If one intends to adopt a style in decorating one’s house, there should be a uniformity of treatment in all connecting rooms, and there must be harmony in the furniture and architecture and ornament, as well as harmony in the color scheme.  The foundation must be right before the decoration is added.  The proportion of doors and windows, for instance, is very important, with the decorated over-door reaching to the ceiling.  The over-doors and mantels were architectural features of the rooms, and it was not until wallpapers came into common use, in the early part of the nineteenth century, that these decorative features slowly died out.

The mantel and fireplace should be a center of interest and should be balanced with something of importance on the other side of the room, either architectural or decorative.  It was this regard for symmetry, balance, proportion, and harmony, which made the old rooms so satisfying; there was no magic about it, it was artistic common sense.

The use for which a room is intended must be kept in view and carried out with real understanding of its needs.  The individuality of the owner is of course a factor.  Unfortunately the word individuality is often confounded with eccentricity and to many people it means putting perfectly worthy and unassuming articles to startling uses.  By individuality one should really mean the best expression of one’s sense of beauty and the fitness of things, and when it is guided by the laws of harmony and proportion the result is usually one of great charm, convenience, and comfort.  These qualities must be in every successful house.

In furnishing any house, whether in some special period or not, there are certain things which must be taken into account.  One of these is the general color scheme.  Arranging a color scheme for a house is not such a difficult matter as many people suppose, nor is it the simple thing that many others seem to think.  There is a happy land between the two extremes, and the guide posts pointing to it are a good color sense, a true feeling for the proportion and harmony of color, and an understanding of the laws of light.  The trouble is that people often do not use their eyes; red is red to them, blue is blue, and green is green.  They have never appeared to notice that there are dozens of tones in these colors.  Nature is one of the greatest teachers of color harmony if we would but learn from her.  Look at a salt marsh on an autumn day and notice the wonderful browns and yellows and golds in it, the reds and russets and touches of green in the woods on its edge, and the clear blue sky over all with the reflections in the little pools.  It is a picture of such splendor of color that one fairly gasps.  Then look at the same marsh under gray skies and see the change; there is just as much beauty as before, the same russets and golds and reds, but exquisitely softened.  One is sparkling, gay, a harmony of brilliancy; the other is more gentle, sweet and appealing, a harmony of softened glory.