Transcriber’s Notes:
1) Table of contents/index at end as in original.
2) (TN: --) in text = comments added by Transcriber.

Color Value

By C. R. CLIFFORD

Published by CLIFFORD & LAWTON
373 Fourth Avenue, New York

Copyrighted, 1907
By Clifford & Lawton
———
Fourth Edition

grolier craft press, inc., n. y.

FUNDAMENTAL CONDITIONS

LIGHT, COLOR, FORM, PROPORTION
AND DIMENSIONS

Whatever is good in interior decoration is the result of consistent relationship between Light, Color, Form, Proportion and Dimensions. The choice of Color should be guided by the conditions of Light. The beauty of Form and the symmetry of Proportion can exist only by a balance with Dimensions.

Therefore, apart from any knowledge of historic or period decoration, effective or successful work must observe the technical laws governing conditions.

LIGHT

1. The white light of the sun is compounded of an almost innumerable number of color elements, as shown by the phenomena of the rainbow or by experimenting with the prism. (See [¶ 7].) When a ray of sunshine passes through a glass prism it is decomposed or separated, and if the prismatic colors are received upon a white screen you will find on the spectrum among the colors generated a pure blue, a pure red and a pure yellow. These are the primary colors, and it is necessary when thinking color to bear these prismatic colors in mind as standards.

2. Color is an internal sensation originating in the excitation of the optic nerve by a wave action which we call light.

3. The theory of light, the wave theory, is based upon the assumption that throughout all space there is an infinitely thin medium called ether. Scientists differ as to what this may be, but its movements constitute light, a reflection from a luminous body.

4. Everything which we see is visible because it either emits light, like a flame, or reflects light.

5. A piece of black cloth upon a white plate reflects but a small proportion of the light. The plate reflects a large proportion. A piece of black velvet reflects less light than black cloth and gives the effect of absolute blackness, or an empty and dark space.

6. In practical demonstrations the study of color will be confusing unless it is understood at the outstart that pure prismatic colors can seldom be found in manufactured pigments, hence any demonstration of the theory of color composition is usually unsatisfactory.

7. The theory which brings out of a ray of sunshine the disunited prismatic colors carries with it the deduction that before separation these colors constitute white light; but it must be manifest to even the superficial reader that such colors are mere spectrum colors—vision colors—and any amalgamation of material or pigment colors, so far from producing white, produces almost black.

8. The theory that red and yellow make orange, and that a red and blue make violet, is correct; but if one attempts to demonstrate the theory with pigments, one is confronted not only by the lack of standard manufactured colors but by impurities, adulterations and chemical reaction in the pigments. The adulteration may not be perceptible in one primary color, but it is manifest when that color is brought into action with another primary, for it is seldom that a pure secondary results.

COLOR NOMENCLATURE—HARMONIES

9. Color nomenclature includes primary, secondary and tertiary colors, and innumerable hues, shades and tints. All these colors bear relations to one another, either relations of analogy, or relations of contrast. (See [¶ 18 and ¶ 19].)

The [Circle Diagram I] shows the manner in which the various colors are formed. (See also [Diagram III].)

DIAGRAM I

The third circle shows how slate, citrine and russet are made. For instance, slate is one part of violet and one part of green. Hence, a tertiary color is made of equal parts of two secondaries.

The outer circle, buff, sage and plum, can be analyzed in the same way.

This [Diagram I] is arranged to show not only component parts of a color, but the parts that properly harmonize.

CONTRASTS

10. In music it is an established fact that certain notes used in pleasing combination produce sounds we call harmonies. The moment that more than one note is struck, there is danger of discord, and when ten notes resound to the touch of the player, they must be the right notes, or they jar upon the sensibilities. In the use of color the same immutable law applies.

11. In Circle [Diagram II] the letters RV mean reddish violet, being a violet having more red than blue in its composition. BV means bluish violet, being a violet having more blue than red in its composition. BG means bluish green, being a green having more blue than yellow in its composition. YG means yellow green, being a green having more yellow than blue in its composition. YO means yellowish orange, being an orange having more yellow than red in its composition. RO means reddish orange, being an orange having more red than yellow in its composition. Thus we may advance from red to yellow by graduations almost imperceptible, by the addition of yellow, to a reddish orange, and so on gradually to orange, continuing on to yellowish orange, finally revealing pure yellow.

