32 COLOR

Colors may differ from one another also in apparent warmth,
distance, weight, and acidity. These qualities in general have no
firmer basis than our feelings about them.

Warmth or Coolness. One of the most important qualities of
color to be considered in interior decoration is its warmth or cool-
ness. Colors that contain much yellow or red are considered to
be warm; those that contain a preponderance of blue are regarded
as cool. Green and purple are each made up of both a warm and
a cool color. A yellowish green is likely to be warm; a blue-green
is cool. A red-purple may be warm and a blue-purple cool.

We probably attribute warmth or coolness to colors because of
their associations with objects that have warmth or coolness. Yel-
low and red seem warm to us because they are the colors of sun-
shine, artificial light, and fire. Blue and green suggest coolness
because we associate them with skies, water, ice, and foliage.

In any color scheme either the warm or the cool colors should
doimnate, equal amounts of each being unpleasant. All the warm
colors are harmonious with one another because they belong to
the yellow-red family, and the cool colors are friendly with one
another because they are all related to the blues.

Some decorators believe that the exposure of a room should in-
fluence its color scheme; for example, a north room should employ
yellow to produce a feeling of sunshine* Other factors such as
seasonal use and climate also affect the selection of color schemes*

Heaviness or Lightness. Studies are being made by psychol-
ogists concerning the apparent weight or lightness of colors*
Colorists agree generally that blue and purple are the lightest in
weight of all colors. Green seems a little less heavy than red and
yellow, which are the heaviest When the colors are grayed they
tend to become alike in weight. In home decoration it should be*
realized that heavy colors seem to belong to the lower part of a
room, to the base. Reds, greens, and browns therefore tend to be
desirable colors for carpeting. Heavy colors are good for a man's
room or a library; lighter-weight colors are usually better in chil-
dren's and women's rooms, depending, of course, on personal taste
and coloring. Heavy colors are usually appropriate for heavy
furniture, whereas light weight colors have a soaring quaEty that
makes them more suitable for furniture of smaller scale,