The architectural factor includes such details as the use, size, style, and situation of the room; its woodwork, floor, walls, ceiling, and lighting; its relationships with connecting rooms; and the size, style, and coloring of the furnishings already in use.
In employing this method, even in the simple sale involving the purchase of a single piece, the competent salesman will have three purposes in mind. The first is to insure that this new piece will fit the people who are to use it; the second, to insure that it will fit the room in which it is to be used; and the third, to insure that it will combine with everything else in the same room to form an agreeable harmony. In other words, he must use his merchandise to secure comfort through fitness or suitability to purpose and use, and to create beauty through harmony. Correct room arrangement is essential to both.
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.