DIAGRAM II

DIAGRAM III

12. The contrasting color at any stage may be determined by proceeding in a direct line across the circle: Red has for its contrasting color green; hence, reddish orange would have for its contrasting color a bluish green, for the simple reason that if red contrasts with green and orange contrasts with blue, the color between the red and the orange would contrast with the color between the green and the blue. Let us determine the contrasting color for crimson. Crimson is simply a red slightly tinged with blue. If red contrasts with green, a shade a little to the left of red slightly tinged with blue would contrast with a shade a little to the right of green slightly tinged with yellow. In other words, crimson, RV, would contrast with yellowish green, YG. Determine at what point of the circle any color that you have in mind will come, and the contrasting color would be immediately opposite.

13. The harmony of analogy consists of the harmony of related colors or tones of one color. (See [¶ 17].)

14. The harmony of contrast consists of colors in no way related. As an example of the harmony of analogy, we would mention red and orange, because both of these colors have ingredients in common, red being one of the two component parts of orange. As an example of the harmony of contrast, we suggest red and green, because there is nothing in common between the two, red being a primary color, and green a secondary, composed of the other two primaries, yellow and blue. (See [¶ 17].)

15. Green is called the complement of red. The complement of blue would be orange, because orange is formed by combining the remaining primaries, red and yellow; and the complement of yellow would be violet, because violet is composed of blue and red, the other primaries.

16. In [Diagram II] we have arranged at opposite points the primaries 1, the secondaries 2, the tertiaries 3, the quaternaries 4.

But [Diagram III] goes further into the subject.

It is easy to understand the composition of secondaries, but it is not so easy to know the tertiaries and quaternaries. (See also [Diagram I].)

CONTRAST ANALOGIES

17. [Diagram III] is of the utmost value to the colorist, illustrating not only the composition of color, but showing the origin of each secondary from the two primaries, the origin of each tertiary from two secondaries, and of each quaternary from two tertiaries. It shows by groupings the harmonies of analogy or related colors; also the harmonies of contrast: By moving on the board one color on one line to another color upon another line, like the moving of a knight in a game of chess, and confining the moves always to adjoining lines, like yellow to violet, violet to citrine, citrine to plum, plum to brown. Yellow and violet are true contrasts, the one color having nothing in common with the other. The citrine and the plum, however, are approximate contrasts. For greater convenience, we have numbered the contrasting colors A’s and B’s. Absolute contrast is where the two colors have nothing in common. For composition purposes, however, citrine and violet may be considered contrasts, or correctly speaking, contrast analogies. (See [¶ 19].)

18. A harmony of contrast means the utilization of a primary color with its complementary, or a color in conjunction with another color in no degree related: a primary with a secondary. But when we soften these contrasting colors by the addition of white we have in the lighter tints a scale of chroma that is a form of analogy.

19. All combinations of secondary and tertiary colors, while apparently harmonies of contrast (the tertiary being made by the composition of two secondaries), constitute, in fact, contrast analogies, because by analysis we find that all tertiaries possess color components occurring in the apparently contrasting secondaries. (See [Diagram III].)

20. The harmony of contrast, literally, can only occur in the pure primary colors juxtaposed to the pure secondary colors, for in no case does the color formed by the combination of the two primaries have anything in common with the third primary; while a tertiary composed of two secondaries invariably has qualities possessed by the third secondary.

21. In a room which is small or dark, the light tints in harmonies of analogy are advisable.

PROPORTIONS

22. In the use of one color with another of contrasting character the question frequently arises, what proportion of each should be used to obtain the best effect? Illustrative color books show usually samples of color of the same size, leading one unconsciously to the error that contrasting colors should occupy the same surface dimensions.

23. In every room there must be a prevailing or dominant color, and the use of a contrasting color must be limited to proportions which give simply a pleasing emphasis. Let us assume that a room has a deep frieze pronouncedly green. To treat the rest of the wall in red of a direct contrast would be ineffective.

24. If a rule can be applied we would say that no strong normal color should be used in large surfaces. If we were dealing with pigments we would say that if one-sixth of a side-wall is devoted to a frieze in green, the balance of the wall space should be treated with the same amount of red, mixed with the same amount of gray.

