The Modern Home
Redecoration
[Enquiries arising out of articles on " The- Modern Home" should be addressed to the Editor of TRH SPECTATOR, 99 Gower Street, W.C. 1, and marked " Modern Home" in the top left-hand corner.] • SPRINGTIME is apt to bring as one aspect of its " sweet unrest " various problems of redecoration. To some the solving of these is a delight ; to others it may be a torment. Those in the former class need little help : they know what they want to do (probably they have in mind various entrancing schemes which they are longing to have executed), and they know how to do it. The others are less fortunately placed. They may remember only too well how none of their former ventures has turned' out quite as well as they had hoped—somehow the finished result is much less effective than the dim vision they had, when they were planning it : the paper looks far less attractive on the walls than it did in the pattern-book, the paint quite different from the sample. They may realize that their colour-sense is defective, or they may just lack " ideaS." To all such I would give as a guiding principle—simplicity. A daring colour-scheme needs expert knowledge (or rare intuition) for its successful accomplishment—and, even when it is done, it is probably not nearly so amusing to live with as one would judge from a first' glance. A simple scheme, on the other hand, is more easily planned and executed, and holds fewer pitfalls for the inexpert. I am often asked how such and such a room can be made " modern." It is a difficult question to answer, since modernism is not a style like Queen Anne or Elizabethan, which can be aped by anyone with a superficial knowledge of the periods, but is the result of a way of thinking—the using of the most suitable materials in the simplest possible manner to give the results aimed at. But, so far as an answer can be given, it is again simplicity.
The abolition of picture-rails is usually to be recommended,
their sole use being to make a high room look lower, and much can often be done by boxing in' an over-elaborated mantel-fitting ; but the first and most obvious step that can be taken towards achieving simplicity is a greater re- straint in the use of pattern. It is a common experience to find pattern simultaneously on walls, floor, ceiling, curtains and upholstery—to say nothing of such oddments as cushions and lampshades. Obviously, such excess is bound to make each and every pattern meaningless. On the other hand, a well-patterned rug or carpet will make its full effect in a room with plain walls and upholstery. The general rule should be : only one or, at most, two patterned surfaces in a room—unless the pattern be so unobtrusive as to amount to no more than an interesting texture or surface. The design of modern English wallpaper being what it is, it must necessarily follow that as a rule plain colours be chosen for the walls, leaving for one of the textiles the choice of a pattern worthy of the prominence into which it will be thrown—if, indeed, any pattern at all is to be used. A plain paper will do, but my own preference is for the rather more expensive painted wall. Washable distemper I dislike in any room which is not centrally heated, on account of • condensation on its cold, impervious surface. A wall that is to be painted or enamelled must be in very fair condition, since every irregularity on the surface will show—especially if a glossy finish has been chosen. If it is beyond the stage at which patching up will prove effective (and long cracks will always reappear), the best course is to use one of the plastic paints, such as " Marb-L-Cote." This is applied thickly in a creamy consistency and, when partly dry, can be textured in a variety of ways with brushes, sponges, combs, &c., to give an inter- esting surface which will also serve to hide the flaws. Finally it is painted and glazed—in contrasting colours, if desired, the glaze being partly wiped off to reveal the undercoat. This treatment is extremely efficacious on old walls, since plastic paint has a high tensile strength. It is, moreover, almost as warm as wood. This reminds me that veneers of various woods (" Realwood ") can now be bought mounted on rolls of paper or cloth, to be fixed in the same way as wallpaper. I have seen - a most beautiful room in which " Realwood " walnut, cut into squares about one foot across, had been used for the 'walls, the grain running in contrasting directions. This product seems to me remarkably cheap, considering the effects that can be got with it.
Now as to colour. The important thing to remember here is that any colour when applied will appear far more intense than the original pattern, because of reflections from other similarly coloured surfaces. Thus the shade chosen should always be far paler than the colour that is eventually required. Especially is this so when the ceiling is to be the same as the walls. Ceilings of a contrasting colour should only be chosen when it is desired to reduce the apparent height of a room : in a low room they give a feeling of oppres- sion. As a general rule quiet shades should be used on the larger surfaces, brighter colours being _ reserved for small, telling patches on such things as cushions and lampshades.- Blues and reds, in quantity, are particularly dangerous. Coming to the actual choice of paints, I can thoroughly recommend the new synthetic-resin group, which is amazingly tough and resistant to steam or water. For bathroom or scullery " Lacotile," which is a building-board ready-coated with synthetic resin (in a choice of colours), can hardly be bettered. A cheaper alternative for the same purpose is a specially prepared American cloth called "Decorene," which is hung in the same way as wallpaper and will give excellent service. One could wish that the average decorator were more ready to explore and recommend these and other new products which are so great an advance on his usual stock-in-trade—but that is perhaps expecting a fundamental change in the British character.
G. M. BOUMPHREY.
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