Designing Your Dream Living Room and Hall: Tips and Tricks

The Living Room

There are almost as many different living rooms as there are families. The living room is the club room of the house, and like a club, it must sound the keynote of compromise. It must be neither strictly masculine nor feminine, but both.

Pleasing to All

It must be pleasing to young and old, to stranger and intimate. It must possess the somewhat unlike attributes of semi-formality in respect for the visitor, combined with ease and comfort for its constant occupants.

The successful living room is therefore the simplest and the most difficult of all rooms to develop, for it is chiefly a question of spirit.

Quiet and Dignified Expression

These requirements are pleasingly satisfied in the room of our illustration. A quiet and dignified expression is suggested by the intermingling of the indicated colors. Buff walls, ivory ceiling, white woodwork and blue upholstery are the chief notes of contrast.

The decorative beauty of a color scheme depends upon the skill and culture of those interested in its development.

Overcoming Injurious Action

The greatest problem in interior decorating has been to overcome the injurious and destructive action of lime, acid and alkaline salts upon the decorative coatings applied to plaster walls and ceilings. Wall Sizes containing varnish, rosin, or other vegetable gums, are subject to saponification, if there is any excess of alkali in the plaster, causing spotting or peeling of the finish.

Under certain conditions a so-called Varnish Size may over oxidize, become brittle, and then peel or flake off. Glue Sizes are not dependable as they are easily affected by moisture and dampness, and do not stop the destructive action of saltpeter or lime upon the subsequent wall coatings.

Impervo Surfacer

Impervo Surfacer was developed to overcome these difficulties and has proven its value in practically eliminating painting failures due to suction, saltpeter and stains; proving a most valuable asset to the Master Painter and Decorator, often preventing the expense of repainting due to the improper preparation of the surface.

Impervo Surfacer is an especially prepared oil base liquid of light color, which works easily, spreads freely, drying with a tough, impervious, elastic and durable film, upon which Calcimines, Flat Paints, or Enamels may be economically and easily applied.

Different in Character

Decidedly different in character than most other Sizes, as it contains no Alum, Glue, Rosin, or other ingredients which are liable to cause defects in the finishing coats, such as peeling, cracking, alligator Ing, or saponification.

The Hall

The hall affords the first glimpse of the interior. It is the connecting link that unites all the rooms of the house into one satisfying whole.

In a large, spacious hall like our illustration, where there are wide open spaces and long vistas into other parts of the house, it becomes necessary to maintain strict regard for a harmonious color ensemble. The unusually large hall should be painted in a warm color, for the cool colors make it look still larger than it really is.

Buff Color Scheme

The Buff chosen is pleasing here, for the following reasons: The yellow element being warm, it will tend to contract these too-wide spaces, it will go well with the ivory white of the stairway, and will blend harmoniously with the brown stained floor.

This combination will be both cheerful and dignified, eliminating the bareness of large spaces and yet preserving their rich, uncrowded aspect.

The color scheme shown in this illustration may be obtained by using the following materials: Side Walls—Buff Sani-Flat or No. 4 Muresco. Ceiling—Ivory Sani-Flat or No. 12 Muresco. Trim—Ivory Mooramel Enamel. Stairs— (String and step raisers)—Ivory Mooramel Enamel. Stairs— (Spindles and Hand-rail)—Mahogany Stain and Elastic Interior Varnish.

Other color schemes for halls will depend upon their size, light and decorative treatment of adjacent rooms. A few suggestions are shown on opposite page.

Impervo Elastic Floor Varnish

IMPERVO ELASTIC FLOOR VARNISH This varnish possesses in the very highest degree every essential requirement for withstanding the extreme hard service to which floor varnishes are subjected, and is pronounced by all who use it to be without an equal.

It is intended for hard or soft wood floors, either old or new, also painted or grained floors and linoleum. It is light in color, spreads with remarkable freedom, is impervious to water, and will not scratch, spot, or show heel marks. It dries over night with a rich full gloss and may be rubbed to a dull finish if desired.


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