25. For a room that is small and well lighted the fresh tints are not as desirable as the gray shades or tertiaries in conjunction with secondaries.

COLOR IN LARGE OR SMALL ROOMS

26. For a large room well lighted, yellow, red and orange in delicate shades are not as desirable as orange, violet and russet in light shades. This rule, however, may be reversed for a large room that is dimly lighted.

A superabundance of light gives an uncomfortable glare.

27. One may mechanically obtain harmony of analogy in proper proportions for the treatment of a room or a design by following the guidance of [Diagram I]. It will be noted in this diagram that the inner circle is blue, red and yellow, the primary colors.

The second circle is composed of the secondaries; the third circle, the tertiaries, and the outer circle, the quaternaries.

There is a nice distinction in the combination of primaries for the formation of secondaries, and exact proportions are quite necessary.

An orange, for instance, would be off shade if it did not consist of half red and half yellow, but in the making of the quaternaries, which are, at best, gray shades, exact proportions are not necessary.

Nevertheless, in [Diagram I] we have observed exact proportions in order to make our demonstration clear.

The harmony of analogy is the combination of colors related, but the relationship must be displayed in proportions consistent with the origin of each and every color used.

Let us assume that the prevailing note in a room, in either the side-wall or floor, is sage.

DIAGRAM IA

We can tell by drawing lines from the center of [Diagram I] to the extremities of the space marked sage that there is a little blue and a little yellow, some green and slate and citrine used in the composition of sage, and hence the use of these colors constitutes the harmony of relationship or analogy.

COLOR PROPORTIONS

28. But to arrive at proportions we must reduce the circular table to a geometrical table. We must straighten out the lines so that the exact proportions are apparent. We need not confuse the reader by mathematics, but to establish our theory we produce the [Diagram IA], and it will be here seen that the relative proportions existing in the segments of the circles have been observed in the triangles.

Thus we have thirty-two right-angled triangles.

Sage occupies fourteen-thirty-seconds of the entire composition; slate occupies five-thirty-seconds; citrine, five-thirty-seconds; green, six-thirty-seconds; blue, one-thirty-second; yellow, one-thirty-second; and these colors, to observe the proper harmony of analogy in a room, should be used in the proportions above indicated.

Sage should be in the preponderance; citrine and slate should occupy nearly one-sixth of the entire composition, green about one-fifth, and the whole should be picked out with touches of sharp blue and sharp yellow, representing each one-thirty-second.

Let us take, for instance, a room that is in white woodwork, and apply the sage to the walls and the slate to the floor, and lighten the sage with citrine and lighten the slate with violet, and intersperse orange and green in a way permitted by the proportions at our command. When the work is completed we find a harmony of analogy which can be then relieved by touches of the primitive colors, blue and yellow, in the proportions shown.

29. Good examples of contrast color effects may be found in the following series of combinations:

PROPORTIONS OF COLOR ANALYSIS FROM
ASSYRIAN TILES.

BLACK—WHITE—GRAY

30. We do not wish to be understood as stating that the work of the colorist is solely mechanical; but we would emphasize that the influences of color are very largely the result of studied proportions. The basis upon which one operates must be soundly constructed upon the theory of scale, and scale is mechanically determined. If red is lightened by the addition of white, or darkened by the addition of black, it is removed to another scale, and can only harmonize by contrast with its complement by adding to green the same amount of white or black that has changed the character of the red, and this should be mathematically accurate.

31. To place white by the side of a color heightens or intensifies the tone of that color. To put black beside a color has the opposite effect. It weakens the color. Every woman looks better in white, hence white is the universal wedding gown, the universal party dress for children, and, wherever practical, the universal Summer dress for adults as well. White is worn universally by men and women next to the face, in collars or in neckwear, and the reason for it is that the contiguous white intensifies whatever color they may possess. Black, on the other hand, lessens the color or lowers its tone.

32. Gray is a medium between the two. While it renders an adjacent color less brilliant, it takes to itself at the same time a tint that is a complement of that adjacent color. In other words, gray by the side of green appears faintly pinkish.

33. Black is always desirable as an associate with luminous colors. Black does not associate as well with two colors, one of which is luminous and the other sombre, as when associated with two luminous colors.

