Red as a Danger Signal.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 3, 15 July 1908, Page 52

Red as a Danger Signal.

That important point, the question of Dew wall papers and fresh colour schemes for rooms that are to be renovated during the spring cleaning season, is one that is exercising many feminine minds at present. In the solution of so critical a question as this, for mistakes once made cannot easily be rectified when the considerable expense of papering and painting a room is entailed, not only the beauty of the pattern of the wall hanging should be taken into consideration, but the influence the colour chosen is likely to have upon the health and temperament of the occupants of the room. No person disposed towards nerve diseases, even if only of a minor form of aggravation, should chose a red room, since it is a well-established scientific fact tliat led acts deleteriously upon the nervous system. No hospitals have, red ward walls; green is usually the tint chosen, on account of its soothing properties to the eyes and mind. In addition to being a bad colour for the nerves, irritating them, as it does, and maintaining them at a pitch of unnatural excitement, red is also excessively bad for the eyes, and so should most specially be avoided in studies where much writing and reading are io be done, in offices, and in drawingrooms intended Tor rest and relaxation. It has been noticed by observant persons that quarrels ensue among otherwise well-tenipered beings if they systematically inhabit a red room, and an oculist of renown has been known seriously io recommend his patients who are obliged to inhabit red rooms to keep before them on their writing tables a pad of orange-coloured blotting paper, or to see that there is an orange-coloured screen in the room to counteract the evil influence of the pervading red. If there must lie red paper and paint in the house, let it be used as a hanging for the dining-room or one for the hall and passages, because in these places long sojourn is not usual. The fashion for monastic cell-like rooms that has been noticeable of late years is a distinct outcome of this desire for peace in the home. But all white rooms are not economical in London or in any other great town, and that is why green is so prevalent. Shades of lavender and prune are delightful for the drawing-room or boudoir, since they are restful colours, breathing an element of quiet industry. Pink is a becoming choice, especially in the palest cyclamen shades, for a drawing-room or a boudoir, and in a more decided shade for a morning-room, where needlework and dressmaknig are to occupy nimble fingers. It should be added that red is excellent in splashes, because it induces cheerfulness. As a mass it is bad, for the rea«ons already stated.