IO 
January, 1914 
AMERICAN' HOMES AND GARDENS 
to be ignored as far as possible. 
FASHION. 
The matter of fashion in wall paper 
has always exerted a wide influence in 
the selection of wall coverings. Large 
figures in bold striking color, either 
flowers or conventional patterns, are 
brought out frequently by the manufac- 
turers to gratify the taste for variety, 
novelty or whatever the name the desire 
for change hides itself under, on the 
part of humanity known as “the pub- 
lic.” 
Of course, all these gorgeous pat- 
terns, brilliant colors and striking effects 
have their proper place and can be used 
to advantage under the right conditions, 
but it requires discriminating taste of a 
fine order to use them judiciously. 
For the ordinary city home, poorly 
lighted by daylight, a brilliant effect of 
light may be given to the dining-room, 
for instance, by the selection of a delicate 
rose color paper having a large conven- 
tional pattern in deeper tones, or a pale 
yellow with deeper tones of dull brown- 
ish yellow, if the bright yellows form 
a too brilliant background to be pleas- 
Wall paper imitating 
telle 
a rich worsted broca- 
texture 
ture must be seen with the best results. 
The effect of the whole, so necessary 
in any endeavor to create satisfactory 
environment for family life can never 
be lost sight of in the important matter 
of the wall coverings. 
Naturally enough persons who dis- 
like any particular color as green for in- 
stance, will prefer a golden brown for a 
living-room background if the matter is 
left to individual selection. W hen, as 
often happens, the members of a fam- 
ily disagree completely on the choice 
of color for living-room, dining-room 
or other rooms commonly used by all 
members of the family, it is possible to 
effect a compromise by selecting a tap- 
estry wall paper in which are combined 
the favorite colors of the persons who 
disagree. These in agreeable tones 
are always satisfactory as furnishing a 
suitable background. Care must be 
taken, however, to select a pattern suit- 
able in size to the wall spaces and 
woodwork of the room. When the 
room is large the constant repetition of 
a small group of trees or similar device 
the pattern becomes wearisome in 
in 
ant, when the full evening light is turned on. Nothing so 
enhances a dark room — giving the effect of sunlight itself 
even — as pale yellow. Especially in small rooms having 
windows on a court where little or no sunlight ever enters, 
is it desirable to bring the nearest approach to sunlight fur- 
nished by the pale yellow and rose colors into the rooms by 
means of the wall coverings. Pale tints, on the contrary, in 
the rooms of large, well-lighted country houses often con- 
veys a sense of vague emptiness. The furniture seems to 
have no background. One is lost in vast emptiness with no 
sensation of definite wall surface enclosing the interior. The 
more the room is crowded with furniture, the less it seems 
to convey any sense of completeness. 
A small low-ceiled room having the aspect of the French 
salon is always beautiful in 
The Washington panel 
pale tints. It was for just 
such spaces that the notable 
French gray was invented, 
but the same light tint in- 
troduced into a good-sized 
drawing-room with little or 
no variation in tone is often 
a sad failure. A more posi- 
tive tone of the same color, 
even if the paper is per- 
fectly plain, will supply a 
far more furnished appear- 
ance to the walls. 
Too much attention can- 
not be given to the matter 
of lighting the rooms when 
selecting wall coverings for 
them. In large sunny 
rooms it is always safe to 
select those deeper tones of 
green, blue or brown as the 
light absorbing quality of 
these will soften the sun- 
light and furnish a restful 
quality to the walls as the 
background against which 
people as well as the furni- 
the extreme. A large clump of trees with the suggestion 
of blue sky, not too realistic in manner, is a pleasant thing 
to contemplate, and in really well designed wall papers of 
this sort, one has the sense of repose furnished by a bit 
of landscape suggesting forest greenery with no very definite 
suggestion of the beginning and ending of the repeat. 
Like woven tapestries the beauty of such design is always 
that of well selected leaf forms combined in various tints 
with a considerable amount of bluish gray in the back- 
ground. These may simulate the famous “Verdure” tapes- 
tries having a border to be used as paneling, or they may 
be used with a plain paper supplying the space occupied 
by the border of real tapestry for the paneling surrounding 
the large figured panels on the wall, both being attractive. 
For living-rooms with 
north light or those hav- 
ing some east or west win- 
dows as is frequently the 
case in country houses, it 
is best to select papers hav- 
ing tones of warm color. 
The tans, browns, dull reds 
and yellows fall into this 
class, in light tones or 
darker tones if the quality 
of light makes it desirable 
to have dark walls. 
Figured wall paper or 
plain is again a matter of 
taste but the covering of 
the walls with pictures 
has to be considered. In 
the case of manv pictures 
on the wall it is always 
best to have a wall paper 
that is as nearly neutral as 
possible. Not necessarily 
a plain paper but one hav- 
ing a broken color surface 
such as those made to imi- 
tate Japanese silk paper. 
Those imitating woven The Franklin panel 