The green being yellowish and the violet reddish.

White is preferable when associated with a luminous and a sombre color. Thus,

The violet being bluish, the green yellowish.

ROOM COMBINATIONS

Showing Four-Color Combinations.

SEQUENCE OF HARMONIES

DIAGRAM VI

As these twenty-one sections are arranged, one has the layout for a suite of seven rooms; following the top line across in a light scale, the harmony is complete; following the center line across in a normal, the harmony is complete; so also with the bottom line in a lower scale. Follow the colors diagonally and you find they are repeats, or very close to repeats—red, russet, red, for instance; violet, violet, violet; blue, slate, blue; green, green, green; yellow, citrine, yellow; orange, orange, orange. To the colorist the combinations here suggested are full of inspiration.

34. The harmony of analogy is a subject that is little understood. It may be color sequence, progression, development or succession.

Thus we may combine red, green and blue by starting with crimson and maintaining the following sequence: Crimson, red, scarlet, orange, yellow, greenish yellow, green, bluish green, blue, violet, and with added red get back to crimson.

A room or a series of rooms may run to all colors and be still a harmony of analogy if the sequence or succession is gradual.

35. No more delightful harmonies can be imagined than those provided by nature. One may start with the brown of the earth and run into several shades of green, and from that touch upon yellow, and from yellow to orange, and from orange to red, and red to violet, and violet to the blue of the sky. Or one may follow the colorings and the proportion of colorings in flora and never go astray. (See [¶ 22.])

36. In the application of color to the home nothing is more pleasing than the harmony of sequence; the coloring of all rooms must be in sympathy with contiguous rooms. ([Diagram VII].) (See [¶ 34].)

37. All rooms are subject to the influence of a north or a south light, or much or little light, and the colorings must be considered accordingly. The ceiling and the upper parts of a wall require more pale colors where more light is needed. On the floor, however, where the greatest light falls, a little black may be added to soften the tone.

38. Red and green are sharply contrasting colors; violet and yellow and blue and orange sharply contrast, and while their combinations may be used in adjoining rooms, it will be seen that in [Diagram IV] these contrasting tones are not in contact, but by their arrangement form analogies of contrast combinations.

39. Yellow, orange, red, violet, blue and green are related; orange, russet, violet, slate, green and citrine are related; red, violet, blue, green, yellow and orange are related. Viewing the ceilings, the side-walls or the floor, there is the harmony of progression that we observe in the tinting of a flower. Viewed collectively the harmony is the same.

40. To illustrate further our point we would take the ceiling line. We start with yellow, a primary color; orange possesses yellow; orange likewise possesses red, the adjoining color; violet possesses red, and it likewise possesses blue. On the side-wall, russet possesses orange, and it also possesses violet; it is the tertiary color made of these two secondaries. Slate is made of green and violet, and is thus also related to citrine.

We do not wish it understood that these colors are to be applied flat, but simply in the predominating expression. (See [¶ 27].)

41. The value of the diagram is obvious when one considers that in no particular is there a break in the sequence; but if we wish a harmony of analogy in a room, or a harmony of related parts, and wish the adjoining room to be in absolute contrast, we simply adopt the red, violet and blue for one room, and the green, citrine and orange for another; or the orange, russet and violet for one room, and the blue, green and yellow for the other. If, however, the sequence of color is desirable where we move from one apartment to another, and the eye is pleased by a gradual changing color, we can adopt any of these combinations in the order as presented.

42. A vital point in the use of color, regarded usually with indifference or totally misunderstood, is the Unity of Composition to be preserved in the treatment of a series of floors in a house; for on each floor of a house the conditions of light vary. As we ascend the stairs we find each floor requires an altered treatment, because of the added light given from the skylight. (See [¶ 37].) Moreover, in the arrangement of a floor the relation of one room to another is frequently so influential that no one room should be treated without due consideration to the adjacent apartment. (See [Diagram VIII].)

Too frequently the whole question of color is dismissed when the matter of north or south exposure is discovered, but the north room on the lower floor of a house is by no means so well lighted as the north room of the fourth or fifth floor, and the scale of color which would lend warmth to such a room would be weak in a more exposed apartment. (See [¶ 30].)

