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 repose admirably, and has real decorative values.
CURVED FORMS
Curved forms, the circle, the oval and the ellipse, are all agreeable. There is in them “a hint of the mysterious dualism of life.”
COLOR
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 “Color Harmony and Design in Dress” included in this series.) Art, Nature and books will all help the interior decorator in the matter of color adjustment. Trim in most houses compels the adjustment of the color harmony to suit it. In general white paneling calls for the use of one warm and one cool color, while dark brown or black paneling needs two or more warm colors.
PROPORTION
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 vertical room for vertical ones. Every important decorative feature of a room must be selected in accordance with its proportion in general. The size of a room increases the form scale (or scale of the forms) represented by furniture, pictures, rugs, etc. In every room the important individual pieces, such as library table, piano, bed, dresser, must parallel one or another wall. Do not violate proportion and artistic effect by overcrowding.
CHAPTER III: INDIVIDUAL ROOMS OF THE HOUSE
THE DINING ROOM AND “WORK ROOMS”
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 house with regard to decoration. First, as to a dominant dining room color: The dining room should be a room of good cheer, a bright, happy room. But it should not be too bright. If it is on the sunny side of the house, let one of the colors dominate—white, cream white, blues, greens, grays or violet— if on the shady side, gain warmth by the use of yellows (save lemon), orange, warm tans, russets, pinks, yellowish greens and reds. (This applies to all rooms.)