The Art of Interior Decoration. Grace Wood
terse suggestions. They have aimed at keeping "near to the bone of fact" and when the brief statements of the fundamental laws of interior decoration give way to narrative, it is with the hope of opening up vistas of personal application to embryo collectors or students of periods.
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE I Portion of a Drawing-room, Perfect in Composition and Detail.
PLATE II Bedroom in Country House. Modern Painted Furniture.
PLATE III Suggestion for Treatment of a Very Small Bedroom.
PLATE IV A Man's Office in Wall Street.
PLATE V A Corner of the Same Office.
PLATE VI Another View of the Same Office.
PLATE VII Corner of a Room, Showing Painted Furniture, Antique and Modern.
PLATE VIII Example of a Perfect Mantel, Ornaments and Mirror.
PLATE IX Dining-room in Country House, Showing Modern Painted Furniture.
PLATE X Dining-room Furniture, Italian Renaissance, Antique.
PLATE XI Corner of Dining-room in New York Apartment, Showing Section of Italian Refectory Table and Italian Chairs, both Antique and Renaissance in Style.
PLATE XII An Italian Louis XVI Salon in a New York Apartment.
PLATE XIII Another Side of the Same Italian Louis XVI Salon.
PLATE XIV A Narrow Hall Where Effect of Width is Attained by Use of Tapestry with Vista.
PLATE XV Venetian Glass, Antique and Modern.
PLATE XVI Corner of a Room in a Small Empire Suite.
PLATE XVII An Example of Perfect Balance and Beauty in Mantel Arrangement.
PLATE XVIII Corner of a Drawing-room, Furniture Showing Directoire Influence.
PLATE XIX Entrance Hall in New York Duplex Apartment. Italian Furniture.
PLATE XX Combination of Studio and Living-room in New York Duplex Apartment.
PLATE XXI Part of a Victorian Parlour in One of the Few Remaining New York Victorian Mansions.
PLATE XXII Two Styles of Day-beds, Modern Painted.
PLATE XXIII Boudoir in New York Apartment. Painted Furniture, Antique and Reproductions.
PLATE XXIV Example of Lack of Balance in Mantel Arrangement.
PLATE XXV Treatment of Ground Lying Between House and Much Travelled Country Road.
PLATE XXVI An Extension Roof in New York Converted into a Balcony.
PLATE XXVII A Common-place Barn Made Interesting.
PLATE XXVIII Narrow Entrance Hall of a New York Antique Shop.
PLATE XXIX Example of a Charming Hall Spoiled by Too Pronounced a Rug.
PLATE XXX A Man's Library.
PLATE XXXI A Collection of Empire Furniture, Ornaments, and China.
PLATE XXXII Italian Reproductions in Pottery After Classic Models.
"Those who duly consider the influence of the fine-arts on the human mind, will not think it a small benefit to the world, to diffuse their productions as wide, and preserve them as long as possible. The multiplying of copies of fine work, in beautiful and durable materials, must obviously have the same effect in respect to the arts as the invention of printing has upon literature and the sciences: by their means the principal productions of both kinds will be forever preserved, and will effectually prevent the return of ignorant and barbarous ages."
JOSIAH WEDGWOOD: Catalogue of 1787.
One of the most joyful obligations in life should be the planning and executing of BEAUTIFUL HOMES, keeping ever in mind that distinction is not a matter of scale, since a vast palace may find its rival in the smallest group of rooms, provided the latter obeys the law of good line, correct proportions, harmonious colour scheme and appropriateness: a law insisting that all useful things be beautiful things.
THE ART OF INTERIOR DECORATION
CHAPTER I
HOW TO REARRANGE A ROOM
Lucky is the man or woman of taste who has no inherited eyesores which, because of association, must not be banished! When these exist in large numbers one thing only remains to be done: look them over, see to what period the majority belong, and proceed as if you wanted a mid-Victorian, late Colonial or brass-bedstead room.
To rearrange a room successfully, begin by taking everything out of it (in reality or in your mind), then decide how you want it to look, or how, owing to what you own and must retain, you are obliged to have it look. Design and colour of wall decorations, hangings, carpets, lighting fixtures, lamps and ornaments on mantel, depend upon the character of your furniture.
It is the mantel and its arrangement of ornaments that sound the keynote upon first entering a room.
Conventional simplicity in number and arrangement of ornaments gives balance and repose, hence dignity. Dignity once established, one can afford to be individual, and introduce a riot of colours, provided they are all in the same key. Luxurious cushions, soft rugs and a hundred and one feminine touches will create atmosphere and knit together the austere scheme of line—the anatomy of your room. Colour and textiles are the flesh of interior decoration.
In furnishing a small room you can add greatly to its apparent size by using plain paper and making the woodwork the same colour, or slightly darker in tone. If you cannot find wall paper of exactly the colour and shade you wish, it is often possible to use the wrong side of a paper and produce exactly the desired effect.
In repapering old rooms with imperfect ceilings it is easy to disguise this by using a paper with a small design in the same tone. A perfectly plain ceiling paper will show every defect in the surface of the ceiling.
If your house or flat is small you can gain a great effect of space by keeping the same colour scheme throughout—that is, the same colour or related colours. To make a small hall and each of several small rooms on the same floor different in any pronounced way, is to cut up your home into a restless, unmeaning checkerboard, where one feels conscious of the walls and all limitations. The effect of restful spaciousness may be obtained by taking the same small suite and treating its walls, floors and draperies, as has been suggested, in the same colour scheme or a scheme of related keys in colour. That is, wood browns, beiges and yellows; violets, mauves and pinks; different tones of greys; different tones of yellows, greens and blues.
Now