43. Where the artist has but one room to consider there is little scope for his application of color knowledge. He must frequently compromise to meet the conditions. But presuming that he must treat a floor through, he should adopt a Unity which will apply harmoniously to all the rooms and hallways.

DIAGRAM VII

DIAGRAM VIII

DIAGRAM IX
For Key to Numbers see [Diagram VII].

CONTIGUOUS HARMONIES

44. For the lower floor he must arrange his colors so that while they moderate the direct glare of a sunny exposure or brighten the cheerlessness of a north light, they will also form a composition that pleases when seen from a point of common observation.

45. On the upper floors the scale of color should be gradually softened, for the yellow or ivory tints that are pleasing on the first floor would be harsh and glaring where there is greater light. Exterior conditions must be borne always in mind.

46. Recalling that the primary colors are yellow, red and blue, and that the secondary colors are orange, violet and green, and that the tertiary colors are russet, slate and citrine, all with many tints and shades, let us arrange a series of five rooms seriatim, so treating ceiling, side-wall and floor (See [Diagram IX]) that in passing from one room to another they will be in sequence of color harmony—each complete from floor to ceiling and all in harmony along the ceiling lines, the wall lines and the floor lines.

Let us take the suite of rooms suggested in [Diagram IX]. We must consider desirable colorings in all of the rooms to be treated, and so far as possible adjust the sequence of treatments, as shown in [Diagram VIII], so that the approach to each room will be in harmonious order as viewed from any room. We have five rooms to treat. The library happens to be on the north side, hence we wish to treat it in colorings that supply the deficiency of sunshine. The hallway is rather dark. The living-room has only one window, and requires more warmth of color than the billiard-room and dining-room, which being sunshiny can be treated in more sombre tones. Therefore we select combination 6 for the hallway. The one room on the right we treat in No. 1. The rooms on the left we treat in Nos. 5, 4 and 3. We have, therefore, as we stand in room No. 6, treated in green, citrine and orange, a view to the right of yellow, orange and red, which is in harmonious juxtaposition. To the left we have a glimpse of rooms, the floors of which adjoining the orange floor of the entrance hall, are yellow, green and blue. The wall spaces adjoining the citrine wall space of the hall treatment are green, slate and violet. The frieze lines adjoining the green of the hall treatment are blue, violet and red—all juxtaposed harmonies. The floors of all rooms are of one deep scale; the walls lighter scale; the friezes and ceiling still lighter. If viewed from room 4 the harmonies are equally effective.

47. [Diagram VII] is useful for many reasons. In its present shape it shows the harmonies of analogy or related parts. To arrange harmonies of contrast, combine the colors of the first room with the fourth room, the colors of the second room with the fifth room, the colors of the third room with the sixth room. (See [¶ 37].)

HARMONIES FOR THE ROOM

48. The floor should usually enter into the color scheme as the low note in the scale. It is the background for the furniture, and should be deeper than the dado or wainscoting. The wood trims—baseboard, doors, plate-rails, and everything of that character, except the picture molding—should be like the woodwork of the furniture. This brings the woodwork into contrast with the wainscoting (unless the wainscoting be wood) and into harmony with the side-walls, although the degree of harmony is far removed. Thus, if the woodwork of the furniture is mahogany, the wainscoting green, the side-walls pink and gray, we would find the window trims of mahogany, or imitation mahogany, in harmony with the side-walls. (See [¶ 51 and ¶ 52].)

49. I would lay down the rule that the wood trims of a room should harmonize by analogy with the side-walls where such walls are provided with a contrasting wainscoting; but if there is no wainscoting, or the wainscoting be also of wood, then the wood trims and furniture contrast with the side-wall.

Substitute green side-wall for the pink, [¶ 48].

White woodwork is always permissible. Study [Diagram VI] on page 22.

50. The picture molding may harmonize with the ceiling. Indeed, a white picture molding frequently is better than one matching the general woodwork (See [¶ 37]); a dark upper molding, moreover, reduces the apparent size of a room.

51. Where black furniture is used, or gold furniture, it will of course be understood that the wood trims shall not be black or gold; but so long as they are in harmony, that will be sufficient. White wood trims are nearly always permissible as a substitute for colored wood.

