Paneled Walls

Wood-paneled rooms are very beautiful and are seen far too seldom. While they are of course more expensive, there is still a richness given by a high wainscoting and a beamed ceiling which may compensate for the extra cost. Comparatively inexpensive building materials can be selected and satisfactorily stained, thus eliminating much expense. A paneled wall in natural color wood adds dignity to a library or dining room, while even a bedroom is charming with ivory panels. If pictures are desired on the walls of a paneled room, they should be unframed and merely fitted into the panels of the wainscoting with a narrow molding matching the woodwork. A formal arrangement is most pleasing. One charming bedroom which I saw recently had the entire side walls paneled in deep ivory. On either side of a slender, built-in dressing table a long panel was fitted with a soft mural painting, done in oil on canvas. I have also seen similar effects by the use of good reproductions in lithographs, shellacked after fitting in the panels.

Paneled Walls Give a Dignity to This Dining-room Which Could Have Been Obtained by No Other Means. The Furniture Is of the William and Mary Period.

(Copr., 1916, Good Furniture Magazine).

Inexpensive and Effective as Wall Decorations. The Furniture Is of the Queen Anne Period.

Pictures As Formal Decorations

An equally formal and artistic arrangement of pictures may be carried out in the simpler homes where the walls are painted or papered in a plain tone. Unframed pictures for each room are carefully selected. Then a narrow molding is secured and painted or stained to exactly match the woodwork of the room or rooms in which it is to be used. The finished molding should then be taken to a cabinet maker to be used as frames for the selected pictures. These pictures should have no mats and should be hung flat on the wall with screws and eyes.

The Hanging Of Pictures

When no formal effect is desired and where there is a variety in the style and framing of the pictures, there are several general rules which it is well to follow. In the main, pictures should be hung on a level with the eye, so they can be inspected with comfort. Scenes showing great altitude, such as of mountains, or pictures claiming adoration, as the Madonnas, may, however, be placed above the level of the eye. There should be no pictures hung in the hall and only formal pictures in the dining room. Ancestral portraits and old prints of historical scenes are suitable for the library, while etchings, sepia prints, and color photogravures are charming in the living room. Framed photographs of family and friends should be reserved for the bedrooms, if it is wished to see them on the walls at all. The casual caller has little or no interest in them.

Choice Of Pictures

Original paintings to adorn the home should not be purchased unless the purse and artistic knowledge of the buyer are sufficiently-large to insure true works of art. Reproductions of recognized masterpieces are always safe and may be obtained at very reasonable prices. Millet, Corot, and Jacques, who idealized the life and home of the French peasants, Whistler in his works in black and white, Abbey, Sargent, Kenyon Cox, and many other great painters have given us pictures which are now beautifully copied and which we can all enjoy. Prints of the ruins of the Greek Parthenon or Temple of Athena, the Roman Forum and Colosseum, are also interesting. For informal breakfast rooms and for bedrooms soft Japanese prints are excellent.

Group Arrangement

The size and character of the picture, the size of the wall space, and the character of the other pictures to be placed on the same wall determine the group arrangement of the hanging. Large pictures should be hung alone on a wall space. Small pictures should be grouped together, without any attempt at symmetry. Heavy pictures only should be suspended from the picture molding, and then by two parallel wires, from two hooks. One hook should never be used, as the angle formed by the single wire is unrelated to the straight lines of the wall and picture frame.

Ancient Needlework Used As Wall Decoration

Occasionally the fortunate home maker possesses a piece of fine tapestry. Nothing could be more beautiful hung upon the wall of the living room, if the colors blend well with the furnishings. Old samplers may be framed for protection and hung in the hall above the card table.

Importance Of Careful Selection

The lack of culture and refinement in the occupants of a household is more often revealed in poor choice of pictures and wall decorations than in any other way. As careful attention should be given to this phase of furnishing as to the items more usually considered important.

References

De Wolfe, Elsie The House in Good Taste. The Century Company, New York, 1913. Walls, Chapter V (Oriental Rugs). Duveen, Edward J. Colour in the Home. George Allen & Co., London. Decoration, Chapter VI (A Brief History Of Furniture).

Herts, B. Russell The Decoration and Furnishing of Apartments. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1915. Backgrounds, Part I, Chapter IV (Domestic Rugs And Carpets). Parsons, Frank Alvah Interior Decoration, Its Principles and Practice. Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, N. Y., 1915. Pictures, pp. 251-259. Hanging, pp. 259-263. Sparrow, W. Shaw Hints on House Furnishing. John Lane Company, New York, 1909. Walls, Chapters I, II.