276 MAKING AND BEAUTIFYING THE HOME 



iiii 







raLle. 

 thin 



grain. Where soft wood is used, the cracks may be filled 

 with crack filler, which can be made at home of a combina- 

 tion of flour paste and the pulp of damp newspaper, and 

 the floors then given two or three coats of hard paint to 



make them more du- 

 Rugs are better 

 carpets, because 

 they can be more easily 

 cleaned and thus some 

 of the dangers from dust 

 are avoided. 



Color in the home. - 

 How many times have 

 you gone into a home 



Types of artistic rugs. Only part of rugs shown. where ^ strange CQm _ 



bination of color of the wood, wall paper, and hangings of- 

 fended the eyes, and how often have you gone into a home 

 in which the paper and woodwork blend, thus giving a feel- 

 ing of comfort and homelike warmth ! One reason why one 

 room is light and another dark is the amount of sunlight 

 absorbed by the walls. A glance at the following table will 

 give some idea of how this differs : 



Amount of Sunlight Absorbed by Various Materials 



Clean glass . . -'. . . 5 % 



White paper 18% 



Newspaper 4% 



Pink wall paper 50% 



Yellow wall paper .... 60% 



Dark brown wall paper . . 87 % 



Dark green wall paper . . . 95 % 



Deep blue wall paper . . . 96 % 



Navy blue cloth .... 98 % 



Black velvet . .'. . . . 99% 



To make a room bright and cheerful in the evening, 

 remember that colors do not have the same value in 

 artificial as in natural light, for example, blue objects lose 



