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COLOR SCHEMING TO ASPECT
The basic rule is, that in west and north-facing rooms, use cool colors; for south, warm tones; and in east rooms, warm and cool colors. Although, in broad principles, this rule applies, other factors come into it that make it confusing in practice. This is the day of big areas of glass (which mean maximum light), extra wide overhangs, specialised awnings to reduce the effect of the westerly suo. If a house does not have these architectural or manufactured advantages, the decorator will use her own sense of color values (and possibly plain commonsense), to decide on colors. A combination of cool and warm colors in any room gratifies our pleasure for contrast and change. WHAT COLORS ARE RIGHT FOR YOU ?
Any color which attracts instinctively is the right color for that particular person. Any woman's wardrobe will reveal a predominance of variations of one color. She knows she looks best in a particular color. It may be amethyst, Bristol blue, aqua or white which always lifts her spirits. The chances are therefore, that home decorators will look, feel and act their best if the colors they love are expressed somewhere in furnishings. SOME MEMORABLE COLOR SCHEMES
The most pleasing schemes are those that suit the people for whom they are designed. A blue and white country dining room is one ex-ample that comes to mind. Its owners are young people with little ready money. But their dining room is beautiful. The feature piece is a big dresser-type sideboard bought at auction. It is now painted egg-shell white with fine' old brass handles on the doors. Four open shelves house an heirloom, a blue and white Willow Pattern dinner service.
The walls of the dining room are papered with a white, blue, and pale yellow colonial wallpaper. The ceiling is a clear pale blue and the carpet, a deep smoky blue. The table is a round cedar one with simple chairs which have tie-on cushions covered in a blue and white gingham. Four brilliantly colored botanical fruit prints in mustard-colored frames high-light the wall opposite the sideboard. On the side window is a roll-up blind made from butter yellow chintz, plus curtains made from yards of white organza. Meals enjoyed here are restful and serene, and guests leave the room with both appetite and senses satisfied.
This room is not for everybody, of course. In direct contrast is the living room of a dynamic personality whose taste called for vital, direct decorating. The living room has the impact of the appeal of its originator. Her decorating scheme began with a rich (almost Bristol) blue rug over dark polished boards. The walls arc papered with an off-white textured grass-paper; the ceiling is the faintest shade of ice green. The long sofa is slip covered in an emerald green woo! and rayon fabric ... throw pillows are white, royal blue and black. White Terylene with a padded green pelmet and blue tie-backs drape the French windows. The lampshades are white with emerald green trim, and a green lacquered display shelf holds a fine collection of Bristol blue glassware. The two dominating pictures are studies in blue: they are large, abstract, and framed in teak.. The owner is frank on where she found her color scheme. "From my favorite cotton beach coat," she says.
The strong personalities of this world aren't alone in the off-beat decorating field. To the timid decorator, a scheme of orange, bright pink and magenta would seem a risk. This combination of colors was used successfully - in a bedroom by someone whose taste was normally considered very conventional. Her bedroom faced a high brick wall between her home and the next-door garage, and the room was dark and unattractive. A- polished cotton fabric in a plaid of pink, orange and magenta caught her fancy. She made it into pinch-pleated curtains and lined them. She also padded a pelmet board and used the same fabric to cover the bed. The carpet chosen was a very dark green Wilton. She followed her natural color instinct and painted the walls the very faintest tint of the pink of the fabric and the ceiling a deeper pink still. The wardrobe doors were painted to the exact color of the carpet with other accents in a faint orange. The bedroom stool is covered in magenta colored velvet. This home decorator's genuine understanding of color-values gave her the courage to exploit an unusual color idea.
The sources for harmonious color scheming are everywhere; all that is needed is the confidence to translate them to rooms. Artists - many of them famous - produce the designs for quality furnishings. An intelligent appraisal of how designers use and disperse color is a helpful exercise when looking at wallpapers, fabrics and floor coverings in the stores.
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