PRACTICAL HOME FURNISHINGS By LUCY DAVIS TAYLOR RUTH APPLETON PERKINS . . wvn y- 7 :-, % Ilplfp ■*%^¥mx£\ tM 4 Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. A charge is made on all overdue books. University of Illinois Library M/It -s- -* :j Mr'. 28 is Ml/ 1 6 196 C L161 — H41 PRACTICAL HOME FURNISHINGS Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/practicalhomefur01tayl PRACTICAL HOME FURNISHINGS LUCY DAVIS TAYLOR formerly Head, Teachers’ Training Department MASSACHUSETTS NORMAL ART SCHOOL and, RUTH APPLETON PERKINS Supervisor of Drawing MEDFORD, MASS. Book One Published by EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT ALLIED WALL-PAPER INDUSTRY 132 WEST 42nd ST., NEW YORK CITY Copyright by Lucy Davis Taylor =f tT 2~^5 L Foreword &4S T&\^> £ o M cO j To Teachers: — The contents of this book are the fruit of many years of experiment in the public schools. The pedagogy suggested has been evolved gradually as it became more and more evident that the old methods of teaching drawing would never produce successful results in the field of home furnishing. To make color live in a room does not require a knowledge ot drawing. It does require a knowledge of color characteristics, of lighting conditions, of textures, and of color combinations. There is only one way to acquire this knowledge; that is by actual experience, to try combinations, to experiment with colors in strong light, in dull light, to try to see patterns hung in folds as they will be used, to see patterns and colors put together in different lights— these are the real problems that the children must solve to get their actual experience. In all the problems given in this book, it is urged that teachers work with real materials and that they use the method of comparison directed by questions, to develop discriminations. Compare one paper with another and select the one most suitable for a given purpose. It is better to select from two good ones rather than from two, one of which is bad, the other good. Keep only good things before the children. Otherwise there is always the chance that the bad thing makes more impression than the good, and the children remember it more clearly. When a child has made a choice of paper or drapery for a room under given condition, he has had his reaction just as surely as though he had tried to design the paper or write a composition about it. His selection is his reaction. The first and easiest step in presenting this work is the class discussion of materials. By questions and careful comparisons establish the desired principles for the lesson. Let the principles come as a result of the discussion, selection and rejection of material. It takes longer to get results in this way, but the re- sults are worth while in the end. Do not be afraid of spending a whole lesson on discussion of materials with perhaps five or six selections which are the result of the whole class effort. Very likely you will not reach every individual, be sure of the selective power ot each child as a result of this first lesson. That comes in the later drill work, just as it does in arithmetic or any academic subject. Follow this first class discussion with group work. Probably there will not be enough material for each pupil to work entirely by himself. Appoint a captain or a chairman for each group. Have group selections made— and posted on the bulletin board. Leave selections on the bulletin board for several days so that the class may study them under the different lighting conditions of differ- ent days. The booklet work is suggested as an individual checking up for each pupil in the class. However, unless the booklet work is preceded by much class dis- cussion and experiment with real materials, it fails of its purpose and becomes as stereotyped, useless, and academic as the traditional drawings of elevations or f ' ;35 rooms. Children learn to discriminate very quickly and in an astonishingly short time begin to get a basis of classification and a genuine appreciation of the best things. This book has been limited to color and the room setting as that forms the first natural unit of work. The authors have in preparation other volumes dealing with furniture, accessories, and arrangement. Much gratitude is due to Dr. David Snedden of Columbia University for his stimulating inquiries in this field, which first started the authors searching for a way to meet this great need. Acknowledgment is also made to all those students from the Massachusetts Normal Art School, who have conducted ex- periments under many varied conditions and without whose enthusiastic assist' ance the present work would have been impossible. Lucy Davis Taylor Ruth Appleton Perkins Boston, April 14, 1921 Table of Contents Chapter I Color Atmosphere Chapter II . Color Theory Chapter III Hue Chapter IV Value Chapter V Chroma Chapter VI Pattern Chapter VII Woodwork Chapter VIII Line in Curtains Chapter IX Proportion and Curtains Chapter X . Color in Curtains From George Leland Hurrter's “DECORATIVE TEXTILES’ By Permission COLOR ATMOSPHERE 1 Chapter I COLOR ATMOSPHERE AVE you ever been in a room so attractive that it was a tempta- tion to stay there? Comfort and pleasure were in the very at- mosphere. You felt their influ- ence the moment the threshold was crossed. A careful look around the room would probably have revealed the fact that someone had taken great care in choos- ing and arranging every bit of color and every piece of furniture. Nothing had been left to chance. The chairs were the kind to drop into fearlessly, not the kind that school books and skates would be sure to damage. No pale blue damask covering set them apart for the specially gowned guest and the formal tea. They were both usable and comfortable. Beside the reading lamp was a chair, generous enough in its proportions to be an invitation to a luxuri- ous, quiet treat with a book ; two more easy chairs near the window suggested cozy, pleasant chats. Not a chair in the room that did not look friendly and usable. The books on the table were the kind to read, not the kind that are merely dusted on Sat- urday mornings. Everything looked gay and cheerful. The whole room was spark- ling and alive with bright spots of color; pink sweet peas were in the bowl by the window; the same rose color was echoed in the silk shade of the reading lamp ; deep, rich pink for the draperies through which the sun was shining threw a beautiful soft light in the room. The warm grey walls made a perfect background for its radiance. Who could resist such an invitation? It meant a beautiful, restful, enjoyable home. There is a vast difference between rooms that are just rooms and rooms that are homes. Color and its arrangement play a large part in making rooms home-like and beauti- ful. There is no other single element which even approaches it in importance. With color, we can make dark and gloomy rooms look gay and cheerful. We can make small rooms look larger. We can make big rooms look smaller and more home-like. It is the magic that helps us pull incongruous pieces of furniture together and make them fit happily into their setting. With color, we set the character and atmosphere of a room. Surely it is worth while to get acquainted with it, to learn some of its secrets. So many secrets! But think of the fun after we have learned them and can use their magic. No more restless, nerve-rack- ing rooms because there are too many bright colors. No more dreary, stupid look- ing rooms because there are too many dull colors. For we shall know how to get the happy medium, to use just the right amounts of bright and dull colors to get the happiest, jolliest, most attractive kinds of rooms. The very first secret is the most impor- tant one of all. It is the one on which all the others depend, one we must never forget for a single moment. If we do, our room will fall to pieces instantly. In pleasant rooms, there is always one color that is used more than any other. In the room we have already described, it was pink. This color is known as the dom- inant color note. Sometimes it is in the draperies and the ornaments; sometimes it is in the walls, rugs and upholstery. Think of a big room with the light pouring in at the windows. The walls are covered with soft tan paper ; the rugs are deep rich brown ; the woodwork is old ivory ; the furniture is handsome dark brown oak. £ COLOR ATMOSPHERE The curtains are brown and yellow with dull blue spots in the pattern ; handsome old blue is on the big sofa in front of the fireplace. The same dull blue tone is echoed in the candles on the mantle and the big bowl on the table in its turn holds a bunch of brilliant jonquils, a clear bright yellow. Over the little table against the wall is thrown a brilliant yellow cover with with a few brown and blue accents in the pattern, though it is the yellow that calls to us. What is the dominant color note of the room? Is it the yellow, the blue or the brown? It is the brown. The blue and yellow are only bits of contrast in a big field of brown. They are like buttercups and daisies in a big green field. The real color of the room is brown. The yellow and blue are bits of spicy contrast. Not for a mo- ment would we lose the feeling of the dom- inant color note, brown. Let us hold fast to this first secret to make every room tell one color story, give us one single strong color impression. The second secret is a very close com- panion to this first one. When we pick out the bright color accents, how can we be sure that they will all go together nicely and everything in the room seem to take its right place? We do not want the rugs to be so bright that they appear to jump up and meet us before we can get across the room to greet our friends. We do not want the walls to call to us so insistently that we keep looking away from our friends toward them. It is very important to remember that rooms are made for people not people for rooms. Never lose sight of that fact for one moment. It is the very innermost se- cret of how to make beautiful rooms. What do we wish to see when we go into a room? The people. Everything else is of relative importance. Always the peo- Note the way in which the dark notes of the paper are balanced by the dark curtain. The same dark note is echoed in the furniture. The room is pleasant to look at because all the parts fit together. COLOR ATMOSPHERE 3 pie are the center of our attention and in- terest. All the things in the room are for their comfort and convenience. The furni- ture, the rugs, the walls are only background for the family and the things they do. What do we see next ? The pictures, the lamp shades, the ornaments. Both people and ornaments are like the precious stones in jewelry, the people the central stones, the ornaments the little ones around them. Everything else in the room is the setting. Color may spoil this whole relationship if we do not understand how to handle it just right. If the setting is allowed to grow very vivid in color, what