WALLS AND CEILING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 119, 10 August 1927, Page 10

WALLS AND CEILING

THE PART THEY PLAY IN DECORATION. Be good to your walls. The charm and loveliness of many homes depend mainly on the attention devoted to them. When the walls of a room blend perfectly with the style of furnishing and the genera] architeture of the house, the resultant effect is one of harmony. When there is a jarring note-colours that are too bright, paper that is too ornamental, or features that seem out of place—the whole room is spoiled.

It must be remembered that wallcolouring has a little trick of its own—a trick of illusion. As a general rule dark walls make a room look smaller, while the dimensions appear to grow when the walls are light, reflecting the brightening in their effect. Walls may be divided into two classes, decorative and background, While spacious rooms frequently call tor decorated walls, mural decoration requires artistic skill and unusually good taste, and unless one can have the very best, it is better to rely on the background type of wall—which becomes a more subdued affair, a soft setting to show up more vividly furniture, rugs and pictures. Simple treatments for walls are many —panelled, wainscoted, rough sand finished, stone, painted, kalsomined, and papered are the most DODular. Each

is good, if in harmony with the rest of the room. Also, iii the average room, simplicity is always attractive. Cheerfulness, restfulness and harmony —these are the things to seek. Although plaster walls are now exceedingly popular, paper is returning to favour. It is very different from what it was a couple of decades ago, and while the modern home-lover would shudder at a living-room clad in red. with deeper red stripes running monotonously from floor to ceiling, she finds delight in the wall-paper designs of to-day. Ceilings should be in harmony with the walls, and there is no room except perhaps the bathroom) where a pure white ceiling is desirable. A tint of the same colour as the walls, but a shade to several shades lighter, is far better.