THE ART OF INTERIOR
DECORATION
BY
GRACE WOOD
AND
EMILY BURBANK
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1917
DEDICATED
TO
A.M.M.
At the age of eighty, an inspiration to all who meet her, because she
is the embodiment of what this book stands for; namely, fidelity to
the principles of Classic Art and watchfulness for the vital new note
struck in the cause of the Beautiful.
FOREWORD
If you would have your rooms interesting as well as beautiful, make
them say something, give them a spinal column by keeping all
ornamentation subservient to line.
Before you buy anything, try to imagine how you want each room to look
when completed; get the picture well in your mind, as a painter would;
think out the main features, for the details all depend upon these and
will quickly suggest themselves. This is, in the long run, the
quickest and the most economical method of furnishing.
There is a theory that no room can be created all at once, that it
must grow gradually. In a sense this is a fact, so far as it refers to
the amateur. The professional is always occupied with creating and
recreating rooms and can instantly summon to mind complete schemes of
decoration. The amateur can also learn to mentally furnish rooms. It
is a fascinating pastime when one gets the knack of it.
Beautiful things can be obtained anywhere and for the minimum price,
if one has a feeling for line and colour, or for either. If the lover
of the beautiful was not born with this art instinct, it may be
quickly acquired. A decorator creates or rearranges one room; the
owner does the next, alone, or with assistance, and in a season or two
has spread his or her own wings and worked out legitimate schemes,
teeming with individuality. One observes, is pleased with results and
asks oneself why. This is the birth of Good Taste. Next, one
experiments, makes mistakes, rights them, masters a period, outgrows
or wearies of it, and takes up another.
Progress is rapid and certain in this fascinating
amusement,—study—call it what you will, if a few of the laws
underlying all successful interior decoration are kept in mind.
These are:
HARMONY
in line and colour scheme;
SIMPLICITY
in decoration and number of objects in room, which is to be dictated
by usefulness of said objects; and insistence upon
SPACES
which, like rests in music, have as much value as the objects
dispersed about the room.
Treat your rooms like "still life," see to it that each group, such as
a table, sofa, and one or two chairs make a "composition," suggesting
comfort as well as beauty. Never have an isolated chair, unless it is
placed against the wall, as part of the decorative scheme.
In preparing this book the chief aim has been clearness and brevity,
the slogan of our day!
We give a broad outline of the historical periods in furnishing, with
a view to quick reference work.
The thirty-two illustrations will be analysed for the practical
instruction of the reader who may want to furnish a house and is in
search of definite ideas as to lines of furniture, colour schemes for
upholstery and hangings, and the placing of furniture and ornaments in
such a way as to make the composition of rooms appear harmonious from
the artist's point of view.
The index will render possible a quick reference to illustrations and
explanatory text, so that the book may be a guide for those ambitious to
try their hand at the art of interior decoration.
The manner of presentation is consciously didactic, the authors
believing that this is the simplest method by which such a book can
offer clear, terse suggestions. They have aimed at keeping "near to
the bone of fact" and when the brief statements of the fundamental
laws of interior decoration give way to narrative, it is with the hope
of opening up vistas of personal application to embryo collectors or
students of periods.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I HOW TO REARRANGE A ROOM
Method of procedure.—Inherited eyesores.—Line.—Colour.—Treatment
of small rooms and suites.—Old ceilings.—Old floors.—To paint brass
bedsteads.—Hangings.—Owning two or three antique pieces of
furniture, how proceed.—Appropriateness to setting.—How to give your
home a personal quality.
CHAPTER II HOW TO CREATE A ROOM
Mere comfort.—Period rooms.—Starting a collection of antique
furniture.—Reproductions.—Painted furniture.—Order of procedure in
creating a room.—How to decide upon colour scheme.—Study
values.—Period ballroom.—A distinguished room.—Each room a
stage "set."—Background.—Flowers as decoration.—Placing
ornaments.—Tapestry.—Tendency to antique tempered by vivid Bakst
colours.
CHAPTER III HOW TO DETERMINE CHARACTER OF HANGINGS AND
FURNITURE-COVERING FOR A GIVEN ROOM
Silk, velvet, corduroy, rep, leather, use of antique silks,
chintz.—When and how used.
