EMOTIONAL VALUES OF LIGHT, COLOR, LINE, AND PROPORTIONS
Everything used in furnishing a room may be resolved into its elements of light, color, line, and proportion. Psychologists have shown that colors influence the mood of an individual, and create emotional values which may be stated as follows:
LIGHT AND SHADE
To understand and correctly use light and shade, one must have a basic understanding of values and know how by using these values different effects may be achieved. Using as a key a scale of nine values (bearing in mind that the term value means degree of lightness or darkness without regard to any particular color) ranging from black to white, one finds that the grey tones toward the white end of the scale are light values and shade toward white; those toward the black end of the scale are dark values and shade toward black; in the center is a medium grey tone.
Using these values in terms of room colors, it has been established that light values are cheerful and gay because they reflect light. When used in pastel tones they are feminine and friendly. On the other hand, dark values are sombre, heavy, and masculine in feeling since they absorb light and have a darkening effect. The middle tones are a happy balance and combine essentials of both values. Thus, kitchens, breakfast rooms, nurseries, playrooms, and boudoirs should be done in light values; libraries, men's rooms, or lounges in dark values and living rooms and dining rooms in medium values, using both dark and light.
COLOR TERMS
Although there are many technical color terms used by advanced colorists to distinguish variations in colors, there are just a few basic facts to remember to help you understand and use color to the best advantage in interior decoration. Hue is the pure color neither mixed with white, black, nor a complementary color. A hue may be a primary color, secondary color, or tertiary color in its true value. When you mix a hue with white it becomes a tint; when mixed with black it becomes a shade; and when greyed with a complement it becomes a tone. Since walls should be lighter than the floor covering, walls are usually done in a tint; floor coverings in a shade or tone or a particular hue, and furnishings either in the pure hues in adjacent or complementary colors or in tones, tints, or shades of these hues.
Primary, secondary, and tertiary colors.—Primary colors are the three basic colors known to man which cannot be produced by combining any other colors, but which, when combined in proper proportion, can produce every color known to man. These colors are red, blue, and yellow.
Secondary colors are hues obtained by admixture of the primaries and consist of violet (red and blue); green (yellow and blue); and orange (red and yellow).
Tertiary colors.—These are hues obtained by admixture of the secondary colors with the primary colors and consist of red-violet or plum; blue-violet or a deep, marine-type blue; blue-green or aqua-marine; yellow-green or chartreuse; yellow-orange or tangerine, and red-yellow or a warm red or vermilion color.
Complementary and adjacent colors.—Complementary colors are the colors directly opposite each other on a color chart made up of the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, and when used in pairs they intensify each other.
Adjacent colors are the colors which follow each other in a color chart made up of the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors and they may be used together with an accent of a complementary color.
Elementary color chart.—To properly understand these terms and imprint these color combinations in your mind make this simple color chart in color using the three primary colors. This chart also may be worked out in pencil in a few minutes time and referred to when making color suggestions:
Figure 30.—Color chart. Numbers indicate: 1, primary colors. 2, secondary colors. 3, tertiary colors.
Draw a circle 4 inches in diameter. Divide the circle into three equal parts by lines radiating from the center. Label these three lines, red, blue, and yellow; they are your primary colors. These lines represent the admixture of the primary colors and represent violet, green, and orange. (See chart.) Now fill in the tertiary colors. (See chart.) When doing these in colors you will see the colors change and blend into each other as they are applied.
From the above color chart you can make any harmonious room combination. For any true harmony all three of the primary colors should be present. It is not necessary, however, to have three colors; a secondary color (made by blending two primary colors) would use the third primary as a complement. Look at the chart; you will note that green (made by mixing blue and yellow) has red as its complement. A third color in the room might be yellow or blue, yellowish-green, or blue-green. This is termed a complementary color scheme.
When using an adjacent, or monochromatic color scheme, any series on the color chart may be followed; for example, green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, and violet. The complement or accent to this color scheme would be the complementary colors, orange, yellow-orange, red-orange, etc.
Before applying these principles to room schemes, there is one more rule to bear in mind. All colors in which red or yellow predominate are known as warm colors and colors in which blue and green predominate are known as cool colors. Since warm colors are more intense and tend to be exciting, they must be offset by cool colors, usually in the ratio of two to one, since it often takes two cool colors to balance one warm color. It is also well to remember that deep colors "advance" and light colors "recede." An oblong room can be made to look more square by doing the short walls in a deep green, the long walls in a light green. Primary and secondary colors are more intense than tertiary colors—colors receding and lightening with the admixture of additional hues.
Building a room scheme.—Taking all of the above facts into consideration, it may be interesting to work out a few simple color schemes for a living room. Assume that one wishes to do a "blue" room. The predominating color in the room will, of course, be blue. However, let us suppose we do not particularly care for a blue rug. Since the second largest piece in the room is the sofa, we have decided to use a blue sofa. We have two definite choices for a rug; it may be a greyed tone of red or wine color, or a greyed tone of yellow (beige or light brown). If we select the red-tone rug, we must think about our yellow tone for the complementary chair. Let us suppose we decide upon a tint of yellow or beige. A third chair now may be a secondary, or tertiary, of these three colors, and since our room is predominantly blue, we select a blue-red or violet color. Violet, you will notice, is a perfect complement to yellow. We might have used a shade of red or wine color as a complement but it would have given a red tone to the room.
