asy to err in misapplied decoration. The advance from perfect
simplicity to selected and beautiful ornament marks not only the degree
of cost but of knowledge which it is in the power of the house-owner to
command. The elaboration which is the privilege of more liberal means
and the use of artistic experience in decoration on a larger scale.

The smaller house shares in the advantage of beautiful colour, correct
principles, and appropriate treatment equally with the more costly. The
variations do not falsify principles.

CHAPTER VIII

WALLS, CEILINGS, AND FLOORS

The true principle of wall treatment is to make the boundary stand for
colour and beauty, and not alone for division of space.

As a rule, the colour treatment of a house interior must begin with the
walls, and it is fortunate if these are blank and plain as in most new
houses with uncoloured ceilings, flat or broken with mouldings to suit
the style of the house.

The range of possible treatment is very wide, from simple tones of wall
colour against which quiet cottage or domestic city life goes on, to the
elaboration of walls of houses of a different grade, where stately
pageants are a part of the drama of daily life. But having shown that
certain rules are applicable to both, and indeed necessary to success
in both, we may choose within these rules any tint or colour which is
personally pleasing.

Rooms with an east or west light may carry successfully tones of any
shade, without violating fundamental laws.

The first impression of a room depends upon the walls. In fact, rooms
are good or bad, agreeable or ugly in exact accordance with the
wall-quality and treatment. No richness of floor-covering, draperies, or
furniture can minimise their influence.

Perhaps it is for this reason that the world is full of papers and other
devices for making walls agreeable; and we cannot wonder at this, when
we reflect that something of the kind is necessary to the aspect of the
room, and that each room effects for the individual exactly what the
outer walls of the house effect for the family, they give space for
personal privacy and for that reserve of the individual which is the
earliest effect of luxury and comfort.

It is certain that if walls are not made agreeable there is in them
something of restraint to the eye and the sense which is altogether
disagreeable. Apparent confinement within given limits, is, on the
whole, repugnant to either the natur