in many houses. The easiest way of treating a high ceiling is to give full attention to the colors and patterns of the salon's fabrics, and the high emptiness naturally disappears.
As for family photographs, I prefer to keep them in my private room, where I can enjoy them without making of them the ornament of my walls. The Japanese, who are known as a people of taste and art, have a theory about the hanging of pictures and about the means of adornment with objets d'art of every kind. They say the eye tires, and refuses to look upon the most beautiful of objects, if they remain set in the same place and in the same fashion day after day after day.
To avoid this state they display only a few pictures, and enjoy them, until the day comes when the eye passes through the room and no longer sees the pictures; then they replace them with others.
Most women need to alter their homes and change them from time to time, so as not to weary of seeing the same things. This changing often vexes the men of the household. Among the artistic devices for changing the look of the salon is the use of flowers of every kind, and of objets d'art, on condition that color, form, and kind be considered, so that they may be beautiful as a whole and in harmony with the rest of the room. The bouquet that draws your eye and pleases you is usually one that fulfills the conditions of beauty and harmony. So when a bouquet of flowers pleases you, try to discover why it pleased you. You will generally find that what pleased you is the contrast of colors and of kinds — that
airy green against those smooth, soft leaves. For the beauty of the bouquet, the vase itself must be steady in color and proportionate in size, just as you consider these matters in choosing carpet and furniture.
And there is no harm in exercising your skill in the arranging of flowers, aided by what you know of the conditions of balance in form and color, repeating the operation again and again until experience gives you boldness in arrangement, and a knowledge that will soon bring you the approval of your friends.
In closing, let me repeat the fundamental conditions for beautifying the home: horizontal
lines suggest balance. Straight lines, like walls and windows, stop movement. Slanting lines suggest a strong movement which must be stopped by straight lines. Roundness, as in furnishings, pictures, trays, vases, and cushions, suggests calm and rest. These are familiar fundamental conditions to which we all return in beautifying our homes. Add to them your own experience in the use of contrast — in color, form, size, and the weave of fabrics — within the bounds of harmony; that is, do not place massive furniture beside other pieces of delicate size, nor much lilac with much red. If you follow these simple conditions, your salon will be the best of places for you — a beautiful one in which to receive your friends.
Rendered into Arabic by Mrs. Serene Husseini Shahid
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