happens to the jewels? They disappear. Then the setting has become so strong that it is seen before the jewels; it is out of place. In the case of the room, the walls and rugs would be seen before the people and the choice bits of ornament. Immediately the room would ac- quire a restless, uncomfortable feeling. All the setting or background colors must be kept subdued so as not to intrude themselves upon the attention until their turn comes. Each one, in a well designed room, has its place and turn. Be sure that it stays back where it belongs. Let the jewels stand out clear and strong. This is the way we get the dominant color note and keep the accents so that they all go together — by keeping all our colors in proportion. Quiet rooms or gay rooms, the principle is the same. Always a ques- tion of jewels and their setting, of dull places and bright places in contrast, with the strongest colors where the strongest “living” human interest lies. Did you ever stop to think that in jewelry it is the small parts, the gems them- selves that are bright, and the large parts, the setting, that is dull ? So it is with rooms. The walls, the floor, and the ceiling are the largest surfaces in a room. They need also to be the dullest in color if the pro- portion is to be kept. It is against them that the jewels are to sparkle. If they are not right, the whole color scheme is thrown out immediately. They are its very foun- dation. They not only have this relation to the other objects in the room, they have like- wise a certain relation to each other, that has to be just as carefully maintained. Out of doors, we are used to seeing the dark ground around us and the light sky above us. We grow accustomed to expecting something light above us. Perhaps this is the reason why we feel more comfortable when the floor is kept dark, the walls a little lighter, and the ceiling the lightest thing in the room. Rooms with light floors are apt to be very unpleasant. They seem to reach up toward us instead of staying down flat. Ceilings that are dark are equally disagreeable. They are oppressive. Ceilings that are tinted the same color as the wall-paper, though much lighter, fit into the color scheme beautifully. Usually it is the walls that set the main background color for the room. Ordinar- ily, the colors of floor and rugs are selected to go well with the walls; ceilings are tinted to go with them; draperies are chosen to match them ; upholstery and ac- cents get their inspiration from them. They are the key-note for establishing the domi- nant color atmosphere. They are the larg- est surfaces of all ; they are the surfaces that we see most of. That is why we are going to study them first. But in studying them, let us remember that beautiful rooms can only be achieved when we plan every bit of color that is to be used to keep its right relation to every other bit of color. All are parts that fit together. To get color atmosphere and make rooms homelike we must try to plan them so that they will truly fit together in their color relationships. 4 COLOR THEO R Y Chapter II COLOR THEORY HE hat looked pretty and tempt- ing in the store. It was a beau- tiful shade of blue. Home it was taken and gleefully it was shown to the family. Why did they fail to be enthusiastic? What was the matter? They offered no criticism of the hat itself. They agreed that it was very pretty, but, they said that it “made Olive’s face look yellow!” She had forgotten that buying a pretty hat was only half of the story. The other half of the story was to have it becoming to her. Every time that we buy clothes or furni- ture, we have to consider the colors them- selves ; we also have to consider if they will look well with all the other colors to be used ; if they will be becoming to them. None of us make mistakes like this from choice. We make them because we do not know any better. We ignorantly guess at the way to use colors together. To know is better than to guess. We do not try to guess at the multiplication table ; we know it. If we were trusting to guess work, we might try to make four nickels equal twenty-five cents, and would be in trouble constantly as a result. To know the rules of color combinations is just the same as to know the rules of multiplication ; if we know, we do not have to take chances in a hit or miss fashion. We can work with the certainty of getting a good result. If we do not understand them thoroughly, we would always be in the class with Olive. The world is full of color. It is an as- tonishing and comforting fact that every one of these many colors can be recognized, sorted out, and grouped under one of six big color families. Every color which was ever seen in nature or in any kind of ma- terial comes into one of these big families. These color families or hues, as they are called, are the six spectrum colors, red, or- ange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Each color family includes a wide range of colors within itself. When we say green, we may mean a green that is very yellow like the leaves in some plants; we may mean em- erald green ; we may mean blue green, the color of jade. It would be impossible to name all the greens. Yet this fact stands out distinctly — we always recognize them as greens. We might go still further and always recognize them as yellow greens, blue greens, or medium greens that are neither yellow nor blue; just green. We may grade these in a series, as in Fig. 4. Put plain green in the center. Put yellow at one end and blue at the other end. Half way be- tween yellow and green will come yellow green. Half way between blue and green will come blue green. The yellow green has as much yellow as green in it so that it feels balanced between the two. The name “yellow green” indicates half yellow, half green. The same is true with the blue green, half blue, half green. Between yel- low and yellow green might be a great many graduations of yellow green, some with a great deal of yellow, some with a great deal of green in them. Every one of the color hues can be graded in the same way. See Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. These half and half hues are called intermediates. The person who really knows color can always recognize each of these hues, stan- dard and intermediates, and place it ex- actly where it belongs in the family scale. EXERCISES: 1. Make a color scale in either crayons or watercolors for each of the six standard hues. Use Figures 1 to 6 as a guide. Place the color with which you are working in the center first. Place the two colors at the ends next. Then get the two intermedi- ates. (This exercise should be omitted if students have done it in preceding classes.) 2. Make a set of “Selection” sheets. There are six standard hues and six COLOR THE O R Y 5 intermediates. It is important to be able to select at a glance an orange red and not confuse it with a red. To learn to do this successfully means practice in picking out colors, naming them as best you can, and then test- ing them against a scale to see how nearly right your estimate came. This exercise will give just that kind of practice. INTERMEDIATES: Take six sheets of white paper \ }/ 2 inches by 6 inches. At the top of each sheet draw a 1-inch square, spac- p PR R RO 0 Fig. 1 R RO 0 or Y Fig. 2 0 or V i | YG n* kj Fig. 3 Y YG G GB B Fig. 4 G GB B i BR P Fig. 5 B BP R RR R 6 COLOR THE O R Y ing it carefully. Fill in each square with one of the intermediates, using either water color or crayons. From advertisements, colored magazine il- lustrations, postcards, wall-papers, or cloth, cut small samples which belong to each of the color families shown at the head of the sheet. They do not need to exactly match ; they need only to belong to that family. Use the scales for helping to test ; for exam- ple, if the sample seems to be orange red but you are not sure, try it against the standard red, the inter- mediate orange red, and the standard orange. When you compare it with all three, you will find it easier to make your decision. (NOTE: If necessary, make selection sheets for standards, also.) Before we are ready to use our color combinations successfully there are two more things that we have to learn about our color families. We have located the Hue house in which each family lives. Now we have to find out on which floor the family lives. Some reds are light, some are dark. The light reds we call pink. It is the dark reds that we usually think of as red. When they are very, very dark, as on some auto- mobiles, we often speak of them as maroon. Any one of the hues of red — for ex- ample, orange red, red, or purple red — may be light, medium, dark, or very dark. This lightness or darkness of a color we speak of as its Value. The lightest tone that we can have is white. The darkest that we can have is black. Neither one is a color. Between white and black there are a great many de- grees of grey; very light grey, light grey, medium grey, dark grey, very dark grey. EXERCISES: 1. Make a value scale of at least five steps. Start with white and black. Get a middle grey half way between the two. Test it by placing it direct- ly on the other two. Then get the step half-way between middle and white in the same way. Last, get the step half-way between middle and black. (NOTE: If students have made scales in preceding classes, Exercise 1 may be omitted.) SELECTION EXERCISES: 2. It is as important to be able to esti- mate values and place them accord- ing to the scale as to recognize and place the hues. Use a standard value scale. Test several color samples for value with the scale. Use wall-paper samples, drapery samples, paint sam- ples, any “real” things that are useful to know more about. To find out just how light or dark a given color is, test it with this grey scale in which there is no bright hue to confuse you. Cut out a little piece of the color. Put it beside the grey note that it seems most like. Partly close your eyes so that if the red hue in your color patch is very strong you will scarcely see it, but will get a grey effect from it. Move it around on the edge of the value patch. Does it look lighter or darker than the scale? Try the one above, the one below. Experiment until you have found where the color comes on the value scale. Then you know ex- actly how light or dark the color is. You are ready to use it intelligently. You are not guessing; you know. Now we have located our family in its Hue house. We have located it also on the top floor or on the bottom floor ; we know how to tell whether it is light or dark. There is one more thing that we have to know about the family. Some colors are very bright, so bright that they almost make your eyes ache when you look at them. Some colors are very dull, so dull that you really are not sure what color they are. Did you ever put a sponge into water and watch it soak up the water? It soaks and soaks until finally it will not soak up any more. Then we say that it is saturated. If you have