HOUSE AND GARDEN 
August, 1913 
warmer color is desired, a coat of orange shellac applied to the 
wall imparts a yellowish tone, the texture of the plaster showing- 
through. A little pigment added to the shellac gives different 
effects, a small amount of Prussian blue producing a golden 
green; a little burnt Sienna a light tan. For an alcove or a 
plastered chimney breast this treatment gives especially interest¬ 
ing results. For those who prefer the opaque, matte tones given 
by paint there are either water colors or oils, applied usually direct 
to the plaster. Powdered calsomine colors, soluble in hot or cold 
water, are easily applied and frequently a whole house (except 
in baths and service rooms, where washable walls are necessary) 
has its walls colored in this medium. A five pound package, mak¬ 
ing nearly a gallon of paint, costs about thirty-five cents, and 
suffices to put one coat on the walls of an ordinary room, two 
coats being sufficient. 
Oil colors, more practical for many rooms since they permit 
washing, are now on the market in a variety of agreeable colors 
and in a matte finish. Walls and woodwork alike are sometimes 
painted with them. 
The cost is about 
one dollar fifty- 
five cents a gal¬ 
lon, a n amount 
that covers at 
least five hundred 
square feet. A 
coat of sizing is 
sometimes, in the 
case of either oil 
or water colors, 
applied to a new 
plaster wall as a 
preliminary. Two 
coats of the oil 
paint are neces¬ 
sary. 
Wall paper is 
for many rooms 
thebest treatment. 
In a figured paper 
the landscape and 
foliage patterns 
are often used, 
the domestic land- 
scape costing 
about seventy-five 
cents a roll, the 
imported ranging 
perhaps from 
three to five dol¬ 
lars. Reproduc¬ 
tions of the famous Morris designs can be bought. Papers of 
pronounced figure are usually employed only for the frieze. For 
the side wall patterns are indeterminate, conventional or foliage 
papers of subdued tone being used. In plain papers, the old 
ingrain make still gives an agreeable light toned background at 
ten cents a roll. The heavier “oatmeal” is thirty cents, while a 
satisfactory darker hued paper is sold at fifty cents. Imported 
papers cost at least a dollar a roll and are better in quality, though 
frequently the same color may be found in the domestic variety. 
A good sized room with drop frieze was recently papered in a 
warm golden brown, the paper, at twenty-five cents the double 
roll, costing the rather absurd sum of one dollar. Japanese gold 
paper, at three dollars a roll, makes an effective frieze. To com¬ 
pute the cost of wall paper for a room, one method is to take the 
dimensions of the room, to get from this the perimeter, so many 
running feet; then to subtract the width of window and door 
openings ; the width of the paper, usually one and one half feet, 
measured, the number of strips required is easily found, as for a 
room about ten feet high a single roll supplies two strips. About 
three pieces should be added to cover waste and fit around 
openings. 
Japanese grass cloth, giving a pleasing texture to a wall, and 
coming in colors positive yet toned, like those of the Japanese 
prints, costs about a dollar a roll. In gray or in golden brown it 
is especially effective. The Japanese imitations of leather, copies 
of various French and English designs, costing about eight 
dollars a roll, are prodigious feats of mimicry that scarcely seem 
worth the doing and must weigh heavily on the artistic con¬ 
science of their makers. The Japanese have shown their clever¬ 
ness in another way that is not really an imitation. A very, very 
thin veneer is made of wood and attached to paper. This is flex¬ 
ible enough to be applied as ordinary wall paper, and when prop¬ 
erly used in combination with woodwork gives the effect of a 
solid woodwork. Papers of this sort are manufactured here as 
well as imported, 
and are an inex¬ 
pensive though 
e ff e c t i v e wall 
treatment. 
Leather as a 
wall covering is 
costly and as dur¬ 
able as the wall. 
Used in panels, 
framed in wood 
strips, it is appro¬ 
priate for the li¬ 
brary. It is com¬ 
monly stained a 
color that con¬ 
trasts with the 
wood. The skins 
might be bought 
of an importer 
and stained after 
the leather is 
moistened 
and stretched on 
the wall. As in 
wood staining, 
two colors, one 
over the other, 
give varied color 
with glimpses of 
the sub tone. 
Fabric is for 
hygienic reasons 
usually confined in the modern house to a frieze, where it often 
gives delightful results. India prints of varying price, Moorish 
tapestry — fifty-two inches wide, at about a dollar forty a yard— 
Japanese crepe at thirty-five cents, silks and tapestries varying 
in cost from a few cents to as many dollars a yard, are materials 
among others drawn upon for the frieze, and giving often the 
exact decorative note required. English chintz or linen, in gay 
figured patterns showing birds and foliage, is frequently used for 
a frieze as well as chair coverings in a sleeping room. The 
material employed, which may be thin, even flimsy in texture, is 
either stretched on frames or is pasted directly to the plaster. 
Whether the kind of wall treatment is settled upon by the 
architect in his disposition of wall spaces, or is planned solely by 
the home-builder, the proper arrangement of pictures, the color 
and the material of wall facings, are matters to be considered 
early in the task of house planning. 
In this dining-room a wood wainscot effect was created by connecting the plate rail and the base¬ 
board with wood strips. Give both wood and plaster a generous coating of enamel 
