Country French Decorating Ideas

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instinct and the leisure and willingness to experiment, and experiments
need not be limited to prints or to cottons, for wonderful combinations
of colour are possible in silks where light is called in as an influence
in the composition. One must, however, expect to forego these effects
except in daylight, but as artificial light has its own subtleties of
effect, the one can be balanced against the other. In my own
country-house I have used the two strongest colours--red and blue--in
this doubled way, with delightful effect. The blue, which is the face
colour, presenting long, pure folds of blue, with warmed reddish shadows
between, while at sunset, when the rays of light are level, the
variations are like a sunset sky.

It will be seen by these suggestions that careful selection, and some
knowledge of the qualities of different dyes, will go far toward
modifying the want of permanence of colour and lack of reflection in
cottons; the other quality of stiffness, or want of flexibility, is
occasionally overcome by methods of weaving. Indeed, if the manufacturer
or weaver had a clear idea of excellence in this respect, undoubtedly
the natural inflexibility of fibre could be greatly overcome.

There is a place waiting in the world of art and decoration for what in
my own mind I call "the missing textile." This is by no means a fabric
of cost, for among its other virtues it must possess that of cheapness.
To meet an almost universal want it should combine inexpensiveness,
durability, softness, and absolute fidelity of colour, and these four
qualities are not to be found in any existing textile. Three of
them--cheapness, strength, and colour--were possessed by the
old-fashioned true indigo-blue denim--the delightful blue which faded
into something as near the colour of the flower of grass, as dead

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