The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
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Wall-to-Wall Carpet vs. Rugs. This handbook is devoted entirely to the installation of wall-to-wall carpet, as distinguished from rugs in the standard room sizes. Throughout the present chapter and elsewhere in this book (except where otherwise indicated), the word "carpet" refers to "wall-to-wall carpet." Of course, many of the characteristics of carpet apply also to rugs, such as color, texture, comfort, and the like; the point is that these and other decorative and functional values apply more so to carpet. As to the advantages of carpet over rugs, we must assume for our present purposes that the salesman has done a thoroughly convincing job of presenting these to the customer. Actually, most prospects—especially women—are already "sold" on wall-to-wall carpeting versus rugs; the salesman's primary job is to show how wallto-wall, despite its greater initial cost, is actually more economical and a better investment than rugs in the long run.
Carpet Is Basic. Carpet is the basic furnishing of a room. It covers the largest usable area—larger, in the average room, than the total wall area less windows and openings. For that reason, and also because it outwears many other home furnishings, carpet should be the basis for choosing draperies, wallpapers, paints, lamps, upholstery, wood finishes and accessory room furnishings.
Carpet Provides Color.Because carpet provides a wide range of color and designs, it allows the homemaker or interior decorator to plan rooms from the floor up, choosing the right color and pattern to create a particular effect—intimacy, space, warmth—while combining pleasantly with the furniture, drapes, and walls. Selecting the carpet is the first step in transforming a cold, lifeless building into a warm, cheerful home. Such a home is not only enjoyable to live in but helps create an appreciation of the cultural side of life, adding to the joy and interest of living.
Carpet Creates Life and Interest. The so-called "warm" colors—red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, and all the many in-between hues—suggest sunlight, fire and warmth. Intelligent use of these warm colors can create a feeling of activity, friendliness, cheer. Warm hues in carpeting have an additional psyhcological effect: they tend to make large rooms appear more "unified," intimate, or smaller. The "cool" colors— blue, blue-green, blue-violet—suggest the open sky, the sea, or a lawn or meadow, thus creating a feeling of restfulness and repose. Cool colors have the added psychological effect of making a small room appear larger, since they seem to spread out or '"recede" from the viewer. With the carpet providing the basic hue, room color schemes may be built around one color only ("monochromatic"), or around harmonizing colors, or on contrasting colors. In each case, however, good interior decoration requires that one color should dominate rather than a number of colors competing for attention.
Carpet Gives Personality to a Room. The combination of color, line, texture and design in carpet is capable of expressing character and style. For example, feelings of strength, order, and stability are expressed by straight lines.
