ther reason for this, which is that many colours are
agreeable, even to their lovers, only in light tones. The moment they
get below medium they become insistent, and make themselves of too much
importance. In truth colour has qualities which are almost personal, and
is well worth studying in all its peculiarities, because of its power to
affect our happiness.

The principles of proper use of colour in house interiors are not
difficult to master. It is unthinking, unreflective action which makes
so many unrestful interiors of homes. The creator of a home should
consider, in the first place, that it is a matter as important as
climate, and as difficult to get away from, and that the first shades
of colour used in a room upon walls or ceiling, must govern everything
else that enters in the way of furnishing; that the colour of walls
prescribes that which must be used in floors, curtains, and furniture.
Not that these must necessarily be of the same tint as walls, but that
wall-tints must govern the choice.

All this makes it necessary to take first steps carefully, to select for
each room the colour which will best suit the taste, feeling, or bias of
the occupant, always considering the exposure of the room and the use of
it.

After the relation of colour to light is established--with personal
preferences duly taken into account--the next law is that of gradation.
The strongest, and generally the purest, tones of colour belong
naturally at the base, and the floor of a room means the base upon which
the scheme of decoration is to be built.

The carpet, or floor covering, should carry the strongest tones. If a
single tint is to be used, the walls must take the next gradation, and
the ceiling the last. These gradations must be far enough removed from
each other in depth of tone to be quite apparent, but not to lose their
relation. The connecting grades may appear in furniture covering and
draperies, thus giving different values in the same tone, the relation
between them being perfectly apparent. These three masses of related
colour are the groundwork upon which one can play infinite variations,
and is really the same law upon which a picture is composed. There are
foreground, middle-distance, and sky--and in a properly coloured room,
the floors, walls, and ceiling bear the same relation to each other as
the grades of colour in a picture, or in a landscape.

Fortunately we keep to this law almost by instinct, and yet I