The secret of successful house-painting is in the maintenance of a neutral effect, with enough of color to give relief to the eye. Monotony is as offensive as too much variety. So our task is to establish a medium that shall be happy and tasteful.
Let us not forget that the renewal of paint at stated intervals is quite necessary and should be made at least once every four years. Only a good master painter should be employed—one who believes in the use of good paint and good craftsmen. Given paint of first quality, two workmen may produce entirely different results. From the work of one may follow long wear and weather resistance, and from the other a coating that will prove short-lived and inferior, with peeling and blistering of the surface.
The time to paint depends more upon the weather than upon the season. In many parts of the country the cool clear days of Fall afford as good and sometimes better working conditions than the Spring. The season is inconsequential. Dry weather is the most important consideration.
As to Interior Furnishings
COLOR and arrangement are the two most important factors in developing a sympathetic and attractive interior. Color—first, last and always. The importance of color is only just beginning to be recognized. The reaction psychologically is very powerful—and very subtle.
How often, on entering a room or a house, one has felt an overpowering sense of gloom and depression—strong enough to make conversation almost impossible, so heavy were one’s spirits! If analyzed, the cause of this could almost invariably be traced to color.
A charming old country house, lovely in line and type, had, when purchased, an entrance hall about 25 feet square, running through the width of the house at that point, with a Dutch door and two windows opening onto a garden at the rear. This hall had a fireplace and a finely proportioned long low mantel. A wonderful possibility! But—the walls were covered with deep red paper of an enormous pattern, with yellow grained varnish on the trim—gloomy, repellent and most hideous.
The paper was removed, likewise the yellow grained varnish; the walls were panelled; and walls, trim and ceiling were all done in soft, creamy, flat-tone paint.
A long box under a group of windows, built in with mouldings and panelling like the walls to the left of the door as one entered, was covered with a cushion of a small patterned velvet in dull gold. This box held golf clubs, tennis rackets and other odds and ends very conveniently. The lighting fixtures were black sconces with raised lacquer in gold. An old black lacquer Chinese chest with raised gold decorations served as a wood box and gave color and character.