Evening star., 1941-02-08
Paint Solves Problem
OF Rejuvenating
Unsight|y Room
Dork Tones on Walls
Are Offset by Softer
Bright Tones on Trim

Given: One room-a little too
large and bleak for cheer and con-
viviality Used to serve two pur-
poses-that of dining room as we'll
as living room-it serves neither
function successfully. The sofa and
chairs are lined up along the walls
like a string of timid wallflowers-
not arranged. certainly. to encourage
stimulating conversation. When the
drop-leaf table is opened for dining
and the straight backed chairs are
dragged from their corners, the
whole room must be disarranged and
made still more unattractive. The
only two windows in the room are
on adjoining walls close to the same
corner. While they frame pleasant
view, the furniture is not so placed
that the occupants of the room can
be comfortably seated and still enjoy
the outlook In other words, it's a
lot of good room space gone haywire.
Wrong Impression Given.
Studying the room critically and
applying the principles of paint
styling to its redecoration reveal the
possibility of an interesting solution.
First Of all, the room seems too
large. People sitting in one corner
feel as if they have to shout to any
one sitting in the opposite corner.
They don't-actually-but they have
such an impression. One thing that
intensifes this feeling is the fact
that the walls are very light in tone
and very light colors make room
seem larger than it is. AS a con-
sequence. one of the first decisions
to make is to have a large part of
the wall area painted In a darker
tone The darker the tone, the
smaller the room will seem. In this
would not be wise to choose too dark
. tone. The reason? Dark colors
absorb light As a sponge soaks up
water. InaSmuch as there are only
two windows in the room, there is
not an excess amount OF natural
light. Consequently the deepest tone
it would be wise to use on most
Of the wall areas would be, say, q
soft beige.
Another thing paint styling
teaches is to emphasize the most in
teresting area of room with color.
In this particular case the corner
with the two windows in it is un-
doubtedly the most interesting. And
why not take advantage of the nice
view from the windows by placing
the dining room table and chairs
In this corner?
Now how about painting the table
and chairs in light tone to make
them seem newer. more modern? Do
them, We'll say, in the same light
beige as the wall.
Trim to Be Soft Gray-Blue.
"Oh, but they won't show up
against the wall then" perhaps
you're saying. True. And that's
where a little tricky color usage
comes in. Well have the wall by
the windows-and the trim and sash
of the windows-painted soft gray
blue. Against this nice color the
IlkIlb lul Will SllOW up llhC d
charm. Light beige sheer curtains,
gracefully draped. will give distinc-
tion to the windows. The blue
blends. too, with the upholstery on
the sofa and easy chair.
A third color, now, will make the
scheme outstanding Well choose
bittersweet berry color to match the
floor covering and paint a 12-inch
vertical stripe of it from the floor
to the ceiling between the beige and
blue areas at the room corner. At
one side of this alcove-createdw with
color the bittersweet stripe will pro-
ceed ceilingWard from the Dashboard
without interruption, but at the
other side-where a simply built
set of shelves is placed at right
angles to the wall-it will extend
along the side and top of the shelves
so they are painted into" the
scheme and then up the wall to the
ceiling line.
And speaking of the ceiling line,
there's another decorative detail here
that lends decided interest to the
room. Continuing from the top of
the vertical bittersweet stripe is a
band of the same color about
inches wide. This band extends
along the top of the wall above the
beige area. On it are stenciled a
row of beige stars. A band of SIM
liar width above the blue corner
area is painted beige. Here the
stars are stenciled in the bitter
sweet color.