Three-dimensional ornament goes beyond texture. Sand finishes-with builder’s silica sand incorporated into the paint-show up in Craftsman ceiling coffers as well as the revival houses. Textured walls are used in Spanish Colonial, Mediterranean, and Tudor Revival styles.

Troweled finish plaster and specialty textures come to mind, symbols of “old world” craftsmanship. pattern (‘Golden Lily’ by Henry Dearle, 1897, still in production).Įven without pattern, wall finish may signify a style. Wallpaper in the fill area over a raised-panel wainscot is a classic treatment, the more so when the paper is a Morris & Co. Some historic-reproduction papers will knock your socks off with their apparent modernism or surprising use of color. The range of designs is indescribably diverse, taking in traditional favorites with vining or flower or bird motifs as well as stylized and geometric patterns. Pattern has come in the form of stenciled decoration, freehand painting and murals, and, especially, in wallpapers. Take a stroll through decorating history to find more ideas than you can use in one house-or many. I can’t help but see white walls as primed for a finish. Nevertheless, it’s downright conventional compared to many of the homes I’ve toured and the options still available. My own 1904 house has shellacked beadboard, Arts & Crafts paper friezes in bedrooms, and pigmented plaster in the dining room. In other rooms, they’re using paper (peel-and-stick?) or a bold color on just one wall. People aren’t afraid of pattern and color, it seems, when creating a jewel-box in a small space. Powder rooms are a favorite place to find a creative use of wallpaper today. A simple border at the top of the wall gave way to a deeper frieze area in Victorian homes, often treated with plaster or compo ornament, an embossed product, or a wallpaper pattern. Where to begin? Consider the style and era of your house muse on favorite colors and patterns look at the proportions of rooms. More often they are the unimaginative default.

Damask relief plaster art