DECORATION FOR THE RURAL SCHOOL

The growth in the general character of the rural school has been steady and constant for the past ten years or more. The exterior of buildings. and the school grounds have received some attention, but except in special instances the beauty of the interior has been woefully neglected. This may be due to a number of causes. The average boy or girl in the country begins earlier in life the real work of making a living than does the average city boy or girl. The manual duties on the farm, a motor training that the city school is doing its utmost to cultivate for the city child, begin at a very early age and lead the child's thoughts away from an attitude of reflection and the enjoyment of beautiful things. There is, therefore, all the more reason why an art background should receive consideration in the rural school.

Furthermore, a life on the farm demands that the greater part of the man's time be spent out of doors, and the beauty of an interior is usually left to the overworked housewife. Thus, with a one-sided interest in such matters, the men, who usually constitute the school board, too often see no value or enjoyment in such “fancies" as schoolroom decoration. And yet, with interests both material and commercial, there are few men who do not enjoy and actually seek some kind of real beauty. They are made so that their natures demand it.

A natural place for the revelation of beauty is in the schoolroom, where the pupil may become familiar with beautiful forms. Familiarity with the beautiful and an understanding of the principles underlying it will do much to develop a love for it. Valuable lessons are likely to be lost, however, unless the schoolroom serves as a concrete example of the principles on which the study of beauty is based.

THE ROOM

Other persons have written about the use of water, soap, and the scrubbing brush. Naturally, a thorough cleansing of a room is essential as a preliminary step before decoration is attempted. The next step is the elimination of everything that is not absolutely essential to the requirements of a schoolroom.

Color scheme. The room now consists of four bare walls, windows and doors, a ceiling, and a floor. The color scheme should first be considered. Theoretically, warm colors should prevail in a room with a north exposure. Unless warm and cool colors are suitably grayed, however, the results will not be satisfactory. The accompanying diagram shows the relation of warm colors to cool in the color circle. Their relation to

the neutral gray at the center should also be noted: The color becomes more intense as it recedes from the neutral. It is obvious that, as the circle widens, the colors separate and become more brilliant; as they near the center, they become grayer and the relation is closer. Gray colors, therefore, are always more friendly, and, in the end, more pleasing on extensive areas. Gray colors do not need to be dark in value. They may be light or dark, as will be seen from the value scale.

A satisfactory color under most lightings is brown of various degrees of light and dark, or value. It is the soft color of the autumn woods;

Nature does her part. We must respond by doing ours

it hints at the warming rays of the sun without actually suggesting their extreme heat; it is the quiet color of thought, for we often hear the expression, "He is in a brown study."

Colors for the schoolroom running from the neutral gray through the Y radius are especially acceptable. Here, again, the colors must be reduced in brilliancy. In the case of some small children, and sometimes in that of grown folk, it is "better to be seen than heard"; the adage applies equally well to the walls of a room-they must be very reserved. One should not limit a color scheme to yellows and browns alone. Quiet greenish grays, slightly warm or slightly cool, may prove equally acceptable.

Much depends on the amount of light entering the windows, as well as on the position with relation to the points of the compass. Above all things, strong color should be carefully avoided.

The ceiling should be light in value, and the color of the ceiling may extend down on the wall eight to twelve inches or more, according to the height of the room. The upper part of the wall should be slightly darker in value and may extend to the floor or the baseboard, or it may be broken up by a still darker value on a wainscoting or a wall space beginning at about the height of a wainscoting, perhaps three to four feet from the floor. This darker color may be used also on the door and window trims, the molding, and the mopboards. Whatever the color, it should not conflict with the permanent color of the furniture, desks, benches, and chairs. Subdued colors never conflict. Diagram 2 shows good color-value relations.

Color mediums.- Whitewash should not be used if it can possibly be avoided, and with inexpensive paints on the market its use is quite unnecessary. Though sanitary and clean, it is not suited to the schoolroom as a permanent wall-covering. A tinted calcimine is much better than whitewash; and as the limc contained in calcimine is a carbonate instead of a caustic, a wide range of pigments for color effects may be used.

Perhaps the best of the water-color paints related to both whitewash and calcimine by their. ingredients are those known as alabastine and muresco. They may be mixed with hot or cold water, and the two may be mixed together. Thus any colors may be obtained, and may be applied with a calcimine brush or an ordinary paintbrush of good width. The writer has seen a water paint applied over an old wall paper with a wonderfully fine effect. The bad figure faintly showing through one coat of paint served as a most pleasing decoration. This operation might not always be so successful, but it serves to show the possibilities of decorating over old surfaces.

