DOMESTIC ECONOMY, HYGIENE, DIETETICS. 



the most in view, and at night they should noi 

 break too suddenly the general effect of pic- 

 tures and furniture against the walls. They 

 should always be suspended from rings on rods. 

 Lace curtains, except where mere screen 

 against the inside of the window sash, are noi 

 to be commended on any account, to say the 

 le.ast. 



The carpets being selected little difficulty 

 need be experienced in properly coloring the 

 walls and woodwork. 



If the doors and casings in a room be of hard 

 wood, their color is of importance in connec- 

 tion with floor and walls. If they be painted, 

 the colors may well be of such tones as wili 

 more strongly contrast with the walls than 

 with the carpet, the doors themselves being 

 more nearly like the wall than the casings 

 around them are. 



Ceiling's cannot be left plain, unbroken 

 surfaces of white plaster without sacrificing the 

 harmony of the room, if the least degree of 

 fullness of coloring be attempted in other parts. 

 They may generally be made lighter than the 

 side walls, and slightly contrasting with them. 

 With the walls very light, they may be darker. 

 In any case they should have as much gentle 

 variation of light and dark and color as may 

 be. A fashion of showing the construction of 

 the floors and roofs above, is a thing to be 

 wished by all decorators. It would add more 

 to the effect of the rooms we live in than one 

 half of what we now take pains to do to them. 



Papers. In choosing wall papers avoid 

 over-brightness, display, sharpness, or angu- 

 larity of pattern. It is not necessary that they 

 should be precisely and accurately " made out." 

 It is as well that something should be left to 

 the imagination. Prefer those of a general 

 tone of warm gray, and but few detached 

 broken colors ; or creamy ocherish yellows ; 

 or sage, citron, olive, and tea greens ; or dusky 

 reds. Blues are the hardest to choose ; they 

 should generally incline to green or greenish- 

 gray, or to the quality of blue of some kinds 

 of old china. Rarely or never choose stripes, 

 whatever your friends may say about their mak- 

 ing your rooms look higher. Sometimes they do 

 so, and sometimes they do exactly the reverse 

 by calling attention to the shortness of the 

 space they have to run. They more often 

 than not produce a bad effect on a wall. 



Dado. It will often be of advantage to 

 have a plinth or dado around the room varying 

 in height from one and a half to four feet, of 

 a color of about the same degree of force as 

 the color of the floor. It should be plainer in 

 design than the wall above ; and may often 

 with advantage be absolutely plain. The line 

 is invaluable where there are pictures. Dadoes 



to passages and staircases, where there is no 

 wainscot, are good on account of their use- 

 fulness* as well as appearance. They had 

 best be made of paper of such a pattern that, 

 where a piece is rubbed off, another may be 

 substituted. It is not always the case, as is 

 "constantly said, that a wainscot or dado makes 

 a low room look lower ; for it is interrupted 

 by doors and windows and large pieces of fur- 

 niture. Entire blankness and absence of de- 

 tail never make a space look larger. Detail is 

 always good when sufficiently subordinated, 

 and always bad when obtrusive. Simple treat- 

 ment is what is required, that the space shall 

 not be so cut up as to leave no leading feature. 



Border. A border or frieze does often 

 make a room look lower. It arrests the eye at 

 a lower point than the top of the wall, and by 1 

 its uninterrupted line carries it around the 

 room at that level. 



Pictures. The walls may properly be al- 

 lowed to furnish the key for the whole scheme 

 of color ; a not necessarily namable color, as 

 red, green, or blue ; but hue, tone, what might 

 be called atmosphere. In proportion to the 

 absence of pictures walls require a strong and 

 elaborated treatment. If slight water-color 

 drawings or prints are to be hung on them, 

 walls should be light and delicate. If oil 

 paintings are to be hung, the particular pic- 

 tures should be consulted, as far as possible 

 beforehand. It is often said that water-color 

 and oil-color pictures, or either of them with 

 photographs and prints, should never be hung 

 together on the same wall. But it is as well not 

 to make quite so broad a rule. We have seen 

 a water-color drawing which erred by having 

 too much of one particular color hung with 

 good effect by a cool brown Liber Studiorum 

 print, and a photograph of a painting made to 

 glow with a warm hue by a neighboring blue. 



Remarks on the Various Rooms. 

 The Hall it is well to have rather darker than 

 the rooms opening from it, on account of the 

 agreeable contrast. It is also well to have the 

 coloring quiet and grave, without strong con- 

 trasts and never rising to positive color. The 

 ornamental details should be very restrained, 

 it being rather out of order in a place which 

 is principally a passage, and more telling if 

 kept for other parts of the house. Large, 

 omparatively blank spaces are in place here, 

 the incidents of light and shade often giving 

 nough variation. 



Dining Room. Probably the fashion of hav- 

 ing a dining room sober and rather dark in its 

 oloring came about because of the table and 

 those around it being the chief point of inter- 

 est, and also of the pleasant contrast of the 

 drawing room. 



