PANELS AND PLASTER

This plaster effect is less expensive than 40-cent burlap or ordinary white calcimine or paper.  The picture molding may be at the bottom of the cornice.  Sometimes the cornice is dropped to a level with the tops of the doors and windows (usually about seven feet), leaving a frieze of two or three feet, the molding then going to the top of the cornice.  Ceilings and friezes of ivory or light yellow are usually in good taste.

The living room may carry out the panel and plaster effect, but is more likely to demand a simple paper of good quality with no border.  Here, as in the hall, the wooden (or plastic) cornice with no frieze is suggested.  Grilles are discarded, and portieres are avoided where possible.

THE BEAMED CEILING

In the dining room the beamed ceiling has been found so appropriate that it continues popular.  It is simple, easily maintained, and has the broad, deep lines that put one at ease.  Here it is advisable to carry a wooden wainscoting up to about 3 1/2 feet, the panels continuing to the ceiling.  Tapestry, burlap, or plaster may show above.  Plate shelves are somewhat in disfavor, partly because of abuse and partly because the tendency is to eliminate all dust-catchers that are not necessities.  Where doors and windows are built on a line (as they should be), shelves are sometimes placed over them.  But there should not be too many broken lines if we would preserve the comfortable suggestion of the beamed ceiling.

PAINT, PAPER, AND CALCIMINE

For the kitchen, painted walls, which can be easily wiped off, and resist steam, are preferable to calcimine.  Tiling halfway up will be found still better, but tiling paper, which costs more than painting, is scarcely to be chosen.  For the bedrooms the professional decorators are disposed to over elaboration.  A simple paper, costing 15 to 35 cents per roll, is best, or even plain calcimine, which many persons consider more healthful.  The latter costs only $3 or $4 a room and may be renewed every year or two.  Very nice effects are had in a Georgia-pine panel trimming running to a wood cornice, and in natural wood or painted white.  With this the ceiling should be plain white, and if bright-flowered paper is used, pictures should be discarded.  Lively colors, if not too glaring, give a cheerful aspect to the room, but the safer plan is to stick to simplicity.

In the children’s room a three-foot wood wainscoting is desirable.  Part of this may be a blackboard without costing more, and at the top a shelf can be placed for toys.  Figured nursery papers cost, per roll, from 35 to 75 cents, and will be a never-ceasing source of delight.  If the walls are not papered they should be painted, for reasons that need not be suggested.  Isn’t it wonderful how far a three-foot boy or girl can reach?