tried to mop up the floor, you have found the same thing true. The mop worked well until it was so full of water that it would not absorb any more. You had to wring it out before you could finish the work. It, too, was “saturated” with the water. The same thing happens to color. Did you ever see a green, a bright green that COLOR THEORY 7 was so soaked, so saturated with green that you knew it could not possibly be one bit greener? It just could not stand being any greener. Or a yellow that was so full of yellow that it could not possibly be any more yellow? These are the saturated colors. They are very vivid, very pronounced ; they are the strong colors. Sometimes, instead of saying saturated, we call them very chro- matic. We mean simply that they are very full of color, bright, strong, intense. All colors are not intense. Some are very dull and subdued. When they are dull, weak, subdued, we say that they are unchromatic. They are like the sponge when it has not soaked up much water. Light pink may be bright light pink, or it may be a dull and subdued light pink, a soft, gentle kind of color. Light blue may be a bright, vivid light blue, or it may be a dull, soft, light blue. Dark green may be a very intense, strong, prominent green, or it may be so subdued that you would scarcely recognize it as a green. Any hue may be taken at any value and be made either strong, pronounced, saturated, or dull, weak, subdued. EXERCISE: 1. Make selections of samples of “real things,” as papers, paints, cloth, and classify them as to whether they are chromatic or unchromatic. Do not try to chart these. It is sufficient for all practical purposes to recognize them as either chromatic, unchro- matic, or medium chromatic. Now we have the whole story. If we can pick out a color and place its hue, tell where it comes in the value scale, light, medium, or dark, and decide whether it is chromatic or unchromatic, we are ready to learn how to use color to get success- ful results. EXERCISE. RESULT SHEETS. To make sure you know every color may vary in hue, value, and chroma, make a sheet for one or more of the hues like the one shown in Figure 7. C hr- OTTJQ 8 H U E Chapter III HUE ’S uncle went to New k on a business trip. He Jean with him. She came bubbling over with a de- for a brown and gold eve- ning dress. She had seen them in the shop windows and at the theatres everywhere. They were very stylish. Jean was very dark; she had a lovely dark skin and dark brown eyes. She had not noticed that most of the girls who wore these fashionable dresses were either very light or auburn. She persuaded her mother to let her have a brown dress, and she wore it to the As- sembly. She came home quite discouraged ; no one had enthused over it. Several girls thought it was a lovely dress but no one said she looked well in it. Jean did not realize that she looked like a somber little owl in the midst of all the bright colors. If she had picked out light yellow to con- trast with her brown hair, as the girls in New York with the light and bright hair had picked out the brown for contrast, she would have looked stunning too. Rooms need colors that are becoming to them just the same as did Jean. A color may look very well in one room. In the next room, where the sun comes in under different conditions, the same color may be much less attractive. What makes the dif- ference? What are the warmest things that we know about? Fire and sunlight. When we think of heat, we think either of a fire or the warm, bright sun. What colors do fires show? Yellow, orange and red for the most part. What color do we think of the sunbeams as they stream through a window across the floor? Bright light yel- low. All the colors which are connected with heat we call warm colors. They give us a feeling of warmth and glow when we look at them. What are the coldest things that we can think of? Snow and ice. The colors that we see in these are blues and purples. Look at the shadows of the tree trunks on the snow. They are beautiful spark- ling blue or purple. Green trees in sum- mer give the cool refreshing notes which are a relief from the heat of the sun. All the colors which are connected with cold, we call the cold colors. They are the colors which have the blue and purple quality in them; the greens, blue greens, blues, blue purples, and purples. There are some colors that are mixtures like the browns and greys which may be either warm or cold. Look at several browns very carefully. Do they have a yellow or orange tinge, a red or a blue tinge? If it is very hard to tell, try the brown against a yellow, an orange, and a blue spot. Which does it seem most like? If the brown has a good deal of yellow, orange, or red in it, it is a warm brown. If it has a great deal of blue in it, then it is a cool brown. Greys may be sorted out in the same manner. Those having yellow, orange, or red tinges, even though they may be very slight, give a much warmer effect than the greys which are slightly colored with the cool colors, blue, green, or purple. These differences between warm and cool colors are very necessary to under- stand when we are trying to fit colors to rooms. Let us see why. Figure 8 is the plan of a small house. It faces towards the southwest. Into which rooms will the sunlight fall? The answer to this question gives the clue to selecting colors that are becoming to rooms ? H UE 9 The sun rises in the east. In the morn- ing, the east rooms will have the sunlight. At noon, the sun is shining from the south. During the middle of the day, the south rooms will have the sunlight. In the even- ing, the sun sets in the west. During the afternoon, the ' west rooms have the sun- light. At no time during the whole day does the sun get into the north rooms. They will never feel the warmth and glow of the sunshine. In the south rooms, the sun will stream in throughout the middle of the day. At this time, the rays of the sun are much hotter than earlier or later in the day. They shine more directly, and it is by far the hottest time of the day. Think of a big south living room. The sun is pouring in through five big windows all through the warm noon time. Think how you would feel in that room on a very hot day in summer when the thermometer was 102° in the shade. It would be a blind- ing, hot glare of light. What do you wish to put on the walls? Shall you use a red wall-paper? How would red look in there? Already the room is hot and blinding. If you use a red paper, you would be adding more warmth to make you feel still hotter. You might not mind the red paper in the middle of winter when the sun rays were not so hot, but as soon as the warm weather came, the room would be unbearable. This is the time to use our color inform- ation and prevent any such mistakes from being made. Blues, blue greens, purples, and some greys are cold colors. We have an example in subtraction. A cold color will take away from the warmth of the light and make the room look cooler. When we used the warm color we were N FIGURE 8 Sun moves in direction that arrows point. North rooms have no sunlight at any time during the day. 10 H UE doing addition, adding warmth to warmth. Now we are doing subtraction taking away warmth by using a cold color. Let us remember that in south rooms we are going to use cool colors. Think of a north bedroom. The wind is howling around the corners of the house, blowing the snow in great drifts, rattling the blinds and windows. It almost makes you shiver to think of it. North rooms get no sunlight. There is no glow and warmth to make them look cheerful. If we think back to our addition and subtraction, we know immediately what colors to use. Cold added to cold would make more cold. Warm subtracted from cold would make less cold. There- fore, we know that in order to make north rooms less cold, we are going to use warm colors. A bright, soft, glowing yellow, a rich soft brown would do much to make the room have some of the cheery sunny feel- ing. Let us remember that in north rooms we are going to use warm colors. East and west rooms are harder prob- lems, but we shall solve them by the same rules. The sun does not stay in an east room as long as in a south room. By eleven o’clock, the room is sunless, and so it will remain for the rest of the day, for the sun has gone around the corner of the house and has begun to creep into those south windows. What does this mean ? Before eleven o’clock, the east room is a warm room. After eleven o’clock, it is a cool room. What can we do about it? Shall we use a warm paper or a cool paper ? The answer depends entirely upon the time of day that the family will be in the room. If the sun is there when the family is using it, a comparatively cool paper may be used. On the other hand, if the sun is way around the other side of the house when the family is using the room, a com- paratively warm paper may be used. Few of us stay in our bedrooms very late in the morning. When we wake up in an east bedroom, the sun is there, too. Very likely we do not return to that room until evening when the lights are lighted. We could use a cool paper on the walls because during the part of the day that we are in the room it is sunny. Of course, the morn- ing sun is never so bright and hot as the noon sun. But nevertheless, it will be fair- ly warm. Warm greys, greys with pat- terns that have soft rose pink and blue notes in them, buffs, unchromatic yellows, papers with a white ground and little blue or green figures or stripes, soft lavenders, cool rose pinks, all will look well. Mother may have an east bedroom which she uses as a sewing room. She is in there at intervals all days, often sewing for long hours in the afternoon. To her, the east bedroom would be a cool room. She would want to use the warmer colors on the walls. The warmest greys with pink and yellow accents in the pattern, the warm buffs and light soft, warm browns, the yel- lows, warm pinks, and the warm yellow green papers are what she needs. If you are going to do your home les- sons in your bedroom every afternoon and are likely to be there between four and six o’clock, those are the papers that you need, too. We have used the bedroom for an ex- ample. It makes no difference if it be bed- room, living room, dining room, or hall. We would solve the problem in the same way. What time of day is the room to be used? Is it warm or cold at that time? If cool, use a warm paper. If warm, use a cool paper. West rooms are just the reverse of east rooms. The problem will be answered in precisely the same way. The sun gets into them about two o’clock. Before that time, they are cool ; after that time, they are warm. Decide upon the time of day they are to be used and treat them accordingly. Before we leave this question of hue, there is one more very important fact that we need to know. Have you ever seen a woman carrying a red umbrella and noticed how the light shining through it made her face look very pink? Have you ever held a red blotter