HANGING PICTURES
A correct method of hanging pictures
How to Hang Pictures.—If wire be used for hanging pictures, it should be as small and inconspicuous as possible. In place of the braided steel wire, which may be needed for large pictures, a single brass or copper wire is much to be preferred for those of lighter weight. In all cases where the wire shows it should appear as two vertical lines against the wall and not as a single wire bent over a single hook in the form of an inverted V, so commonly seen and so manifestly failing to conform with any lines of a room. Levelling the picture may be easily managed by using only one wire, making it continuous through the screw eyes on the back of the picture. These screw eyes should be placed near the top of the frame—about one sixth the whole vertical width of the picture from the top—so that the picture may hang nearly flat against the wall. Whenever possible, however, pictures should be hung without showing the wire at all. This may be easily managed without seriously marring the finish of some rooms by driving two fine finishing nails in the part of the lower wall which is to come directly behind the top of the picture, allowing them to project about 1⁄2 of an inch and bending them up a little with a pair of pliers so that the wires will not slip off. Choice, small pictures may be hung in this way on fine upholstery tacks. It is often possible, when the wire must be exposed, to stop it just below the dado cap and thus avoid showing the wire over the frieze. Whenever it is necessary, as it often is, to suspend wires by means of the so-called picture hooks from a picture moulding or cornice strip placed above the frieze, some attention should be paid to the colour of these hooks. Bright metal hooks showing over a delicately coloured moulding are in bad taste. Some people prefer to use the inverted V suspension in order to reduce the number of these picture hooks. But it is far better to retain the straight, fine, and nearly invisible wires and colour the hooks to make them less conspicuous.
In determining the height of pictures it is only necessary to remember that they are placed upon the walls to be enjoyed. While monotony in height is to be avoided, the average eye level should not be disregarded. The frontispiece illustrates an effective placing of a picture in the dining-room of the model house.
[IV]
THE ARRANGEMENT OF FLOWERS
"I know not which I love the most,
Nor which the comeliest shows;
The timid, bashful violet,
Or the royal-hearted rose;
"The pansy in her purple dress,
The pink with cheek of red,
Or the faint, fair heliotrope who hangs,
Like a bashful maid, her head."
—Phœbe Cary
Formerly when the furniture, pictures, and draperies had been arranged in our rooms, with perhaps a few pieces of bric-à-brac, we considered their decoration quite complete. But we have learned how much cheerfulness a few simple flowers, properly arranged, impart to the same rooms; and so flowers have come to be considered as almost essential to the complete decoration of the home.
A Lesson From the Japanese.—If we have learned much from the Japanese in regard to the arrangement and hanging of pictures, from them we have learned more about the artistic arrangement of flowers. They have taught us to value the stem and leaves of the flower as essential to an artistic arrangement, that flowers of the same kind should be grouped together, and that harmony and blending of colour are necessary to secure the most artistic effects.
Flowers of a Kind Grouped Together.—We may have been in the habit of putting several different kinds of flowers together and of being satisfied with such a composition; but the Japanese would tell us that when several different kinds of flowers are combined in one grouping the full beauty of each is lost; and after a few experiments we shall come to see the truth of this. Here is an illustration: At a summer camp with which I am familiar it was the daily duty of one of the younger boys to go for the wild flowers we used for keeping the camp gay. He often brought home snug little bunches of the flower of the wild convolvulus and the wild rose, to be used together. No pleasing arrangement could be made from such a handful, so he was asked to bring long pieces of the vine of the convolvulus and gather branches of the rose, especially those with the buds. The convolvulus we arranged in a flat dish at one end of a gray stone mantel, letting the vine hang over the mantel, and he quickly saw that it "looked prettier—more as though it were growing." When a few of the stalks of the wild rose were arranged by themselves in a green glass vase he pronounced them much "prettier than when mixed up with other flowers."
The Way of the Garden.—In our gardens we plant the sunshiny daffodils by themselves, the sweet peas grow in a mass together, and we have beds of roses. If we follow the same plan in the arrangement of our flowers indoors we shall realize their decorative qualities to the utmost. So we may consider it a safe rule to follow in arranging flowers,—to use only one kind of flower, with its stems and leaves, arranging them loosely, rather than to have many in a compact grouping. One single, long-stemmed rose, with its beautiful foliage, in a tall, slender glass is more decorative and gives us more pleasure than a dozen roses stripped of their foliage and crowded into a small vase.
Exceptions.—While the above rule should be generally followed, there are exceptional instances of the perfectly harmonious arrangement of flowers of two or more kinds together. Among these we may mention the combining of field daisies and buttercups, or buttercups with the grasses among which they grow. So, too, the lacy flower of the wild carrot may sometimes be effectively combined with some other flower. The spikes of the cardinal flower, for example, are gorgeous in colour, but very stiff and difficult to arrange; so the addition of a few sprays of the wild carrot softens the effect and makes it more pleasing.