46 
House & Garden 
THE USES AND BEAUTIES OF BROWN 
Suggestions for Turning the Usefulness of Brown 
to Decorative Ends 
A BROWN color scheme is not often 
deliberately chosen, which is a pity, 
though quite often it happens that 
brown predominates in a room. This, too, 
is rather a pity, but hardly to be wondered 
at. In the first place the browns are always 
with us, all over the house. With floors, 
tables, chests, shelves, paneling in tones of 
oak, walnut, mahogany, and pine, it is not 
surprising that another color is chosen in¬ 
stinctively when it comes to decoration. To 
this unconscious avoidance of monotony is 
added a lively enough dread of dinginess, 
for unquestionably brown used without dis¬ 
crimination does tend that way. 
Apart from these considerations, brown is 
the most adaptable of colors; the least skill¬ 
ful decorator using brown as leitmotiv could 
hardly produce a discord, though he might 
fail to create the perfect symphony. 
Brown is unobtrusive, eminently adapt¬ 
able, and it blends with all colors; this is 
partly the reason why it is chosen with 
such tiresome frequency for all-over-the- 
house painted woodwork. Also the brown 
pigments for paint are cheap and exceed¬ 
ingly durable. These useful qualities are 
so well known and so highly rated that the 
decorative side of brown is apt to be passed 
over. 
I N order to draw out the latent charm 
and beauty of brown and to avoid 
its dullness and monotony, great care 
must be exercised with regard to its var¬ 
ious shades and tones. A cool brown lean¬ 
ing towards grey or green is better in nine 
cases out of ten than the hot heavy shades 
that are so commonly used. This can 
be proved by comparing the soft neutral 
tints of old oak that only time has dealt 
with, and the slick opacity of modern oak 
which has been treated with what is called 
“antique finish,” or again, by contrasting 
the cool transparency of raw umber with 
“chocolate.” The shade which is known 
as tete de negre has more variety and in¬ 
terest; the “wallflower,” among the dark 
browns, has distinction. On the whole, 
however, the lighter tints give better results 
for paint woodwork. Light and dark stone 
color, tan shades, teak, cinnamon, and snuff 
color—all these are excellent in the right 
place. 
Sometimes it happens that in old houses 
the fine and difficult graining of an earlier 
age is found intact on doors and woodwork, 
mellowed and toned by years to a charm¬ 
ing consistency. This a wise decorator will 
not demolish; he will note its value in the 
decorative scheme and use it accordingly. 
Ordinary brown paint work may be fresh¬ 
ened or altered by brush-graining, which is 
a less exacting and costly process than a 
new coat of paint. For this eggshell var¬ 
nish paint of a different shade to the under¬ 
lying coat is lightly brushed on, using a 
coarse brush and keeping it very dry. 
Insensibly brown slides into the yellows, 
and if harmony rather than a contrast is 
the aim, these two used together are per¬ 
fect. A touch of orange will give point to 
the scheme, and a note of gold will raise it. 
Any color can be led by subtle gradations 
into brown, so when a vivid arrangement is 
wanted the tones must be distinct. A yel¬ 
lowish brown with a cold blue makes one 
of the most charming schemes imaginable; 
it is familiar enough in Chinese work, and 
a piece of Oriental embroidery is a valu¬ 
able guide for such a room. When Chinese 
embroidery or Japanese color prints are to 
be hung on the walls there is no better 
background than the old-fashioned brown 
paper. It is always admirable as a back¬ 
ground; unobtrusive, and yet pleasing in 
itself, it shows up blue china to perfection. 