CHAPTER IV THE STORY OF TEXTILES
Materials woven by hand and machine, embroidered, or the combination
of the two known as Tapestry.—Painted tapestry.—Art fostered by the
Church.—Decorated walls and ceilings, 13th century, England.
CHAPTER V CANDLESTICKS, LAMPS, FIXTURES FOR GAS AND ELECTRICITY, AND
SHADES
Fixtures, as well as mantelpiece, must follow architect's
scheme.—Plan wall space for furniture.—Shades for lights.—Important
as to line and colour.
CHAPTER VI WINDOW SHADES AND AWNINGS
Coloured gauze sash-curtains.—Window shades of glazed linen, with
design in colours.—Striped canvas awnings.
CHAPTER VII TREATMENT OF PICTURES AND PICTURE FRAMES
Selecting pictures.—Pictures as pure decoration.—"Staring" a
picture.—Restraint necessary in hanging pictures.—Hanging
miniatures.
CHAPTER VIII TREATMENT OF PIANO CASES
Where interest centres abound piano.—Where piano is part of ensemble.
CHAPTER IX TREATMENT OF DINING-ROOM BUFFETS AND DRESSING-TABLES
Articles placed upon them.
CHAPTER X TREATMENT OF WORK TABLES, BIRD CAGES, DOG BASKETS, AND
FISH GLOBES
Value as colour notes.
CHAPTER XI TREATMENT OF FIREPLACES
Proportions, tiles, andirons, grates.
CHAPTER XII TREATMENT OF BATHROOMS
A man's bathroom.—A woman's bathroom.—Bathroom fixtures.—Bathroom
glassware.
CHAPTER XIII PERIOD ROOMS
Chiselling of
metals.—Ormoulu.—Chippendale.—Colonial.—Victorian.—The art of
furniture making.—How to hang a mirror.—Appropriate furniture.—A
home must have human quality, a personal note.—Mrs. John L.
Gardner's Italian Palace in Boston.—The study of colour
schemes.—Tapestries.—A narrow hall.
CHAPTER XIV PERIODS IN FURNITURE
The story of the evolution of periods.—
Assyria.—Egypt.—Greece.—Rome.—France.
—England.—America.—Epoch-making styles.
CHAPTER XV CONTINUATION OF PERIODS IN FURNITURE
Greece.—Rome.—Byzantium.—Dark Ages.—Middle
Ages.—Gothic.—Moorish.—Spanish.—Anglo-Saxon.—Cæsar's
Table.—Charlemagne's Chair.—Venice.
CHAPTER XVI THE GOTHIC PERIOD
Interior decoration of Feudal Castle.—Tapestry.—Hallmarks of Gothic
oak carving.
CHAPTER XVII THE RENAISSANCE
Italy.—The Medici.—Great architects, painters, designers, and workers
in metals.—Marvellous pottery.—Furniture inlaying.—Hallmarks
of Renaissance.—Oak carving.—Metal work.—Renaissance in Germany
and Spain.
CHAPTER XVIII FRENCH FURNITURE
Renaissance of classic period.—Francis I, Henry II, and the
Louis.—Architecture, mural decoration, tapestry, furniture, wrought
metals, ormoulu, silks, velvets, porcelains.
CHAPTER XIX THE PERIODS OF THE THREE LOUIS
How to distinguish them.—Louis XIV.—Louis XV.—Louis
XVI.—Outline.—Decoration.—Colouring.—Mural Decoration.—Tapestry.
CHAPTER XX CHARTS SHOWING HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF FURNITURE
French and English.
CHAPTER XXI THE MAHOGANY PERIOD
Chippendale.—Heppelwhite.—Sheraton.—The Adam
Brothers.—Characteristics of these and the preceding English periods;
Gothic, Elizabethan, Jacobean, William and Mary, Queen Anne.—William
Morris.—Pre-Raphaelites.
CHAPTER XXIII THE COLONIAL PERIOD
Furniture.—Landscape paper.—The story of the evolution of wall
decoration.
CHAPTER XXII THE REVIVAL OF DIRECTOIRE AND EMPIRE FURNITURE
Shown in modern painted furniture.
