In a hall, or in any room where it can be kept fairly free from furniture and from competition with pictures and other counter-attractions, a rug can be made the dominant element of a decorative treatment. In other rooms, owing to the disposition of the mind to look for the meaning of things to the top rather than to the bottom - to the flower and not the stem; the face and not the feet - a rug cannot be made the dominant element without subjecting the whole treatment to a serious strain. Ordinarily rooms are given unity through principality by the fireplace with its overmantel, by a group of windows with their hangings, by a console table and mirror, a tapestry, a picture, or a reading table with its lamp and shade. In important rooms the choice of the dominant feature is usually determined by the tastes of the decorator. In all rooms, whether important or otherwise, it must always be conditioned by the architecture, and particularly by the size and shape of the room and the distribution of its voids and masses. It is of course obvious that no decorative feature should be given principality unless it is intrinsically worthy of the attention thus forced upon it. If it is not worthy the effect of unity will have been gained at the cost of a perpetual sense of distaste.

Figure 11. - In this room the fireplace, the large window with its curved top, supporting pilasters and heavy hangings, and the big elliptical picture make demands upon the attention so nearly equal as to rob the room of a dominant element, and hence of unity and the possibility of beauty.

Figure 12. - Here the fireplace has been made clearly dominant by (a) increasing its importance through the substitution of a relatively large and striking picture; (b) decreasing the importance of the window through the substitution of thin silk curtains; (c) eliminating the elliptical picture and the substitution of a mirror. Note that the straight-line base and sides of this mirror repeat the outlines of the wall space, while its top echoes the dominant line of the window. Variations of this same curve also appear in the corners of the large picture frame and in the candlesticks placed on the mantel.

When the dominant element has been determined the first concern of the decorator, paradoxical as the statement may seem, is to keep it from becoming too conspicuous. It is a law of the mind that, other things being equal, we must attend to the strongest stimulus; and if the dominant element is permitted to catch and hold the eye and constantly to obtrude itself upon the mind, whether by reason of its size, shape, color or position, it will inevitably shut out of consciousness the subordinate elements of the composition, which are no less essential to the beauty of the whole, since they insure the necessary effect of diversity. The dominant element must accordingly be related to the subordinate elements so cunningly that it appears to pervade the room rather than to rule over it. For example, in a small living room the fireplace, if symmetrically placed, would normally be made the dominant feature of the decorative treatment, both because of its architectural importance and because it is the cause and center of social intercourse. A relatively large fireplace, particularly if it were faced with tile or brick either lighter or darker in tone than the walls, or if it projected, with its chimney breast, for some distance into the room, would of necessity be so heavy in a decorative sense that it might very easily be made to seem over-important and destructive of the organic harmony of the room. Therefore any marked increase in its importance, caused, let us say, by the addition of a paneled over-mantel, a large and conspicuous picture or mirror, or of a number of vases, easel pictures, or other objects of striking outline and pronounced coloring, would mar the decorative balance and imperil the beauty of the room. Accordingly he would doubtless find it desirable to confine the embellishment of such a mantel to a few small objects - three, say, or at the most five - or to a plastic frieze toned to analogy if not to identity with the wall. On the other hand, a smaller fireplace in the same room, or the same fireplace in a larger room, might require to have its importance as the dominant element emphasized in the treatment of the overmantel either by larger and more ornate shapes or more striking coloring, or both.

Figure 13. - The very marked projection of the fireplace and the effect of weight produced by its tile facing render the use of striking accessories on the over-mantel unwise.

Figure 14. - The comparatively slight projection of this fireplace and its general effect of lightness warrant the addition of an important element to the over-mantel.

While the subject will be discussed at length in the chapter on the dominant hue, we may note in this connection that a given hue may be made first in importance by either of two methods. One method is to make all the important hues appearing in the room blood-relations by a process of infusion, technically called keying, in which the dominant hue appears as a constituent of all the other hues. Thus in a scheme of orange, yellow and green the decorator might use light golden brown walls, antique ivory ceiling, olive carpet, olive and gold hangings trimmed with old gold, ecru curtains, soft yellow lamp shades, nut-brown furniture and woodwork, and olive, brown and gold furniture coverings. Here all the hues would be keyed to yellow, and the unity of the treatment would be ensured by the predominance of that element. Such a color scheme, as we shall see later, would require to be vivified by a note of the complementary color; but this requirement does not affect the general principle involved.

The second method is to cover two-thirds or more of all the decorative surfaces of the room with tones of the hue, depending upon its complementary, helped out by small accents of other harmonious colors, for the necessary variety. When either method is skillfully employed the dominant hue, as it appears in relatively neutral tones in the background surfaces of the room, unifies the whole decorative treatment while permitting a wide variety among the subordinate elements. In a particularly happy way it realizes the ideal of principality through pervasion rather than ascendancy, since it permits the mind to follow its natural inclination to concern itself with the positive factors of its environment - that is, with the objects in the room - while at the same time the unifying element lies at the back of consciousness.