INTERIOR DECORATING

It is natural for people to love their homes. From the earliest time men have decorated the places where they live to make hem as beautiful as possible. Interior decoration is therefore one of the oldest of the arts. It is also an important one, for the room you live in affect your life. The best interior decoration makes people feel comfortable and happy. The furnishings of a room are not just for show; furniture should please the people who use it and suit the way they live. Simple rooms are usually the best. If curtains, rugs, and furniture get in the way of day-to-day activities, the decoration is not successful.

The earliest interior decoration came from the desire for comfort, convinience, and beuty. The interior decoration we know with furniture, caroets, and curtains began about the time Columbus discovered America. There is a beautiful palace in Mantua, Italy, where the suite of Isabella d’Este (1474-1539), the Marchioness of Mantua, can still be seen. She had rooms designed that were small enough to be comfortable and private. They were more cozy tha the great stony halls of the palace. Palaces were built in those days to impress people with the wealth and power of the owner. They were not well suited to human needs.

It Is interesting to think about the reasons for certain furnishings. Curtains, for instance, were not hung just to look pretty, but to control light and ventilation (the movement of air).

The way thay people live effects the type of furniture they use. Early American furniture they use. Early American furniture, for example, was very study plain. The first settlers were too busy farming, clearing the wildness, and fighting the Indians to make anything but necessary and useful objects. As life became easier, frontier furniture became more graceful, for the pioneers had more time to spend on making furniture.

Many things continue to affect styles of decoration: world’s fairs, travel to other countries, scientific discoveries, and changes in architecture and building methods. Indeed, one great interior designer may start a completely new school of thought.