The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-11
Midsummer Topics
 Of Social Interest
.....................s..s

rose tints again appear on the tapestried wall, is to be decorated with some scene appropriate to the Jacobean period of the room. The desk, like the rest. is emil nently suited to it's surroundings-w worked out from a model of an antique once the property of King Charles. lnlaid al the corners, in sturdy fashion are black orna- ments supposed to have been cannon. | This charming room and its furnishings are in keeping with MT. Colby's eminent ly sensible, and yet thoroughly artistic, ideas in regard to the Identification of a room. Belonging to a period, it is, never theless, not overbearingly so; nor are any of the apartments which show his | touch-rooms indicative in stereotyped way of a slavlshness to period-a thing to which so many artists of his sort have | succumbed. In a workroom near him
 wero several panels, at which two clever young artists were busy with brush and
 palette. These panels are to adorn the walls of hotel dining room soon to be
 reopened. Spring" Summer" "Au- i tumn" and Winter" are the subjects which Mir Colby and his colleagues are | depicting. All are immense canvases, ] each done in key revealing a graceful ness of conception and nicety of touch. The tapestries, large canvases and the narrow panels which will be introduced in the proper niches. are singuary restful
 
 marked MT. Colby "are here, but what shall do for Winter is yet mystery. hope an idea will come to me very soon
 You see the problem is to effect a winter scene with the same general feeling that the other seasons have. They must all be in harmony-that Is the key to the dec orators success"
 This appears to be the real function of the interior decorator. To beautify, while maintaining a correct balance, no matter what may be the size of the number of rooms, what the size or character of a house and to bring the whole to an artistic completion to dis courage massive furniture in a tiny room. rococo decorations in a pure CO., lonlal exterior. is sometimes a demand upon him When it was suggested that in the professional decorators services one loses ones own Individuality in a home, the young man very quickly said No. It Is the duty of the decorator to study the taste and the personality of the one whom he Is endeavoring to help: to follow where this knowledge leads and if by chance something which he knows to be bad is desired. let him produce the thing, but in producing 1t let him make 1t good. l have decorated a number of rooms for a woman whose very soul adores a brilliant red tint. I have satisfied this longing, which is positively Oriental in it's intensity, but have made 1t good. Had l given it to her as she asked for it. she would not have been satisfied with it after getting it. but it was introduced to har- monize with the tones of the furnish- ings and with the type and color of the draperies, and the result was excellent. Decoration" he continued, plays a | big part in our lives, even if its sig niticance is little understood For ex- ample, every morning as I come down town I pass building one of the lines of whose front elevation motive is | slightly out of plumb. l never look at the building but that this point at tracts my attention. On the contrary, one may accustom himself to ugliness. l It was Oliver Wendell Holmes l think who owned a chair all knobs and | lhideously distorted curves which every one loathed but which, he said, he had sat in so long that every curve and every knob had accustomed itself to him and he to It. The things in ones surroundings may sometimes jar on ones sensibilities without making l themselves really apparent. You may know that something is wrong, but whether it is the color of your wall or the juzta position of inharmonious ob- jects, you don't know, but an expert would just as a physician would diag- ] | beautiful: when the human race lived nearer to nature it reveled in an mex haustible treasure house of beauty but now that we have assembled in the great brick and steel camps called cities, we find that we have lost the choicest asset of our primitive days. And so the mind of man has been trained to supply his kind witli the beauty his soul craves and without which life would he empty. Having evolved the home he tries to beautify st, knowing that without color or form lit misses it's first plan. And as arr | tificial beauty Is never accidental but always tho result of genius and knowl- edge. he must acquaint himself with many principles before his success in home making is assured. The modern decorator studies these rules just as tho doctor studies anatomy. In addi- tion he studies the art of all the civil nations that have preceded our own and endeavors to profit by their mis- takes as well as their triumphs.'
 Poetic in his ideas. convincing and charming in his manner of explaining them, he is designer above all things. with designers feeling for propor- tion, and it is this sense of proportion and this feeling for space and the cor