I r < 05737 UC-NRLK «t , I #1-. ''A :4' : ' • HI ? £v\(< ' < f> I, * '1 « l' ^ r >t ^- J im^ i 1 1^ , ■1 lAl . » . > L' "' t ' • 11,1 li $C .3b 4T7 ■7 .iV, WHAT MAKES THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL WHAT MAKES THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL ^ Collection of "Building T^etails with ^i^KCeasured T>rawings Edited by HENRIETTA C. PEABODY The ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS BOSTON p^ Cofyrigki, igzo, by THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS, INC. , » ■»•»■> Contents Foreword ....... 7 The Entrance to the House 8 Inside Finish ..... H Stairways ....... 20 The Bookcase as an Element of Design 25 The Fireplace and Its Over-Mantel 30 Panels and Ceiling Beams 38 Some Attractive Breakfast Corners 45 China Cupboards .... 48 Closets and Wardrobes 55 The Serving Pantry .... 60 Kitchen Details and Their Arrangement . 64 464058 F holograph by Julian Buckly The side entrance of a house in New Hampshire designed by the well-known aichitect, Bulfinch, designer of the Massachusetts State House. It is notable for its strong but well-considered projection from the house and for the interest achieved by simple means. All the mouldings and surfaces are applied with careful attention to their rela- tion to one another, and the shadows cast by one part upon another part. The strong black of the head-light is repeated effectively in the black of the hardware. Foreword To the architect^ the exterior and interior of the house pre- sent a single problem. Neither is conceivable without the other, and details of each are successful only as they relate to his concep- tion of the whole. The average home builder, on the contrary, goes to his architect with a very clear conception of the inside of his house, but with practically no idea of the manner in which his requirements are to he met and held together in terms of an ap- propriate and satisfying exterior. The architect is then confronted with a problem, the limitations of which do not allow him to use the creative powers necessary for the accomplishment of his best work. In spite of this seeming obstacle to a complete understanding be- tween architect and client, much successful work is achieved in the end by intelligent cooperation. The purpose of this book is, therefore, to suggest by means of ma- terial drawn from a number of sources, various solutions of such problems as are likely to come up for discussion between architect and client in the planning and building of the home. There has been no effort to exhaust any of the subjects treated, but merely to present, chiefly by illustrations and drawings, such casual examples of detail work as would seem to lend themselves to the purposes of designers and would-be owners of beautiful homes. To T^he House 'beautiful iMagaz.ine is due the credit for a large number of illustrations which have appeared from time to time in that publication. The Editor is also indebted to Miss Pamelia I. Haines, Mr. Thomas P. Robinson, Mr. W. Nelson Wilkins, and Mr. Edgar T. P. Walker, without whose counsel and encourage- ment this book could not have been accomplished. The Entrance to the House Doorways are focal points and should have an interest and import- ance in proportion to the size and pretentiousness of the house. This can be achieved by means of size, color, or scale, singly or in combination. The larger a doorway is, relative to the house, the more conspicuous it is; but it may easily be too large. If a house requires, or will stand, a large doorway, size may be achieved by legitimate means. The door itself ought not to be larger than the doors in common use. This, the central andimportant part of the doorway motive,can be enlarged in width by means of sidelights, pilasters, columns, etc., and in height by means of transoms or fan-tops, immediately above the door; also by archi- traves, frieze and cornice, and round or square pediments above these. If the doorway is a different color or value from the color or value of the house, it will gain importance. The safest thing is the light door- way against a darker house. The dark doorway against a house oi lighter value is seldom right, though the door itself is often darker. Scale, as here used, means size of parts relative to other parts, as well as to the house as a whole. A plain doorway becomes interesting and important when placed against a much-broken-up wall-surface, as or narrowly spaced clapboards, or a richly detailed doorway when placed against a plain wall surface. In the same way interest and importance are gained by contrasting plain with detailed surfaces in the various parts of the doorway motive itself — as by a fluted pilaster against a plain ground, or a moulded architrave contiguous to a plain frieze. ^ A DOORWAY built up in size by use of pilasters, entablature and pediment, emphasized by color treatment, and studied for con- trasts, in detail, of part with part. Line drawing on page 9. Built up by side-lights and pilasters. Panels used in place of either transom or frieze to gain height. Line drawing be- side photograph. "Door T^ancl ////// SVoiit? >56cfion "A- A" 5ca(e ]/£ - f'-o" Jl^n of cJa^TTib xi' idx!!?'"