Craftsman Fabrics and Needlework From the Craftsman Workshops (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Craftsman Fabrics and Needlework From the Craftsman Workshops

Considering the wall surface purely in the light of a background, the next best treatment for obtaining a good effect is to cover it with canvas or burlap, which gives an admirably soft, deep atmosphere of color. But in many cases this treatment is considered unsanitary, as once upon the walls the fabric can never be thoroughly cleaned. A good substitute is the prepared fabric known as Fabrikona, which usually has the tex ture of burlap, but which also comes in a very broad, loose weave almost like basket-work. The back of this is so prepared that it can be applied directly to the wall like paper, and the surface also is prepared so that it can be freshened at any time with a coat of wax. For a room where it is desirable to produce lighter and daintier effects than are usually sought in the living rooms of the house, a charming wall covering is Japanese grass cloth, which comes in beautiful colors and is very interesting in texture, the woven straw of which it is made catching little'broken lights which form a silvery sheen over the whole surface. Wall papers, if rough in texture, dull in finish and good in color, are always desirable; but we have found so far very few that have not the fault either of too smooth a surface or of too solid a color. Either of these defects renders the paper lifeless, and makes impossible the apparent radiation of color which has so much to do with the atmosphere.

S for the colors that may be used with the as surance that they will prove permanently satis fying, their range is almost endless, but everythingdepends upon the right combination and the pres ervation of the right relations between the soft, dull, sympathetic hues that belong naturally to the background and the more decided colors that serve to give accent and character to the whole scheme. Our experience has shown that it is impossible to go very far wrong with a color scheme such as Nature herself would use, - the varying tones of green, deep red, russet and yellow of foliage, the soft wood browns with all their wide variation of modifying tones, the dim, rich colors found in rocks, and the gray-greens, yellow-greens and deep blues of the ocean. If a sharp accent is felt to be necessary here and there, it can easily be given by a brilliant dash of color that, if rightly used, will seem as much in place as a flower on a grass plot. The liberty of choice is wide, but like all liberty, it carries with it responsibility in the necessity for most careful thought and sensitive perception that the colors may be used and combined so that there is neither monotony nor discord.

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