When I was a kid I used to help my father who did refrigeration work for restaurants, hotels, hospitals, etc. and the service areas almost always were painted with two tone walls as thought they had wainscoting; dark paint up to about the three or four foot mark and then a lighter color.

I am watching the movie 30 Days of Night and the police station holding cell is painted like this. Is this painting scheme unique to North America? Is it a reference to wainscoting or is it just done to help people stay oriented by assisting them to judge distance by the recession lines? It is most often in basements... is it some sort of faux horizon to keep people from feeling clostraphobic in a narrow hallway?

Any one have any ideas about this?

Also, any ideas about the grey and green color schemes used? I figure battleship gray just comes from either mixing left over paints... or maybe white and cheap black... but green is not a cheap color... is it used like in ORs for the minimal after image? Industrial linoleum is also often this specific weird green but I am a bit color blind so maybe the green isn't as weird as it seems to me to be.

I figure there must be reasons for these conventions.

Never thought about this before, but it certainly was common when I was young.
All the older municipal buildings and schools had dark paint, usually bilious green,
below the wainscot line, and lighter colors, usually vomitous pink, above the line.
The pink may have been beige to begin with.  I'd guess the dark was simply to
minimize contrast with the dark chafing and marring of furniture, shoes, etc.

Why green instead of gray?  There are some "psychological" theories about
calming colors vs exciting colors, and green has always been considered a calming color.

http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/color/a/symbolism_2.htm

Green hides sins and stains easier than a lighter color. From hand-height down is 90% more likely to get stained and marred than above that mark. Having been a janitor decades before, that's how it was explained to me. Green is less oppressive than dark blue,black or crap brown, and has less psychological baggage.

Quote - Why green instead of gray?  There are some "psychological" theories about
calming colors vs exciting colors, and green has always been considered a calming color.

Aha, that is why I alway's felt so relaxed in the army :biggrin:

On Topic,
You can also find the two tone back in old bunkers like at the old atlantic wall.
So it might have something to do with the claustrophobic thing.

The othe reason is probably as Ockham sugested.
Agains the marks of wear and tear.

The dark color is in the heavy wear zone. The light color is where your line of vision usually is (for an adult)  That makes it look better even when not cleaned.

Yes, just as Wainscoting prevented permanent markings from appearing on the walls where people might often rest their shoe while leaning on the wall, so too is this paint scheme. Usually the lower paint was of a heavy duty more expensive paint which could be scrubbed, like lead based enamel.

"Usually the lower paint was of a heavy duty more expensive paint which could be scrubbed, like lead based enamel."

Ahhh!  Yes, chalky light paint at top and enamel at bottom. And it is true, other dark colors such as blue would be strange, I had never thought of that.

I am glad I asked... you all have interesting comments...

Do they do this in Europe?

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BTW when I was in University my figurative painting was very out of fashion so I would stretch truly enormous wall sized canvases and paint them with chalk gesso at top and green Rustoleum at bottom and fix light switches, utility outlets and even capped PVC pipe into them. Some had radios built into them so they would not be useless. I also did things like carve briefcases and televisions out of wood and put them on carrying litters, those were also radios sometimes... felt art should be useful then ;)

Even bad art is useful for something. :laugh: Even as a target for artillery. LOLOLOLOLOL

Attached Link: http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/index.php

> Quote - Do they do this in Europe?

Take a look at the attached link and see for yourself  :-)

(Scroll down to the 'Site reports and discussions' section for lots of photos.)