The Beauty of Ornate plaster and timber work, painted to Feature.

In todays world, most housing built on mass is sold with a rather clinical interior with whites being the most dominant color. Even ornate features are treated as a texture rather than a feature and so the scenes, whether floral or architectural are hidden from sight, overlooked and the detail lost.
The craftmanship of decorative painting is diminishing ,however if you want some color back in your life I can demonstrate some tips on painting colors, in proportion, to give a balanced elegant look.

Tip 1. It is best to shade any foliage from a darker color at the stem to lighter at the tip, and with flowers,
darker at the base and lighter at raised parts and finally finish by using a fine rounded sponge to dust a pearlescent paint ( in these photos ,gold) to the raised parts, which creates a soft elegant look.!

Tip 2. Colors used on ceiling roses and battens should also be used on cornices to tie the color scheme together. Break up cornice colors with contrasting colors in the smaller line areas to stop cornices looking like railway tracks.

Tip 3. The best gold paint to use is mica based pigment as it will never tarnish and the most pleasing look is an even part of Jo Sonya, rich gold and pale gold mix.

Ceiling rose detail. Without fine gold detail this would look more lifeless. Proportion matters!

Tip 4. Using a fine rounded sponge, rather than brushes, to paint raised designs (used for the total of the corbel block and the foliage in the cornice) is the difference between a pleasing look, using strong colors, and a very harsh look.
And that is the beauty of highlighting features that create a wonderful home.