HOUSE AND GARDEN 
254 
April, 
I9D 
Passing from the physi¬ 
cal aspects of the treatment 
of halls, we come to a con¬ 
sideration of the several 
ways in which floor, walls 
and ceilings may be dealt 
with. It is not advisable 
to carpet the hall over its 
whole surface. It is much 
better to have either rugs 
or runners that can be 
easily taken up and 
cleaned, for there will 
necessarily be more or less 
dirt brought in from out¬ 
doors. When the hall is 
not of the second or living- 
room type, the flooring may 
often appropriately be 
made of tile, concrete, or 
even stone. We have be¬ 
come so accustomed to 
using the wooden floors 
that we go on laying them 
from force of habit. The 
objection will be made, of 
course, that tile, concrete 
or stone flooring is cold, 
but it may be answered 
that halls not combined 
with living-rooms are not 
intended to sit in, and 
therefore their coldness is 
not a serious drawback. On the other hand, they are subjected 
to more or less hard wear, especially from water and mud 
brought in by wet umbrellas or miry boots, and a floor of one of 
the last-named materials is readily cleaned and does not show 
the marks of wear. Flooring 
of this sort has been used with 
the most satisfactory results in 
a number of recently-built 
houses, and it is a common 
practice to employ it in coun¬ 
try houses in England. It is 
particularly suited for the long 
galleries, which are long halls, 
and have become a somewhat 
popular feature in recent 
American country houses. The 
most satisfactory and sanitary 
flooring of this type is made of 
large, red quarry tiles, but tiles 
of other descriptions may also 
be used, as well as brick, con¬ 
crete or stone. A flooring, 
tiles of irregular surface with 
wide concrete joints between, 
or random-laid stones, are open 
to the objection of incon¬ 
venience and dust catching. 
One of the first essentials for 
hall walls is that they should be 
of sufficiently neutral character 
not to clash or make violent 
and unpleasant contrasts with 
the schemes of the rooms open¬ 
ing therefrom. In the next 
place they should be light 
enough in tone to lighten 
the darkness of a dark hall 
and to brighten an area 
that, in any house, is rare¬ 
ly as well lighted as the 
rooms. The walls may 
suitably be paneled,painted, 
if the plaster be sufficient¬ 
ly good, papered with plain 
and unobtrusive paper or 
left with the plaster sand- 
finished rough, which may 
either be tinted or left its 
natural hue. 
Whether painted, pa¬ 
pered, paneled or sand- 
finished, color must be con¬ 
sidered first. Colonial yel¬ 
low, tan, fawn, light gray, 
light cofifee color, or gray 
with an element of yellow 
in it, may be recommended. 
If there is enough warm 
light in the hall, even 
though narrow, other col¬ 
ors, such as sage green or 
old blue, might be used, blit 
the first-mentioned hues 
will generally be found pre¬ 
ferable. The woodwork in 
most cases should be white. 
With gray walls, however, gray woodwork is often desirable and 
pleasing in effect. Only in commodious balls where there is a 
good light will wood in natural finish be advisable or appear to 
the same advantage that the lighter woods display. 
For paneling that is to be 
painted—while some hard wood 
is desirable — well-seasoned 
poplar, pine or cypress may be 
satisfactorily employed. Plas¬ 
ter walls should not be painted 
unless the surface of the plas¬ 
ter is entirely free from crocks 
and hair lines, otherwise the ap¬ 
pearance of the paint will soon 
be spoiled by its bad backing. 
Paint may be either left dull or 
finished with a gloss. In a case 
of bad plaster, the walls may 
be covered with canvas or bur¬ 
lap, tigbtlv glued on and then 
painted. Plain felt papers of 
desirable color are easy to ob¬ 
tain. It is worth noting that 
some excellent paper is to be 
bad resembling cut Caen stone. 
If a glazed surface is pre¬ 
ferred, some excellent patterns 
are to be found in bright-lined, 
glazed paper of old-fashioned 
pattern. Sand finish, though 
slightly more troublesome to 
apply than the ordinary white 
(Continued on page 312) 
Although in this instance the stairs were built open, it suggests a possible treatment for stairs 
that have been boxed in, a change worth considering in remodeling an old house 
Tiles for flooring in a hall that also serves as living-room are a distinctly decorative 
asset. Rugs will dispell the chill in winter 
