200 The, Farmstead 



sideboards, made of beautiful wood, almost 

 without ornamentation, with shapely, slender, 

 and strong legs and softly polished by hand. 

 Cheapness and quantity have been secured 

 by machinery at the expense of beauty and 

 strength. 



If the principle thus illustrated be true, then 

 it follows that patterns of any sort, whether in 

 carpets, wall paper, china, or drapery, must be 

 very carefully used that they may not be more 

 conspicuous than that which they decorate. The 

 floor and the wall are the basis both of color- 

 scheme and decoration. They are the back- 

 ground of the people who are to live there ; 

 they should, therefore, be rather inconspicuous, 

 soft and indefinite in effect, and as becoming 

 as possible to the human figures. If the climate 

 be sunny and the room well lighted, the walls 

 and floor may be dark and rich in effect ; if the 

 climate be uncertain and often cloudy, or the 

 room badly lighted, the effect should be light 

 and gay. Color is the chief means of producing 

 this result : the walls and floors of living rooms 

 should be of soft, neutral brown, yellow, red, 

 green, or warm gray tints. Blue, though very 

 lovely when carefully used, is cold in effect, and 

 seldom satisfactory for living rooms, while the 

 blue grays are positively chilling. Yellow in 

 paler or richer shades, depending on the light- 



