"The Art of Home Decoration"

Have you ever tried to imagine a world and a life without color — grass that is not green and a sky that is not blue? It is very hard indeed to imagine a world and a nature without any color. Yet not so long ago we were living in houses almost empty of color: they were either "cream" or "beige" or "gray" or "white."

Color is the element that stirs joy and delight more than anything else, because the eye sees it without any mental design, whereas seeing form, line, and proportion requires a mental comparison: to know the beauty or ugliness of a form or a line, you must compare it with other things. But who can declare positively that this color or that is ugly? We can say that this color is unsuitable in this spot or in this position — but in itself it is beautiful.

Color is important in itself and for its effect on the other elements that make the interior of the house a thing of charm and beauty. It lends volumes and shapes life and presence, according to its brilliance; and it has an effect on proportion and measurements in home decoration, making them appear either good or bad. A cupboard designed for a particular place in the dining room may appear on the drawing to have excellent measurements, good proportions, and fine details, just as desired; but were we to give it a glossy black color instead of a light brown, and set it in its place against the white wall, it would look enormous and out of proportion with the room and with the wall on which it stands, while its beautiful details would vanish beneath its black color. Likewise, if we want to lower our old high ceilings, we can achieve this by playing with colors: by painting the walls, up to the height we want, in the color we like, and then painting above in a pale, unobtrusive color; or by painting the ceiling a strong dark color, which makes it seem to draw nearer to the floor, and that lowers its height. A long, narrow room may appear better proportioned if we paint the two narrow walls in a strong, bright color that draws the eye toward them and makes them look nearer.

Colors are divided, according to their psychological effect, into two classes: the warm colors and the cool colors. Red, yellow, and lemon are among the warm colors, which make us think of the blazing summer sun, the fire on the hearth, and the light of a burning candle. These colors stimulate, and bring life and warmth to the place where they are used; they also draw flat surfaces such as walls nearer to the beholder, making the room look smaller than it is. We must therefore take care with the brilliance of the warm colors when using them, because of their stimulating effect on the nerves.

As for the cool colors — blue, green, and violet — they make us think of the coolness of deep waters, the sea, the snow, and the green forests. They are restful to the eye and the nerves, and they have the quality of receding from the beholder and of separating things from one another; and this makes the room look larger than it is, and more open.

In any color scheme, one family of colors must be dominant; equal quantities of them are undesirable. When we put two or more colors together we create a color scheme — and in this scheme one color must dominate, while the other must be secondary; and if a third color is used, its appearance must be far slighter than that of the preceding colors. But resorting to simplicity in colors is what is desirable if

we want a harmonious, coherent ensemble. Where there are large surfaces we use the subdued colors, and the smaller the surfaces, the brighter the colors that are used. This method must be applied in matching colors: for example, the brilliance of the color of the room's walls and floor should be less vivid than the curtains, and these less than the small articles found in the room, which may appear in all the full strength of color.

Color is one of the ways of making your house attractive and alive. Fortunately there are no fixed rules for it, nor need you have any special gift for it. All you need is the desire to make your house bright, expressing your personality like the dresses you wear. The world around us is full of samples of colors that help us to choose the best of them for our homes.