Another highly successful decorative scheme was suggested by Japanese print. Clear red, indigo, and yellow were introduced in the plain thin silk hangings of the three rooms down-stairs. The walls were covered with imitation gray rice paper. The woodwork was shiny black and there was a shiny black molding at the ceiling line. The floors were covered with matting and the furniture in the room with the red hangings was of highly polished black wood alternated with a few pieces in brilliant red lacquer. In the room with the indigo hangings, the furniture was indigo, while the black furniture was repeated in the yellow curtained room.

Upstairs the same wall and floor treatments were repeated. The furniture in all the rooms was white outlined with a slender line of black, the hangings were of printed Japanese silks, and a strong note of plain color was introduced into each room in the bed coverings and dressing table accessories.

The suggestions of the Japanese print are, indeed, many. The delicious twilight sky blues, the plum blossom pinks, the chrysanthemum yellows, the wistaria lavenders and purples, the dried grass browns, and the wild crane blacks and whites can be used to create refreshing and unusual effects.

Any beautiful object or bit of fabric holds in itself the nucleus of a variety of decorative schemes which can be carried out in the strong accents of the decoration.

If the home is to have some meaning it must be conceived as a whole and intelligently; consequently, when the decorative idea is determined upon, it must be applied to the whole area to be decorated. Each room has its own function to fulfil, but at the same time it must feel at home with its neighbor. This docs not imply, in any respect, a uniformity of decoration, but a harmony of idea and materials - of color, of textures in woods and fabrics, of line, form, and design so that, as progress is made from room to room, one scheme blends with another and one feels the unity behind it all.

The interesting and individual home at Doylestown, Pennsylvania, of Mr. Henry Mercer, poet, writer, archaeologist, and potter, was based on the idea of developing the decorative possibilities of tile and concrete. The structural background, both exterior and interior, was of concrete with beautiful soft glazed tiles in subtly blended colorings imbedded in it to form the decoration of the walls, floors, arched doorways, and vaulted ceilings. Furniture and other decorations were entirely subordinated to this one idea which received an individual treatment in each room, each passageway, flight of steps, and wnding stairs.

The consistent carrying out of any fresh and individual scheme, no matter how unpretentious, places the home in a class culturally far above that of the nondescript dwelling where vagueness in point of view, in theory and expression predominates, or the patch quilt house which displays a confused jumble of objects, often very beautiful in themselves, but bearing no relation to one another.

If the home is to present an environment for life, those objects which minister to the needs and comforts of living are of primary importance. But if the home is, at the same time, to present an ideal environment, it cannot do so without the great elevating force of beauty. Harmony between the elements of utility and beauty is brought about in the new decoration by its endeavor to express beauty as far as possible in the useful objects themselves.

When one stops to consider the wide field for the exercise of judgment and taste which is offered at present in the selection of the essentials of furnishing -in the decoration of walls, choice of hangings, upholstery, and furniture - it becomes evident that the principles of use and beauty are in no way opposed to each other in the decoration of the home. It also shows how little need there is, in reality, of introducing a large number of extraneous objects in order to satisfy aesthetic demands. Some of the most beautiful modern rooms, upon which thought and money have been lavished, do not contain a single object beyond the barest utilitarian ones. The wall covering may be of exquisite fabric, the furniture of the highest type of artistic craftsmanship, the floor covering and hangings of the most luxurious textures and colorings, but not a single object which has no actual use.

This does not mean that all objects except the frankly utilitarian ones should be excluded. One may choose to have simple backgrounds and furniture, and introduce life and color in a few well chosen decorative accessories. In this case a beautiful piece of pottery or porcelain, a choice bit of silver or enamel will have as definite a place in the decorative scheme as a chair or table has in the utilitarian one.

It should be remembered, however, that while one or two beautiful objects have great decorative value if placed in the proper relation to their surroundings, a large number of equally beautiful ones detract from the relative importance and value of one another and consequently defeat their own purpose. Also that anything which tends to destroy the emphasis on the primary factors of the home (those things which minister to the needs and comforts of living), also tends to destroy the most important quality of the home - its livableness.

Things which are interesting or beautiful in themselves, but which do not supply definite decorative values, have their place in the art gallery, museum, or antiquarian society, where they can be viewed for the education and inspiration of all.

Objects of sentimental association, of affected culture, together with certain heirlooms and souvenirs which the scheme of decoration refuses to assimilate, should find a happy end in a memory chest where the reviewing of them at intervals provides a source of interest or amusement.

Homes which cannot free themselves from the clutter of trivial and futile objects are mute declarations of the insincerity of their creator's pretentions to good taste and refinement in other directions. "No junk!" is the cry of the new interior - no place for anything which does not serve some definite utilitarian or decorative function.