-foot room with a thirteen-foot ceiling
makes the narrowness of the room doubly apparent; one feels shut up
between two walls which threaten to come together and squeeze one
between them, while, on the other hand, a ten-foot room with a
nine-foot ceiling may have a really comfortable and cozy effect.

In this case, what is needed is to get rid of the superfluous four feet,
and this can be done by cheating the eye into an utter forgetfulness of
them. There must be horizontal divisions of colour which attract the
attention and make one oblivious of what is above them.

Every one knows the effect of a paper with perpendicular stripes in
apparently heightening a ceiling which is too low, but not every one is
equally aware of the contrary effect of horizontal lines of varied
surface. But in the use of perpendicular lines it is well to remember
that, if the room is small, it will appear still smaller if the wall is
divided into narrow spaces by vertical lines. If it is large and the
ceiling simply low for the size of the room, a good deal can be done by
long, simple lines of drapery in curtains and portieres, or in choosing
a paper where the composition of design is perpendicular rather than
diagonal.

To apparently lower a high ceiling in a small room, the wall should be
treated horizontally in different materials. Three feet of the base can
be covered with coarse canvas or buckram and finished with a small wood
moulding. Six feet of plain wall above this, painted the same shade as
the canvas, makes the space of which the eye is most aware. This space
should be finished with a picture moulding, and the four superfluous
feet of wall above it must be treated as a part of the ceiling. The
cream-white of the actual ceiling should be brought down on the side
walls for a space of two feet, and this has the effect of apparently
enlarging the room, since the added mass of light tint seems to broaden
it. There still remain two feet of space between the picture moulding
and ceiling-line which may be treated as a _ceiling-border_ in
inconspicuous design upon the same cream ground, the design to be in
darker, but of the same tint as the ceiling.

The floor in such a room as this should either be entirely covered with
plain carpeting, or, if it has rugs at all, there should be several, as
one single rug, not entirely covering the floor, would have the effect
of confining the apparent size of the room to the actual size of the
rug.