Simple Wall Treatments That Are Effective 
REASONABLE SUBSTITUTES FOR PANELING THAT ARE ADAPTABLE TO VARIOUS CONDITIONS— 
THE PROPER USES OF THE DIFFERENT MATERIALS AND SUGGESTIONS AS TO THEIR COST 
by Louise Shrimpton 
Photographs by George Doust 
T HE modern room is inevitably a 
box lined with plaster or wood. 
A structural effect, the use of the same 
material throughout the thickness of a 
wall, is practically unattainable. Only 
in an occasional fireplace or in the liv¬ 
ing-room of a camp, is the visible wall 
material other than a facing. This fac¬ 
ing, of wood, or of plaster uncolored, 
painted, or covered with paper, fabric 
or leather, is, however, an important 
factor in house furnishing. The open 
doorway, as a section of wall filled with 
hangings or glass, is equally important. 
In the selection of wall treatment the 
home-builder’s possessions must be con¬ 
sidered from the outset. Paintings of 
value, or bits of rare pottery, require 
a special setting. A wall with such 
strikingly decorative quality that it does 
not show the owner’s treasures to ad¬ 
vantage is an impertinence. The wall 
designed primarily to hang pictures 
upon is of unobtrusive pattern if pap¬ 
ered. If paneled in wood the panels 
are perhaps so contrived that some of 
them frame the pictures, and wall niches are also designed to 
hold choice pieces of porcelain. 
If there are no belongings of artistic value that dictate a mode 
■of treatment, the wall becomes a decoration in itself. A patterned 
frieze or side wall satisfies a desire for interesting design ; or 
flat, uninterrupted wall 
spaces, with accents 
given by patterned dra¬ 
peries in doorways, are 
preferred. Color prints 
are perhaps selected, not 
as dominant features, but 
to harmonize with the 
general scheme, and are 
framed in the wood used 
in the interior trim. 
Whether decorative in 
itself or a mere screen 
for a decoration made up 
of art objects, the wall 
must be considered 
chiefly as a background 
for the owners, a pos¬ 
sibly harmonious setting 
for the women of a 
household and their 
gowns, for the gay, light 
•colors of children’s 
frocks, or for flowers in 
vases. As a background 
it remains subordinate, 
not entering into competition with the 
foreground through violent forms or 
colors. The house owners, who after 
all are of primary importance in house 
furnishing, have in the simply fitted 
house the most becoming of environ¬ 
ments, not a reproduction of some 
historic period that makes modern cos¬ 
tume an anachronism, but walls modern 
in character. 
Color is an imperative need. How¬ 
ever subdued in tone—and our gray 
climate would make the brilliant tones 
of the East intolerably garish — color 
that is beautiful in itself as well as 
forming a suitable background is a vital 
necessity. But in devising color 
schemes the non-existence of absolute 
color is soon discovered. In a suite 
with the same color throughout on the 
walls the results in rooms with differ¬ 
ent exposures are entirely dissimilar, as 
home-builders possessing color feeling 
often find to their dismay. For not 
only is there no direct sunlight to warm 
the wall in rooms of northern exposure, 
but the windows towards the north are more potent as spots of 
color; the sun, behind the spectator and shining full on the land¬ 
scape, turning them into framed pictures often of extraordinary 
brilliancy. These windows must be played up to in the wall deco¬ 
ration. A color warm and pleasant enough on a wall towards 
the south becoming pal¬ 
lid in a north room, a 
warmer, more positive 
tone must be used to 
make them an apparent 
match. We are impelled 
toward the paradox of 
making the colors differ¬ 
ent in order to have 
them alike. As a gen¬ 
eral thing, wainscoting' 
of warm colored woods, 
and wall papers and 
fabrics of rich, full tone 
are appropriate to a 
northern aspect, while 
on the south side of a 
house, walls may be in 
lighter and paler tones. 
Besides the value of 
walls as backgrounds and 
the esthetic considera¬ 
tions of color and tone, 
the home-builder in plan¬ 
ning wall coverings has 
many practical points to 
Built-in furniture is often an essential feature in 
wall decoration. The woodwork is gray, oil stained 
Simple molding for rails and stiles approximates the effect of more expensive solid 
paneling and may be stained in various colors 
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