These are
general rules, appropriate to all summer cottages, and to these it may
be added, that a house which is to be closed for six or eight months in
the year should really, to be consistent, be inexpensively furnished.
These general rules are intended only to emphasise the fact that in
houses which are to become in the truest sense homes--that is, places of
habitation which represent the inhabitants, directions or rules for
beautiful colour and arrangement of interiors, must always follow the
guiding incidents of class and locality.

CHAPTER X

CEILINGS

As ceilings are in reality a part of the wall, they must always be
considered in connection with room interiors, but their influence upon
the beauty of the average house is so small, that their treatment is a
comparatively easy problem.

In simple houses with plaster ceilings the tints to be used are easily
decided. The rule of gradation of colour from floor to ceiling
prescribes for the latter the lightest tone of the gradation, and as the
ceiling stands for light, and should actually reflect light into the
room, the philosophy of this arrangement of colours is obvious. It is
not, however, an invariable rule that the ceiling should carry the same
tint as the wall, even in a much lighter tone, although greater harmony
and restfulness of effect is produced in this way. A ceiling of cream
white will harmonise well with almost any tint upon the walls, and at
the same time give an effect of air and light in the room. It is also a
good ground for ornament in elaborately decorated ones.

If the walls are covered with a light wall-paper which carries a floral
design, it is a safe rule to make the ceiling of the same colour but a
lighter shade of the background of the paper, but it is not by any means
good art to carry a flower design over the ceiling. One sometimes sees
instances of this in the bedrooms of fairly good houses, and the effect
is naturally that of bringing the ceiling apparently almost to one's
head, or at all events, of producing a very unrestful effect.

A wood ceiling in natural colour is always a good feature in a room of
defined or serious purpose, like a hall, dining-room, or library,
because in such rooms the colour of the side walls is apt to be strong
enough to balance it. Indeed a wooden ceiling has always the merit of
being secure in its place, and even where the walls are light can be
painted so as to be in harmony with them. Plaste