THE HISTORY IS RICH
Traditions survive, but you can find precedent for anything you might want to do. Color and pattern have been intense since Pompeii; early American houses wore Prussian blue and salmon, and used wallpaper borders we find almost garish today. Muted tone-on-tone patterns always have been an alternative to more colorful schemes. Paper has migrated to ceilings, and been cut and decoupaged. Mural papers are a reminder that a similar but unique treatment may be done with freehand painting.
Take a stroll through decorating history to find more ideas than you can use in one house—or many. Pattern has come in the form of stenciled decoration, freehand painting and murals, and, especially, in wallpapers. 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. Some historic-reproduction papers will knock your socks off with their apparent modernism or surprising use of color.
Even without pattern, wall finish may signify a style. Troweled finish plaster and specialty textures come to mind, symbols of “old world” craftsmanship. Textured walls are used in Spanish Colonial, Mediterranean, and Tudor Revival styles. Sand finishes—with builder’s silica sand incorporated into the paint—show up in Craftsman ceiling coffers as well as the revival houses.
Three-dimensional ornament goes beyond texture. Plaster, composition, or resin ornaments, and such embossed goods as leather, Lincrusta, and Anaglypta are available in styles from
Neoclassical to Art Nouveau. Embossed tin (metal), too, has precedent not only for ceilings but also cornices and dadoes.
Upholstering walls, or just lining them with fabric, creates luxury. “You feel a hushed intimacy when you’re in a room, or in an alcove, that’s fitted with fabric walls,” says historian and lace lord Dan Cooper. Fabric-lined walls go back to the hung tapestries of the Middle Ages. During the 20th-century Craftsman era, burlap and other coarse textiles filled the spaces between wainscot battens. Silk damask is popular for French or Neoclassical interiors, on the whole wall or fitted into panels. Avoid upholstery-weight goods, as gravity will cause sagging. Fabric may be attached with liquid starch, an adhesive; or by framing the perimeter of each wall with a tacking strip, then stapling the fabric onto the strips. A layer of puffy batting attached to the wall before it’s covered adds sumptuousness and deadens the acoustics. Hide staples with gimp, ribbon, or decorative tacks.
Wood is another material to consider. Beadboard, a 19thcentury standard, has become wildly popular for kitchens and baths, ceilings, and wainscoting. Shiplap boards were once a common interior wall material, later covered over but now seen as a finished wall. Wood shingles or bark have been used in enclosed porches and Rustic architecture. Another choice is tile—for entire walls, as a low or high wainscot, or inserted as a decorative panel or medallion.