HOUSES AND GARDENS 



surfaces are not entirely devoid of this quality. In pattern papers there 

 are nowadays an overwhelming number of designs, many of which are 

 excellent. Of these, one need only mention the famous Morris papers or 

 those more recent designs by Mr. Voysey, Mr. Walter Crane, or others who 

 are content to forego their claims to individual recognition in favour of 

 the manufacturing firms. In the design of wall papers it is universally 

 considered essential to disguise the fact that the paper is pasted on in strips ; 

 and it is suggested that papers might be designed which, repeating only 

 vertically, do not attempt to disguise the joints formed by their edges, or 

 the joints might be emphasised by dividing vertical strips of plain paper by 

 narrow bands resembling in character ecclesiastical laces. 



In choosing wall papers as well as other decorative materials it should be 

 borne in mind that their qualities are necessarily relative to their surround- 

 ings, and this relative suitability should always be considered in preference 

 to intrinsic beauty. 



Another material which has great decorative value on the wall is leather. 

 It should retain its characteristic surface, and its qualities be suggested by 

 lacing the skins together at the edges. 



Whatever treatment is adopted for the walls it must never be forgotten 

 that they are after all chiefly valuable as a background. A room is not 

 entirely a thing to be looked at, but a place to be lived in, and its virtue 

 will chiefly consist in forming a setting for the life of its occupants and the 

 transient beauty of flowers. And it is here that so many modern artistic 

 interiors fail. In the drawing-room with its multitude of insistent patterns 

 you may fill every vase with flowers and they will seem to disappear ; but in 

 a room where the wall has not lost its quality as a background, a single rose 

 will give one the impression that the whole room had been designed with 

 no other object but to show off the curves of its petals. It is here that 

 panelling is so valuable, and against a background of dark oak or 

 mahogany everything will look its best. For woodwork has a quality of 

 tone, a " timbre " which is unequalled. Full tones of green or greyish blue 

 are also excellent background colours in canvases or paper. 



One of the fundamental questions in wall decoration is whether the 

 objects they relieve are to be dark on a light ground or light on a dark 

 ground, and between these two classes are the middle tones. 



As a general rule, and especially in informal rooms, a dark background 

 is the best, because the objects displayed in the room merge into the back- 

 ground instead of being sharply defined against it. Against a wall of white 

 woodwork, for instance, furniture in dark mahogany seems to demand a 

 certain formality in its disposition, and the slightest disarrangement is at 

 once perceptible. But place the same furniture against panelling of 

 mahogany and its outlines are no longer salient, its exact disposition is no 

 longer an essential matter. As, however, it is only the lower portions 

 of the walls which form the background for furniture and people, the 

 upper portions may reasonably be decorated in a less restricted way. A 

 dark treatment of the background portion of the walls may tend to make 



71 



