MODERN COLOUR SCHEMES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21478, 29 April 1933, Page 6 (Supplement)

MODERN COLOUR SCHEMES

CHANGES SINCE THE 'EIGHTIES ROOMS WITH PERSONALITY It is undoubtedly true that every age has its own predilections with regard to colour. Whistler used to say that Nature between dawn and evening was too raw for the artist. The painter of to-day migrates to the south of I' ranee to paint cacti. Tho analogy is complete in tho sphere of interior decoration. Consider the " furnishing colours " of the 'eighties—old gold, sage green, peacock blue, terra-cotta, all keyed down to tho lowest possible tone. Modern rooms are nothing if not vivacious, and, in view of the inevitable dulling of the original brightness of silk or wool, and the incessant wear on paint, it is a happier choice, for one or two really a ivid tints at least help to " lift " the colouring of a domestic scheme. Wall hangings are of first importance because they dominate tho personality of any room. They should provide a contrasting background to some warm-coloured tapestry and a multicoloured picture or two. Your walls, for example, are grey. Here is your colour scheme: against the grey background should bo worked a very bright piece of tapestry and one or two pictures with a wealth of colour varieties. For preference, tapestry should bo deep orange or intensely purple; pictures should bo of the summer landscape typo or topical portraits of variegated hue. Paint is the most durable and delightful of wall treatment for those who are content with a chosen scheme and feel no urge to alter it after tho passing of a few months. Painted walls, if their colours are rightly chosen, become more beautiful as time goes by. A dove-grey or pale apricot shade makes an exquisite background for polished wood or gleaming china. A flat may have the walls in every room in glossy paint, each one a different shade of cream or broken white. There need be no monotony, so numerous are the changes and combinations of colours that can bo worked out in tho various rooms. Tho white-walled kitchen can have a mottled grey American cloth dado that harmonises with the cooker and greyenameled utensils, with a line of bright vermillion above it, and black and white tiled pattern on the linoleum. Bed and white checked curtains and tablecloth, and canisters in pillar-box red, will make a cheerful note in the least brilliantly-lighted room.