Home Makers^ Conference. 321 



kitchen door or distribute them with some thought of balance? Some 

 pictures are to be hung: shall we put this small one in the center of 

 this large space where its smallness will be emphasized, or find a smaller 

 space which it seems to fit? Or, if we wish to group several small 

 pictures, shall we take the stiff angles of a square or diamond, or choose 

 freer lines suggested by the shape of the pictures themselves? Shall 

 we hang the long, narrow picture in the broad space over the mantle or 

 between the window and the corner of the room, where there is a narrow 

 space that demands it? If you will study the relation of lines and 

 spaces you will find that lines running lengthwise of a space seem to 

 lengthen it, while if broken by cross-lines it seems shorter. If your ceil- 

 ing is too high, bring it down in effect by lines around the room — a deep 

 border, a high wainscote, etc. ; or, if it is too low, omit cross lines as far 

 as possible. But, perhaps you are thinking, "I can set the table and 

 hang my pictures, but I do not understand color harmony. I see things 

 that please me, but I cannot select them." If so, though color sense 

 comes naturally to only a few, and is largely a matter of education, we 

 are never too old to learn. Perhaps the most helpful plan is to study 

 and analyze the things we know to be good or bad, and see why it is 

 that one is good and another bad. What are the combinations that al- 

 ways please or displease? A little experimenting with a box of water 

 colors will be helpful ; making spots of various combinations of color and 

 noting the effects. It will be found that all the colors in the box, 

 mixed together, will give a dull grey, and that the best colors you will 

 get will be the dull tones which are softened by a little of nearly every 

 color in the box. The more we study the good things we are sure of, 

 the faster will we grow in power. 



The key-notes, then, for successful house decoration are, first, use- 

 fulness; second, simplicity; third, a pleasing division of space combined 

 with harmonious coloring. 



I think Ruskin says somewhere, "Have nothing in your house 

 which you do not believe to be useful or believe to be beautiful." If 

 the really useful things in a room are simply and substantially con- 

 structed to meet the needs they are to fill, they will have a dignity 

 which is beautiful. Our greatest fault, I think, lies in the accumulation 

 of useless things which we allow to crowd our rooms. If we can only 

 train ourselves to enjoy some empty space which gives a feeling of big- 

 ness instead of the pettiness we so frequently meet, much will be accom- 

 plished. "When we turn our attention to coloring, if we avoid strong, 

 crude colors and confine ourselves to neutral tones, we shall not go far 

 wrong. I have not said much specifically on the subject of pictures, 



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