The walls of bedrooms should be decorated in light tints and shadings, with a narrow rail and deep frieze. Most housekeepers prefer rugs and oiled floors to carpets, but this is a...
It is a remark too often made that this or that “is good enough for a servant.” If all knew that unpleasant surroundings made unpleasant servants and ill-prepared meals, we think m...
The hall being the index to the whole house, due care should therefore be given to its furnishing. Light colors and gilding should be avoided. The wall and ceiling decorations now...
Curved lines in decoration and furniture are of various kinds. The rococo styles (Louis XV and the Regency) are overluxurious and often weak; the curves in Arabic or Celtic ornamen...
For the bedroom, though other colors such as green and violet, in particular (save red, which is a poor bedroom hue) are not barred, blue is an ideal color, expressive of repose an...
Curved forms, the circle, the oval and the ellipse, are all agreeable. There is in them "a hint of the mysterious dualism of life."
"Heaven gives us of its colour, for our joy, Hues which have words and speak to ye of heaven." Although the very existence of a house is a matter of construction, its general inter...
The chief features to be observed in house furnishing are color, form, and proportion. All stiffness of design in furniture should be avoided. Do not attempt to match articles, but...
The triangular form (in mantel clocks, lampshades, highboys, bookcase foundations, and sometimes where it appears in wall paper or Turcoman rug designs) expresses movement in repos...
Broken lines give us a feeling of life and movement. But they should not be used for the permanent decorative lines of a room--the lines of the walls, openings, hangings, draperies...
The sitting or everyday room should be the brightest and most attractive room in the house. Its beauty of decoration should not be so much in the richness and variety of material a...
Draperies are not always considered as a part of furnishings, yet in truth--as far as decorative necessities are concerned--they should come immediately after wall and floor coveri...
Never overemphasize one of the dimensions of height, width and depth at the expense of one of the others. They must be harmonized.
The kitchen is an important part of the perfect house and should be a recognised sharer in its quality of beauty; not alone the beauty which consists of a successful adaptation of...
Although in ordinary sequence the colouring of floors comes after that of walls, the fact that--in important houses--costly and elaborate floors of mosaic or of inlaid wood form pa...
We now return to the rooms where decoration is the rule. While always remembering that connecting rooms must harmonize with one another in color, individual colors may always be ap...
Interior Decoration is a very extensive and complicated subject. What we have here attempted to do has been to give an idea of the general principles underlying it, together with a...
As ceilings are in reality a part of the wall, they must always be considered in connection with room interiors, but their influence upon the beauty of the average house is so smal...
The proportions of any room are best when they make a normal impression on the eye. The oblong is the best decorative art form, as a rule. It can be used in nearly all ornaments, i...
Although the forms and varieties of furniture are infinite, they can easily be classified first into the two great divisions of good and bad, and after that into kinds and styles;...
Straight lines in a room call for straight lines in furniture, rugs and hangings. They make a room dignified and serious in appearance. Italian Renaissance chairs and other pieces...
All parts of a furnished room must help express one ideal of balance. The realization of this ideal is proportion. A horizontal room calls for horizontal furniture and lines, a ver...
The walls of the library should be hung with rich, dark colors, the latest style in wall paper being a black ground with old gold and olive-green designs. The carpet comes in Pompe...
Colors makes decorative shapes easy to see. (For the character of the colors and the principles of their effective combination the reader will find much useful information in the "...
Before passing to the other rooms of the house, we will pause to consider a more purely utilitarian group. The Kitchen.--These rooms which are strictly utilitarian, more or less es...
Period furniture is a means to a decorative end. It is a part of the decoration of a room, and must be adapted to its lines and proportions. Halls for instance, call for tall chair...
The dining room, with which we were so directly concerned in the preceding portion of this book, offers a natural point of departure for considering the individual rooms of the hou...
Vertical lines express aspiration and disquietude; diagonal lines, action. In wall paper designs and rug patterns the diagonal line is not always excellent. Diagonal lines are some...
The dining-room should be furnished with a view to convenience, richness, and comfort. Choose deep, rich grounds for the walls—bronze-maroon, black, Pompeiian red, and deep olive—a...
"Mine own hired house." A large proportion of homes are made in houses which are not owned, but leased, and this prevents each man or family from indicating personal taste in exter...