C2o—Lancaster Famine, Saturday, Way 2,19&1
Revamp your home with either...
...timely,
BY DEBBIE KOONTZ
LANCASTER - If you’re
looking for just that right “touch of
class” to change your winter-sick
home for a short period of time
(instead of doing costly
redecorating), look to nature for
ideas.
Flowers, apple blossoms, green
tree leaves and plants can bring
the beautiful vibrant colors of the
outdoors into your home.
“Don’t be afraid of decorating
and experimenting with flowers;
do it because it reflects your
character,” says Claude Jones,
Jr., a Williamsburg florist. He
recently presented a program at
the Farm and Home Center.
“You see flowers not only in wild
life, but also in fabric and ar
chitecture,” he explained. “Use
them; they’re natural beauty. You
can’t go wrong in designing an
arrangement because flowers are
beautiful before you even start”
But he did have one piece of
advice to offer those attending,
“Your first attempt is always the
best so put them in the vase or
pitcher and leave it alone.”
And Jones followed his own
advice. Within minutes of begin
ning each creation he had
produced spectacular
arrangements which brought loud
praise and applause from
onlookers, most members of the
..permanent
This begins a three part senes on
home design in conjunction with
three workshops presented by Oons
Thomas, Home Economist, at the
Farm and Home Center. Look tor part
two next week
LANCASTER So you’ve
decided to redo that troublesome
room but you just don’t know
where to start, and you can’t afford
a professional designer. What do
you do?
You do it yourself suggests Doris
Thomas, ExtensionN Home
Economist.
Whether you live in an old farm
house, as most farmers still do, or
in a newer home, everybody at one
time or another gets involved in a
decorating project Thomas says.
“If you can afford a decorator to
do your home, that’s great But
decorators don’t take into account
the family which lives in your
home,” she explained. “Your
accessories are you and you should
display them.”
Thomas advised before begin
ning any decorating project to sit
down and consider: 1. how much
money you can spend; 2. how adept
you are at doing some of the
projects; 3. the ages of your
children; 4. the type and amount of
entertaining to be done in that
room; 5. the color, never try to
carry color in your mind, always
carry a copy of the desired color
with you when shopping.
If you ever envy the way your
friend can turn her home into a
picture from House Beautiful, then
these steps are for you to
remember when you begin
decorating.
The first four points are very
restricted to your budget and
routine, but the fifth category is
wide open and that may be what’s
determg you from moving ahead
with your decorating. Thomas felt
it important enough to devote
Tuesday’s entire workshop to it.
“There are three things to
remember when working with
color: 1. hue, by the names of
yellow, green, red, etc.; 2. values,
beautiful arrangements,
Green Acres Garden Club. Once a
flower entered the green floral
clay, it remained there until the
finish. Jones never replanted any
flower.
Over 200 people witnessed the
flower master produce his art at
the program co-sponsored by the
Farm and Home Foundation and
the Garden Club.
Jones and his art were featured
in the 1960, January/February
issue of Colonial Homes.
His next piece of advice was to
warn the ladies not to throw
anything away.
“If you keep anything long
enough it will come back in style
because style depends (Hi the past a
great bit,” he said.
The first creation to evolve
began with an empty pewter pot.
By simply adding tree branches
full of green and brown leaves and
yellow tulips, he produced an
arrangement any homemaker
would love to juse when en
tertaining guests.
If majority were to rule at this
event, members would have
awarded his lilac and tulip
creation a first prize. This
arrangement consisted of draping
lilacs, roses, tulips and daffodiUs.
About this flower gathering
Jones said, “Never put roses in
without cutting them with a sharp
knife first. Shears dose the stem,
don’t use them.”
inferior decoration
dark and light; and 3. intensity,
dull and bright.
To practice with color create
your own colorwheel or ex
periment with water colors. Don’t
feel childish when trying color
creation; some people spend entire
careers working with color.
To create a colorwheel, draw a
circle and cut it in thirds as you
would a pie. Label one cut blue, one
red and one yellow. These are the
three primary colors and all others
derive from them.
Next draw another line between
each color and fill in green, orange
and purple, making sure to place
purple between blue and red and
orange between red and yellow and
etc.
Color is usually the most im
portant basic to a designer. The
effects of using color can be so
tremendous to any design that not
knowing how to use it could destroy
the effectiveness of any other
qualities.
Color carries with it a lot of
psychological aspects. Warm
colors, yellow, red, orange, urge
and arouse you. Cool colors, blues
and greens, make you feel relaxed
and content and cold.
For an experiment, set the
temperature the same in both a
blue room and a red room and
judge which one feels warmest.
The red or yellow one almost
always will.
Vivid, bright colors in a room
tend to make the objects look
closer and the room smaller. Place
iual distance
0r...
“Place flowers in warm water
before using them so they stay
beautiful longer,” he said. “As a
preservative, try a can of 7-Up, 2
cans water and a tablespoon of
Chlorox.”
But don’t stop at the flowers for
designing, Jones said.
“Lily foliage is great to use for a
hanging effect and Spanish moss is
the best thing to use when covering
the day. This moss also adds
depth.’’
To hold your arrangements,
Jones suggests mugs, old pots,
cans, driftwood and anything your
imagination creates.
“If you use driftwood, don’t be
afriad to join pieces together to
create whatever effect you want,”
Jones said as he hammered two
pieces together.
If you’re feeling particularly
lazy this week or just want to enjoy
your flowers outside a little longer,
go to your nearest apple blossom
tree and break off some branches.
“This is the best way to make an
easy simple arrangement,” Jones
said. “Don’t let public opinion
bother or deter you when you
design.”
After eight creations in an hour
and a half, Jones summed up his
work with these words:
“Remember, a thing of beauty is a
joy forever and it just goes on and
on and on.”
and one with a blue blanket.
Doesn’t the red seem imjch closer?
Use appropriate colors together.
To determine what colors go well
together, look at your colorwheel.
Complementary colors are those
opposite one another on the wheel.
Use these for designing in two
colors. If you want three polors,
follow a triangle on the wheel. For
instance, if you want to use yellow,
try red and blue which complete
the triangle.
If you want to use purple, try
different shades dominating in the
room and yellow, which appears
opposite purple on the color wheel.
Another way to match colors is
to pick a color and use one or two to
the left or to the right of that color.
These are called analogous hues,
for they have a dominant color in
common.
Try your chosen colors at all
hours of the day as light can
greatly change color. For instance,
southern exposures have more
light. You may want to use cooler
colors.
It takes a lesser amount of warm
color to balance a larger amount of
cool colors. For instance, a small
bit of red will balance a large area
of yellow-green.
The larger the area used, the
quieter the color should be.
Remember this also when plan
ning color flow from one room to
another. Don’t use such a drastic
change that it becomes irritating.
Sometimes deciding on step one,
color, can solve all your problems,
If not, look for next week’s hints.—
„ J J justice to this purple, orange,
yellow and red arrangement. But because beauty is in the
eyes of the beholder, you can still appreciate it as is.
Who would have thought
branches and tulips could be
so beautiful together?
Want an easy decorating idea? Dig out those old blue
medicine bottles, fill them with flowers, and they’re ready to
grace your table.
Old tin cans and vases
make perfect bases for
flower arrangements.