walls & ceilings

Take your time and enjoy the many possibilities in finishes. Do a period treatment, or update the idea.

left Established in 1886, Thibaut offers traditional papers in botanical, chinoiserie, and small- scale diaper designs, and many others. below A pastel color scheme makes a confection of an old tin ceiling at a Steamboat Gothic house in New Orleans.

once you discover the decorated wall—time-honored paint techniques and printed papers, embossed surfaces, ornamental plaster, carved wood—white walls may come to feel like the absence of finish, or remind you of the whitewash once used in stables. Options go from subtle to fantastic, and needn’t be copied outright. True colors of the Colonial period include brilliant yellow, Prussian blue and turquoise, clear green, blood red, plus black and rich ivories tinted with grey, yellow, or pink. Strong interior color continued through the Greek Revival or Empire period. By the 1870s the tripartite treatment was fashionable: walls divided into dado (or wainscot) below the chair rail, a fill or field section, and a frieze at the top of the wall. The Arts & Crafts period is often described as ascetic, a reaction against Victorian excess—but, at least by modern standards, the interiors were still highly decorated. Colonial Revival rooms may feature off-whites, cream, and grey.