While it is the primary function of small decorative objects and of decoration volante generally to individualize the room and to give it animation, snap and decorative charm, it is clear that the decorator will need to resort to formal balance in distributing these objects in rooms where the openings and heavy pieces of furniture are markedly unsymmetrical. Thus a single small piece will, if placed above the center of a wall table or cabinet, emphasize the unity and repose, not only of the piece so embellished, but also of the room as a whole. The same effect, sharply intensified, will be produced by a pair of identical objects placed at equal distances from the center. On the other hand, two, three, four, or even five small, unimportant objects may be grouped in occult balance in such a way as to increase the animation and subtlety of the whole treatment.

In considering the balanced distribution of pictures, it must be remembered at the outset that the requirements of unity demand that pictures to be hung on the same wall, or even in the same room, reveal easily perceptible likenesses. Monochromes will not ordinarily be hung with colored pictures, and, in general, water colors will not be hung with oils, or wood frames with gilt. Normally there will also be considerable similarity in subject and handling, and marked similarity in tone. Moreover, where small pictures are to be hung on a large wall space the requirements of unity demand that they be so grouped that the mind, regarding the group as a unit, will accept it as sufficiently large and important to be congruous with the wall space. In this case the pictures must be fairly close in tone to the wall, since the effect of marked tone contrast would be to emphasize the individuality of each small picture so sharply that the eye could not see them as a group. If all these precautions are observed, pictures may be hung according to the mechanical formula of balance, the decorative weight of each picture being based upon its surface area. It may be noted in passing that pictures should be hung flat against the wall, the smaller ones without visible support, the larger by means of two cords or wires rising vertically from near the ends of each picture to two hooks, since it is only in the case of elliptical or circular shapes, where the cords leave the circumference at a tangent, that we are in ordinary practice justified in running the cords over a single hook. Pictures should be so hung as to place their centers of interest at eye height, and normally those hung in a horizontal line on the same wall will have their centers of interest in line, rather than the tops or bottoms of their frames.

Figure 40. - The oblique lines created by hanging a rectangular picture as at a are in general objectionable because they catch the attention and lead it away from the picture to the hook. In b there is no such tendency, while harmony is ensured by the repetition of the straight verticals of the frame. Pictures or mirrors of curvilinear outline should however be hung as at d, since the method c breaks the rhymthic flow of line.

In practice it rarely happens that a picture of any considerable decorative weight will be hung by itself. The mind demands not only lateral balance, but also a support which seems to be adequate. This demand is best satisfied by hanging the picture directly above some such other unit as a cabinet, table or chair, which rests upon the floor and is wider than the picture and therefore appears to be stronger. Moreover, the decorative value of a skillfully arranged group, which reveals the presence of unity in diversity, is so great, and the floor area of most rooms so limited, that it would in general be a waste of opportunity to use two units separately where it is possible to combine them. It must be noted that while a picture hung above another unit which rests upon the floor must be narrower than the lower member in order to insure an effect of stability in the group, in the case of two pictures hung vertically the wider or larger must be above, since the mind in this situation regards the lower unit as depending from and supported by the upper unit.

A large rug is as much a part of the fixed decorations as are the walls and the openings, and it must accordingly be placed symmetrically with reference to the width of the room in every case, and with reference to the length of the room in most cases. When a large rug is crowded by a projecting hearth into a markedly unsymmetrical position on the floor, the whole effect of the room is marred, and its balance can be restored only by using an all-over carpet or a number of carefully placed small rugs, or else by cutting the big rug in the manner suggested in the chapter on proportion.

When the decorator has insured the necessary structural emphasis and repose of his background surfaces by giving to the floor and to the wall spaces and openings a degree of symmetrical balance more or less marked, according to the size and motive of the room, he will proceed to invest his whole treatment with subtlety and decorative charm by a more or less marked degree of occult balance in the distribution of furniture and decoration volante. It is obvious that no rules can be formulated to guide him in this process, and that he must proceed experimentally. For example, in a living room having a fireplace in the middle of one side and covered by a large rug, he may wish to place a large sofa at right angles to the fireplace and toward one end of the room, and to balance it by a reading table and chair placed at right angles to the fireplace on the other side. The exact position of these pieces will be determined by the general arrangement and the lighting of the room, and by the tastes and convenience of its occupants. If, when the pieces are in position, the sofa seems to be too heavy for the opposing group, the decorative weight of this group must be increased by (a) moving it farther back from the center of the room; (b) keeping it in position, while the sofa is moved closer to the center of the room; or (c) keeping all the pieces in position, while adding to the decorative weight of the group by the addition of another chair, a colorful table runner, a relatively larger and more striking lamp, a row of books between book-blocks, or of some similar stimuli. If, on the other hand, the sofa seems too light, these processes will be reversed.