Studio: international art (5.1895)

The Decoration of the Suburban House

be so few that the wall becomes eligible for more pictures ; but supposing him to be the happy
pronounced decorative treatment ? Much is to be possessor of a harmoniously decorated room, he
said in favour of the latter alternative, because it will will be at once soothed and charmed by its very
always be wiser to lay out the sum at our disposal atmosphere. It will not be necessary for him to
on a few good pictures than on many inferior ones, study the pattern of the wall-paper or the carpet to
It may be questioned, too, whether the decorative feel the influences imparted by the ordered beauty
treatment of the walls should give place to pictures of his surroundings. It is in the air like music,
in rooms which are occupied from day to day. If and a man may leave such a room without being
we imagine the tired man of business returning to able to render an intelligible account of anything
his suburban home in the evening, it can hardly be in it, and yet have felt its charm to the full,
supposed that he will be in a position to make the In view of the important part which the wall-
special mental effort involved in inspecting his paper plays in the decorative effect of the room, it

seems desirable that great
attention should be given
to the possibilities of its
design, and a few ex-
amples are here submitted
of wall-paper schemes
which are more ambitious
in their aim than the
usual " all over" back-
ground paper.

The usual system of
papering a room may be
said to consist in pasting
vertical strips side by side
to form what may be
termed " the field," and
above a horizontal strip,
called the frieze, which is
divided from the field by
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"kingswood" frieze designed by m. h. b. scott