The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Theory Of Decoration
Theory of Decoration
We can never have altogether a free hand in matters of this kind. The size and shape of the room to be treated limit us in the first place. Doors and windows must usually be left where we find them, though sometimes a door can be blocked up, where it interferes with the placing of necessary furniture, or one cut where it happens to be needed. The owner's tastes, or some cherished possessions he wishes to incorporate, form limitations of another kind. All these limitations must be respected. If the room is our own, and the means at our disposal seem insufficient to carry out the scheme we propose, what course shall we adopt ? We may either redecorate our room, perhaps, or buy new furniture in place of the old, but we cannot do both. The former is usually preferable, making the room expressive of the ideas we intend, so far as its permanent decorations are concerned. Later we may replace our furniture piecemeal, as opportunity offers, until our complete effect is attained. Occasionally, however, an opportunity to acquire some particularly desirable articles of furniture, not likely to be found again, may decide us to adopt the opposite method. Here again, we must beware of fixed rules. The test of character is to ask of ourselves the question: "Does the room distinctly express its owner and its purpose? Would a stranger with a trained eye, viewing the room for the first time, immediately know what kind of a room it is, and what kind of a person, or persons, live in it ?" If this can be answered satisfactorily, we know that the proper character has been attained.
Unity. The definition of Unity is "the state of being one," and more specifically, in the fine arts, "such a combination of parts as constitutes a whole, or a symmetry of style and character." In other words, the room and all things in it must belong together, and look as though they were part of one and the same thing.
The work of the Ancients, and the Greeks in particular, gains much of its merit from the degree of unity it attained. Greek architecture, constructed almost entirely in stone, concerned only with a few simple types of design, and developing these types over a period of several centuries, attained a degree of unity that has never been surpassed, and that distinguishes it from all that has since been done. From the time of the Greeks to our own, life has grown more and more complex, and the recent attempts to revive the Greek style show, by their failure, how unsuited it is to modern use. Its elements are too few to express our requirements, and when we try to mix them with modern motifs we produce only a hybrid style of little or no value.
