plexions, wliether pale or rosy. L';^lit-blue is less favorable tliiiii green to rosy com- 

 plexions, especially in day-light; it is particularly favorable to gilding, associates better 

 tlian green with yellow or orange-colored woods, and does not injure mahogany. 

 AVliito hangings, or hangings of a light gray, either normal, or tinged with green, 

 blue, or yellow, uniform, or with velvet patterns, similar in color to the ground, are also 

 good for use. 



In regard to the draping of flooi-h, it must be borne in mind, that for a carpet to 

 produce the best possible etlect, it is not enough that it is of the best manufacture and 

 of excellent colors and pattern; it is also requisite that its pattern be in harmony with 

 tiie size, and it5 colors with the decorations of the room. It is important for manufac- 

 tiirers to know how to produce carpets which will suit well with many different stylos 

 of room furniture ; and in our opinion, the best mode of attaining this end is, to make 

 the light and bright coloring commence from the center of the caii)et; for it is there 

 (that is to say, in the part most distant from the chairs, hangings, (fee.) that we can 

 employ vivid and strongly-contrasted colors without inconvenience. And if we sur- 

 round this bright central portion with an interval of subdued coloring, we shall be able 

 to give to the framing colors (those around the margin of the cai-pet) a great appear- 

 ance of brilliance, without injuring the color of the chairs and hangings. With respect 

 to the carpets of small or moderately-sized rooms, we may lay down the rule, that the 

 more numerous and vivid the colors of the furniture, the more simple should be the 

 carpet alike in color and pattern — an assortment of green and black having, in veiy 

 many cases, a good effect. On the other hand, if the furniture is of a single color, or 

 if its contrasts consist only of different tones of the same color, we may, without detri- 

 ment, employ a cai-pet of brilliant colors, in such a way as to establish a harmony of 

 conti'ast between them and the dominant hue of the furniture. But if tlie furniture is 

 of mahogany, and we wish to bring out its peculiar color, then we must not have 

 either red, orange, or scarlet, as a dominant color in the covering of the floor. 



The covering of cliairs may present either a harmony of contrast or a harmony of 

 analogy with the hangings, according as the room is large or small ; and a good effect 

 may be produced by bordering the stuff at the parts contiguous to the wood with the 

 same color as the hangings, but of a higher tone. Nothing, we may add, contributes 

 so much to enhance the beauty of a stuff' intended for chairs, sofas, ttc, as the selec- 

 tion of the wood to which it is attached; and, reciprocally, nothitig contributes so 

 much to augment the beauty of the wood, as the color of the stuff in juxtaposition 

 with it. In accordance with the principles of coloring which we laid down in a i)re- 

 ceding part of this article, it is evident that we must assort rose or red-colored woods, 

 such as mahogany, with grten stuffs; yellow woods, such as citron, ash-root, majile, 

 satin-wood, &c., with violet or blue stuffs; while red woods likewise do well with blue- 

 grays, and yellow woods with green grays, liut in all these assortments, if we would 

 obtain the best possible effects, it is necessary to take into considei'ation the contrast 

 resulting from height of tone; for a dark bhie or violet stuff will not accord so well 

 with a yellow wood as a light tone of these colors does; and hence, also, } el low does 

 not assort so well with mahogany as with a wood of the same color, but lighter. Theie 

 is no wood more generally used by us than mahogany, and no covering for sofiis and 

 more common than a crimson woolen stuff; and in this we are intluonced not 

 ch by any idea of harmony, as by the two-fold motive of the stabilitv of the 



