Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1894-07-16
COLOR IN THE HOUSE.
Soft Colors and unobtrusive Designs in
 WalI-Pnpers and Carpets.

Soft Colors and Unobtrusive Designs in
 Walt-Papers and Carpets.
 Contrast on a broad scale can al- ways be secured by choosing carpeto of an entirely different tone from the wall, and this is sometimes very hap py expedient. For instance, as con tract to a eopper-eolored wall, q softly toned green carpet is nearly always successful This one color, green, is always safe and satisfactory in a Aoor-eovering, provided the walls are not too strong in tone. and provided also that the green of the carpet is not too green Certain brownish-greens possess the quality of being ill com plete harmony with every other color They are the most peaceable shades in the color werld-the only ones with out positive antiquities. Green in all the paler tones can claim the title of peace-maker among colors, since all the other tints will fight with something else, but never with green of cor responding or even q much greater strength. Of course this valuable quality, combined with a natural rest l fitness of effect, makes it the safest of l ordinary floor-coverings.
 In bedrooms with polished floors and light walls good color effects can be secured without carpets, but if the floors are of pine and need covering, no better general effect can be secured | than that of plain or mixed ingrain l filling. using with it oriental hearth and bedside rugs.
 The entire second floor of a house can in that case be covered with carpet in the accommodating tint Of green men toned, leaving the various color con nections to be made with differently 1 tinted rugs. Good pine floors well ! fitted and finished can be stained to harmonize with almost any tint which will harmonize with the walls.
 l remember seaside chamber in a house where the mistress had great natural decorative ability. and so much cultivation as to prevent its running 1 away with her where the floor was stained a transparent olive. like depths of sea water, and here and there q floating sea-Weed CT d form of sea life faintly outlined within the color. In this room, which seemed wide open to the sea and air. even when the windows were closed, the walls were of faint greenisl blue like what is called dead tur- quoise. and the relation between floor and walls was so perfect that 1t re. mains with me to this day as a crown ing instance of satisfaction in color
 It is perhaps more difficult to convey an idea of happy choice or selection o1 hoor-eelor than of walls. because it is relative to walls It must relate tc what has already been done. But in reorganization it is safe to say, first that in choosing color for a room, soft and medium tints are better than posi- tive or dark ones, and that walls should be unobstrusive in design as well as eolcr; secondly, that floors. if of the same tint as walls, should be much darker; and that they should be made apparent by means of some strong method of treatmeuts such as desings In the carpet itself. or by the addition Of rugs or borders. that should un- 1 occasionally make the relation be. tween the two strongly felt and per feetly unlnistala ble for it is the per lection of this relation of color which makes decoration m art.-Harpers S Bazaar