HOUSE AND GARDEN 
May, 1915 
385 
as wide as they were deep; floors were of 
heavy plank and the beams set well apart. 
Since then we have learned that such 
a proportioning was mechanically waste¬ 
ful, and with less material we get much 
stiffer floors. The strength of a beam is 
directly proportional to its thickness, but 
proportional also to the square of its 
depth; therefore a beam 2" x 8" is just 
twice as strong as a beam 4" x 4", for 
2 x 8 2 = 128 and 4x4“ = 64, yet each 
contains the same amount of material and 
costs the same, twice the value for the 
same investment. Therefore we use deep, 
narrow beams, 2x8, 2 x 10 or 2 x 12, 
which are kept from bending sideways by 
cross-bridging of slender stick nailed di¬ 
agonally between them. A line of cross¬ 
bridging also acts as a truss, so that if a 
person stands directly over a beam his 
weight is passed in part to the beams 
each side, and from these to the next, and 
so on, a function once performed by the 
heavy plank floors. 
Now such a construction exposed on 
our ceiling would be most disagreeably 
complicated, but since we find the old 
ceilings decorative and pleasant to look at, 
we try to imitate them. We plane our 
beams, mould them at the edges, or even, 
perhaps, adze-cut them by hand; we make 
them a little thicker than necessary and 
place them as wide apart as we dare. Half 
way up we set our lath and plaster or long 
wood panels so an air space several inches 
deep lies between this and the floor above. 
Sometimes the exposed lower portion of 
the beams is cased with thin strips of 
wood and mouldings, as we showed in the 
detail of our last October’s room; some¬ 
times, with an utter disregard of con¬ 
struction, the entire ceiling is plastered 
and then flat planks laid across it to imi¬ 
tate the bottom of beams ! 
In the style we are describing there is 
no conventional wall treatment. The 
plaster might be sanded and painted, or 
wallpaper might be used over the ordinary 
smooth plaster, paper rich in pattern and 
in color, or else of an even grayish or 
pale or golden brown, toning in with the 
pale gray-brown stain of the doors and 
trim and baseboard. Such a color-scheme 
silhouettes the fireplace in strong relief 
and is a perfect background for paintings 
or casts or any objects that find a place 
there. A white background, on the con¬ 
trary, or even white woodwork, renders 
the concrete fireplace rough and dingy and 
is therefore to be avoided. A pure white 
ceiling, though, is not offensive and the 
expense of a beam treatment you might 
discard. Recently I saw such a room, in 
which the walls were covered with a 
brown, almost dark - wrapping - paper - 
colored silky material, the woodwork 
stained to match it exactly, and where 
wall-hanging and woodwork joined, ran 
a narrow strip of black gimp, returning 
along the ceiling and against the base¬ 
board, which was painted a rather glossy 
black. The black gave a singular indi¬ 
viduality; the room was virile and thor- 
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