ROOM PROPORTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19889, 7 March 1928, Page 7

ROOM PROPORTIONS.

THE WALLS AND THE CEILING.

Everybody realises that; in decoration the proportions of the room are of paramount importance. There are box-like rooms in which everything seems to be commonplace without its being very easy to detect the reason, states a writer in an exchange. There are others of similar shape into which everything seems to fit naturally. The expedients of the dado and the frieze, are, of course, a great help in dealing with room-proportions, but it is not always realised how very much attention should be paid to their colouring. The top of a room may be brought down, for instance, by colouring the frieze exactly like the ceiling. Similarly, the floor of the room may be brought up by making the dado like the floor. This can be done to the greatest advantage if the dado be actually made of boards or of panelling.

Where this process is too elaborate the floor may be stained black or dark brown and the dado and the door be painted in exactly the same tone. This is inconspicuous. and it has the effect of bringing the room into the required proportions. Rather more subtle is the regulating of the height of a room by means of shelves or cupboards. These should never be very high, or you risk giving the room a lanky appearance. If the cupboard fits into a niche it can be fairly high, but shelves should never reach higher than the door. Rather short shelves which are not too high look as well as anything and give the room pleasantly wide proportions. Much can be done by means of wall-colouring. The present method of painting walls in different bands of colour, generally irregular, must be definite but not conspicuous. Sometimes there is a fortunate accident of structure which helps in giving good proportions to a room. In one case there was a jutting-out piece of plaster round the top of the room which looked rather like a beam. As the room was too attenuated in appearance the shape of this plaster offered an excuse for painting it black, as though it really were a beam. This was only an expedient, but it made a great difference to the proportions of the room.