A BLUE ROOM.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 457, 28 July 1915, Page 4

A BLUE ROOM.

As a colour blue most often gives way to red or pink or yellow in a room. Even blue paper is frequently ousted by the slightly warmer green. Yet, as far as Nature" goes, there is a good deal of blue, and, when we see it, it suggests warmth to us rather than .the cold chill which often accompanies a blue room. As a rule blue in a room is not rightly used. Blue wall papers are rarely successful, because they are just as rarely a good blue. Also blue is too often used with dead whites, which gives a cold effect. It is only necessary to think of a blue sky in which floats a warm white cloud to sec the sort, of white that should-be used with it. The Chinese recognise this in their vases and in their hangings. Blue can be introduced into a room most happily in the carpet, which should be Chinese. These Chinese blues, generally two or three different shades, have a ground of warm bullish white which gives them a delightfully soft yet fresh appearance. j |Si nee the darker blues are rather light- j absorbing, it is as well to have bullish Avails in a room where hangings and carpet and fittings are all more or less blue. There- is a kind of silk rep curtain which takes Chinese blue very well indeed, and, broken by a subdued pattern woven iji the rep, it is very becoming to any room. Chinese embroideries! also, of course, strike the blue note, but they are somewhat exotic when practised too regularly in a European room, dust as the Indian tea-table and tray is musty in suggestion, so anything too markedly Chinese fails to harmonise ■■ with other surroundings. Blue china is, of course, the greatest asset in a blue room, since we have all made Chinese patterns our own. Either pure blue or blue and white is very effective. Most blue rooms need a touch of yellow to warm them up as well as the creamy walls, and a point or two of boldly but deftly introduced, is also a great sidvantage.