Evening star., 1926-11-20
WALL TREATMENT FOR THE
LIVING ROOM.
By GENEVIEVE HENDRICKS.

Now that we have made a fairly
fefinite decision as to what we want
Jur living room to express. and have
8. mental picture Of how we want II
o look, we have made a good be.
inning toward decorating the chief
DOM in our house. We have, also
tudied and decided upon the archi
tectural features that need to be built
n. have decided upon the type OF
lnantelpiece to be used. and have
,vorked out a general scheme for the
)cation of our furniture for this room
nd we are now ready to begin the
.-ctual work Of decorating.
Our next problem, naturally. Is the
background. This. Of course, means
he wall treatment, as we'll as the
ioor covering. This latter subject,
icing an important one. will be treat
d separately in a later article.( This
natter Of wall treatment is no simple
roblem. II we err in this. no amount
4 fine furnishing or careful decora.
ions will ever make up for 1t.
In deciding upon our wall treatment
We must consider, not only the tex
ure and type of the wall itself. but
Llso the color scheme we wish to
.tdopt for our room, and also the ap.
Jropriateness Of the type OF wall
covering to the furnishings we wish
20 INSTALL AL the IOOIl. AlSO, hiOoL VA
us must consider our pocketbooks.
Fads in Wall Decorations.
Wall decorations have their fads and
cancieS as much as wOmenS hats or
mems neckties. In fact. ever since
tone walls gave way to hand-trow-
led plaster and paneled wood to fiat
,laster, one vogue has followed an
,ther in the search for the perfect
vail.
The barren stone wallis Of the earli-
cst houses were, Of course. cold. both
o the eye and in actuality. AS peo-
Die came to desire more comfort and
more beauty about them, they looked
lbout for something to cover these
walls and to keep out drafts and cold
tir. Tapestries we're developed large
" to meet this need and were at
me time almost the exclusive decora-
ions used on the walls OF great pal
ices. Tapestries hung on all sides or
he room naturally were inconvenient
eor those who wished to enter or
Ages" the space behind the tapestry
left a very convenient spot for an
assassin to hide with his dagger.
These may have been contributing
reasons why people looked about FOR
another method Of wall covering. The
answer to this was paneled walls
which have been used through all
ages up to the present time.
At first when wood was plentiful
and paneled woods were not pro-
hibitive In price, they were used quite
commonly. But as lumber became
scarcer this medium became too ex-
pensive for the majority Of home
owners and now there are but few or
US who can afford a room paneled In
wood. lovely and desirable though 1t
may be.
Wallpaper Came Later.
Many Of the early wooden walls
were painted and decorated. When
these became expensive and a substi-
tute was necessary some one conceived
the idea of covering the walls with
papers that would simulate the
painted wooden wall. From these ear
liest Wallpapers, at first so carefully
drawn and beautifully colored, many
of them hand blocked and others
hand colored, we have become heirs
10 the common wall covering useo
today, our modern wallpaper.
The first papers were painstak-
tngly made and were and still are
Joy to behold. But as labor became
more expensive and as a desire for
speed in manufacture became more
important than careful drawing and
planning. papers became worse and
worse until early in this century the
majority of papers put on walls Of our
homes were bad in color, heavy In
design, firing to the eye, and In
almost every way undesirable. Who
Of us can remember the goblins and
demons that jumped out at us from
the gIar'ing papers of 20 years ago?
Luckily. figured wallpapers became
so bad that public taste revolted and
q violent reaction set in. 1t was no
longer the thing to do to have
satin papers or those heavy with gilt
and strong color in our rooms. Moth
ing but plain tan walls with white or
cream woodwork would do. While
these plain wallis were a. thousand
fold better than the Saudily papered
ones preceding them. they in their