"The Art of Home Beautification" — Balance in Arranging the Home

Man demands, without being aware of it, that certain fundamental principles be applied in the ordering of the home's furnishing. And these principles are so utterly simple that when a person applies them he cannot account for the reasons of his pleasure; but when they are violated, one feels a kind of disappointment that he finds hard to explain. When a person enters a room most of whose furniture is massed on one side, it appears to him as though it were about to topple in the direction of that furniture's weight; he feels a certain inner uneasiness and wishes that the balance the eye demands might come about. The success of every design, whatever its kind, rests to a great degree on the correct balance among its parts. And balance is nothing but repose and stability. It is fundamental in all the visual arts and in life itself. This feeling of balance you obtain by ordering and arranging material, shapes, and colors around the central point, so that the attraction is equal in every direction in relation to the center.

The small boy can balance things if he knows that balance is the basis of the game of the seesaw. Thus things equal in weight must stand at the same distance from the center in order to balance.

With objects of different sizes, the heavier must come near the center and the light one move away from it. Balance in art is explained by the same theory, the one difference being that the question is not merely a question of the weight or heaviness of the object, but a question of the attracting power that the object possesses. Thus the greater a thing's power, the nearer it must come to the center — and the reverse likewise!

There are two kinds of arrangement, madam, into which you can introduce balance. In the first kind, the objects are either exactly alike or have the same power, and they are placed on opposite sides and at the same distance from the center. This kind is called 'formal balance' — it being called identical balance when the objects are wholly alike. In the second kind of arrangement, the objects differ

in size, shape, or color — that is, they differ in their power of drawing the eye — and they are placed at differing distances from the center, so that the large size near the center is counterbalanced by the small size farther away. This kind of unsymmetrical balance is called 'informal balance.'

Among the merits of formal balance are calm, dignity, and stateliness; but it is mechanical. Whereas the balancing of things that differ in attracting power is more subtle and skillful, and opens for us many doors to original arrangements. The informal is more creative than the formal, because it is not bound by rules and laws to govern its execution. But the use of the second variety of formal balance — that is, when the objects used are not alike but have the same power — gives the room a special character standing between the precision of identical balance and the variety of informal balance. So the kind of balance you use inside the house helps to confirm the psychological effects you like to create. Formal balance in the arrangement of a room's furnishings creates in the beholder's soul a formal atmosphere, and this atmosphere is not usually wanted in the small or simple room, or in a place meant for gaiety rather than for formalities. The informal arrangement is on the whole more friendly, more intimate, and more varied.

If you want to have a balanced room, take care that the facing walls have approximately the same attracting power. The architectural openings in the room have their importance, and you must take them fully into account. Most often you can bring about balance by placing a large piece of furniture against the wall that answers to an opening in the facing wall. Remember, in arranging any room, that the large pieces of furniture are set in their places first; after them come the small, easily moved pieces, out of which groups are formed, balanced one with another. And the balance of colors has great importance in beautifying the house; it is very often used to add power to the weak corner of the room.

And for the arrangements to inspire an inward pleasure, you must use shapes and colors in the way that has the restful effect upon the eye. This restful effect, or balance, you can obtain if, in arranging sizes, shapes, colors, and material, you follow what has been said above.

*

Note — The photographs used to illustrate this study were taken in the home of Mr. Farnsworth, head of the Education Division of Point Four, which is a model of balance and beauty.