under an electric desk light? The blotter throws off a strong red light which makes the whole room look pinkish. Something similar to this happens when the sun shines on a brick wall. The wall throws off a reddish light. We say that the surface is reflecting red light. H U E 11 We have a north bedroom. Directly across a very narrow alley, just wide enough for the ash cart, are the brick walls of the next apartment house. They face toward the south. As our house is not tall, the sun shines on the opposite wall many hours each day. What is happening to the light in our room? Exactly the same thing that happened to the room in the preceding paragraph. If we hold a paper up near our window, it will look look quite pink. Morever, that pinkish glow will spread throughout the room. It is very necessary to know that this sort of thing will happen. We should look all around our house to see what colored objects, trees, other houses, water, are near enough to cast their reflected light into our rooms. In this particular case, it means that instead of the usual cold sunless north light, we have a soft warm reddish reflec- tion to consider. That reflection would change our choice of paper. We would select a paper that was cooler than if our house were out in the country with nothing near enough the north windows to cast a reflected light within. We would not use a yellow as chromatic as under other con- ditions; if we chose a brown, it could be a cooler brown. But even this room can- not stand a really cold paper, such as blue. In the cities, the houses that are very near each other always cast a reflection through the windows opposite the walls on which the sun shines. Always we have to do a little more thinking, and subtract or add to the warmth of the papers ac- cording to the color that is being reflected. EXERCISE: 1. From wall-paper samples, select a paper for a north room. 2. From wall-paper samples, select a paper for a south room. 3. From wall-paper samples, select a paper for an east room that is to be used in the morning only. 4. From wall-paper samples, select a paper for an east room that is to be used all day. 5. Select a paper for a west room that is to be used only in the morning. 6. Select a paper for a west room that is to be used only in the afternoon. 7. Select a paper for a north bedroom, with a yellow house very near. 8. Select a paper for a west living room with a red house very near. 12 VAL UE Chapter IV VALUE LL day it rained. A dark, dull, dreary day. Mary came into the house, threw down her school bag with a sigh of relief, took off her wet coat and started toward the sitting room, thinking she would settle down comfortably with that new book she got from the library new the evening before. Down she sat in her favorite big chair by the side window and began to read. Soon she drew her chair closer to the win- dow; the light was very bad. She started reading again. A few moments and, — well, the light certainly was poor. It had not been so poor in school. In fact, she had hardly noticed that the rainy day had made any difference. What was the matter? She glanced up and looked around. The room itself appeared dark, full of shadows. A great contrast to the bright, cheery-look- ing schoolroom. What made the differ- ence. Suddenly she remembered something that her drawing teacher had once said. Mary had not paid much attention at the time, but this must have been the sort of thing that the teacher had referred to. She had described a kitchenette with one window opening on to a little porch. She had told how that kitchenette had looked originally with dark brown paint on the walls; how dark, dreary, and small it had appeared. To have appetizing food come out of it had seemed an impossibility. Then she had told what had been done to transform it into a bright, cheerful-look- ing place where she had loved to work. How the light soft yellow walls and the white enamel paint on the woodwork had made it look lighter and larger. She had told the class that walls which were light in value always made rooms seem lighter because they reflected light. For the first time, Mary saw what she had meant. She looked at the paper in the room where she sat. It was a very dark green. She looked at the windows, for the teacher had said something about the num- ber of windows making a difference. There were two windows to light the big room. One of them opened upon a piazza which cut off a good share of the light. Mary suddenly realized that the room was a dark room anyway, even on a bright sunny day. In summer, with the piazza and the big tree outside, it was very cool and dark and restful. But in the winter, she remembered now, it had always been gloomy. She thought of the schoolroom again. What color were the walls there? Buff. She tried to picture that color right there in the living room and presto, — it changed the whole room in the twinkling of an eye. She could see the room grow lighter and brighter. See it come to life, see it seem to stretch out and grow larger, and the dreariness of the shadows and the grey day disappear. Mary’s experience with the room was akin to Jean’s experience with the dress. A little information about how to use colors in a dark room would have given Mary a pleasant place to sit and read, in- stead of that dreary room on that wet day. In Chapter 3 we learned that bright sur- faces like brick walls with the sun shin- ing on them, reflect their hue. Now we are going one step farther. All light colors, no matter what hue they may be, reflect light. That does not mean color, hue. It means just what it says, Light. Wherever there is a very light, nearly white surface, there is luminosity around it, because the light shining on it is being thrown off again, reflected. V A L U E 13 Snow covered fields with the sun shin- ing on them are blinding to look at be- cause they are reflecting so much light. The same fields in the summer with the green grass, being darker, reflect less light. The lighter the value of the surface, the stronger the light reflection ; the darker the value, the weaker the light reflection. Now it is easy to see how this fact works inside of a room. The lighter the walls, the greater the reflected light, thus the lighter the room will look. Therefore, if for any reason at all there is not much light in a room, always use a light value wall-paper. The light in rooms varies a great deal. Often there are plenty of windows to give bountiful light in the room, but something cuts it off. It may be a piazza, it may be trees, it may be the next house. It is al- ways wise to think about what is outside the windows. If we think of the room on sunny days and dull days, winter and sum- mer, and take into account the amount of light there usually is in the room, we shall be sure to get a paper that is exactly the right value to meet all of our needs in all kinds of light conditions. So far, we have only talked about mak- ing dark rooms lighter. What are we go- ing to do with very light rooms? Can we make them darker if we wish to do so? Suppose we have a big south bedroom with five huge windows. The house faces the ocean. There are no piazzas, trees, nor neighbors’ houses to cut off the light from the windows. On the walls is a very light grey paper, beautiful in itself but reflecting a great deal of light. All together there is a glare. Too much of a glare to live with constantly. Shall we add to our light reflection in this room or subtract from it? We all know the answer; we are going to sub- tract from it, try to tone the room down by making it darker. We shall use a medium value or a dark value wall-paper. Our rule is very simple. To reduce the light in a room, use a medium value or a dark value in the wall-paper. The value of the walls has still another effect upon a room. Picture to yourself a very small bedroom with a very dark green paper on the walls. Even the thought of it is uncomfortable. It is small and stuffy. What can we do about it? Think of it with light yellow, light grey, light blue. Can you see the difference? To make small rooms look larger, use light value papers. Now picture an enormous room. We do not wish to make it look larger. What shall we do here? Think of it with a very pale, delicate yellow. Now think of it with a rich handsome dark brown. The latter is much more comfortable. The room be- gins to feel like a room instead of a barn. Dark values tend to make rooms look smaller. Large rooms are usually most satisfactory when dark or medium value papers are used, provided of course that there is plenty of light. EXERCISES: 1. From real papers, select one suitable in hue and value for a big south room with five big windows opening directly south. There are no trees or p ia z z a s . The nearest neighbor’s house is across a good sized yard. 2. From real papers, select one suitable in hue and value for the same room. This time there are big trees outside the windows, and a glassed-in porch across three of the windows. 3. From real papers, select one suitable in hue and value for a small north room with one window. Nothing to cut off light. 4. Another north room. This time it is a medium sized room with four windows. 14 CHROMA Chapter V CHROMA OLOR is a joy. We all like it; we all want it. There is no reason why we should not have it, a great deal of it, if we only know how to use it wisely to get the really satisfying effects. A group of girls is coming down the street. One has on a bright green sweater ; it is very becoming. Another has on an orange hat ; still another, a purple scarf, What stands out in the group? What would you see first? The bright colors are what greet the eye instantly. The other colors may not even be noticed. As the girls come nearer, the vivid colors seem to come even faster than they do. They first reach us a long time before the other colors! The same thing happens with colors in a room. The strongest colors are the ones that we see first. They come forward to us and insist upon our looking at them, just as did the bright colors worn by the group of girls. They are the jewels that we spoke of in Chapter 1. Everything else is the setting. Our friends, our pictures, our choice bits of ornament are our jewels. All else is the background for them. What does this have to do with the color of walls? Does it mean that we must al- ways use very dull colors on the walls? By no means. It does mean, however, that we must al- ways keep a certain proportion or balance between the brilliancy of our walls and the brilliancy of our accents. This must be such a proportion that the walls never leap forward into the foreground making us see them to the exclusion of the jewels. It does not mean that we cannot have bright colored walls. There are many times when we want our walls bright, gay bits of dec- oration. There is absolutely no reason why we should not have them, provided they are not too bright for the people, the pic- tures, and the ornaments. Some people wear black all the time