BLACK CEILINGS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 35, 10 August 1921, Page 15

BLACK CEILINGS

Isiack ceilings ? At first flush the idea seems rather ridiculous; yet the tuna is coming, perhaps, when black ceilings— for bedjooma in any case—will bo a conventional feature of every house (observes the Architects' Journal). It is generally forgotten that plain, whitewashed osilings date from the early Victoiiati period, when, aB a result of the heavy hangings j^nd curtains then the mode, it was absolutely essential .to'have a large expanse of reflecting surface,'" in order to get any light into the rooms at all. With'tho departed of the gloomy trappings of tlie Victorian era, the' need ior the whitewashed ceiling has also dasappeared. The consequance is that today . tho average room of tho average house is, if anything, rather glaringly bright. Far too littlo attention lias hitherto been paid by English architects to internal colour decoration, but we 'believe that the time is not far distant when tho colour treatment of wall and ceiling- surfaces will b« part and; parcel of everyday architectural practice. A great deal of attention has been given to the subject in America, and the movement has made far greater progress th^Td than it has on this side of th(j Atlantic. We hear of decorative scheraw oawfully worked out for different roossjlo^C and ceiling surfaces coloured S-i ! -ratffe different purposes, situations, al\&; Sspaoia. Black ceilings, it seems, are SEfc litßy thing for bedrooms, wtort, tlie eSMfa&I purpose being repose, it is obvious iWa'; a white surfaoe directly oprjetted to the eye is exactly the opposite of what is required. We'do not suppose that black ceilings, so far as this country is concerned, are properly appropriate to any room, but ai .bedroom, for in this dull northern clime we want as much light as possible in our rooms, provided that the tfoality 13 correct; but even for such apMtmanta as dining-room, drawing-room, Kb'.tiry or ftud.y, there is no real necessity ft>J" a white coiling. In such, cases a suificSeittly emciacious reflecting surface migW; \>o provid'Bd by something less d'istT*o£aj!g£y brilliant—pale shades of prey o? ( Mj&», for example. In colourintr our caiiags we should.be doing notliing new ojt original—merely ■revorting to a practice abandoned somewhere about the beginning of last century.