MAKING A HOME Decorating a living room

Press, 19 July 1976, Page 12

MAKING A HOME Decorating a living room

IBv PRUDENCE > ROTHENBERG) Give some thought to the function of your living room before decorating it. It may be your only room for entertaining and if you have young children it is obviously better to use fabrics that will wash rather than velvets and silk damasks. When furnishing your sitting room decide where you want colour. The background is important — walls, ceiling. woodwork and flooring. There are two ways of ( treating these areas. One is! to make them the feature of the room with patterned wall-, paper or bright paint. The, other is to keep the background neutral and make the colours of your furnishings; the feature of the room. It is possible to have the wails white or in greyed! pastels and emphasise the! colour in your furnishings. W allpapei*» Wallpaper is more readily; available tn good designs and colour than it used to be. When choosing wallpaper satisfy yourself that it is a paper you would want to. live with for some time. The paper must suit the) purpose of the room. A pat-! tern depicting animals, for! instance, would not be right I for the majority of living) rooms. The size of the pat-, tern should be in accord' with the room, for a very' large design will overpower a small room. And if a pattern! is too “busy” it can become irritating. This may mean you need to repaper the room very soon. For the most satisfactory' effect all rooms should have! a centre of interest which;

(Can be built around the chief! !structural attraction. This may be a fireplace, a long wall with several paintings or a window After the centre of interest has been established the furniture can be arranged in balanced distribution of ’ weight and size throughout the room. Balance An easy way to check the balance of your room is to draw an imaginary line from the centre of one side to the !other. Then draw a similar 1 line between the two end walls. The room is then ‘divided into imaginary quarters. If each quarter is of equal weight the room is Iwell balanced. Each individual piece of i furniture should be arranged | so that it is in a convenient position and does not interfere with other pieces near it The distribution of the furniture should not impede move-; intents in the room. Keep the furniture away from the doors and traffic areas and make sure there is| good balance between high and low furniture. , The arrangement of your; furniture can make or mar ivour room. In a small room; I choose smaller pieces of fur-; niture. Have just enough | ; pieces to form conventional I Put out only your! (favourite ornaments. I love |to see attractive pieces; around, but beware of clutter. In a large room furniture 1 grouping should be placed so; that people can sit comfort-1 ably without needing to I ; shout at each other. j Furniture ! The important factors inji

choosing furniture are the size, shape, period, material and colour. Each piece of furniture should have comfort. beauty and character, or be purely functional. New Zealand manufacturers are making some very good furniture that we can be proud ■of. It is contributing quite considerably to our export market. The choice lies with you. I would much rather see genuine antique furniture than reproductions, and if you keep a sharp lookout you will find there is not much difference in price. It is possible to mix antique with modern furniture. The squared-look, fully upholstered modern furniture will go well with an antique grandfather chair, for instance. All rooms require a repetition of colour, a colour accent and a change in texture. I was m a horn, recently which had a small sitting iroom. There was little colour land the furniture was of no particular era except for a grandfather chair covered in bright red velvet. An early portrait of a man wearing a bright red waistcoat and red velvet cushions on the couch gave accent colour to ithe room. It was restful and lit had personality. Windows The type and style of windows must be considered when decorating. Make sure the colour and texture fit into the scheme of your living room. Curtains may be part of the background or a ! decorative part of the foreground. If the latter is ichosen curtain materials | may repeat the colour of

e accessories, furnishing or 11 carpet. it too much pattern in curi- tains can give a restless feelr. ing Too large a pattern can v.dwarf a small room. If the e curtains are to become part . of the background a fabric d which matches the colour of e the walls looks well. t All curtains other than .those of filter fabrics should L be lined Lining improves the e drape and wear, helps stop e draughts and improves insulaif tion in a room. u - Curtains should be to the h sill or just off the floor, but never half way between e Never skimp on material and e remember that, filter cur- |. tains require three times the H|track measurement for adee quate fullness. , r Heavier fabrics such as iwool, linen and velvet reI. quire, at the very least, hall r the track measurement again. x Floorin’*; g 1 ' r flooring for a sitting room 0 is available tn all colours a iand types. I like to see the n luxury of pure wool carpet v in the same colour flowing a through the iving areas. The d carpet should be of good e . quality. One New Zealand o jcarpet mill will soon have on j the market a tone-on-tone ! carpet with a plain one to match. The tone-on-tone lean be used in the hallway ’and the plain one in the ,f .sitting room. j If you have beautiful e rugs, lay them on wall-to-t wall carpet for a look of luxury. The carpet must, ‘ .however, have a low pile as e a shag pile will do nothing a for the rugs. ~i Plan your living room to suit your way of life in your jown taste, make it a coms!fortable room and attractive if foi entertaining.