There is one great mistake which many people make of thinking of red as a cheerful color, and one which is good to use in a dark room.  The average red used in large quantities absorbs the light in a most disheartening manner, making a room seem smaller than it really is; it makes ugly gloomy shadows in the corners, for at night it seems to turn to a dingy black, and increases the electric light bill.  Red is also a severe strain on the eyes, and many a red living-room is the cause of seemingly unaccountable headaches.  I do not mean to say that red should never be used, for it is often a very necessary color, but it must be used with the greatest discretion, and one must remember that a little of it goes a long way.  A room, for instance, paneled with oak, with an oriental rug with soft red in it, red hangings, and a touch of red in an old stained glass panel in the window, and red velvet cushions on the window seat, would have much more warmth and charm than if the walls were covered entirely with red.  One red cushion is often enough to give the required note.  The effect of color is very strong upon people, although a great many do not realize it, but nearly everyone will remember a sudden and apparently unexplained change of mood in going into some room.  One can learn a deal by analyzing one’s own sensations.  Figured wall-papers should also be chosen with the greatest care for this same reason.  Papers which have perpetual motion in their design, or eyes which seem to peer, or an unstable pattern of gold running over it, must all be ignored.  People who choose this kind of paper are blest, or cursed, whichever way one looks at it, by an utter lack of imagination.

A room is divided into three parts, the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, and the color of the room naturally follows the law of nature; the heaviest or darkest at the bottom, or floor; the medium tone in the center, or walls; and the lightest at the top, or ceiling.  It is only when one has to artificially correct the architectural proportions of a room that the ceiling should be as dark, or darker, than the walls.  A ceiling can also be seemingly lowered by bringing the ceiling color down on the side walls.  A low room should never have a dark ceiling, as it makes the room seem lower.

Walls should be treated as a background or as a decoration in themselves.  In the latter case any pictures should be set in specially arranged panels and should be pictures of importance, or fresco painting.  The walls of the great periods were of this decorative order.  They were treated architecturally and the feeling of absolute support which they gave was most satisfactory.  The pilasters ran from base or dado to the cornice and the over-doors made the doors a dignified part of the scheme, rather than mere useful holes in the wall as they too often are nowadays.