New Effects can be Obtained by New Ideas in the Home

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1940, Page 24 (Supplement)

New Effects can be Obtained by New Ideas in the Home

Christmas is less than three months away, but that is not too distant for plans to be made. The festive season presents an excellent opportunity for acquiring long-wanted furniture, new wallpaper, attractive curtains, gay cushions, and perhaps a few artistie wall decorations. A splash of warm colour in the rich tones of some modern eiderdown quilts can relieve a severe bedroom. Lamp shades will alter the appearance of a sitting room at night and make it pleasant by day. Bright rugs are indispensible, while pictures add personality. Capable fingers can soon make delightful runners for tables and toilet mats for dressing necessities. A pot of varnish or a selection of lacquers will rejuvenate scarred furniture and tone up wooden floors. Speaking of retouching, just examine the difference that has been made by a brush and patience in some of your neighbours' kitchens. Colour in the Home. Provided something is known about colour schemes, it is not difficult to be one's own interior decorator. Paints of every describable shade can be bought nowadays so there should be no trouble in finding the exact colour for the job contemplated. The only really essential prerequisite is to have some knowledge of colour harmony before a start is made. This is by no means as complicated as it may sound and the whole thing gets easier as the elementary rules come to be appreciated. An important thing to remember is not to overdo the use of colour. Most farmer's wives will therefore be well advised to experiment in two hues only for any room. In selecting a scheme, it should be remembered that the full range of colour effect is incomplete without black and white. Cream often gives a better effect than dead white, so, if the walls are treated in cream, more than enough colour can still be put into the woodwork and the furnishings. Variety of Effects. The endless variety possible to the amateur decorator is obtained not so much by the daring of combinationS of colours as by the proportion in which they are used against black and white or such neutral shades as gfey, fawn or brown. Green and yellow are always popular, but greater ' effect can b£ obtained by the addition of cream and one of the neutral shades. A room may thus be planned tb be mainly green, mainly yellpw or about half and half as long as these bright colours are rOstrained by a background of cream or fawn. Moreover, personal taste may be exercised in the scope given by the many different shades of the greens and yellows available in the shops. Simplest colour schemes consist of one primary colour (red, blue or yellow) ^nd oue socr>ndqrv (vtolo*. o^snwe. ffveen

or other mixtures obtained from the primaries). Thus, blue goes well with mauve. yellow with green, red with purple and so on. Of course, it is possible to obtain excellent effects by using one colour alone against an atmosphere of cream walls and ceilmg and to confine it to such details as the woodwork or the mouldings. One colour, treatment can be especially effective in; kitchens or the bath-room where lightness is the chief consideration and colour is used to suggest cheerfulness. Sky blue or apple green are popular colours for this purpose.