Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/301

 INTERIOR I'lNlSIllNG OF COTTAGES. ^77 ceilings a sliade lighter, and this efllct may he heightened by a slight gradation in the shade of the wall from the base to the cornice. The manner in which the cornice is painted may also be made to cooperate in conveying the idea of height or the contrary. Small lines and mouldings, and faint shadows, convey the idea of distance from the eye, and the contrary that of being near it. Cornices of small dimensions, in plaster, may ba apparently increased by lines of colour, and members not sufficiently distinct may be rendered so by shades. When the walls of rooms are paneled, the shade of colour of the panel, and of the styles, rails, and munnions, should be the same : but the shades ox the mouldings between them should be lighter on the side on which the ligiit is sup- posed to come ; and darker on the opposite side, as in fig. 518, p. 276. Sometimes panels are formed by lines in imitation of raised mouldings as in fig. 519, which, with the preced- ing figure, may sei-ve to show the method of paneling in plaster as well as in colours. 574. As a cheap inside paint, which a cottager may prepare, and lay on himself, we shall give a receipt for milk paint : we could add a number of others ; but we have made choice of this, from having been assured of its superiority. 575. MM- Paint. Take of skimmed milk nearly two quarts ; of fresh slacked lime, about six ounces and a half; of linseed oil four ounces, and of whiting three pounds: put the lime into a stone vessel, and pour upon it a sufficient quantity of milk to form a mixture, resembling thin cream ; then add the oil a little at a time, stirring it with a small spatula ; the remaining milk is then to be added, and lastly the whiting. The milk must on no account be sour. Slake the lime by dipping the pieces in water, out of which it is to be immediately taken, and left to slack in the air. For fine white paint, the oil of caraways is best, because colourless ; but with ochres the com- monest oils may be used. The oil, when mixed with the milk and lime, entirely dis- appears, and is totally dissolved by the lime, forming a calcareous soap. The whiting, or ochre, is to be gently crumbled on the surface of the fluid, which it gradually im- bibes, and at last sinks: at this period it must be well stirred in. This paint may be coloured like distemper or size-colour, with levigated charcoal, yellow ochre, &c., and used in the same manner. The quantity here prescribed is sufficient to cover twenty- seven square yards with the first coat, and it will cost about three-halfpence a yard. The same paint will do for out-door work by the addition of two ounces of slaked lime ; two ounces of linseed oil, and two ounces of while Burgundy pitch; the pitch to be melted in a gentle heat with the oil, and then added to the smooth mixture of the milk and lime. In cold weather it must be mixed warm, to facilitate its incorporation with the milk. {Smith's Art of House- Painting, 1825, p. 26.) 576. The painting of the walls of rooms in oil is seldom attempted, unless the walls have been finished with a coat of stucco ; but, wherever both can be afiTorded, the result, in point of durability and beauty, is far preferable to what can be produced by water colours. The great advantage of oil colours is, that they will bear washing with soap and water, so that a room once finished with them will not require repainting for many years. 577. Painting the internal woodwork of cnttagrs ought never to be neglected, both on account of its preservative quality and its ornamental effect. All woodwork, avowed as such, should, if possible, be grained in imitation of some natural wood ; not with a view of having the imitation mistaken for the original, but rather to create allusion to it, and, by a diversity of lines and shades, to produce a kind of variety and intricacy, which affords more pleasure to the eye than a flat shade of colour. The most suitable colour for the woodwork of cottages is undoubtedly that of the prevailing timber of the district or country in which the cottage is built; at the same time, where this timber is but slightly veined or marked, it is allowable and advisable to imitate a better description of wood. Thus, in England, the prevailing timber in several districts is fir and poplar ; but, as the wood of these trees is much inferior in beauty to that of the oak, the elm, or the chest- nut, which respectively prevail in different districts in Britain, it would be allowable, .-md what would be considered in good taste, for the painter to iniitate them. In this, as in every thing else, the Architect must be guided by the object in view. If a cottage lie in the Swiss style, the larch and silver fir, being the two woods chiefly used in cottages in Switzerland, should be either procured by the builder, or imitated by the painter. In an Indian or Chinese cottage, the bamboo and other tropical woods, or their imitations, should predominate; and the same principle may be applied to other countries ; always, however, bearing in mind, that the business of an Architect of reason and taste is not to produce fac-similes, or repetitions of objects, but imitations of their style and manner. For the method of imitating woods in painting, or wh-it is technically called graining, as well as for the practical details of the painter's art, we refer to that part of this work where painting is treated of systematically, and also to Smith's Art cf House-Painting, im- proved by Butcher, 12mo, London, 1825, price Is. 6d- 578. The Pi-ocess of Stenciling Walls or Ceilings. Stenciling, said to be a corruption