XXVII. Wall Treatment

In t: he internal treatment of the walls of the house, before deciding on any superficial decoration which presupposes they usual formula of plaster and wall paper, it will be well to consider what claims the structure itself has to be displaiyed internally and to what extent these claims should be admitted. At the fireplace, it has already been suggested that the stonework or brickwork of the wall itself is peculiarly appropriate as a setting for the fire. At the windows and doors the wall again may crop out in the form of arches, and in t: he upper part in some cases of the walls themselves. In order, however, io obtain a sense of comfort it is generally desirable that the lower parts of the walls should be finished with a material not too cold or rough to the touch.

It is in the stone house especially that the structure is most interesting, for brickwork is necessarily a little mechanical and monotonous in its effect, and the best stone for this purpose is that which is rather warm in tone.

Let us suppose the case of a hall for instance where the structure is completed with stone-mullioned windows, stone archways to the doors and fireplace, and thee masonry left inside without plaster. Its effect would be a little cold, though it would possess that air of reality which the actualities of building have the power of conveying. In the modern phrase it would “palpitate with actuality,” but it requires a certain amount of clothing to make it appear comfortable. Let us then fix to the walls, to a height of six or seven feet, some wide oak planks, and on a portion of the upper part of the walhs hang a piece of tapestry. The room will now begin to look comfortable, though the superficial finishings will not destroy the sense of structure which they partially conceal. But a treatment of this kind would only/ be suggested where the stonework was good in colour—too good to hide with plaster unless the plaster is the basis for decoration which will compensate for the loss of the structural effect. In the room which thus becomes a decorated plaster box, the result is not an example of the art of building, of which architecture should be the supreme expression, but a purely decorative affair.

In a brick house the extent to which the wall is shown would be more limited—perhaps at the fireplace only, but in finishing the walls with plaster it is suggested that this should only be brought to an absolutely flat surface as a preparationi for decorative work—in the same way that a piece of canvas is strained! for painting a picture on. Plaster which is to be finished with a plain colour should have its characteristic surface and should be finished from the trowel.

In the use off woodwork on the walls, it is not by any means necessary to use expensive and elaborate panelling, and if ledged doors are used the most logical continuation of their construction will be expressed in the use of planks to the; heights of the doors or forming a dado. These planks may be as wide as can be obtained, and of varying sizes, with a simple capping, which in some cases may develop into a shelf. The ordinary stained and varnished dado of V-jointed match-boarding of depressing regularity is an example of the most degraded use of good material. The V-joint represents a clumsy attempt to hide the opening of a joint, due to the shrinkage of the timber, which deceives nobody.

In the use of great planks of varying widths and somewhat roughly finished, the timber still suggests in a far-off way the beauty of the woodland, and still in the varied planes of its surface retains something of its individuality and tells of the workman and his tools; and all this interest should only be given up in the case of a material which, like mahogany for instance, demands a higher finish to bring out its beauty. The wall above this woodwork may either be the stone of the structure or perhaps brickwork whitewashed or finished with trowelled plaster, or if some more superficial treatment is adapted, the plaster may be modelled or stencil decoration may be introduced. All these should, however, possess a real beauty. They should be unique and individual, and few of the superficial decorative materials of commerce will have the same claim to our regard as the structural beauty they conceal.

Apart from economical considerations probably the best superficial material for the walls of a room is tapestry. A wall peopled with dim figures, with trees, with fruit, flowers, and flowing streams, illustrating, perhaps, some legend of “the supreme Caucasian mind,” or of the Knights of King Arthur, or, better still, some story entirely local and peculiar, will be indeed well lost for such adornment, and on entering such a room one will become a member of its goodly company, wandering in imagination by stream and grove in a land where flowers always bloom and fruit hangs ripe on the bough.

Such surroundings are, however, only for those who having the means have also the wit to choose such company for their life, and these are few indeed.

A simple form or wall hanging, and one which will be within the means of the majority, is canvas unadorned. Specially suitable for a house by the sea is the ruddy brown of the sails of fishing-boats, with above, perhaps, a stencilled or modelled frieze of flying sea-gulls in white, grey and blue.

Canvas of its natural undyed colour is also an excellent basis for decoration, or if gilded it forms an excellent background for pictures merging into the gilt of the frames connecting the pictures with the wall, and absorbing them as it were into the decorative scheme, instead of emphasising that detachment from their surroundings which makes the picture too often appear an alien in the decorative community.

A warmer scheme may be inaugurated with canvas dyed a dull red and decorated with stencilling in dim gold, or green and blue canvas may form a basis for cooler arrangements of colour.

If wall papers are adopted the quality of texture must be given up to some extent, though some of the plain ingrain papers with their rough 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 surroundings, 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 background 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 the whole effect somewhat gloomy, and so it is desirable that the upper portion should be in a lighter key, and thus the old formula of dark oak panelling, with white plaster work above, forms a very reasonable solution of the problem. In the use of middle tones for the background portion of the wall it is important that they should keep their place and not compete with the furniture and ornaments. The use of patterns in this connection is chiefly valuable as a means of improving and enriching the quality of tone in the background.

I have insisted at some length on this subject of background because it is the point most readily lost sight of in modern work. The practice of exhibiting specimen rooms has led to a conception of an interior as something to be looked at and admired for its own sake—an arrangement of certain colours and patterns which is pleasing to the eye, whereas the final test of a successful room is that people look well in it. In the modern room the individual withers and becomes but an incident, and often a discordant incident, in a scheme which is complete and self-sufficing. The rooms of the past, the Elizabethan hall for instance, with its wall spaces of dark oak, appear incomplete without their inhabitants, and the individual seems to gain an importance and dignity in a setting so rich and yet so subordinated. Or again, in those French salons, which Orchardson paints, with their wall spaces of white, an elegant company, is still more elegant, though here the white background in emphasising outlines demands a gracefulness of form and gesture which, with the more homely and less exacting dark background, is less essential.

Having decided to what extent structures shall form the decoration of the walls, and in considering the question of superficial decoration, it will be desirable to turn to Nature and think of the pleasantest natural surroundings one can conceive. Thus we may wish to surround ourselves with the green leafage of trees, where fruit gleams golden and blossoms white, where birds cling and flutter in the branches, from between which one catches glimpses of the blue sky. Here, where the greater part of the wall-surface is covered with leafage, the pattern becomes naturally a better background than if flowers are the motif, for, in conventionalising these, it may become necessary to tone down the brightness of their colouring if the pattern is used on the lower part of the walls, and they are, therefore, perhaps better adapted for the decoration of friezes.

But a certain reasonableness should govern the decorative scheme of the wall; and just as one should not be obliged to walk on flying birds and trees laid out flat on a carpet, so flowers in the frieze should not bloom over tree tops.