Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1921-01-07
The Choice of Bric-a-Brac.
Thoughts About Wall
Coverings and Pictures.
Selecting the Proper Sort
of Furniture-Facts About
Co1ors.

To furnish a house comfortably. ar
tistically and durably necessitates
spending some money, but most of all
it requires study. forethought and
handicraft. If you are to furnish
house completely, it is best to work
out a plan room by room. First de-
eide on a keynote in spirit and in
color for the whole house and then
try to carry out that note in every
room. Simplicity, individuality, COM
fort and artistic distinction are the
qualities that you will wish to ex-
press in your home, and that you
can express by planning every detail
of your furnishings with that end IN
view.
If planning to furnish only a part
of your home, follow the same prin-
cipie, seeking always to unite the
scheme of the newly decorated rooms
with that of the rest of the house, so
as to achieve a harmonious Whole:
Having planned the color scheme OF
! the whole house. decide next on the
color scheme of each room. The 1oI-
! lowing table of colors and of the ef-
| feet that they produce will be help
| full:
| Red-Warmth. stimulation.
| Blue-Coolness, quIetness
| YelOW-CneeE, Oil III
crease in the apparent size of room,
| Light Green-cheerfulnes
| Dark Green-Repose.
| Gray-Natural effect.
| Observation-Disclosures when used in
quantity. hence it is seldom used in
| interior decorating.
| Light colors are more stimulating
J than dark colors. but dark colors lenc
more dignity to room. They also
! make it look smaller. A room with
dark walls requires more artificial
light than the same room would re-
uuire if the walls were light colored.
For the Walls.
For your walls you have the choice
of calcimining. papering or painting.
If you must do the work yourself, you
will find that papering is the most
difficult. Wallpaper of a neutral
shade. either plain or with a sub
dued figure, is in better taste than
a bright-colored paper with large
figures Remember that the wall is
only background for pictures. furni-
ture and draperies. and therefore.
should not attract attention to itself
For calcimining, buy the dry colors.
ground and blend them to the tint
dealer to do it for you. 1t is well
to test a sample of your mixture on
some obscure corner of the wall and
to let 1T dry so that you can see ex-
actly how it will look. 1t is also well
to mix a sufficient quantity of the
paint at the beginning, since it is
often difficult to reproduce the exact
tint in a second making. If you wish
to tint your walls, there are specially
prepared mixtures that can be applied
without much difficulty.
Plain window hangings and draper
les 60 best with figured wallpapers,
and figured draperies with plain wall
coverings. If the wall is to be deco
rated with paper only. pronounced
figure may be used, but if pictures
are to be hung on it, the paper should
be perfectly plain, or the figure SO
unobtrusive that it will not detract
from the charm of the pictures. OF
course, the character of the pictures
makes some difference. Delicate etch-
ings or paintings in soft colors should
have quiet and reserved backgrounds,
but more vigorous compositions or
paintings with strong contrasts of
color will stand more prominent
backgrounds. The pictures are the
important thing: the wall surface
should be treated in such manner
as to set them off to the best posi-
BILE advantage.
Elaborate frames are not desir-
able for photographs or pictures
Frames should always be simple. and
should aim to enhance the beauty OF
the photograph. never to draw atten-
ton away from it. Frames with
dorid designs, with deep cuttings and
FURNISHED metal, those made of birch
bark ornamented with drawings; of
worked worsted or hand-painted flow