be- cause they are afraid to use color. Yet color is wonderful and beautiful. It is better to learn to use it right than to turn our backs on it because we are afraid we shall use it wrong. If we keep this rule of proportion of the brilliancy of color clearly in mind, we can have many gay effects that will be very beautiful and interesting. Of course, it is possible to forget this rule of proportion and misuse bright color on the walls, making our rooms awful nightmares of brilliant, clashing color. When the bright colors are right, they sing and they satisfy us. We can all tell the difference. Suppose we like red, and decide to have a red room. Our living room is a very big room, almost as large as a schoolroom. We put on the walls a solid, very bright- red burlap. How is our friend who has auburn hair going to look against it? How is the friend with the ruddy complexion who can never wear red neckties going to look against it? How is the friend with light yellow hair going to look? Always our walls will be shouting Red, Red, Red. The background becomes the whole room, with no place for anything. What could we have done ? There are in the market, many beautiful dull rich- toned reds, less chromatic than the bright red burlap that we have just described. Usually they are mixed with other colors so that the red is toned down into a dull rich effect which would give us the feel- ing of having a red room without noisily shouting red to everybody who came to see us. There are also many papers that have dull rich red in the pattern. These would have had the same effect. We would have a red room and at the same time, one in which our friends would have looked well. The dull-toned background would have offered a contrast for the brighter auburn hair, and made the hair look beautiful instead of ugly. The bril- liant notes of brighter red could have been added in the hangings, the upholstery, the CHROMA 15 Back P/&Z.Z& FIGURE 9-A CHR O M A m in FIGURE 9-B 17 CHROMA lampshades, the table runners, the orna- ments. The result would have been a handsome, rich, satisfying room. Let us remember first of all, the limit of chromatic strength of any background is its ability to stay back as background for the people and the other accents in the room. One more point about how to use chroma successfully. The gay colors worn by the girls seemed to come toward us faster than the dull colors. That is something that always happens with very bright colors. They never seem to be fading away from us ; they are always coming toward us. Think for a moment. See what this means when bright colors are used in a room. A very tiny hall bedroom has on its walls a very chromatic pink paper. The walls look as though they were coming right toward us. What effect does it have on the size of the room ? Makes it look smaller. Now we have another rule about using chromatic papers. Very chromatic papers make rooms look small. Therefore, ordin- arily we do not use chromatic papers in small rooms. We use unchromatic papers which will help send the walls back instead of bringing them fonvard. We like to make the rooms look as large as possible. There is one more rule that is a close companion to this one. Sometimes rooms are very large, so large that they are al- most barn-like. The opposite walls seem to be miles and miles away. To make such rooms attractive and homelike, we have al- ready learned one rule ; we can use a fairly dark value. Now we have an additional way ; we can draw the walls together, make the room look smaller by using a chromatic paper. Strength of chroma and a medium value will make such a room very beautiful and attractive. EXERCISES: 1. Start a set of sheets showing selec- tions of papers for the four-room apartment as given in Figure 9a. a. Sheet 1. Copy plan of apart- ment. Figure 9a. b. Sheet 2. Select and mount sample of wall-paper suitable for living room. On side of sample print reasons for your selection. c. Sheet 3. Select and mount sample of wall-paper suitable for the din- ing room. Print as preceding sheet. d. Sheet 4. Select and mount sample of wall-paper suitable for the bed- room. e. Sheet 5. Sleet and mount sample of wall-paper suitable for the hall. 18 PA TTERN Chapter VI PATTERN HE store windows would be sad- ly unattractive without their fascinating spots of pattern. Dress goods, draperies, rugs, carpets, wall-papers — what a plain and drab kind of world it would be if all these were plain. We should be in- venting some trimming or ornament for the dress, some decoration for the sofa cushion and table runners, putting bands of color on the draperies before we knew it. Why? Because we do not want to see the same kind of thing all the time, we like change and variety; decoration gives it to us. When decoration is repeated regularly over a whole surface, it is called a pattern. Dress goods, shirting, neckties, rugs, linoleums, wall-papers, all have decoration of this kind. There are as many kinds of patterns as there are uses for materials. A design for linoleum is a very stiff regular pattern, suggesting tiles. We walk on it. Who would want to see that same design in the swaying folds of a silk dress? Bright plaids are very nice in a skirt, but who would like to see a bright yellow, red, and green plaid wall-paper staring from the wall? A tiny patch of shirting shows at the neck above the vest. It may be a vigorous stripe. How would you like to have it spread out in a linoleum on the kitchen floor and walk on it? Every pattern has to be chosen to look well un- der the conditions where it is to be seen. Think for a moment of dress-goods. What effect do we want? What kind of a pattern will serve best? It must not be too conspicuous ; we cannot very well use one that is so striking that people will see the dress before they see our faces. More- over, we want a figure in the pattern that will look well in folds. Folds make little lines of dark shadow in which both pat- tern and color are partly lost. A very del- icate line effect is lost entirely in the shadow. Many of us find it hard to see how the dress will look as the cloth lies flat on the counter. The test is to hold it up in folds. The same thing is true of curtain ma- terial. We always see them hanging in folds, usually very deep ones. Neat little designs are lost. Your eyes start to fol- low the lines of the design and — presto, they disappear in the shadow. The next line, on the top of the fold, is unconnected with anything else, and is lost. Such a drapery pattern is characterless, nonde- script. The blotchy effects in cretonnes and chintzes are much better. You see masses of color, some in shadow, some in the light. They run into each other and blend into a jolly riot of interesting color, giving a solid, handsome effect. But think of the same chintz or dress- goods design spread out flat on the wall and repeated over and over again. Here is a big handsome spot of color, long waving lines. While you look at one spot, the next one is shouting for attention. You would be constantly seeing more and more out of the corner of your eye and turning to and fro in endless confusion. A nerve rack- ing performance even in the suggestion. The small piece of drapery which was so rich and handsome with its deep folds would become a nightmare. The figures would stand and stare without a single apologetic blink. Walls need a particular kind of pattern. They stretch out big and flat. The pat- tern should be something that helps us to look easily from place to place on this big surface; that makes an easy movement from spot to spot. There should be no awkward pauses or gaps; no quick jerking PA TTE RN 19 of the eyes in unexpected directions. A smooth flow of line and color in perfect ac- cord with each other and with the flat sur- face of the wall are what our comfort and deasure demand. Unpleasant holes that we have to leap over are as bad as the too strong blotches of color. They, too, de- stroy the nice flat feeling of the wall. The surface stretches out, perfectly flat and plain. So must the pattern carry our eyes. All of its parts must fit together, give a pleasant, continuous movement, not too strong and marked, and keep always the flat feeling of the wall surface. Then we have the right kind of pattern for the wall. Figures 10 and 11 show good ex- amples of this easy, consistent movement. It makes no difference whether the unit of design be landscape, trees, houses, con- ventional figures, flowers or birds. It may be anything and be beautiful, provided only that when it is spread out flat on that wall our eyes move easily from spot to spot and the figure is restful and comfortable to look at as it extends over the large sur- face. EXERCISE: Select six samples of paper which are particularly good patterns. Work with large pieces of paper. Small pieces give no idea of how patterns will look repeated over a large sur- face. Think always of the big sur- face and judge the paper when it is FIG. 10 FIG. 11 “All the parts must fit together, give a pleasant, continuous movement.” In both of the figures above it is very easy to look from spot to spot. All the lines of direction have one general tendency. They go up and slightly outward. 20 PA TTER N held in a vertical position some dis- tance from you, as it would be on the walls in a room. Note to teachers : For this exercise divide the class into groups. Have each group select their large samples. Then have whole class select best ones from these. Post best ones on the bulletin board for at least a week as a test of how the patterns wear from day to day. Papers with patterns and plain papers are equally good to use. The difference is simply one of interest. Potato is a good vegetable, but most of us prefer to use pepper and salt with it. It is more interesting. Patterns in papers, draperies, dress-goods are just such seasoning. On the other hand, sometimes we get too much pepper and salt into our potato. So we may get too much pattern. Some plain spaces, whether it be dress-goods or walls, are a relief. We do not want all of one kind, either pattern or plain. Either one done to excess grows tiresome. Halls lend themselves admirably to the use of patterned papers. Usually there are rather large wall spaces which go on and up onto the next floor. Patterns break up these spaces and vary the monotony. Living rooms offer a different problem. That is the one room that has a varied collection of things in it because it is the room where the whole family gathers. The different members of the family are apt to have very diverse tastes. Each one likes to have some of his things in the living room. So this room, more than any other, becomes a collecting spot for objects that bear little relation to one another. There is great variety in the room, many things to look at. We do not need to provide further entertainment by having a pattern on the wall. It may make a little too much seasoning. Therefore, in living rooms, we often find that plain papers make the most