^- 5ecf')on "B-5' ^> A Porch for a Farmhouse HE hospitality of a New England farmhouse is frequently enhanced the addition of a porch, provided the structure is one which is iple and well proportioned. The illustrations here are taken " be- e and after," so that a fair comparison may be made. The original ranee doorway in the upper picture is insignificant and fails to live to the rest of the house, in either structure or spirit. This farm- jse calls for a more imposing entrance, one which will extend a Icome to the approaching guest. Vith the addition of the porch shown below, the farmhouse is reju- latcd, or, as we would say of a human being, its whole expression rhanged. No detail of the porch or door is lacking to make it a com- plete and harmonious whole. Even the fractional measure- ments of the mouldings are given, that the local carpenter may not go wrong in his proportions. The characteristic six-panel door of the Colonial period is used. In the old doors, the upper pair of panels was usually square, and the two lower pairs were of the same height, although in many cases the middle pair was higher, as shown here. The pil- lars, similar to those on the piazza at the end of the house, are just heavy enough to carry the small gable roof without being too massive for the house as a whole. The old flagstone which has long been used at this doorway will be moved out a few feet to form the first step of the porch, and thus link up the new with the old. 13 Inside Finish Inside finish or trim, in the modern sense, means all the wood-finish which is put into the house after the plasterer gets through his work. It includes doors, windows, floors, archi- traves, baseboards, cornices, paneling, etc. It includes also stairways and fitments of all kinds ; but these will be taken up in separate sections. The wood-finish is funda- mentally that part of the finish which covers up all the rough work to which no plaster-finish has been applied, and brings the whole inside of the house to the same degree of completion as the plaster walls. The base- board is put on to cover the joint between the finished floor and the finished plaster. The architraves are put on to cover the joint between the window- frame or door-frame and the fin- ished plaster, and the minimum amount of finish is the amount which is just enough to accom- plish this purpose. A baseboard three inches high with a half- inch " quarter-round " to close Simple finish, designed to harmonize with the walls, the light value of which contrasts with the dark value of the floor. Walls are thus made a background for furnishings. Dark or elabor- ate finish would compete undesirably. the joint at the top is, pra( ally, sufficient. An architi four to four and a half in wide will cover the window- and close the joint betwo and the plaster. But we are not dealinj minimum quantities to-day, inside finish becomes thert largely a matter of chara The inside finish should 1 the same character as the re the house. As a statement is a truism, but as a fact it is always recognized in prac No one would finish a cam the same way he would fin winter residence. This crude distinction; but the distinctions in character an always, or even commonly cognized. Character of finish, as term is here used, is not c prehended in such definitio; light, delicate, heavy, and Ci etc ; nor in such as refer to ;. itectural style as. Classic, onial, Georgian, and the A particular example of ii may be any one of these tb Glazed doors, with a bottom panel of wood, afford light and access while avoiding too close a connection with out-of-doors. Cornice and dado at top and bottom of windows bind the end o room into a unified wood motive. 14 Simple broad treat- ment of finish. The edge-moulding of the architraves and the small moulding at the top give an architectural finish to the doorway and avoid crudeness without loss of breadth. Baseboard is necessarily high and simple in ac- cord with door- A NECESSARY alcove may be finished in such a way as to avoid loss of integ- rity in the adjoining room. The finish in this one is entirely of wood, between which and the pap- ered walls there is a marked separation without any discord. -i -^ or, for that matter, several of them, and yet have no character at all. Char- acter is achieved by many and varied means, but a dominant source of it may be called interest. The chief source of interest is va- riety. Variety does not result so much from the use of a quantity of finish as from a proper disposition of the amount that is used. A room may be entirely covered with wood-finish and yet be monotonous. Directions for the avoidance of monotony can only be suggestive. To begin with, conceive your wood-finish in its relation to the whole house. Do not overload one room and finish another sparsely; or use rich mouldings in one part and no mouldings in another part. Certain rooms may have more finish than certain other rooms in the same house; and some places call for mouldings, while other places do not: but any wide divergence in the treatment is to be avoided. With these points in mind, one room of your house can be made to vary from another, both in amount of finish and in the detail. Treatment of the individual room with a view to interest should lead first to a consideration of all the wall- surfaces in the room. The question is, how much finish should the room have, and in what manner should it be distributed, to make for greatest interest. The thing to do is to get more than one idea without getting too many. A thorough study of the wall-sur- faces, their proponions, and the openings in them of doors and windows, will usually afford the clue to the appropriate wood- finish. ■i'-n'^ -:^'- a" 00 J u^cnriTi'^'A. or wall-paint ; it must therefore be placed so that this contrast, while ap- parent, will not be uneasy in effect: a kind of balance must be sought. This does not mean that half the wood- finisli should be on one side of the room and half on the other. The balance sought is not a logical, or physical, but an aesthetic balance. If you are unable to visualize your pro- posed result, try to find an example of the thing you have in mind, and see what it actually looks like. The study of models, desirable in connection with ail parts of the house, is especial- ly so in relation to inside finish. The old models, or such new ones as have been derived from them, are best, and reveal a freedom of treatment and a resultant interest which are directly due to a straightforward solution of the particular problems involved. Modern work has a tendency toward the kind of logic which leads to the monotony of consistency. After you have established the amount and placing of all the finish with reference to all the plaster, you are ready to establish the relation of the several parts of the finish to each other. This is primarily a matter of proportion, and proportion is a In the first place,the woodwork is to contrast with the wall-paper study of forms and relations of forms. 15 Photocraphs right and left show variation of wood-finish as applied to doors and windows of the same room. The detail is simple, but there is enough painted woodwork used here to make the finish almost equally conspicuous with the papered walls, which are in strong value contrast with it. The use of the stained or painted dark door in connection with white wood-finish is some- times a legitimate way to give interest to a room. Some hints may be given, nt gative as well as positive ones, as to definite ways of treating finish. A wood dado carried all around a room makes the plaster wall above it of greater interest by contrast, but the dado, considered by itself, becomes monot- onous. If, on the other hand, the dado terminates in one end of the room, which is entirely of wood, then the dado itself be- comes interesting through contrast with the wood wall. A cornice should be of a size and importance consistent with the general architectural treatment; and unless a I'oom contains architectural motives, it is best not to use any cornice at all. It is also wiser to avoid the use of columns in wall- openings. Good mantels are little more than the tops of frames to fireplaces; do not force them into a size too great for the open- ings. Ornament of all kinds is to be sparingly used. In general, find good models of what you want to do, and follow them, making only such variations as your special requirements force you to make. Doors and windows, properly considered, are inside finish and should be thought out in connec- tion with this. Their po- sition in a wall may easily make that wall good or bad by dividing it into pleasing or unpleasing pro- portions. There is a growing tendency to make a door opening and then leave i„,=ix^a .2cAl,E^ InCHE* I L. .Arcbllrave. TcoM A Mew Hoi;.st Batcton Mot;;iE:- I>K-ir A'cIJt^rovc out the door. Because of this, the door opening tends to be wider and wider, until, in some cases, the effect is that of a wall which is half missing. A hole in a wall is never good, and the bigger it is the worse it is. Rooms should be self-contained, and the only way to make them so is by using doors, and doors of a reasonable size. Doors should be as simple or as elaborate as the rooms in which they occur. If you are using plain board-finish on the walls, an ordinary batten (board) door is appro- priate. Next to this in simplicity is the four-panel unmoulded door. The six- and eight-panel doors, moulded or unmoulded, so familiar in Colonial work, are for use in connection with the more elaborate kinds of finish. The double wood door, like the double glazed door, should be used only under special circumstan- ces. Because of the weather, windows are never omit- ted, as doors are, from the openings prepared to re- ceive them ; but though we put them in we do not always give our windows that distinction or individ- uality which architects call character. One of the most important elements of character is scale or size. The use of a large single or double pane of glass destroys scale and makes it much harder to give a window character. J'vl The small pane of glass /i is right because it gives a unit of measurement with T.„ K, j' which to start. 16 From a house built about 1 800. Deli- cate details and refined mouldings are typical of the work done at thb time. r -:...._ ! 1 1 n r I 1^ 1 1 J •4 ' ^^^^1 •IS* 1 1 ; 51eps in the eva\uiion of a door archiircw& » » ■« » fc T ^/.. Uttir a t k ji/ii- b^rJ A^#/&i- ov ib/ff' JiamA^ W. Jmmc as •^rm n ■s tfttb "t totnf pfa^f nir J/vtf par^tfi*/r -\ TJie las\. 13 typical for rn-odaru v/oi="K Elaborate but refined finish to a beau- tifully proportioned window in a house built about 1800. Maximum amount of finish for a small house. The door, which is three panels wide, is unusual in modern work. Black iron hardware and brass box or rim lock are of a former time. The wood cornice b one way of giving dignity and importance to a room. It is best used in connection with a room which has much additional woodwork. 