The impression that the use of bright color is a sign of crude and barbaric taste and that only neutral shades are permissible in house decoration is, no doubt, the logical reaction against the misuse of color by a preceding generation. But while we shudder now at the color discords of the Victorian era, we are beginning to realize that a strong and vital people needs to express itself in strong and vital colors. "No matter what the penalty," says Mr. Herbert in his excellent review of American domestic architecture, "we do not want in this country a prevailing convention whose greatest merit consists in a sort of unobtrusive refinement. Since we are young, it is better to be accused of a little barbarity than to become prematurely sober."

A free use of color, however, is far from a sign of barbarity. All great epochs of art and culture have been marked by its spontaneous and positive use.

We know now that Greek architecture and statuary instead of being unemotional and colorless as it was once believed, was originally conceived in the purest and strongest of tones.

Gothic art, also, was misconstrued as an art of dim gray stone. But whole painted walls which fairly sing with life and color have been found beneath layers of stone and plaster in many of the early Gothic churches.

Everywhere in the Middle Ages we find the masterly handling of positive color, not only in the pictures, mosaics, and glass, but in the costumes of the people, in their textiles and objects of daily use.

The atmosphere of the average American home has been described as "a brown ambiguity." The new decoration aims to do away with that reproach.

The contention that a sense of color is an inborn faculty which cannot be cultivated is only true in regard to degree. While a highly developed sense of color is a special gift the same as any other superlative quality, the foundations of a good reliable sense lie dormant in nearly everybody and with a little judicious exercise tend to develop surprising results. There are none, except the color blind, who can escape its emotional reaction.

The simple principles of analogous and complementary color schemes are easily mastered, and then one can branch out and try combinations from nature and works of art. Before the schemes are actually put into practice, they should be tried out with water colors and then with samples of the actual materials to be employed.

Through an understanding of the peculiar properties of certain colors seeming miracles in size, light, and relative warmth or coolness can be accomplished. Yellow, and colors composed of a considerable amount of yellow, are known as luminous or light giving colors. Blue and violet, and colors composed of a large amount of either, are known as darkening or light absorbing colors. Red, and shades composed of a large amount of red, are advancing colors - they have a tendency to jump out at you and make objects appear nearer than they actually are; while blue, and components of blue, are receding colors, or colors which have a tendency to appear distant. Red has been found to have an exciting effect on the senses, while blue has a soothing one. Colors in which red or yellow predominate create the illusion of heat, while those composed of blue and violet give the effect of coolness.

In order to attain a unity of color in groups of related rooms their color schemes should first be carefully planned. The big planes or backgrounds must first be chosen to harmonize and to bridge over abrupt color transitions, and then the subsidiary colors should be worked in, so that common notes are repeated in the several rooms. This insures a decorative as well as structural relationship and provides pleasant and harmonious vistas.

In a certain delightful home one looks through the doorway of a straw-colored and violet hall into a gray, black, and orange living-room touched with emerald green; and from there into an emerald green, black-and-white sun parlor; and through the opposite doorway into a brilliant blue, black and canary dining-room.

The walls of the hall were straw-colored, the woodwork gray, and the curtains, hangings, and furniture violet. The living-room was papered in gray with the wall spaces nicely divided into panels by the use of heavy black and orange lines. In the center of the smaller panels was a solid black square, in the center of the larger ones a decorative conventional basket containing orange flowers. There were no pictures as the owner possessed no good ones and the wall treatment was complete and satisfactory without. The woodwork was finished a silvery gray and a large center table was stained to match it. The ceiling was of a lighter gray and the large rug of mottled black-and-white gave the effect of a medium gray. The furniture was gray with some pieces stained black and two large fireside chairs stained bright orange. The upholstery of some of the chairs was of orange and some of emerald green. The window and bookcase curtains were of intense orange finished with wide bands of black. The portieres were violet towards the hall and gray with a conventional appliqued design of orange and black, towards the living-room.

The sun parlor echoed the emerald green note of the living-room upholstery in its woodwork and rugs and its green slat chairs, touched with black-and-white. The narrow valence across the top of the broad windows was of an all-over design of brilliant green leaves and brightly colored flowers on a gray background. The walls were of rough gray plaster.

The dining-room, into which the hall opened, and of which a vista was gained from the living-room, had light cream walls with a wide bright-blue band dividing the ceiling and walls and continuing down each corner of the room and down each door. Inside of that was a black stencil with another blue line. In the center of the wall spaces were circular decorations in yellow and black. The hangings at the window were of the brilliant blue, looped loosely back with bands of canary yellow. The woodwork and furniture were black and the rug of blue with a wide band of yellow.

The cream, yellow, and gray backgrounds and the inter-related touches of black, yellow, orange, and green brought the whole together and created the impression of thoughtful and charming unity.

It takes more care and thought to employ brilliant colors than subdued ones, but the effects are worth the trouble. Crude furnishings can in almost every case be brought out of mediocrity and endowed with interesting qualities by the magic grace of color, while those fulfilling every other requirement are, without it, lifeless and cold.

While we have gradually become educated to better forms in furniture, and better designs in fabrics, and are beginning to clear our homes of the useless bric-a-brac and family curiosities, we are only just beginning to open our eyes to the significance of color.