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 natural or civilised man, and for this reason we are constantly tempted to disguise the limit and to cover the wall in such a way as shall interest and make us forget our bounds.