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A point that
requires much attention in the study of details is, to make the
ornament secondary to the construction, and not the construction
secondary to the ornament. This is the fatal rock on which so
many a good conception for a house has been split. An
inexperienced man, for example, may conclude to have an
ornamental plaster-ceiling in his parlor, and in his desire to
have it good of its sort, he may so load it down with decoration
that it will be much more disagreeable to look at than the plain
ceiling was before it was touched. And so it is throughout the
whole subject of domestic architecture: it is always as easy to
spoil a house by overdoing it as by underdoing it.
Calvert Vaux, Villas
& Cottages, 1867
The
work should be simple, because cheaper in the first place, in
construction, and finish; quite as appropriate and satisfactory
in appearance; and demanding infinitely less labor and pains to
care for, and protect it afterward. Therefore all mouldings,
architraves, chisel-work, and gewgawgery in interior finish
should be let alone in the living and daily occupied rooms of
the house. If, to a single parlor, or spare bed chamber a little
ornamental work be permitted, let even that be in moderation,
and just enough to teach the active mistress and her daughters
what a world of scrubbing and elbow work they have saved
themselves in the enjoyment of a plainly-finished house, instead
of one full of gingerbread work and finery.
Lewis
F. Allen, Rural Architecture, 1852
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