satisfactory backgrounds. The dining room is a place in which we do not stay for any length of time. While there, we are expected to be gay and chatty and sociable. A gayly patterned paper is surely more entertaining than a quiet, plain paper. That is why so many people of good taste like to have the gay patterns in the dining rooms. If they do not use a pattern, they often substitute a very bright colored plain paper, getting the jolly effect with the brilliancy of color. The following tables suggest combina- tions of plain and patterned papers which make pleasant rooms in which to live. Choice one ; Choice two Hall Pattern paper Pattern paper Living room Plain paper Plain paper Dining room Pattern paper Plain paper Some papers have patterns which in them- selves are all the decoration that the walls need. To try to hang pictures over them is foolish ; it is like hanging pictures on top of pictures. These are the kinds of papers that are especially good for halls and dining rooms, places where we do not care to hang many pictures. There are many other pat- erns over which pictures may be hung to ex- cellent advantage. Often they will look better against a dull toned pattern than against a perfectly plain wall. It is not a question of pattern or no pattern ; it is a question of how much the pattern figure it- self stands out from the background of the paper. If the contrast in value is very great, the figures will be very striking, too much so to hang a picture over. If the value contrast is low, the figures will be subdued and probably the pictures will look well. Sometimes there is too strong a movement in the paper to use pictures. The test is this: when you put the picture against the paper which do you see first, the picture or the paper? If you see the picture easily and the paper sinks comfort- ably into the background, you may be sure that that pattern is making a good back- ground for your picture. If the pattern stands out and your eyes travel first to the pattern and then back to the picture, you may be sure that the pattern is too strong a decoration to have any thing hung over it. The answer is always try the picture and find out. 1. Experiment with pictures against wall- paper samples. Select six which will serve as good backgrounds for pictures. Select six that are sufficent decoration in themselves and do not need pictures. 2. Select papers for the apartment in Fig- ure 9b. Mount on sheets and print reasons for choice as in exercise in preceding chapter. WOOD WORK 21 Chapter VII WOODWORK HE old apartment is a long way from Father’s new place of business. Moving has become necessary. You go with your Mother to hunt for an apart- ment in the new location and find exactly what will fit the family needs. The land- lord says that he will re-paper two of the rooms right away but he will do nothing to the woodwork as that was done over for the last tenant. How will it look with your furnishings? Very well, if the walls are the right color. The problem immediately presents itself of selecting papers that will look well with both the woodwork and the furnishings, something that will pull the two together, make them fit each other. We know that the walls, the floors, and the ceiling make the big background colors for all the rest of the furnishings. Pic- tures and ornaments are the things that may be sparkling bits of color without hav- ing the room become noisy and tiresome. What part does the woodwork play? Is it background or accent? Background, without question. Why should woodwork stand out prominently in a room? It is a minor character in the play. It is first, last and always part of the setting for the more important things. Let us keep that point very clearly in mind. Complete subordination would mean having it blend into the paper so that it would never even be noticed. Between this and the too conspicuous stage, there are manv degrees of possible accent. How much attention do we wish it to have? That depends upon how beautiful it is. Suppose the house has a great deal of beau- tifully paneled old woodwork. Each panel is very handsome in shape and propor- tion. In such a case, we should be glad to have the woodwork stand out a little from the wall background. It would be one of the most beautiful things in the room. We would want to accent it. Just how mucli we would accent it depends upon what all the other accents in the room are. Remem- ber what we learned in Chapter 1. Every accent has its place and turn. We must not let the woodwork get out of its place. We must keep it in tune with all the other ac- cents in the room. Few of us have this kind of woodwork. Therefore, the general rule is to keep the woodwork very inconspicuous. We do this with our choice of color. If we put black and white together, we get a very sharp contrast. Both stand out prominently. Think of a black dress with white stripes. If we put two medium greys together, there is little contrast. Think of a grey suit with a lighter grey waist. Neither one stands out prominently. This is the effect that we are searching for with our woodwork and paper. Translate these values into woodwork and paper. White, cream, light grey, buff, grey green wood- work are all light in value. We wish to keep the woodwork inconspicuous. Use a similiar light value for the paper. Grey, buff, yellow, light blue, light green, light pink, light lavender would be the things to use. Mahogany, gum, oak, cypress, and pine are all medium or dark value wood- work. Treat them in the same way. Avoid contrasting values, that is, very light values. Use medium or dark papers. Ma- hogany is the darkest tone ; to keep it incon- spicuous, use a dark paper with it. Oak may be medium or dark according to its fin- ish. Select the paper to approximate what- ever its value may be. Dark browns, dark greys, blues, dull red, and green are all good to use with these woods. Avoid deli- cate pale greys with dark oak or mahogany. They make too much contrast for ordinary use. Value contrasts give us only one half of the story. We can produce all Finds of WOODWORK 22 effects by changing the hues also. Colors are something like people. They adapt them- selves to their surroundings. Blue in an orange environment looks very different than when it is with a great deal more blue. Put a great deal of bright orange with it and see how bright and blue it looks. It will not look that way against a blue background. Try this blue paper against a woodwork that has a good deal of orange in it like golden oak. Both of them stand out and look much more brilliant than before. They do not blend at all. Each stands out sharp and distinct. We are trying to find a way of making our woodwork inconspicuous. Evidently we cannot use blue and orange together to get what we wish. Try a brown paper with that same woodwork. Let it be a brown that has a good deal of the orange quality in it. The woodwork fades immediately and very effectively. It drops into the back- ground where we want it. Blue and orange are complementary colors. There are some colors which, when mixed together, make white light, or in the case of pigments a neutral grey. They com- plement or supplement each other. These colors are called complementary colors. To get exact complements requires very careful testing and measurement just as to get angles that are complements of each other to equal a 90 degree angle would require careful measurement. But for all our prac- tical uses in furnishing rooms, it is suffi- cient to know that the complements of some of our color families will always be found somewhere in the range of certain other color families. For example, the comple- ment of a particular blue will always be found somewhere in the orange family. The complement of a particular red will al- ways be found somewhere in the green family. The complement of a particular yellow will always be found somewhere in the purple family. Blue and orange, red and green, yellow and purple are the fam- ilies which pair off in this fashion. If we wish to accent blue, we will put orange with it. If we wish to accent green, we will put red with it. If we wish to accent yellow, we will put purple with it. Now we have the whole story; let us see just how it will work with our woodwork and papers. To use a paper of the complementary color of the woodwork, is to make the woodwork stand out prominently, some- thing that we have agreed we seldom wish to do. A paper of the same general color of the woodwork makes the latter incon- spicuous. That is what we are looking for. Natural pine woodwork is a light yel- low brown, very chromatic. We wish to subdue it. We know of two ways to do it now. First of all, there is the value. A paper that is about the same value will help. That will keep the value contrast down. In the second place, there is the hue. A paper that is approximately the same hue will dull the color of the wood. That elim- inates the hue contrast. Then the wood- work and the paper will blend into each other beautifully. Cypress, gum, and oak are all brown of various kinds, some orange in quality, some grey, some green. The papers should be selected to blend with them according to the color that they show. Mahogany gives us a great many differ- ent tones of red, some light and some very dark. It is harder to handle than the browns because red paper with red wood- work in a room would be unbearable. It would be too strong, too chromatic. There are two things we can do with mahogany woodwork. The first is to select a dark value paper; if grey, let it have a good deal of red in the pattern. The other is to use a reddish brown paper of about the same value. Both will make the woodwork inconspicuous. Gum wood is a greyish brown. Warm grey papers are beautiful with it. More- over, the wood is so soft in color that the complementary color, blue, can be used suc- cessfully with it. Blues and blue greens are both very beautiful with gumwood. If a slight accent is desired, a paper slightly toned with the complementary color will give it. This color may be in the pat- tern, or the paper may be an unchromatic tone of the complementary color. For ex- ample, with dull dark oak woodwork, a dull blue paper may be very beautiful. A paper with tan background, brown figure WOOD WORK 23 and blue accents would be very handsome. This is very different from putting bright chromatic blue with bright orange brown cypress wood. Both of the tones in the oak room are dull and rich. They can stand a little emphasis by hue contrast where the bright chromatic tones of the cypress and blue would simply shriek. In the case of the oak, it only serves to get the richness of effect. EXERCISE: 1 . Select papers to go with woodwork samples. Select for as many kinds of wood as can be obtained. Work to subdue the effect of the wood. 2. Select papers for the same wood samples trying to get slight accents. Note to the teacher : If woodwork samples are not available, use show card colors and shellac to approximate paint colors. Use plenty of body color to get the right surface. 