Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-05-25
A BIT OF COLOR.
pY MRS. TALBOT COKE.

subject anent which L quite feel for
poor Mr.. Dick, who "cOuld not keep
Charles the Firsts head out of his
MS, any more than can keep color
out OF miDel What pleasure IAN eye
for color" gives one. 1 delight when
choosing, say, drapery for a tea gown,
to wander through a pile of patterns
out of my ''silk drawer" This
doesn't look bad, that s'takes from the
color of the brocade," but when: the
right one comes l wonder L ever even
hesitated over one of the others, SC
utterly convincing is real harmony.
The longer one studies color, the
more one realizes how peaceable, good,
i.e., artistic, colors area fact which
one of my old favorites in wallpaper
way amply illustrates. The ground is
| tawny In color, the pattern festoons OF
very conventional fruit and flowers in
red, green, yellow, and brown, tied
with interlacing, huttering ribbons OF
bluel
A terrible description Yet the
reality is SO blended, so lowtoned, md
each color SO good in itself, that it is the
background 1 choose when "driven
INTO a corner" by a room of uncom1-
Portable coloring) to shed peace and
comfort around. / have it (for love OF
1T, and because 1t is such a good back
ground for certain embroideries) in my
own drawing room; and though over
the mantelpiece / have made the bold
stroke of sort of canopy of gold plush
lined with terra Gotta Louis XIV. bro.
cade, as a shrine for treasured old
portrait, there is still harmony with the
many-colored paper. blue curtains.
terra-cotta and gold Ottoman, gold
dIvan, strewu with many colored pill
lows, etc, because every color is good
to begin with.
But many people, fearing discord, take
refuge III monotony. al have lately
done my drawing room with enclosed
yellow paper, gold serge curtains, and
your Golden Drop muslin ones, the
Brown Daisy carpet, and brown-and-
gold brocade suit; but am not really
pleased with it. What do you sug-
gest?"
Now 1t Is safe to predict to begin
with that the paper will be what L call
n t,Dlid yellow, suggesting q sour lemon,
rather than the beautiful Satisfying"
warm toned, buttercup yellow.
The carpet will probably be too red
q brown to suit the curtains, which,
again, are not on good terms with the
wall paper. There is wonderful
amount of discord to be had out of
even the same key of color.
L remember once, being very
much interested In a poor lady,
with whose possessions ], after much
consideration (for they were poor,
"scrappy," and unlovable, yet no
means wherewith to buy more), decided
terra-cotta Wallpaper would best
agree, the wooden dado, ETC., to be
painted in the deeper hsde of the
paper. Soon after, rejoiced with her
when a letter arrived saying ''s friend
was going to have my room done up
for me by a local man; but L shall keep
to your colorirg." l thought no more
of it; but few weeks later received a
letter with bit of marone serge pinned
to a slip of brickV terra Gotta pal or, to
which again was pinned pale
purPly-pink ceiling paper.
'1t does not look as nice as l ex-
pected, she wrote, alluding to this
little flight of fancy of the local decora-
tor, "but he says the contrast is all
right, so l suppose shall get used to
it" / have often wondered if that
blood-crudlIng little room used to be
shown as a specimen of my coloring.
But perhaps in no color do people
make such mistakes as in blue. because
no color is 80 misleading. A besuti-
full blue paper is unrolled before your
eyes, and You are already beginning to
think if it will go with the blue touches
in the carpet, and how about that new
blue brocsde cushion on the sofa and
the pottery on the mantelpIece, when,
with that well-known and appalling
flop on the floor, down goes another
roll of green, turquoise, beneath which
the edge of the first paper appears not
blue at all but almost a Wedgwood grey
and the discord at once tells you that
If the former is your choice, goodbye
to all your favorite touches of turquoise
about the room.
Often and often does one of the vic
tins of such a mistake send me bit of
this delusive blue-LoUcly till you see a
better onei-with the plant ''nothing
will go with it, though as a matter of
fact, it is beautiful with all shades OF
gold, copper, or Indian red.
OF course, the safest way IN choos-
ing blue or pink paper, for those not
born colorists, is to settle on some pat
tern, say of brocade, which is the kid
of blue or pink ''smbitioned, and
clinging to it through all the bewllder-
ing beauty of ''the new papers," for
the purpose of comparison and guild
auce.
My illustration shows very
easy method for those unable
to afford good overmsntel, or
NIT e
thing less commonplace of bringing q
bold bit of color into a room. Let us
imagine the color of the room. The
wall paper is the coppery "plume"
pattern 1 SO often mention. with a sun
shiny yellow ceiling, the paint being of
rich red-brown, panelled with
'Jewel Effect" leather paper. We call
in the services of handy carpenter and
bid him make us a shaped mantel-board
with projecting round ends and plain
narrow over-shelf, for the adornment
of which we furnish him with the con-
venient fretwoIk edge, to be bought
now at few pence per foot. We then
hang tiny Siam silk curtains, in a rich
coppery- brown, at each end of the shelf,
and paper the shrine thus formed with
the sumptuous-looking "Jewel Effect"
leather paper. The msntel- border, in
the centre only, affords a chance for a
quaint piece of foreign embroidery; or,
ii we cannot compass that, of a boldly
executed bit of oHr work, or of Lustrs
painting in blue oS velveteen to suit
the tie little curtains, the tone of
which should be the same as the ground
Of the embroidery.
The over-shelf we win arrange with
Q copper tray from Cairo, q yellow