Brown paper is made in a considerable 
range of tone, shade, and texture; it should 
always be chosen in situ, as these neutral 
tints are subtle things and cannot be judged 
apart from their ultimate surroundings. An 
arrangement of cinnamon and rose red 
strikes a higher note; here the pale brown 
should predominate, and the deeper tones of 
rose red be used almost sparingly. A good 
and unusual decoration can be evolved by 
using a light brown something like “natural 
camel’s hair” or cafe-au-creme in connec¬ 
tion with cream colored hangings and black 
enameled woodwork—brilliant as patent 
leather. Walls and ceilings might be hung 
with a plain velvety paper of the camel’s 
hair brown, with curtains of beech brown 
velours and blinds of cream silk. In such 
a room a few pieces of ebonized furniture 
would tell admirably, with touches of can¬ 
ary yellow and turquoise blue introduced 
on cushions. 
M ORE than any color the quality of 
brown is affected by the materials 
used. Silk, chenille, velvet, velours, 
and so on, in shades of tawny and golden 
browns, Vandyke, bronze, and chestnut, are 
sure to be beautiful; but the same shades for 
reps, serges, and suchlike cotton and woolen 
stuffs are apt to be questionable. Brown 
needs play of light and variety of surface, 
and turns dull and dingy when these are lack¬ 
ing, and looks poor. Leather has a quality 
of its own that is both delicate and rich; 
applied in the form of panels for a wall 
treatment brown leather is admirable, or it 
may be used as portieres over a door. A 
piece of leather ornamented with gold 
can be fitted to the chimney breast and 
framed narrowly with a gilt border to form 
a library overmantel. There it will be ap¬ 
propriately complimentary to the gilt and 
tooled calf of the bookbindings, always a 
decoration. 
Quite often rooms stop short of success 
on account of a badly treated floor. Where 
rugs are used over bare boards, or where 
they show beyond the carpet, it is most es¬ 
sential to get them right in color and sur¬ 
face. Usually a stain of some kind is 
applied—“light oak” or “dark oak”, and 
there the matter ends till a fresh applica¬ 
tion is needed. This plan is rarely satisfac¬ 
tory; the brown that results is dull and 
heavy, and finally opaque, with no value in 
the scheme. The color of the floor is hardly 
less important than the color of the carpet. 
A little oil, warmed and rubbed evenly into 
new wood, will deepen it to a mellow tone 
and emphasize the grain; while beeswax 
and turpentine will keep it beautiful. It 
may mean a little trouble, but the anomaly 
of Persian rugs on a dull stained floor 
should not be suffered for a moment, and no 
fine carpet should be mocked at by a dingy 
“surround”. The cork carpet looks best in 
a natural brown shade, and this, too, should 
be kept brightly polished. 
T HE deep rich tones of old mahog¬ 
any are due to the wood and are high¬ 
ly desirable if you can avoid the crude 
reddish color found in much modern mahog¬ 
any work. This is largely due to French 
polishing; and the unpleasant yellow tinge 
of Victorian oak is owing to the same 
method. Walnut wood is always of the soft 
“nut” brown shades, and is never tinged 
with the ugly red and yellow. New oak is 
now sometimes left in its natural color, 
neither treated nor polished in any way, 
and, as the certain rawness that is inevitable 
wears off with time, the tone imperceptibly 
deepens. These slow processes can be 
hastened; parquet blocks, for example, can 
be darkened by oiling first and then polish¬ 
ing, or the oil may be omitted and the wood 
rubbed with ammonia; this gives the grayish 
tinge, and corrects the newness. 
When brown paint is used for a wall 
treatment the risk of a dull and monotonous 
effect must be faced and eluded. An un¬ 
compromising flat brown, say, for paneled 
walls, is a doubtful experiment, and should 
be modified by scumbling, glazing, and 
stippling, and so on. A charming rosy 
brown is evolved by first painting the walls 
a lightish green and, when dry, stippling 
with light red. This may be elaborated by 
a silver line on the moldings in connection 
with an apricot colored ceiling. 
Rooms painted in the manner of tortoise¬ 
shell are interesting and distinctive, and 
the color scheme is a beautiful range of 
browns. The painting must be done with 
vigor and “go” if it is to look well, and 
follow the tortoiseshell pattern closely. 
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