52. Tones of gray with soft colorings (See [¶ 32]), are always safe.

To summarize (Note [¶ 37]):

53. In harmonies of contrast the side-walls, the furniture woodwork, wood trimming, cove, ceiling and the curtains should be related.

54. The rugs, frieze, wainscoting or dado, furniture upholsterings and the curtain borders should be related. (See [¶ 49].)

55. If the curtains have no borders, then the curtains contrast with the wood trims.

56. Remember always cove and ceiling should be the palest tint of the side-wall color, and the rug should be of the deepest contrast to the side-wall, in harmony with the wainscoting, if there is a wainscoting. Remember, also, that the colors here prescribed are never to be of the same scale. The rug or carpet is of the deepest, and the ceiling of the palest. While certain colors are to contrast, they are not to contrast in the same scale. (See [¶ 37] and [¶ 40].)

57. If we find that the tone of color of the wainscoting, for instance, is a bluish green, the side-wall should be of a reddish orange; for the reason that if green contrasts with red, and if blue contrasts with orange, a bluish green would contrast with a reddish orange.

58. Exception to [¶ 56]. Only large or well-proportioned rooms can stand the diminishing or reduction effects of contrast. In low ceiling rooms, leave out the contrasting frieze, and let border, cornice and ceiling be in receding colors. (See [¶ 89].)

59. We all know that a northern exposure gives a room a deficiency of sunlight, and the wall treatment should supply this. A southern room, on the other hand, gives so much sunlight that counteracting wall treatments in cold color are permissible.

60. In the color treatment of a room one has either to adopt a harmony of analogy or a harmony of contrast, and this is a matter which depends upon so many conditions that it should be carefully considered. (See [¶ 88] and [¶ 89].) Where a plate-rail is used one must remember that a great deal of color may be furnished by the bric-à-brac, and that the wall behind this plate-rail should be of a color in contrast to the contents of the plate-rail.

61. When we follow a scheme of contrast the borders should be usually complements, and if the reader has studied our diagram he will very readily understand how to determine the exact complementary color.

WALL PROPORTIONS

62. The wainscoting or dado should be the same as the top border or frieze, but of a darker tone. The intermixture of white or black is always permissible; thus a paper as a side-wall might have as its frieze the complementary coloring with more white, while the wainscoting or dado should be the complementary with black added.

63. The cornice should be lighter than the border, and its members may show several tints, with the ceiling lighter still. (See [¶ 92].)

64. As a rule the color of the chair coverings should be the complementary of the side-walls, and the color of the furniture frames should be complementary to the wainscoting; so by following this rule we find that the wainscoting serves as a contrasting background to the chair frame.

65. Let us imagine a room wherein the side-walls are of a reddish tint; the wainscoting, being a complementary color, is of a greenish cast. The furniture is of mahogany, and in contrast to the wainscoting, while the chair covering, being greenish in contrast to the chair frame, is also in contrast to the side-wall. Here we have, then, the color relations of side-wall, wainscoting, furniture-frames and covering; but it is undesirable that these tones should be in the same scale. (See [¶ 62] and [¶ 92], also tables pages [42 and 43.])

ROOM PROPORTIONS

66. In small rooms harmonies of contrast are unsafe, because contrasts must involve advancing colors, which make a room look smaller. (See [¶ 86] and [¶ 90].) Harmonies of analogy are far better; and as frieze, wainscoting and dado are not recommended in the small room, we suggest that the furniture woodwork and the wood trims should be of one color note, unless it is desired that the wood trims should be white; and that the side-walls, curtains and chair upholsterings should be of a note in some degree related and of receding color, picked out with just a touch of contrasting color. (See [¶ 90 and ¶ 91].)

This contrasting color may be introduced in the accessories, the pictures, bric-à-brac, flowers (natural or artificial) or books.

“... pronounced patterns must balance,” etc.
(See page [38].)

Broken heights. (See [¶ 75].)

DECORATIVE PROPORTIONS

(SEE CHART)

On the preceding pages we present a quick-reference chart of rules that should be followed in furnishing rooms under various conditions of Light and Proportion.