24 LINE IN CURTAINS Chapter VIII LINE IN CURTAINS HY do we have curtains? First of all, they make a room look attractive. No matter how care- fully the wall-paper has been selected, no matter how well the accents in the room have been chosen, nor how beautiful the furniture, the room looks bare and unfinished without curtains. In the second place, curtains are a protection. We need the light in a room. We cannot always pull down the shades to prevent our neighbors from looking in. Curtains fill this need ; they let in the light, giving us protection at the same time. The third reason for using curtains is not for our per- sonal feelings, but for the people who pass by our house. Did you ever notice as you passed an unoccupied house, what black ugly holes the windows made? Curtains prevent this feeling of emptiness and make the house look lived in. W e have said that rooms without cur- tains of any kind usually look very bare and barn like ; that curtains make rooms look finished. They are like the trimming on a dress. The dress may fit beautifully; the material may be very handsome but we are not quite satisfied until there is a little touch of accent. It may be only a bright bit of color at the neck but that little touch of brightness is quite necessary to take away the raw unfinished look. In just the same way the woodwork around the windows looks bare and hard. We feel the need of a bit of trimming or the softness of the folds of net or voile that a curtain gives. The second very practical use, we said, was that of protection. Many of our houses are built right on the street. Many of them are built so close to our neighbors’ houses that they can look right into our rooms. In such cases, we need some kind of protection, and it becomes necessary to hang curtains all the way across the win- dows. Then we have to choose curtains very carefully so as to get just as much light in the rooms as possible by keeping the curtain material light and thin. It must still be thick enough to prevent people seeing in. The third reason for using curtains, we must be sure not to forget. Think of the vacant house with the gloomy black holes. Compare it- with some nearby house where people are living. Notice how the white muslin curtains, the gay chintzes and the bright colors make the house look cheerful. The black caverns have disappeared. Curtains cannot be hung in any fashion. If rooms are to be both pretty and restful, the lines in the curtains must be right. Did you ever think that you can make a person look in any direction that you wish by drawing lines in various directions? Let as try a few little experiments and see if this statement is true. Draw a horizontal line ; your eyes fol- low it. They move in a horizontal direc- tion. Now draw a vertical line. You look up and down. It never occurred to you to look any other way. Instead of lines, draw figures; they are nothing but combinations of lines. See Figure 12a. You find your- self looking up and down, vertically. Look at Figure 12b; you look from left to right, horizontally. Figure 12c makes you look still harder from left to right — horizontal- ly. This is because the horizontal lines are so much longer in proportion than the ver- tical lines. It is very simple. It is im- possible to avoid looking in the direction of the longest lines; the longer they are in proportion to the short ones, the easier it is to look in that direction. LINE IN CURTAINS 25 ■u re I 2 26 LINE IN CURTAINS If we decorate a figure, the same thing happens. Suppose we decide to ornament one of these rectangles with simple bands. We can make it beautiful or ugly according to the way we place it. Suppose we try two ways of doing it, as in Figures 1 2d and 12e. Which is more comfortable to look at? Figure 12e, without question. Why? Because the long lines naturally make us look toward the corners. The dots are doing the same thing. They emphasize the corners, too. Therefore, both lines and dots are in harmony with the rectangle. On the other hand, in Figure 1 2d, the dots are making us look somewhere else. First we look toward the corners, then at the dots. It is very uncomfortable to be jerked around like that. What has all this to do with curtains? Just a moment, and you will see. Look at Figure 12f. The diamond shape made of oblique lines in the center of the rectangle is doing exactly the same thing to your eyes that the dots in Figure 1 2d are doing. Suppose we make this diamond shape into curtains and the rectangle into a window frame as in Figure 12g. It is precisely the same thing that we decided uncomfortable. Your eyes are torn in two directions, with resulting discomfort. Figues 12h and 12i are much more comfortable because the in- side lines are in harmony with the outside lines of the window frames. Loop-back curtains are seldom satisfac- tory. You can see why. They are not in harmony with the lines of the window. It j> best in ordinary windows to let the cur- tains hang straight. Then the lines in the room are quiet and restful. There is another way in which this same principle applies to curtains. As you look at a window, the sill makes a natural stop- ping place for the eye. You look up and down until you reach the sill, then you look sharply across, horizontally. Curtains should stop at the sill, then all the lines will be in harmony. Again, did you ever think how foolish it is to carry them part way down the wall? Why should they go be- low the sill ? The extra length is of no use. Let us remember that if we wish rest- ful, comfortable rooms, the lines in our cur- tains must be in harmony with the lines of the window frame. PROPORTION AND CURTAINS 27 Chapter IX PROPORTION AND CURTAINS INDOWS are made to let in sunlight and air. Curtains should not be used to cut them out; they should give us just as much of the glorious sunshine as we wish. Have you ever been into a room in which the curtains were so thick and heavy that the windows looked all bun- dled up? The room itself seemed very stuffy. It is easy to plan the drapery so that it stays back at the sides of the window. If the curtains are made fairly full, they may be pulled to and fro at will. When protection is necessary, pull them across. When light and air are desired, pull them back. Be sure, however, that the curtains are made full enough so that they will not look skimpy when they are pulled all the way across. A skimpy curtain is just as bad as a curtain that makes a room look stuffy. There is a happy medium that we wish to have. Keep the folds deep enough so that they make lines which are echoing the lines of the window casing, without cutting out light and air. Then our curtains will be a real addition to the windows, an addition which increases the pleasant appearance of the room. Where to hang the curtains is always a question that has to be settled immediately. Shall they hang inside the window casing or on the outside edge? The window cas- ing itself gives us our answer. What is that casing there for? Was it put there in order to make the window work any bet- ter? Will the window move up and down any more easily because it is there? Does it help keep the rain and snow out? No. It is just for ornament. It makes a finish for the window. If the finish is already there what is the sense in hanging another finish over it? Curtains hung over it would be trespassing. They should be hung inside the casings, leaving the wood finish on the outside. If you! look at two win- dows, one where the curtain is hung over the casing, the other where the curtain is hung inside, you will find that one makes you feel uncomfortable ; the other, perfectly comfortable. The one hung inside is really much pleasenter to look at. It makes the whole room have more character, look sturdier. The first one gives a floppy ef- fect. You feel the need of the sturdy wood trim. In Chapter 8, we learned that we could make people look in any direction that we wished by drawing lines in that direction. We also learned that straight vertical lines were better for our drapes than the oblique tie-back. Now there are ways of making this straight effect very interesting and at- tractive. Often we use what are called valances. Valances are narrow strips of drapery material placed horizontally across the top of the window in front of the two side curtains. Let us see how these work. Look at Figures 13a and 13b. Which is more intresting? In Figures 13a the lines go up and down ; everything is going up and down. You look up and down. The horizontal feeling of the window frame is almost lost. In Figure 13b the horizontal line going across the top (that is the val- ance) helps you to feel the window frame; it emphasizes the horizontal line. The re- sult is that all the lines seem to be staying in accord with the lines of the window. It is easy to look at. The valance is a decided addition to the appearance of the window, because it makes us look in pre- cisely the same way that the lines of the window make us look. It does not over- 28 PROPORTION AND CURTAINS emphasize one direction at the expense of the other; it is in harmony with the win- dow. Valances are great fun to work with. We can make windows look short or tall, thin or fat, by changing the proportion of the valances to the window. We can make tall narrow windows look like windows of al- most ordinary proportion by making a deep valance. We can make squatty nearly square windows look quite a little taller by making a valance very short. We can work all kinds of miracles with our proportions. Draw a window like Figure 14, using white paper. Make it exactly the same Size. Cut out the glass part and use a dark grey background. Cut two strips of manilla pa- per for the side curtains. Make them the width you would like to see them hanging most of the time. Now cut three strips to fit across the top of the window for valances. Make one very short, one very wide, and one about medium. Try each one. Which is the most comfortable? When it is just right you will know it, it will feel right. It will not feel skimpy and short, it will not feel stringy as though you wanted to cut off some of the cloth. It will just fit. Perhaps none of them feel exactly right. Pick out the one that is the best and try making it a little longer or a little shorter until it is just right. Do not stop with one or two trials. Keep on working. Make twenty if necessary. Work until it feels exactly right without any question. There is no standard length to make valances. The length varies with every window because it is a question of propor- tion, and windows vary a great deal in their proportions. But always it is easy to de- cide how deep the valance shall be on a window of ordinary size, such as the one you have been working with. Experiment and find the length where the cloth looks neither skimpy nor straggly, too short or too long. There is a size that exactly fits. When it fits, it is comfortable to look