Wall decor. function of walls. Variants of wall décoration. Original design.

Walls are probably most noticeable and important part of interior.
When entering into room one notices color, kind and surface of wall straight away, together they determine psychophysiological atmosphere in room. No wander that special attention is paid to walls in interior of house. We all want walls of our house to be beautiful, cozy and safe no matter how differently we see joinery of walls or what ideas we have about it.

From earliest times man tried to implement in practice his need to create decor of interior of living place: wall paintings in caves, frescos in Egyptian tombs, raised work on walls and columns of temples, frescos in Antique houses, frescos and mosaic in Christian temples, raised work and sculptures in Roman and Gothic churches and that sort of things.

The function of walls, which is called in this article "intermission", that is a made-up word, is to create space where a person feels comfortable. A lot has been said about optical characteristics of walls, which are able to constrict and widen space between them, to influence illumination and give it a special kind of character. We were talking about walls as of an abstract thing, and its main parts were considered to be form and dimensions. Now it is time to talk about thing which gives real character to walls - their joinery.

"Start with walls" - this is rule, which should be observed while decorating house.
While thinking over joinery of walls one should remember about order of work: material - color - design; that means that material for joinery should be chosen first, then color and design. availability of materials, which is offered by producers, is rather extensive; most widespread materials have already been mentioned in "Materials for Household" chapter. It is important to choose right material, which would correspond with image that you would like your building to have.

The logical order of choosing should be based first of all on functional purpose of building; its dimensions (big - small), to which part of world it is oriented (cold - warm), character of illumination (light - dark).

Definitely, main principle of choosing material for joinery can be most mediocre: "cheap and nasty".

No doubt, even this principle can bring some good results, if it coincides with those numerous rules and peculiarities, which give optimal solutions.

If possible, natural materials which let in air and have low temperature conductivity ("warm") should be chosen for bed-sits. These materials are wood, plaster, paper and textiles.

Materials with smooth and matt surface should be used for small living rooms. These materials are smooth wallpaper (not embossed), smooth plaster painted with glue-water color and panels from wooden materials painted with vanish or decorated with wood veneer from hardwoods which have badly-marked annual rings.

There should be light wallpaper, plaster painted in light color and timber of materials in dark rooms.

The coloring and structure of materials in small rooms should be self-colored: wallpaper should have reasonable and small wallpaper design, plaster should have pastel shades, texture of wood materials should be small and tame, which is typical for some wood species.

These are main rules which should be observed while choosing finishing material for walls. All rest will depend on how colorful you want your walls and all room to be.

If you want interior to be a little bit rough then even wooden furring will do. texture of branch timber of pine or fir is very suitable for a country house, for instance. A wall, one third of which is encased with wooden panels, will make room look businesslike and official, which is very convenient for a study and practical for a nursery.

It is also possible to turn walls inside out: use brick laying and interior will have solidity and realism. It is important to remember though that surface of wood, stone or brick is perceived in a family way when looked at closely and requires a large room.

Manufactured construction materials have a special role, they imitate surface and form of wood or stone, they also imitate a construction of wall, which is not common to it. reference is to wallpaper, tile and sheeting, which imitate brick or stone laying, banded rustication of walls, marble or ceramic tile and so on. There are no particular objections against such a way of making walls attractive, as if they were covered with wood or stone; and it is widely used as it is cheaper and even sometimes more practical than original materials. It is only important to make them look realistic so that they do not give away a badly made forgery from first sight.

Avoid using cheap and unskillful forgeries which imitate stone, brick or wood - walls are perceived as bad as forged material.

If you want so much your walls to look like marble or brick try to find finishing materials which are able not only to imitate texture of these materials artistically but also to imitate surface of this texture. For example, there is ground paper wallpaper, sheeting and tile materials which really even by-touch imitate surface of plaster, marble and brick. They are expensive, but of cause not as expensive as natural materials.

Walls covered with wood, stone, ceramics and textile are very expressive and informative.
Wallpaper "speaks' only with help of design on wall, and that means that their main function is decorative one; on other hand wood or stone, ceramics or plastic, metal or textile as cladding give information about material they are made from, and as a result about their peculiar features.

Such informativeness is main advantage and at same time main disadvantage of "constructive" cladding: it creates effect of naturalness and safety of walls, which is subconsciously perceived as a positive effect; but this effect on its turn makes walls very noticeable and even sometimes annoying in rooms which have small area, and is psychologically not comfortable.

That is why joinery of walls with natural materials or their imitators should be preferably used in utility rooms and not in living rooms.

smaller elements of cladding are (slabs, rods tiles and so on) more unquiet wall looks as joints reflect light.