The best medium, of course, though it is more expensive than calcimines, is a good oil paint. Oil paint should be carefully applied; before the paint dries, the surface of the wall should be stippled by quick touches with the ends of the bristles of a wide brush. Stippling dulls the surface, makes it less trying to the eyes, and produces a soft background. Some paints, however, are designed to dry out dull, in which case the stippling is unnecessary. Oil paints become a part of the wall surface. If a proper quality of paint is used, it can be readily cleaned with water and good soap. Paints consist of a liquid, or vehicle, and a powdered solid, or pigment. The liquid is linseed oil, which, for interior painting, should be boiled. Old plastered walls may be painted with a priming coat of a size (a thin solution of glue), or a regular priming coat of oil, white lead,

and Japan drier; both lead and drier should form but a small part of the whole. The wall may then be treated as is any prepared surface. All these mediums may be readily obtained at the hardware store. Most firms of repute sell prepared priming coats with full instructions.

Wall papers. For schoolrooms, wall paper should be avoided if possible. It is at best unsanitary, especially if used over old paper, and it needs replacing every two or three years. It easily becomes soiled and is subject. to wide changes in color from exposure to light. The extent of fading depends on the quality of the paper, but even the best qualities cannot long withstand the direct rays of the sun. Cheap grades of paper should never find their way into a schoolroom. If paper is used, however, ingrains and oatmeal papers are the most desirable from every standpoint. Figured papers should never be used unless one thoroughly understands the principles of design and how they should be applied. It is well to follow the safe plan of using only plain, unfigured paper when paper must be used -but it must not be forgotten that a ten- or twenty-pound package of alabastine, muresco, or similar mixture is better. Unless paper is put on well, it has a tendency to loosen and come off, thus causing an unsightly room and also providing an excellent place for dust and dirt to collect. Furthermore, the paste used for paper-hanging is likely to sour and breed a foul atmosphere that is injurious to good health.

Walls. At this point it is well to take up the question of the treatment of various materials used in constructing walls, ceilings, and floors. Walls sheathed with matched boards are usually treated with a varnish and left the natural color of the wood. Why this practice is so customary, it is difficult to understand; the usual yellow result is most unpleasing and varies from a dark chestnut color to a light gilt-yellow on the mottled surface. With much less expense, a wood stain of refined color might better be applied. This, followed by a filler or a wax, makes a most satisfactory surface. If the filler is darker or lighter than the stain, the result is most effective. A warm silvery gray, a gray tinged with a hint of green, or a grayed yellow will afford endless satisfaction on an otherwise ugly surface. Paint is also a good medium for this surface, and should be stippled as before mentioned, unless it is a "flat" paint. Walls of artificial board, as beaver board, or plastergon, may be treated as any natural wood or with watercolor paints. When economy is a primary consideration, this material is quite satisfactory and is quickly and easily applied. Plaster is the most satisfactory wall material and should be used in preference to any other. Ceilings. Sheathed ceilings are objectionable from the same standpoint as are sheathed walls, but may be made less objectionable by a treatment similar to that described for walls. Artificial-board ceilings are usually good, but these necessitate paneling, owing to the strips that are used to

Further

cover the seams. For many persons this is an added source of pleasure, and as a means of decorating is often desirable on wall surfaces. reference to paneling is made later.

Like plaster walls, plaster ceilings are always good, but they should be kept light in color, either white or a light value of the general color scheme of the room.

Satisfactory metal ceilings are seldom seen. No doubt they are a safeguard against fire and are of a permanent nature, but, unless they are good from the standpoint of beauty, they are a disfigurement in any schoolroom. Like the average stove, they are usually meek and humble subjects for the application of all kinds of unrelated and scrawly wanderings called "decoration." Fortunately, the nature of the construction has kept

metal-ceiling designs largely bisymmetrical or radial in character. The flat metal would not be stiff enough for use without some kind of support. This difficulty is overcome by a number of dents or creases that are made in the surface. For the most part these creases have been poorly designed, and usually appear like heavy overhanging tiles in relief or show geometric traceries and floral forms unrelated to the general proportions of the

room.

There is no reason why metal ceilings should not be well designed. If simple panels could be produced with the resultant effect similar to that gained with the use of the battens or beaver-board surface, metal ceilings might be most decorative. A good paint is the only satisfactory medium for coloring metal ceilings. If a satisfactory paneling were obtained, the panel lines might be made the color of the walls, the spaces between being lighter. Otherwise, only one light color should be used on the whole surface. Shaded color effects are extremely bad.