Renaissance chairs, 36 Renaissance, French, 128, 131-153 Renaissance influence, 11 Renaissance, Italian, 127, 132 Renaissance, see also New Renaissance Restfulness, 79, 81, 90-93 Restraint of James I period, 181 Rhythm m Louis XTV period, 100 RicheUeu, Cardinal, 143, 145 Rocaille, 150, 160 Rococo, 150, 155 Roof design, Italian, 101 Roses, Experiments with, 108 Roses on the walls, 112 Rubens, Paintings of, 140 Rug colours, 30 Rug design, 10, 94 Rug placing, 59 Rugs, 33-34, 42 Rugs, Importance of, 229 Rugs, Lines in, 70 Rugs of black walnut period, 218 Rugs, see also Carpets, Oriental rugs Scale, Importance of, 247 Scale in motifs, 113 Scale interpreted, 97 Scroll motif, Italian, 150 Second Renaissance, see New Renais- sance See-saw and occult balance, 84 Senses, The, and consciousness, 103 Sensuousness of Louis XV period, 156 INDEX Sentimental furnishings, 7, 230 Separatists, 181, 206 "Shade," Meaning of, 27 Shades for lamps, 268 Shell flowers, 109 Shell motif, 150 Sheraton, Style and work of, 202-204 Size balance, 90 Size consistency, 71 Size contrast, 74 Social idea and art, 121 Sound and colour analogies, 19 Sound symbob, 17 Southern Colonial style, 211-212 Southern house. The, 242 Spanish colour feeling, 52 Steelyards and occult balance, 84 Straight-line furniture, 69 Straight lines, 64 Structural lines important, 16 Structure determines form, 57 Stuart period, 180-185 Stuart period, see also Jacobean Table design, 100-102 Table, Rug and cloth for, 71 Tapestries, 111 Tapestries of Henry II period, 136 Tapestries of Louis XV period, 162 Tapestry placing, 68 Tapestry, see also Needlework Taste, Development of, 226 Taste in arrangement, 11 Taste, see also Bad taste Tasteful furnishings not costly, 228 Tasteless articles. Disposal of, 231 Tasteless articles in shops, 233 Temperament and colour, 29 Textiles, Elizabethan, 179 Textiles of Henry H, 136 Textiles of Louis XVI, 168 Textiles of the regency, 156 Textiles, Tudor, 184 Textures, 103-107 Textures, Balance of, 90 Theatres, Elizabethan, 179 "Tint," Meaning of, 27 "Tone," Meaning of, 27 Transitional styles, 186 "Triad scheme" of colour harmony, 47 Trim and wall colourings, 32 Trim, Treatment of the, 265 Tudor furniture, 182 Tudor interiors, 183 Tudor period, 175-179 Tudor' period, see also Elizabethan period Twisted wood, Flemish, 182 Unity in decoration, 272 Upholstery, Colour of, 30 Use and beauty, 8 Value, a coloiu: quality, 31-37 Value scale. A, 31 Varnished furniture, 265 Vases and flowers, 271 Vegetable patterns, 11 Versailles, Court of, 146 VersaiQes, Palace at, 148, 166 Vertical oblongs, 66, 74 Victorian era, see also Black walnut period Vioci's rule of proportion, 73 Violet, see Purple Wall, ceiling and floor. Law for, 33 Wall colour, 30 Wall decorative principles, 61 Wall spacing, 68 Wall paper. Choice of, 245 Wall paper experiments, 41-42, 91-92 Wall paper. Flowered, 9 Wall paper, Unrestful, 94 Walls and occult balance, 85-86 Warm colours, 29 Warm tones, 60-51 Washington, George, 213 283 INDEX Water colours. Frames for, 255 Women and the French Renaissance, Wax flowers, 109 133-134 White, Stanford, 124 Wood carving of Henry II period, 136 White, a "neutral," 27 Wooden fiuniture. Treatment of, 265 William the Conqueror, 172 Woodwork, Colonial, 215-216 William the Stadtholder, 187 Woodwork, Treatment of, 263-265 Window dressing, 40 Wren, Sir Christopher, 193 Window hangings, 11 Window placing, 59 Yellow, 22-23 Women, A style for, 146, 147 Yellow, aee also Primary colours 284 THE COtTNTBY UFE PBESS GABDEN CITY, N. T.