For draperies we have several colors from which to choose but we must take into consideration the wallpaper. We may use a tint of the floor covering, or the sofa, or may bring in the third primary color. Let us suppose we had decided to use a tint of the floor covering or a soft pink tone. Our draperies now may be blue, blue-violet, or red-violet. Accents necessarily would then be red or orange. If wine-colored draperies were used, we would have practically an equal balance between red and blue, and our accessories would be yellow.
Another popular method of color coordination is to repeat the colors found in one piece with plain colors or novelty weaves emphasizing the colors of the figured fabric; for example, a room may have a blue sofa with a tiny pink figure worked into the tapestry. One of the chairs, then, could be pink in the same tone as the small figure; the other chair would then be one of the yellow tones, and could be either beige, or brown.
Some decorators repeat the floral colors of printed draperies in the room setting. Some combine the plain colors of the sofa and chair in a figured third chair which has a neutral background and picks up the colors of the other two pieces. It is well to mix the patterns in a room, a stripe combining nicely with a plain color, and a small figured mixture carrying out the third color and blending the striped and plain tones.
By referring to your chart you will discover many interesting color combinations. Just remember that adjacent colors take the opposite complement as accent. Complementary colors may be used with adjacent or with a third primary color, or with a combination of two primaries on a neutral background of the third color.
LINE AND FORM
Straight lines create an effect of strength, virility, and seriousness, and, if exclusively employed, of austerity or hardness; while curved lines create an effect of flexibility and joyousness, and, if, exclusively employed, the effect is one of weakness.
Horizontal lines and shapes arouse a sense of calmness and repose; vertical lines and shapes, of activity and life; diagonal lines and shapes, of movement. Long straight lines create an effect of dignity. When two colors are used together a line is created and these lines have a distinct effect upon the room in which they are used.
PROPORTION
Proportion, which is simply the relation of one dimension to another, applies throughout the house to walls, floors, ceilings, doors, windows, chairs, bookcases, tables, and other furnishings. Good proportions are never top-heavy, squatty, or uninteresting. Large size and thick proportions suggest strength, weight, permanence, and dignity; small size and slender proportions arouse the idea of delicacy, lightness, and grace.
It is well for the furniture salesman to understand a few simple facts which every good interior decorator knows.
Walls and floors, plus ceilings, determine the proportions of a room as a whole. Suppose a badly proportioned room is too narrow for its length and height—something common, for instance, to halls and dining rooms.
The apparent width of this too narrow room may be increased by—
1. Hanging a mirror, or using a picture in which the perspective is such that the eye follows a stream or broad expanse into the distance.
2. Using scenery wallpapers.
In well-proportioned rooms the wall decorations are lighter than the floor and the ceiling decorations are lighter than those of the walls.
SOURCES OF INSPIRATION
There are many avenues of study available to anyone who seeks the real enjoyment which comes with planning his own environment. Fashion ever has been a keynote in the purchase of home furnishings. The key, however, still remains in the custody of the owner. When she intends to buy a new gown, coat, or hat, she reads magazines and newspapers, shops around, studies styles and trends, thinks of uses and requirements for the gowns or coats under consideration. Probably she needs to understand that she may use as much conscious discrimination with furniture as with coats if only she will use the same sources of inspiration and information. She should try any one or all of these:
1. Monthly magazines with their superb color features, illustrating articles of great diversity.
2. Books from the public or from a rental library.
3. Model rooms set up in department and furniture stores, and in furniture shows.
4. Museums containing replica rooms done in the historical periods.
5. Paintings, as guiding one's thoughts for color schemes.
6. Newspapers which record style trends in attractive merchandise priced to meet the family budget.
If these studies are good for the prospective customer, how much more valuable they are for the progressive salesman who seeks to understand customer needs and desires in terms of human satisfactions.
SUMMARY
The results of studies of emotional values may be summarized as follows:
1. Variations in light, color, line, shape, and size affect the mind in certain fairly definite ways. When these variations are understood and controlled a group or a room may be given atmosphere which not only adds to its beauty, but also greatly helps in arranging it to meet the needs of the people who use it.
2. These emotional values of light, color, line, shape, proportion, and texture must be employed in such a way that the effect of each is increased by the effects of all:
Effects of restfulness and tranquillity result when—
a. The amount and intensity of illumination are reduced.
b. The tone of all colors is lowered.
c. Horizontal lines are predominant.
d. Large size is emphasized.
Effects of animation and activity result when—
a. The amount and brilliance of illumination are increased.
b. The tone of all colors is raised.
c. Vertical lines are predominant.
d. Small size is emphasized.