ants'
bedroom is hardly a part of house decoration, but in truth house
decoration at its best is a means of happiness, and no householder can
achieve permanent happiness without making the service of the family
sharers in it.

What I have said with regard to painted walls in plain tints applies to
bedrooms of every grade, but where something more than merely agreeable
colour effect is desired a stencilled decoration from the simplest to
the most elaborate can be added. There are many ways of using this
method, some of which partake very largely of artistic effect; indeed a
thoroughly good stencil pattern may reproduce the best instances of
design, and in the hands of a skilful workman who knows how to graduate
and vary contrasting or harmonising tints it becomes a very artistic
method and deserves a place of high honour in the art of decoration.

[Illustration: 1, AND 2, STENCILED BORDERS FOR BATH-ROOM DECORATION: 3,
4, AND 5, STENCILED BORDERS FOR HALLS (BY DUNHAM WHEELER)]

Its simplest form is that of a stencilled border in flat tints used
either in place of a cornice or as the border of a wall-paper is used.
This, of course, is a purely mechanical performance, and one with which
every house-painter is familiar. After this we come to borders of
repeating design used as friezes. This can be done with the most
delicate and delightful effect, although the finished wall will still be
capable of withstanding the most energetic annual scrubbing. Frieze
borders of this kind starting with strongly contrasting colour at the
top and carried downward through gradually fading tints until they are
lost in the general colour of the wall have an openwork grille effect
which is very light and graceful. There are infinite possibilities in
the use of stencil design without counting the introduction of gold and
silver, and bronzes of various iridescent hues which are more suitable
for rooms of general use than for bedrooms. Indeed in sleeping-rooms
the use of metallic colour is objectionable because it will not stand
washing and cleaning without defacement. The ideal bedroom is one that
if the furniture were removed a stream of water from a hose might be
played upon its walls and ceiling without injury. I always remember with
pleasure a pink and silver room belonging to a young girl, where the
salmon-pink walls were deepened in colour at the top into almost a tint
of vermilion which had in it a trace of green. It was, in fact, an
ad