THE LAW OF APPROPRIATENESS I have laid much stress upon the value of colour in interior decoration, but to complete the beauty of the home something more than happy choice of tints is required.

It needs careful and educated selection of furniture and fittings, and money enough to indulge in the purchase of an intrinsically good thing instead of a medium one.

It means even something more than the love of beauty and cultivation of it, and that is a perfect adherence to the _law of appropriateness_.
This is, after all, the most important quality of every kind of decoration, the one binding and general condition of its accomplishment.
It requires such a careful fitting together of all the means of beauty as to leave no part of the house, whatever may be its use, without the same care for appropriate completeness which goes to the more apparent features.

The cellar, the kitchen, the closets, the servants' bedrooms must all share in the thought which makes the genuinely beautiful home and the genuinely perfect life.

It must be possible to go from the top to the bottom of the house, finding everywhere agreeable, suitable, and thoughtful furnishings.