Interior Wall Treatment Ideas

Interior Wall Treatment Ideas

Walls are the background of a room. Against them we decorate and furnish. Therefore upon them depends much of the success or failure of the room. The study and attention paid them will be amply justified.

Before deciding upon the treatment for the wall, four points are to be considered: The architecture, exposure and use of the room and the furniture that is to go into it.

If the decoration of the interior is to attain any measure of success, the wall finish must be suitable to the architecture of the house and the character of the room itself.

A rough bungalow type of house conveys a spirit that calls for the exact opposite of a finely-pattern papered wall; and a Colonial house should not have a rough plaster-finish interior wall surface. Should we choose an English cottage type of house, we naturally expect the cottage type of walls - plaster with beamed ceilings downstairs and smooth plaster tinted walls upstairs. In a Colonial or Georgian house the walls most consistently should be paneled or wainscoted in white, papered and painted. In an Italian plaster house the walls may be finished in rough cast or hung with some fabric, and the bedrooms should be tinted or painted. City brownstone fronts and apartments call for walls papered, walls paneled in dark wood or painted.

The country bungalow or seashore cottage requires a matched board wall. It is inexpensive, clean and makes no pretensions at decorative effect. The boards should be stained a soft brown rather than the garish yellow pine color finished in orange shellac which is so usual and only adds to the cheap, shiny effect. The walls may be hung with gray-brown burlap with good results. A crudeness in the weave of the burlap suits the bungalow type of structure.

In addition to the architectural requirements of the house is the exposure of the room. We must consider the amount of light the room receives when we plan for the painting of the woodwork and the papering of the walls.

The north room naturally demands a warm tone on its walls but, as each color generally has a warm and a cold tone, we are not restricted by any hard and fast rules. Thus, a north room takes a warm, rich brown with a red or a yellow tone in it; and a south room takes a brown towards the gray, which will be more of a putty color. In both rooms a brown color scheme can be worked out, so that if a living-room is north and a brown room is the scheme desired, it may be had.

In a north room if the walls already have a cold gray paper, much can be done to add warmth by rich and bright toned hangings, upholstery and floor covering. Furniture may be ranged against the wall so as to break up any long, bleak spaces, and at night the cold effect may be remedied by warm colored shades casting a transforming glow. If, on the other hand, the walls are too warmsay a reddish brown the other colors used should be in lighter tones. This will have the effect of subduing the brown. By using green, its complementary color, the red would only be brought out by sharp contrast.

When the wall covering you have at hand is good in color, then all the beauty of it should be brought out by careful selection of the colors used in conjunction with it. If what you have is bad, keep it as inconspicuous as possible, and, by regulating the light let into the room and through other colors used in draperies and upholsteries, make the best possible interior. A room with a very bad wall colorred, green and gilt scroll paperis beyond redemption; nothing can be done to make it attractive. Such a paper dominates every other thing in the room and the proposition is hopeless. In this case only two means can be employed: re-paper, or tint over the old paper, should its condition permit.

While there are some broad general principles which hold in the treatment of most walls, both the professional and the amateur decorator will find that the problem of each room must be met and solved on its own needs. The general rule runs as follows: Walls should be lighter in tone than the floor and furniture and darker than the ceiling. On the other hand there are exceptions to this, as in the case of a room with beamed ceiling and plaster walls or a light hardwood floor with dark wainscoted or paneled walls.

If we are to have any individuality in decoration we must be able to lay aside rigid rules, such as the above, and create our own standards. The courage to do the daring thing in decoration is often the beginning of pleasing and refreshing rooms.

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