Dccoralizr ornamentation of interiors is continually be coming more complex and luxurious, and its extension into dwellings of the cheaper grades has developed extraordinarily during recent years. The introduction of artificial stone and cements susceptible of fine coloring can only be mentioned, with the endless \variety in the application of tinted slates and glass. Tiles in intaglio and enamel produce highly artistic effects in form and color, with moulded and tinted brick, and the innumer able applications of terra-cotta. By the use of these adjuncts, the flooring and walls for vestibules and halls, hearths, and fireplaces are made very eleg,ant at comparatively small cost. The vast improvements in paper hangings also assist in the decoration, as do the ingenious adornments added to the necessary work of the plumber. Carpentry in the hard woods, merely oiled or varnished, has largely taken the place of the former imita tions in graining; which art has, however, also been greatly developed for inferior purposes. As a matter of progress, the substitution of the real and substantial for the imitative and unsubstantial marks an advance in public taste; while at the same time the immense and varied application of science, which beautifies and supplies cheaper substitutes, is also rapidly tending- to the extension of architectural beauty in every direction.
Pail/ling.—Although the primary object of painting, is the preservation of surfaces, yet in work upon the interior of edifices decoration specially applicable to domestic and other uses becomes a subject of importance. According to the present rulings of fashion, the house-painter practises two distinct systems of decoration. In one he merely covers all the wood sur faces with a transparent coat which allows the original g-raining and tint ing of the material to appear, this preservative covering being linseed oil or varnish; by the other method lie covers all the surfaces under his care with an opaque substance which hides the orip,-inal material entirely. In most cases, this was formerly the ordinary white paint, composed of lin seed oil and turpentine containing, white lead or oxide of zinc, to which has recently been added an almost infinite variety of pigments for the pur pose of decorative coloring. It is considered that a successful treatment with paint requires four or five distinct coats, each of which should become perfectly dry before the application of the next. I3y the changes of public taste, a dead or dull finish is sometimes popular, and at another time a glossy one is required. The dull effect is produced by using turpentine solely to dilute the last coat of paint; the glossy effect results from the natural surface of the paint when mixed with oil or equal parts of oil and turpentine.
Grainin;—the technical term for the imitation of the color and grain of superior woods upon those of inferior quality—has been recently brought to a great degree of perfection, and even during- the present prevalence of the taste for carpentry in hard woods a house is seldom completely finished without the introduction of graining. A simple following of nature—
which should be the aim of the painter—is all that is here needed; inferior work is apt to be more pronounced in color and forms and too glaring in general effect. Distemper, or water color, is very successful for graining hi interior decoration when the colors are thin, so that the varnish pene trates into the ground-color, making it as durable as oil color, with an especially soft and realistic result.
Distonficr and Fresco.--\\Thite distemper is produced by mixing whit ing and size, and the colors are made merely by adding the required pig ment to the whiting, in the requisite proportions before mixing it with the size. Superior work in the adornment of walls and ceilings is done by lay ing on the distemper cold, and as thick as jelly. Silicate distempers make an excellent waterproof surface for hospitals, and for such walls as for sanitary reasons should be frequently cleaned with water. The higher form of artistic decoration known as " fresco " is produced by painting with water color upon fresh-laid plaster; the coloring-matter, drying with the plaster, becomes intimately united with it, and is quite permanent in dry situations.
It is found prudent to guard against dampness in plastered walls by covering them with a tint in distemper for the first two years. If the sur face is then in good condition, a coat of oil can be added for a permanent decoration; or, as the wall has then become perfectly firm, the distemper can be washed off, and the more durable oil-paint can be affixed after the sur face has been dried. In oil-coloring, when very clear tints are required, the nearly colorless poppy-oil which is expressed from the seeds of the poppy-flower is used instead of linseed oil. In more careless practice, the first coats under colored paint have been laid in white and the tinting added only in the last coating,. By a better method, the prevailing tint is introduced into the priming coat and all subsequent ones; fractures upon the surface are thus prevented from being so unsightly by immediately ex hibiting the imitative character of the work, and the whole is made more durable.
Alarbling, or the imitation of real marble by painting upon stucco and the finer cements, furnishes a beautiful decoration, and is a very useful ad junct where either the expense or the weight of the original substance is to be avoided; and it has been carried to such a high degree of perfection that its spurious character can be detected only by touch.