33 
August, 1921 
HOW 
TO MAKE COLORFUL ROOMS 
Upon the Right Selection of Colors Depend to a Large Extent Their 
Physical Reactions upon Us and Our Consequent Pleasure in Them 
LESLIE W. DEVEREUX 
C OLOR plays an important part in our 
lives, whether we realize it or not. If 
we live in dull and drab surroundings, 
we are bound to be affected to some extent by 
the fact, and tend to become dull and drab our¬ 
selves. If, on the other hand, we live in a 
bright and gay atmosphere, our feelings sub¬ 
consciously borrow from the brightness of 
these surroundings and, often without know¬ 
ing why, we are happier and more cheerful. 
The effect of a brilliant sunset or even of a 
picture or painted scene on the stage well exe¬ 
cuted invariably gives us pleasure. We are 
wont to notice color much more than we no¬ 
tice form, and a room tastefully decorated in 
bright tones is more apt to attract our sym¬ 
pathy than one soberly done but with fine 
architectural detail. 
Nowadays the use of color is almost entirely 
confined to interior decoration, although in the 
days of Egyptian, Greek and, to some extent, 
Roman and Italian architecture, it was used 
on the exteriors of buildings. The staid Greek 
temples which we have come to picture as 
colorless masses of beautiful form were in 
reality profusely colored with bright pigments. 
How much we have lost by not following their 
example does not concern us here. Nor will 
the systematic decoration of public buildings, 
even the interiors, be considered. The pur¬ 
pose of these few notes is to give to the aver¬ 
age man or woman who has a home to furnish 
some elementary ideas of how to obtain color 
harmony. 
S OME people have the notion that if 
only one tone is used in decorating a 
room the result is bound to be success¬ 
ful. As a matter of fact, this is not true. One 
color extensively applied without any con¬ 
trasting or relieving note must necessarily be¬ 
come monotonous, no matter how brilliant or 
beautiful is the color in itself. 
Not long ago I visited a New York house 
which was very handsome in architectural 
design and detail. The drawing room con¬ 
tained some beautiful furniture and every¬ 
thing in it was of the finest quality. But, as a 
whole, it was a distinct failure because every¬ 
thing, from the rugs and hangings to the up¬ 
holstery and lamp shades, was exactly the 
same tone. To be sure, it was a rich and 
beautiful color, but the excessive use of it not 
only killed the effect of the tone itself but 
even detracted from the beauty of form of the 
furniture. The monotony of the whole pre¬ 
vented any single detail, no matter how good, 
from attracting notice or attention. 
On the other hand, a riot of conflicting col¬ 
ors inartistically arranged is worse. The ef¬ 
fect of an inharmonious arrangement is dis¬ 
turbing. Colors that “fight” get on one’s 
nerves almost to the point of depression and 
cause us mental nausea. If one must fail at 
all in decoration, it is better to err on the side 
of sobriety. It is not difficult, however, to 
strike a happy medium if one but understands 
the elementary principles that govern the use 
of color. 
First of all, one must have some idea of 
the color spectrum in order to know which of 
the colors are relating or harmonizing, and 
which are opposing or contrasting. Black and 
white are not colors at all; they are the absence 
of it. The three primary colors are red, yel¬ 
low and blue, and practically all others can 
be made by the combination of these in dif¬ 
ferent proportions. The combination of yel¬ 
low and red, for example, makes orange; red 
and blue make violet; and yellow and blue 
make green. Of course there are innumerable 
shades of orange, violet and green, but these 
are due simply to the preponderance, in dif¬ 
ferent proportions, of one or the other of the 
primary colors. Various neutral tones, such 
as different shades of gray and brown, can be 
obtained by combining all three primary col¬ 
ors, and thus letting them neutralize each 
other. This relation is not difficult to remem¬ 
ber if one is really interested in so doing, and 
it is very important to know in order to handle 
color intelligently. 