It is coursed by fact that elements of finishing material form joints, and smaller elements are thicker grid of these joints covers wall. Any surface which does not have joints seams to be smoother than a surface with joints, even if they are performed in a decorative way. When a world famous designer was asked what wall seamed most pleasant for him, he answered: "even, smooth and white".

People may have different opinions concerning these facts, but it has become popular world wide to follow tendency to use plaster with following painting them in light colors of pastel shades or light wallpaper with small nonintrusive design which does not have noticeable lines for living rooms. Such walls are considered to have neutral emotional influence on a person. And there is no point in arguing fact that modern people who feel psychological pressure every day need to be surrounded by calm walls.

Though, famous proverb "tastes differ" makes us continue this talk about possibilities, advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of joinery of walls. Walls covered with wood, colorful paper or textile wallpapered are much warmer than those covered with painted plaster, nothing to say about walls encased with stone or plastic materials. What is more, way how finishing materials are made influences visual perception of dimensions of room.

It is possible to diversify design with help of wooden rods or wallpaper with distinct linear-striped design. When lines in design are well seen then walls may seem higher or have zigzag salience or vivid neutrality of perception of their dimensions.

Variants of wall décoration :
- walls seem optically higher when they are decorated with vertical rods or vertically put wallpaper;
- walls seem lower than they are if they are belted with horizontal lines;
- herring-bone makes walls look estranged and cold, that is why it should be of calm color shades;
- diagonal "hatching" with wooden rods shows real dimensions of walls and is very original in design.

Covering walls with wood gives a wide range of opportunities to vary forms and dimensions of elements, but walls covered with wood have a strongly marked character of design color. That is why it can not be ignored while decorating and creating other elements of interior (while decorating floor and ceiling, while furnishing room and putting elements of decor into interior).

While choosing variants for décoration one should bare in mind factor of its durability. Expensive and time-consuming décoration from natural materials and their artificial imitations is supposed as a rule to serve for a long time, what is already positive. But on other hand, fact that we get used to a thing can lead to a situation when we are annoyed by wall and then appears a firm desire to change "décorations"; but it will be not easy to do, and sometimes impossible, for some technical reasons.

What is more, materials can simply get old and can be damaged as a result of careless exploitation or wrong handling. Holes must be drilled in such walls once and forever because it is almost impossible to seal them so that nothing is seen. furnishing of room should be appropriate, and changing furniture can become a really difficult task. joinery of walls should not have a marked design or unusual color.

In this context wallpaper and colorful laying have a big advantage in comparison with long-lasting finishing materials, which are made from wood, stone or rigid plastic.

Many of you know pleasant feeling of a new interior after wallpaper has been changed or walls have been repainted. However, desire to change something is not close for everyone, and those who can not stand it will probably consider argument about addiction shabby.

To achieve something out of ordinary and vivid for interior walls of one room can be decorated with different wallpaper or different materials. For example, wall, door or window niches can be decorated with wallpaper of different design and color from wallpaper of room; or they can be painted in a different color than that of rest of room or a different material can be used for this purpose. It is important to observe principle of harmony of color and facture of material. compatibility of color and design of two kinds of wallpaper must be checked before buying, by comparing unrolled wallpaper.

most popular kinds of wallpaper are considered to be photo wallpaper and picture-wallpaper; it is a modern industrial implementation of ancient genre of mural fine arts.

Even in Middle Ages in Western Europe walls of castles and palaces were decorated with huge tapestry - canvas carpets with weaved genre pictures. Designing walls with pictures showing landscapes on whole surface of wall was already used in me val Far East. For instance, in reach houses of Japan and China a wall-picture used to be only décoration in room. Nowadays art paintings and tapestry in households with middle income are replaced with photo wallpaper and kit of wallpaper where different artworks are depicted; usually they are designed for a wall with certain dimensions.

If correctly used, photo wallpaper and picture-wallpaper can give interior an unusual and original character. For instance, a landscape photo where a far horizon is depicted can cause an optical effect of absence of wall as if house is situated somewhere in wilds. Picture-wallpaper has a high degree of emotional influence. Needless to say that such kind of décoration is effective only in big rooms, as illusion of presence in landscape or in some other genre scene is reached (the same as in cinema) with help of distance between wall and a person. In small rooms large elements of picture on photo wallpaper and picture-wallpaper can cause only effect of visual imminence of wall and can irritate a person, who is bound to stay close to picture-wall. Photo wallpaper should be placed on wall which is situated opposite window.

To create an atmosphere of comfort walls should not only be "dressed", but they also should be alive, and for that they must talk. Joinery is only a middle element in art of interior; a word is also need with help of which they will get their individual character, and that in its turn will illustrate individual character of owner of house.