67. A large room with high ceiling and well lighted.
68. A large room with low ceiling and well lighted.
69. A large room with high ceiling and poorly lighted.
70. A large room with low ceiling and poorly lighted.
71. A small room with high ceiling and well lighted.
72. A small room with low ceiling and well lighted.
73. A small room with high ceiling and poorly lighted.
74. A small room with low ceiling and poorly lighted.

There are two considerations to bear uppermost in mind: Proportions affected by Color and Proportions affected by Design.

75. It is easily understood that a large room may be safely furnished with large pieces of furniture, but where there is a wide expanse of floor space care must be exercised to secure broken heights: In a high-ceilinged room the furniture must not be all high; in a low-ceilinged room the furniture must not be all low.

Avoid straight line effects in the furniture heights and in the wall-paper, which, if in pronounced patterns, must balance in conspicuous wall members and show the broken junctures or bad matchings in inconspicuous or obscure corners.

COLORS THAT GIVE SIZE TO A ROOM

76. The wall and fabric designs must be of a size proportionate to the size of the room. The color treatment of a well-lighted room must be subdued to offset the glare of the natural illumination, and the natural illumination be subdued to soften the color treatment; glare must be avoided.

77. Advancing colors are colors which contain red or yellow in the ascendancy; receding colors are those which contain blue in the ascendancy. Green in its purity, being half yellow and half blue, is almost neutral. In the same way violet, being made up of half red and half blue, is theoretically neutral, although the blue tone is usually more assertive than the red and makes the color recede. Any color or hue possesses advancing or receding qualities according to the ascendancy of red, blue or yellow in its composition.

78. Orange is an advancing color; so also is violet in the shades approaching red; green in the shades approaching yellow.

79. Of the tertiary colors russet is an advancing color, because while it contains some blue in the violet of its composition, it contains a preponderance of red and orange.

ADVANCING AND RECEDING COLORS

80. Citrine is an advancing color, because while it contains some blue in the green of its composition, it contains a preponderance of yellow and orange; slate is a receding color, because while it contains some yellow in the green of its composition, it contains a preponderance of blue; in the same way plum may be regarded as an advancing color, because of its preponderance of red; buff is an advancing color, because of its preponderance of yellow; sage is a receding color, because of its preponderance of blue.

81. The carpet should always be in the low tone, and in a small room a bordered carpet should be always tabooed. So also should one avoid the use of one rug so placed that a border of woodwork shows around it, because this gives the border effect and makes a small floor space look still smaller. Better use small rugs. The use of a lot of narrow rugs lengthwise along a narrow room will make the room look all the narrower, but the same rugs placed crosswise would make a room look wider.

The diagrams which we have prepared will give even the man who understands it all a quicker grasp of the points involved.

82. Width effect and distance effect are obtained best by arranging the smaller pieces at the farthest points.

83. It is the same with pictures. While a room should be balanced, and the pictures placed in a manner to give this result, it is best, where possible, to keep the larger pictures, larger effects, always near the eye. The crowding of large pieces at the farthest point diminishes the apparent size of the room.

FLOOR TREATMENTS

84. Continuous design in ceiling or carpet weakens the size effect; hence rugs which break the continuity by being laid across the room instead of lengthwise are preferable. (See Diagrams and [¶ 81].)

85. It is a safe rule to do a small or narrow room in harmonies of analogy or related colors, colors of a light tone and of receding character. Apart from any effect which color may possess decoratively or pictorially, its value cannot be overestimated in its application to the laws of proportion.

86. Borders may be safely used on the wall or on the carpet of any large room with high ceiling, but wall friezes should be avoided where the ceilings are low, for they foreshorten the height effect.

87. We would avoid borders on the floor of a small room to make it look larger, and we would use wide borders in a large room with a low ceiling so that the floor may be foreshortened.

88. One may utilize in a large, poorly lighted room masses of luminous colors to give artificial sunlight to the room deficient therein, but in the small, poorly lighted room this treatment should be avoided.

COLOR SCHEMES FOR ROOMS UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS

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Exception 1. The ceiling, where there is no pronounced cornice or cove, should follow the wall tint.

Exception 2. Independent of rule, a low ceiling should be in receding color.

It is impossible to tabulate directions for using color without an understanding of the conditions, the size, light and height of a room. (See pages [34 and 35].) The above tables relate only to normal conditions.