There is one other factor which should be 
understood, and that is the question of 
“value.” Value is really the presence or ab¬ 
sence of light in a color; that is to say, whether 
it is light and bright, or dark and sombre. A 
high value is one which contains much light; 
a low value is one which is almost entirely 
lacking in it. Yellow has the highest value 
or most light, and violet has the lowest, and 
is consequently the darkest and deepest of 
colors. It must be remembered in this 
connection that black and white are not 
colors; for, of course, white is lighter and 
black darker than any color. Red and blue 
have about the same value and the interme¬ 
diate shades vary in proportion as their place 
in the spectrum approaches yellow or violet. 
The combination of black or white with a color 
affects its “intensity,” which is another word 
for its strength or purity. Thus a color in its 
brightest and purest form has its full intensity. 
In proportion as it is mixed or diluted with 
some neutral shade it loses its intensity. 
T HESE two principles once mastered, it 
becomes possible to use color intelli¬ 
gently, although some people are more 
sympathetic with its finer shades of harmony 
than others, just as some people have a keener 
ear for harmony in music. But even a per¬ 
son who has no natural artistic feeling in these 
matters can not go far wrong if he but fol¬ 
lows the basic principles. He may not achieve 
a highly artistic effect, but at least he can 
obtain a pleasing relation which will make a 
room pleasant and cheerful to live in. 
There are two ways to go about decorating 
a room: one is to maintain a neutral back¬ 
ground in order to bring out more distinctly 
the form and color of the objects placed 
against it; the other is to use a bright back¬ 
ground and thus detract from the other ob¬ 
jects in the room. By a bright background I 
mean one which has many elements in itself, 
such as a colored wall paper. A background 
which has only one color but which is, how¬ 
ever, of brilliant tone and full intensity may 
belong to either of the above classes, depend¬ 
ing on how it is handled. 
D IFFERENT kinds of rooms require dif¬ 
ferent treatment. One which has little fur¬ 
niture is usually best treated by providing an 
interesting background. A Colonial hallway, 
for example, usually has little furniture other 
than the architectural woodwork and a hall 
stand, and therefore the wall decoration is 
relied upon to create interest. Many of the 
old Colonial houses have hallways with white 
or cream-colored woodwork and pattern wall 
papers to give the interest. The most attractive 
wall paper, to my mind, for this type of hall 
is the old-fashioned kind, not difficult to ob¬ 
tain in reproduction, which represented 
a pictorial panorama. Usually the lower part, 
just above the white wainscoting, represented 
a landscape, with perhaps a river bordered by 
trees, and possibly some peacocks or other 
birds in the near foreground. The hills in the 
background faded away into a blue sky which 
covered the upper part of the wall up to the 
simple cornice molding. It is possible, how¬ 
ever, instead of relying upon wall paper, to 
create the interest (in which case the paper 
design must be very artistic) by employing a 
more neutral background and offsetting it by 
pictures or other hangings. This method is 
usually the best for an English, French or 
Italian hallway. Tapestries and heavy carved 
chests and furniture against a dull but mel¬ 
low background (possibly oak paneling) are 
usually most appropriate for an English Tudor 
hall. For a French chateau, bright brocades 
and gay furniture of beautiful but delicate 
lines create a suitable interest and atmosphere, 
while, for an Italian villa, light but neu¬ 
tral-tinted walls should set off magnificent 
pictures, tapestries and heavy carved furniture. 
I N general it is a better principle to keep 
the background neutral, and try to create 
the interest either in the furniture or in 
the pictures or hangings. It is, however, ad¬ 
visable to have some color in the background 
to give warmth and interest to the neutral tone, 
but it should be very subdued and should be 
felt rather than seen. For instance, a pure 
white wall gives a whitewashed and uninter¬ 
esting appearance, whereas if it is slightly 
tinted to make it either cream color or some 
other scarcely noticeable tone, it will be even 
more effective to set off the furniture, and can 
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