SUBDUED LIGHTING.

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 161, 28 September 1927, Page 7

SUBDUED LIGHTING.

THE CHARM OF REFLECTIONS. In planning decorative schemes for your rooms, have you ever considered the value of beautiful outlines and colours reflected upon polished or shiny surfaces? When we banished the Victorian tablecloth that hid the mahogany or rosewood table-top we went a long way towards achieving reflected glory, for immediately every hit of table silver, every vase of flowers, every scrap of china took on a new value. This was because its reflection in the polished wood added to its charm and its decorative significance. Artificial silk, with its gleaming surface and crisp folds, helps us enormously in the easy achievement of reflections. Very vaguely and indefinitely it gives hack the tint of the walls., and, in place of the dull, dead surface of a tapestry’ curtain or cover, we have a live material that reflects dimly the passing show. Much the same part is played by the shiny paint which is now being favoured as a variant upon the dull paint of the past. The light reflected from its glossy’ surface is an important factor in the general effect, creating a certain liveliness and bringing out the colour values of whatever may be in the vicinity. The more we cultivate masked and subdued lighting effects, the moire attention w’e must pay to light-reflecting surfaces in our furniture, fabrics, and woodwork. A well polished floor contrasting with the soft pile of rugs may form an arresting feature in an otherwise simple room, because the light reflected from it s surface lures the eye to itself and eliminates darkness from corners and angles.

An unusual wallpaper, supplied by a wholesale London firm, is decorated with a design of old galleons. Probably this has been popularised by the fact that model galleons are so frequently used as ornaments. This paper naturally would only be suitable lor a large room or in a hall used in conjunction with <Jark oak,