ABSTRACT
The design of ceilings and their decoration varied according to fashionable styles, and range from heavily coffered and paneled to simply allowing the ceiling structure to be evident. In many cases cornices or friezes were also considered important, as they created a distinction between the ceiling and the wall. The use of what is often classed as typical Victorian ceiling treatments was based on various plaster decorations. The use of decorative papers was encouraged by the designer Fred Miller. In 1892 he pointed out that It is a somewhat modern innovation to put pattern papers on ceilings, but it has much to recommend it, since a paper can be cleaned with bread and brightened up two or three times, and will last much longer than a distempered ceiling, besides being richer in effect, and more in harmony with the other surroundings than would be the case with a plain ceiling.
