IMPORTANCE OF COLOUR

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 84, 7 January 1928, Page 16

IMPORTANCE OF COLOUR

Notwithstanding all our modern interest in colour as evidenced by jazz schemes for decoration, and the plea for a general brightness of surroundings, the tonic effect or otherwise that environment may have is not sufficiently appreciated by the masses, the daily lives of whom it most chiefly concerns. If it were, we should not still find, either in houses or in buildings such as factories where large numbers of workers are daily employed, a style of treatment that is lacking in dignity, and colouring that is merely serviceable or, in other words, colouring that will not show the dirt which, unless preventive means are taken, inevitably accumulates on all exposed surfaces as time goes on. The incessant demand for something better, though voiceless; would be bound to make itself heard. As it is, a casual visit to some of these places where the walls both inside and outside are drab and dingy, has a distinctly depressing effect on the mind. How much stronger and more permanent must be the effect when it operates on the same people during the greater part of each day, the whole year through. Though effect and cause may "ot be

’ traceable by those directly concerned, the result is not the less harmful. Dark colours, when used for interiors, not only depress, they act as light, robbers in varying degrees. As ati instance may be taken coconut brown, which is at the bottom of the scale, reflecting only about one-fifth of the light rays that fall on it, whether those of the sun or artificial. Hence, when dark colours are employed, we have badlylighted rooms and passages that strain the eyesight during the day and require a larger expenditure to bring them up to the lightning standard at night because more lighting units must be provided as well as fitments. In conclusion it may be well to remind ourselves that disease germs, including probably those of the ’flu fiend, find a resting place on walls and ceilings that undergo spring cleaning. Renewal of all surfaces is hygienically necessary from time to time, the old soiled paper or paint being removed and made to give place to new. The practice sometimes carried on in regard to papered rooms of applying fresh paper or a coat of distemper without first stripping off the old paer cannot be said to make for cleanliness. It is ' merelv a form of dirt concealment.