The Treatment of Floors regarding Color, Value, Subordination - Different Varieties of Domestic Makes and their Relative Cost.

The Floor As A Background

As has been said, the floor of a room is the foundation upon which the entire decoration of a room rests, and since floors are usually carpeted or largely covered with rugs, the selection of floor coverings is of the greatest importance. The color value of the floor should be substantial and harmonious in effect, for a room should always look as if it had been furnished from the bottom up, even though, in reality, the rug or carpet may have been the last thing selected.

Floor Covering Often Gives The Dominant Color For The Room

As a general rule it is wisest to decide upon the wall finish first, because of the necessity of adaptation to the amount of light which the windows let in, but next in order should come the floor covering. From it is usually worked out the entire color scheme of the room.

If the rug or carpet is many-hued and figured, some dominant color is selected and repeated in varying degrees of value and intensity in the window draperies and upholsteries. If the floor covering is plain, the same color or a harmonizing hue is repeated elsewhere in the room.

Intensity

In color, the floor coverings should never be vivid. If a rug is too bright, it will seem to fairly jump from the floor and attention will be drawn to it rather than toward the furniture for which it is the foundation. The majority of people have passed that stage of affection for the hearth rug proudly bearing a recumbent dog, or the carpet boasting huge roses and lilies which might well have been plucked from the covers of a florist's catalogue, but it is still not generally known that, even though the design of a floor covering is conventional, it must also be sufficiently dull to stay down in its proper place. There are many women who feel that an oriental rug must fit in any room in which it is placed because of the harmony centering about a diversity of colors, but this is a false idea. Many of the rugs which come from the Far East are so vivid in hue that the rooms in which they are placed must be greatly intensified in color in order to keep a proper tone balance.

Value

There should also be a sufficient depth of value to support the rest of the room, or the rug or carpet does not seem-securely planted under foot. If a large rug is used or a number of small rugs, rather than a carpet, and if the surrounding floor is light, there must be an especial depth in value to secure the effect of an adequate foundation. When a perfect balance has been achieved in this respect, it is really immaterial whether the floor covering has cost much or little. The visitor will not think of the floor, but will merely sense the feeling of repose given by a well-planned picture.

Domestic Rugs Are Often Satis Factory In Intensity And Value

For this reason domestic rugs are often as artistically satisfactory as the more costly orientals, and there is certainly a wide choice among the varieties made in our own land.