CHAPTER XXIV THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
Architecture and interior decoration become unrelated.—Machine-made
furniture.—Victorian cross-stitch, beadwork, wax and linen
flowers.—Bristol glass.—Value to-day as notes of variety.
CHAPTER XXV PAINTED FURNITURE
Including "mission" furniture.—Treatment of an unplastered
cottage.—Furniture, colour-scheme.
CHAPTER XXVI TREATMENT OF AN INEXPENSIVE BEDROOM
Factory furniture.—Chintz.—The cheapest
mirrors.—Floors.—Walls.—Pictures.—Treatment of old floors.
CHAPTER XXVII TREATMENT OF A GUEST ROOM
Where economy is not a matter of importance.—Panelled walls.—Louis
XV painted furniture.—Taffeta curtains and bed-cover.—Chintz
chair-covers.—Cream net sash-curtains.—Figured linen window-shades.
CHAPTER XXVIII A MODERN HOUSE IN WHICH GENUINE JACOBEAN FURNITURE Is
APPROPRIATELY SET
Traditional colour-scheme of crimson and gold.
CHAPTER XXIX UNCONVENTIONAL BREAKFAST-ROOMS AND SPORTS BALCONIES
Porch-rooms.—Appropriate furnishings.—Colour schemes.
CHAPTER XXX SUN-ROOMS
Colour schemes according to climate and season.—A small, cheap,
summer house converted into one of some pretentions by altering vital
details.
CHAPTER XXXI TREATMENT OF A WOMAN'S DRESSING-ROOM
Solving problems of the toilet.—Shoe cabinets.—Jewel
cabinets.—Dressing tables.
CHAPTER XXXII THE TREATMENT OF CLOSETS
Variety of closets.—Colour scheme.—Chintz covered boxes.
CHAPTER XXXIII TREATMENT OF A NARROW HALL
Furniture.—Device for breaking length of hall.
CHAPTER XXXIV TREATMENT OF A VERY SHADED LIVING-ROOM
In a warm climate.—In a cool climate.—Warm and cold colours.
CHAPTER XXXV SERVANTS' ROOMS
Practical and suitable attractiveness.
CHAPTER XXXVI TABLE DECORATION
Appropriateness the keynote.—Tableware.—Linen, lace, and
flowers.—Japanese simplicity.—Background.
CHAPTER XXXVII WHAT TO AVOID IN INTERIOR DECORATION: RULES FOR
BEGINNERS
Appropriateness.—Intelligent elimination.—Furnishings.—Colour
scheme.—Small suites.—Background.—Placing rugs and hangings.—Treatment
of long wall-space.—Men's rooms.—Table decoration.—Tea table.—How
to train the taste, eye, and judgment.
CHAPTER XXXVIII FADS IN COLLECTING
A panier fleuri collection.—A typical experience in collecting.—A
"find" in an obscure American junk-shop.—Getting on the track of some
Italian pottery.—Collections used as decoration.—A "find" in Spain.
CHAPTER XXXIX WEDGWOOD POTTERY, OLD AND MODERN
The history of Wedgwood.—Josiah Wedgwood, the founder.
CHAPTER XL ITALIAN POTTERY
Statuettes.
CHAPTER XLI VENETIAN GLASS, OLD AND MODERN
Murano Museum collection.—Table-gardens in Venetian glass.
.
"Those who duly consider the influence of the fine-arts on the
human mind, will not think it a small benefit to the world, to
diffuse their productions as wide, and preserve them as long as
possible. The multiplying of copies of fine work, in beautiful
and durable materials, must obviously have the same effect in
respect to the arts as the invention of printing has upon
literature and the sciences: by their means the principal
productions of both kinds will be forever preserved, and will
effectually prevent the return of ignorant and barbarous ages." JOSIAH WEDGWOOD: Catalogue of 1787. One of the most joyful obligations in life should be the planning and
executing of BEAUTIFUL HOMES, keeping ever in mind that distinction is
not a matter of scale, since a vast palace may find its rival in the
smallest group of rooms, provided the latter obeys the law of good
line, correct proportions, harmonious colour scheme and
appropriateness: a law insisting that all useful things be beautiful
things.
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