XIX. Decoration

In turning now to consider the matter of decoration, one is conscious of crossing a definite boundary-line and entering a new land where practical realities are exchanged for dreams. So far in the building of the house, and in its furnishing, everything that has been done has had a practical purpose at the root of whatever beauty it may have achieved—a purpose which one could fall back on, as it were, so that at the worst the house might claim to be a shelter from the elements, and its furniture to minister to material needs. But in the decoration of the house no such excuse can be urged for the failure to achieve beauty. If it has no beauty it is useless, and worse than useless—and before covering our walls with sprawling patterns it will be well to consider this carefully. There are no laws which compel a man to decorate his house, and unless there is a real desire for beauty in the house there seems little excuse for its decoration. In the days when heraldry flourished, decoration had a definite purpose. It was a kind of graphic writing, which, besides being eminently decorative, conveyed definite facts. This heraldic system still survives in a kind of fossilised form as a pedantic dilettantism which has quite lost its former significance. If, however, heraldic decoration is used in the decorative rather than the arehasological spirit, it affords an extremely effective means of adornment for the house. It constitutes a complete science of decoration, and in its symbolic birds and beasts, and its simple checkers of primary colours, one finds the elements of a kind of decorative language.

Among the objections which may be raised to the use of heraldry in the decoration of the modern house, one may first consider the suggestion it may be held to convey of family pride. But heraldic work need not be confined nor need it even include the bearings of the family. The arms of a college or school at which the members of the family have been educated, or those of the neighbouring town, the diocese or other local bearings, may all be included in a heraldic scheme of decoration, and the family arms in such a comprehensive company will perhaps lose that note of personal egotism which they might otherwise be thought to convey.

Again, it may be urged against the use of heraldic decoration that it is a part of those trappings of the media; val world with which we moderns have little to do. In these days of mauser bullets and kharki uniforms these blazoned shields appear, perhaps, something of an anachronism, while the somewhat blatant and brutal mottoes are also reminiscent of a less gentle age than our own.

The historic significance of heraldry may be, perhaps, held sufficiently to outweigh such objections. It connects the house with the past and records something of the history of its surroundings and its owner, and while it affords patterns of colour of great decorative value it also has a definite story to tell to those who can read its message.

In the modern house what is usually understood as decoration consists chiefly in the painting of woodwork and the covering of walls and ceilings with wall-papers. It is entirely a matter of painting and papering the surfaces of so many plastered boxes or rooms. Decoration properly considered may rather be taken to represent the clothing of architecture with pattern and colour. The building without its aid should possess real beauty of the structural kind, to which decoration provides the finishing touches. The house should not be made for the decoration, but the decoration for the house.

It may be doubted whether the house which is built under economic conditions should be decorated at all. The natural texture of plaster colour-washed some plain tint will generally be far more satisfactory than a cheap wall-paper. Here, as elsewhere, one may decide that if means will not allow of the introduction of good thoughtful work, it is better to do without pattern altogether. If a house is properly built it does not demand decoration to make it “possible,” and so, whatever is done towards its further adornment in the way of wall-coverings may well be postponed for a little and introduced at last with due circumspection and deliberation. The possibilities of heraldic decorative schemes have already been alluded to, and the historic significance of this method constitutes an added charm to decorative qualities. But apart from heraldry one may take some flower or tree as the symbol for a room, and evolve a scheme which is based on that. The rose, the lily, or the daffodil may thus be taken as the motif for special schemes; or some woodland tree, perhaps, such as the mountain-ash, with its orange berries and white flowers, may form the basis for the decoration of the walls. In the choice of such subjects a certain appropriateness is desirable, and thus a cdining-room might well be adorned with the grey leaves and purple clusters (of the grape, or a bedroom with the drowsy poppy. The cottage character cof a small house may be enforced by decoration with the simpler woodland flowers, such as the daisy or buttercup, and wherever these are used they should vary in their treatment according to the special conditions and limitattions of a material or craft; and while embroidery or painting might admit cof an approximation to realism, such processes as stencilling, metal work or vwood-carving would each demand a special convention. For the conventional treatment of natural forms should mainly consist of a modification of actual forms to suit the possibilities of particular materials and methods of work, and such considerations will often make it desirable to depart from actualities and to give but a more simplified symbolic rendering of the natural form. The success of the work will depend not so much on the accuracy with which aa given flower is copied as in the sympathetic knowledge displayed of the limitations and possibilities of materials and tools.