What is a Dado?

What is a dado and other obscure-sounding terms ...

Wall elements:

Dado - A dado is a border or panel which covers the lower wall portion, topped with a trim piece or the dado/chair rail.

Field or fill - The wall area between the wainscoting or dado and the frieze.

Frieze - The upper wall portion between the picture rail and cornice. Today it is often called a border.

Ground - The background color of a wallpaper or carpet.

Tripartite wall - A design popular in the 1870s and 1880s that divided the wall into three parts: the dado, field and frieze.

Wainscoting - Woodwork that usually covers the lower part of the wall or dado.

Ceiling elements:

Ceiling rosette - An ornamentation in the center of the ceiling - a central focal point - which was balanced by the corner fans and corner blocks further out. A rosette is usually paper, and served the same purpose as a ceiling medallion made of plaster. These elements provide extra drama for light fixtures.

Ceiling fill - Often a light-patterned paper enclosed by a darker, densely patterned enrichment.

Corner fan - An additional ornament to soften hard corners that could be placed inside the ceiling fill.

Border - The paper between the enrichment and ceiling fill.

Corner block - A decorative block at the corner of intersecting borders, used as an anchor for the design.

Enrichment - A darker, more densely patterned paper which encloses the ceiling fill.