Omaha daily bee., 1912-09-22
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VERY SMALL ROOMS

W the natural aim is to make them APP
pear larger than they really are. After
all, it is not what a room actually is, but
what it appears to be that counts.
Much depends upon the color used on
the walls. The average man does II t real
lze this fact, although he may feel that,
some how, he made a mistake when he put
red paper on that dining room of his just
because red is commonly supposed to bc
the proper color for dining rooms. He
has missed the point that red makes a
room look smaller pulls the walls in,
as it were.
Yellow and tan have the opposite eff
feet, making room appear to expand.
Blue, too, helps to push the walls away.
! Yellow however, is too strong for very
| light room; and lighting conditions must
be considered as well as size. Gray and
pink serve to make small room look
rather mUre spacious, but the common
shades of green and brown are neutral
in their effect. Perhaps that is one rea,
son why so many people seem instinctively
to select green, even though it is poor
color for a room that is not well lighted.
Still, fairly satisfactory results can be
obtained even in poorly lighted rooms,
with a few warm shades of green.
Comparatively plain walls help to make
small rooms look larger. Walls with large,
sprawling figures in bold colors seem to
be falling in on one. The effect Of height
is gained by using striped papers and car
rying them to the ceiling. Sometimes the
side wall paper is even carried into the
ceiling for a foot all around in order to
deceive the eye still further This, Of
course, tends to make small room seem
even smaller than it is.
If the room is high posted out of pro-
portion to the other dimensions, a wide
frieze will tend to bring the ceiling down.
A cornice helps, also; but the most pro
nounced result is gained by using a cell
ing paper and bringing it down the walls
for a foot or more on all sides. This cell
ing paper, by the by, is best always plain,
cream being good shade. Under no cir
cumstances should the ceiling in the small
room be made darker than the side walls
the occupants will feel, when that is the
case. as if they were in danger of being
crushed
When the rooms in house are small, it
is always a good plan to have as many
open dOorways as is feasible, and to have
the walls in all the rooms decorated in
similar tones. In this way, the apparent
spaciousness of all the rooms is enhanced.
The proportions of a room may be
changed to the eve by the manner in
which the draperics are handled. The i'm
preston of height is gained by empha-
sizing the vertical lines, as can be done
by hanging the curtains at the top of the
window easing and allowing them to reach
the floor. The contrary effect is produced
in a measure by bringing the curtains
we'll to the sides of the windows and per
hitting them to extend only to the bot
tom of the sill. OF course, the arrange
ment of the curtains must also be con-
sidercd with respect to the windows
themselves. Odd or ugly windows require
special forms Of treatment.
Massive furniture in very small room
is ncongruous. Many people err by in
PRODUCING heavy Mission pieces into tiny
city fiat. Furniture built on broad,
straight lines obviously demands large
rooms. The fact, though, that pieces are
simple in design and free from curves
does not rule them out, by any means. On
the contrary, such furniture is by far the
best, if not too heavy. 1t would be bless
ing if the makers would produce more of
this simple furniture; but they would
find if more difficult to cover imppr-