White woodwork can be used effectively in the trims of a room and give greater light and size. The darker the wood trims the smaller the room appears. We have left out of consideration the window treatments which, as a rule, should be of white lace, perhaps overdraped in colored stuffs. If the room is poorly lighted, it is obviously undesirable to cut off any light from the window by even laces; the curtains, therefore, in a poorly lighted room should be draped back. Colored laces, grenadines or madras stuffs are frequently used to give period style or color tone, and wherever they are used, such curtains should harmonize with the wall. So also with the overdraperies to the lace curtains.

89. Luminous or advancing colors make a small room look all the smaller; therefore in small rooms we suggest the use of white woodwork, and in the color treatment we would avoid contrasts, but would suggest harmonies of analogy in receding colors, soft grays, greens and blues. These are not luminous colors and will make a small room look the larger, while the white will give light effects, and if the room appears a trifle somber it can be easily relieved by the bright colors of the bric-à-brac and by a touch of gold here and there on the wall. (See [¶ 66] and [¶ 85].)

90. There are cases where a small room has a northern exposure, and while apparently expedient to treat such a room in warm colors to supply the deficiency of sunlight, such a course would make a room look smaller.

91. Under the circumstances treat the room in light hues, gray preferred, and get the deficiency of sunlight through some warm isolated details and in the lace curtains.

THE WALL THE KEYNOTE COLOR

92. Our theory of color as applied to room furnishings provides always that the side-wall is the keynote and this keynote is usually fixed for practical reasons in sympathy with the furniture; above to the ceiling’s center the note ascends and below to the floor center it descends; it goes into tints as it ascends and into deeper shades of gray and brown as it descends.

If, for instance, blue is the keynote, by adding black you have drabs, slates or grays for the floor, while if the keynote be red you have écrus and browns for the floor light or gray, according to the color scale of the keynote.

93. It must be understood that in designating a color we do not mean that it shall be solid or pure, but merely that it prevails. (See [¶ 29].)

A side-wall may be treated in several colors, but as long as orange prevails, it follows the conditions of the combination, pages [42 and 43]. The factors included in the line designated A are all of one color family. The factors indicated by B are also family colors. It will be seen that the A or B colors taken by themselves form harmonies of analogy; it is only by combining the A’s with the B’s that we have harmonies of contrast.

If a room is to be done in harmonies of analogy, use the A colors alone or the B colors alone, but never A and B together.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COLOR

94. Whatever may be the charm conveyed by design there is a reason for it. We can analyze it.

It has an inherent quality of beauty or historic interest, and there is a definite and distinct reason for our liking it.

But the effect of color is exciting or disturbing, tranquilizing or pleasing, inexplicable and inexpressible, affecting the senses like an appeal to the passions or the appetite. One might as well explain the love of sport, literature, art or vice. The sense of color is a nerve sense, and this sense varies in the individual. We know that colors which are strongest in direct sun rays, like red and orange, arouse the normal senses, while the blues and violets quiet.

Nature provides vast fields of green because favorable in its effects upon humanity. Experiments prove that men of extreme sensibility exposed to the influences of red light finally show excitement which gives muscular development fifty per cent. in excess of the power possessed by the same subject when exposed for the same period under the influences of blue light.

TO DETERMINE THE COLOR SENSE

Color, like music, while subjected to positive rules of harmony, appeals to natures according to the responsiveness of their nerve sense, and the practical decorator in dealing with a customer should discover at the outstart the character of that nerve sense. Some natures respond to the normal colors, barbaric colors. Some respond to the softer tints and are disturbed by the sharper tones. A dulled sense requires sharp contrasts; a quickened sense is satisfied with the soft gray tones. Apart from any question of propriety or environment the individual taste for color must be determined before the individual taste can be pleased.

A demonstration of four examples in color may serve the purpose of determining one’s color sense.

First. Combinations of normal primary and secondary colors, (a) arranged in contrasts, (b) in analogies.

Second. Combinations of tones of the above colors, (a) arranged in contrasts, (b) in analogies.

Third. Combinations of tints of the above colors, (a) arranged in contrasts, (b) in analogies.

Fourth. Combinations of the gray (tertiary) tones of the above colors, (a) arranged in contrasts, (b) in analogies.