at. The window in Figure 15a is a high nar- PROPORTION AND CURTAINS 29 1 4 - 30 PROPORTION AND CURTAINS row window. We are going to try to make it better. Make a drawing of it the same size on a piece of white paper. Cut the side strips as before. Cut a strip for a valance which you think will be right. Try it. Is it too long? Is it too short? Keep changing it, making it longer or shorter, until it feels right. Now look at the win- dow. Does it look shorter than before you added the valance? Do the same with the short fat window in Figure 15b. Work until the valance feels perfectly comfortable. Sometimes valances do not run all the way across windows in front of the side curtains. Often they are little pieces of cloth placed between the side curtains of the top as in Figure 16a. These have a still different effect upon the proportion of a window. Look at both Figures 16a and 16b. Which one looks taller? Figure 16b looks taller because of the number of ver- tical lines that make you look up and down. Yet the two windows are exactly the same height. Think for a moment what a use- ful fact this is to know. Suppose your win- dows are very short, nearly square. They would look much better if they could be made to look taller. Perhaps the valance all the way across does not change the pro- portion sufficiently to get what you wish. You can try this new way. The little valance in between the side curtains may be just what is needed. On the other hand, suppose your windows are very high. You would not consider for a moment using these little valances between the curtains. You know immediately that you would only make the windows look much taller. Sometimes for protection, it is necessary to have what we call sash curtains. We need the light, but we also need to have the lower part of the window covered. Sash curtains are very ugly because they divide the window space exactly in half. It is very tiresome to always look at things that are divided exactly in half. It is like hearing some one play the same note on the PROPORTION AND CURTAINS 31 piano over and over again. When we make sizes different, they are much more interest- ing to look at. There is a way to avoid the half and half sash curtain and get the same practical results of protection and light. Two sets of sash curtains may be used, each divided in the center. Figure 17-c-d shows how they may be pulled to make different effects. They are much more pleasant to look at than the sash curtain in Figure 17a. Groups of windows offer us the same kind of problem as the single windows. If we can get our curtains right for the single windows of different proportions, it is easy to do the same thing for the groups. Fig- ures 18 and 19 show several suggestions for ways of hanging valances in grouped win- dows. EXERCISE. RESULT SHEETS. Make a set of sheets showing proportions Q. of curtains for the windows in the apart- ment given in Figure 9b. All the windows are the proportions of those worked out in the trial exercises in this chapter. Sheet 1. Window of ordinary size. Copy Figure 14. Cut and space drapes carefully. Mount. Sheet 2. Tall narrow window. Copy Figure 15a. Cut and space drapes carefully. Mount. Sheet 3. Short window. Copy Figure 15b. Cut and space drapes carefully. Mount. For all of these problems use the mov- able material. Use cloth if possible ; if not, use colored paper. These mounts may be kept the same size as the sheets in Chapters 5 and 6 and assembled with them in book- let form. F; g ure lb 32 PROPORTION AND CURTAINS PPOPORTION AND CURTAINS 33 O X b F»'g. 18 TTTTr L SWM o a 34 PROPORTION AND CURTAINS COLOR IN CURTAINS 35 Chapter X COLOR IN CURTAINS YNTHIA had aroused and was looking around. Where was she? Oh, yes, she remembered. She had arrived late last night after a long, tiresome journey and had tumbled into bed as quickly as pos- sible without half looking at her surround- ings. Now the sun was streaming into the windows through the soft yellow curtains. It flooded the room. It flickered gaily on the yellow comforter on the foot of the bed. The room was alive with the soft yellow light. The cool grey of the walls and the grey enamel furniture made a beautiful background for it. Cynthia was delighted at the idea of spending a week in that lovely room. She immediately began to look around more closely. What fascinating little candle- sticks with the yellow shades over there on the dresser. By the window was an alluring place! to read ; a big comfortable wicker chair covered with gay chintz. On the low table beside the chair was a bowl of beautiful yellow marigolds. Why was this room so charming? Because someone had given a great deal of thought to the color scheme. It was not because the fur- niture was expensive or the draperies of costly fabrics. The effect was beautiful because everything had been chosen with such care. The curtains were playing a large part in this room. Curtains are one of the best possibilities for color accent in any room. Their beauty depends upon the choice of color and pattern to go with all the other furnishings. Color in curtains gives us the same kind of problem that we had with the woodwork in Chapter 7. We can make our curtains stand out prominently in the room or we can subdue them. AIL we have to do is to use the same rules that we learned for the woodwork. Suppose we have a medium value green wall-paper in a room. We want our curtains to be a strong color note in the room. There are two ways of do- ing it. First, we may get a strong value contrast; that means choosing a light value in this case; second, we may use a com- plementary color, red in this case. Tan or white would all make our strong value con- trast. If we choose a drapery which has green figures with strong red accents in the pattern, we shall get our complementary color contrast. The red in the pattern will stand out vigorously. The light value will stand out, yet there will be some feeling of the green which will help blend the curtains and the paper. If we make the curtains solid red, the contrast would be too strong. We should be looking first at one and then at the other. Our cretonne with its small notes of green pulls the two together comfortably while emphasizing the curtains by the use of the lighter value and the red accents. Strong contrasts of complementary color should be avoided when papers of plain color are used. For example, blue and brown go very nicely together if used in the right relation and proportion. But a solid blue paper with a solid brown drapery seldom makes an attractive room. They are both too pronounced. Neither does a solid brown paper with a solid blue hang- ing look well. The reason is the same. If the paper is plain brown, it is better to use a hanging that will give a mixture of brown and blue or of buff and blue. We have a compromise, something to pull the two colors together. In the case of the solid blue wall, it is better to choose a curtain which has some blue grey or blue in the figure and a few brilliant spots of orange. 36 COLOR IN CURTAINS There may in this case be much brown in the pattern with good effect. Suppose the paper is grey with pink in the pattern. We know right away what to do. We can make the curtains the same kind of pink, possibly a little brighter or a little darker. Suppose our paper is light yellow brown. Blue is the nearest to its complementary color. A drapery with bright blue accents in the pattern will give the contrast that is needed to make the color effect interest- ing. If you study the paper carefully, you will find that you can always get your clue to the color of the curtains from that, be- cause the wall-paper designer has already done just this kind of thinking for you in all the pattern papers. He has used these colors in the same way to get his accents. If you want to get accents in your curtains, match the colored accents in the paper ; if you want to keep your curtains subdued, match the ground tones of the paper. In using delicately colored papers, it is well to avoid strong contrasts in the cur- tains. They will be so strong that they will make the walls look washed out. In such a case, it is better to match the hue and value quite closely. Then we keep the delicate effect in the whole room. Suppose we have a pale blue paper on the wall. It has no pattern to give us a clue. There are three things that we can do. We can use a plain crisp white muslin curtain which gives us simple light value contrast. We can do the same thing and get a simple dark value contrast by using a plain darker blue material. Or we can do the third thing; we can use a cretonne with a good deal of blue in the pattern and bright orange or yellow accents. Greys may be warm or cool; they are often tinged with some color. In such cases, it is well to match the curtains to that particular tinge of color. A grey which has a strong lavender tone needs a drapery with lavender and purples. A grey which has a blue tone needs a drapery with blue in it. Some greys are very beau- tiful with yellow, orange, or pink. In Chapter 6 we learned that to have everything plain was tiresome; to have everything with a pattern on it was equally tiresome. We need a mixture of the two. Before we decide upon the pattern for our drapery we need to look around the room and see what the other furnishings are. Have we too much or too little pattern? Suppose there is a plain brown rug on the floor and a plain paper on the wall; the draperies will look best if they have some pattern. In another room, the rug has a large conspicuous pattern, the paper is a rich tapestry effect. The curtains will look best if they are kept plain. Ordinarily it is a safe rule to follow that if the walls are plain, the curtains may have as vigorous a pattern as is desired ; if the walls have a distinct pattern, then the plain drape is best. Always we are trying to keep a certain proportion in the room between plain places aand decorated places. One balances the other. We have also learned that some patterns should be seen out flat on a surface and some should be seen in folds. Look at the drapery materials in folds always. You may pass over some exquisite patterns which would be just the thing for your windows simply because they did not look well when spread out flat. Try them in folds before you say they are either ugly or beautiful. Last of all, remember that curtains hang at windows with the light streaming through them, not on them. To know how a curtain is really going to look, it is neces- sary to hold it up to the light and let the light come through it. That is our final test. EXERCISES: With samples of drapery material and wall-papers, test out several com- binations. 1. Pick out a grey paper. Select drapery for accent. 2. Pick out a brown paper. Select two drapery samples, one for value con- trast, one for complementary con- trast. 3. Pick out a figured paper. Select a drapery for accent. The End UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 30 12 072367516