The Art of Home Beautification: Texture, or the Art of Blending in Arranging the Furniture

We have seen in the previous studies how shapes, lines, and sizes play their parts in giving the house its particular character. When we look closely at houses, oil paintings, fabrics, furniture, and other things — at their shapes, their lines, and their qualities of size — we see that another element is working to assert itself. You will quickly convince yourself of this if you close your eyes and pass your fingers over this page, then over a part of your clothing, and from there to the arm of the chair you are sitting on. Your fingers tell you the difference in touch — of smoothness, or roughness, or softness. Every object has a face of its own — this is texture, or the surface quality of a thing. Differences of texture are as important as the difference of round from square (that is, in shape) or of red from green (that is, in color), and their importance lies in giving a thing its particular character.

Texture is one of the basic elements, and it deals directly with the sense of touch. The tactile value of a thing is best appreciated when we feel it with our hand. The proof of this is that when we go to a shop to buy fabrics, there is a primary driving force urging us to touch them, for the hand, like the eye, helps in choosing.

For some time now, home decorators have been alive to the importance of texture. Even so, we stand in strong need of knowing everything that concerns it. The lady who would be aghast at wearing a workaday dress with a fur wrap, silk shoes, and a straw hat all together pays no attention to her brick fireplace wall, her finely woven carpet, her delicate shirred curtains, and her iron lamp, which together form a group that is neither harmonious nor beautiful. There are also a great number of houses that lack all variety of texture, in which there is no surface richness or beautiful composition — where everything is smooth and shiny, and all things resemble one another in their texture and their feel. For that reason they look monotonous, and not, as their owners would have them, gleaming and suggestive of luxury and beauty.

This stress on the composition of texture is not confined to the art of home beautification; it has swept through all the fine arts, and painting above all. Contemporary painters have become aware of the added richness and vitality that texture lends their artistic work. In the nineteenth century, painters boasted of how smooth their canvases were, considering that the summit of progress and of art; but Picasso, Cézanne, Matisse, and others contradicted them, and found that they could obtain new and original effects if they deliberately made certain passages of their paintings rough and different in texture from the rest of the canvas, preserving all the while the artistic balance — for what is wanted is textural variety together with pleasing suitability.

The blending of different kinds of texture is very important in furnishing rooms. For example, joining the aristocratic texture of mahogany to a coarse, nubby weave of rayon does not yield a beautiful result, because polished, gleaming wood demands the softness and richness of the texture of satin, of silky velvet, and of sleek sundus brocade. One may wonder at the harmony, beauty, and luster of an old carved walnut table set upon the ornamented tile we use in our country, and at its lack of harmony with a floor of modern rubber tile (Linoleum), even though the two kinds of flooring are alike in color. One's wonder vanishes when one comes to know, and to feel, the matter of closeness in texture; for it is not a question of mixing the old and the new in decoration. A light chair of plastic, smooth and elegant in appearance — if you join it to a magnificent Persian carpet, the two form an exquisite group, because both of them have a fineness and sweetness of texture that make them very close to one another. This harmony is not a question of style or of color; it is texture that sends forth a beautiful luster that gladdens the eye.

Texture, like the other basic elements, has more than the surface qualities we see and feel. Texture sends forth psychological effects that we sense instinctively. Rough, unpolished textures suggest ruggedness, a masculine character, and an informal atmosphere, while soft, finely woven textures give a formal and feminine character. Rough textures with vertical lines are very well suited to decorating a boys' room. A wall with a rough surface makes the room look lower than it really is, while a polished surface increases its apparent height. Texture also affects color, so that changes appear in it: a rough surface makes a color look darker than it is, while a sleek surface, which reflects a great deal of light, makes it appear relatively lighter. If two pieces of cloth were dyed in the same bath, one coarsely woven and the other of silk, the latter would come out of the dye several shades lighter than the first. Thus we conclude that thick, rough textures and light, elegant colors do not go well together — and the opposite holds for light colors with sleek, fine textures.

When furnishing or redoing a room, the first thing you must choose is the wood of the furniture, because the other kinds of texture to be used in the room must harmonize with the wood. Every kind of wood has its own psychological effect, which we must take into account. Cedar, oak, and American walnut suggest strength, while mahogany and rosewood suggest elegance and luxury. To join these two kinds of wood together is never advisable. Likewise, with each of them we must use the fabrics that suit it: fabrics of coarse weave, such as homespun, or of medium weave, such as linen, handwoven cloth, and cretonne, harmonize greatly with oak; while silk, satin, velvet, taffeta, damask, and Persian carpets belong to stately mahogany.

The texture of the materials used in the house must not merely suit its function, but must also lend the room the artistic effect we wish to create. The texture of every piece of furnishing must be studied, not separately and on its own, but in comparison with the rest of the furniture, and with a knowledge of the measure of its power to create the general atmosphere of the room. An oil painting rough in texture, on a rough-surfaced wall, looks more beautiful than a sleek painting of fine workmanship and detail. Humble violets in a beautiful glass vase on a table of gleaming mahogany are far more beautiful than lovely roses placed in an iron vessel on an oak table. Earthenware vessels on a dining table of plain painted wood are far more beautiful than fine china and soft linen on that same table.

Textures are an important tool within our reach; we must give them our careful attention if we want to furnish our houses so that they come out beautiful and attractive, reflecting the personality of the mistress of the house.