17 Doorway at "Oak Hill," Peabody, built in 1800, one of Mclntire's finest examples. The medallion of a basket of fruit and flowers in the plain space over the door is very lovely. Inside of the front door of the Pierce-Johonnot-Nichols house in Salem, built in 1782. This fanlight is delightful, and with the fluted pilasters and the eight panels, has the general impression of an Adam effect. The Cook-Oliver house in Salem, in which is this doorway, was built in 1799. This is, perhaps, Mclntire's most famous house. Expense was not considered, and he placed here some ot his finest interior woodwork and carving. A DOORWAY in the Pierce-Johonnot-Nichols house, Salem, built in •1800. A comparison of the doors on this page is an interesting study in architectural detail for which Mclntire had an exquisite sensitiveness. 18 A COMPLEX piece of construction and finish, which results in a combination French win- dow and Dutch door. Close the wood panel at the bottom, and it then becomes part of the wall of the room. Lower the half-sash to the top of the wood panel, and it becomes, obviously, the lower part of an ordinary double-hung window. In addition there are in- side shutters which fold inconspicuously into the joints. 19 Stairways Consideration of stairways begins wirh a study of their plan ; the plan of the stair is properly controlled by the plan of the house, or at least that part of the house, as the hall, im- mediately related to it. The simplest form which the plan of the house allows the stairway to take is always the best. There is no better-looking or more convenient stair than the one that is merely a straight flight of steps from one floor to another. When a stair changes direction, landings should be put in at the points of change. " Twisters," or treads cut in at an angle, do not look as well as landings in the corner of a stair- way, and are not, practically, as good as landings. On the other hand, a semi-circular stairway, where all treads are cut at an angle, is perfectly satisfactory if the plan calls for or permits this type, and if the relation between treads and risers is well worked out. An old but good rule for getting a satisfactory relation between tread and riser in any stairway is to be sure that the product of the two (each being reasonable by itself) is not less than 72 or more than 75 inches. Stairways vary from one another in design as widely as houses do, and the appropriate one is the good one. An elaborate stairway is as out-of place in a simple house as a simple one is in an elaborate house. An eccentric one is bad in any house. Stair balustrades may be good which are so simple as to have only posts at the landings, and a hand-rail between the posts. Plan of stair necessitated by its location at end of hall. The dado is a part of the hall design and is therefore given as an element in the stair design. with no balusters at all. They may be just as good, but no better, if they have twisted newel-posts and three balusters, each with a different turning, to a tread. Good taste alone will dictate the right and appropriate thing. ^rrnrgVATT^ ^TTt <.v/j.-t-t/-i-M _ ASt J'Sc-rtoK •20 A well-balanced stairway in a house at Jamaica Plain, Mass., built in 1803. This landing is as successful in its way as one with curved railing although here the turn b effected by angles, not by curves. Staircase, Cabot-Lee-Kilham house, Beverly, Mass., 1773. The understair treatment is seldom used nowadays, but it may be made effective when the risers carry a continuation of the paneling. In the Salem houiie where this staircase is, Mclntire lived for many vcars. Built in i 770, but not by Mclntire. It is an excellent solution of the difficult problem of a right-angled turn in a small compass. The graceful turn in the staircase in Hon. David P. Waters's home in Salem, Mass., built by Mclntire in 1805. The long sweeping curves give an effect of height and airiness that approaches fragility. The stairway above is characterized by lightness and sim- plicity. The only departures from strictest economy are the " ease" and "ramp" of the rail and the turned corner-post. The dark rail is a usual but good source of interest. Some- times, in a light stair, iron rods are run through the centres of the posts, to give greater strength. A SIMPLE effect, and a more expensive one than it appears to be. The balusters are turned, and each of the three to a tread differs from the other two. The eases and ramps of the rail are carefully worked out. The ends of the treads have an applied decorated treatment. Dark parts add to the interest. M^4^ 1 =-W (r -«%■ '* nloO m I I Detail drawing of corner-post, rail, and balusters shown in upper left-hand illustration. This design is more severely plain than most of the examples found in Colonial work, al- though in the majority of Dutch Colonial houses the stairway was not an important feature. Little decoration was bestowed upon it and while the hand rail was frequently of mahog- any, the spindles were nearly always straight and slender. 22 The noteworthy poinis here are the white painted treads and risers — the usual stairway has painted risers, only the treads being customarily given a finish like the floor. If white treads are used, carpet or rugs should be carried up the stairs to protect the paint. The balustrade k made dark to contrast with the white. The well (open space above-stairs) is the interesting point here. It should be studied in connection with the middle picture as well as the lower one: the middle picture shows the effect on the second floor of the cir- cular plan, and explains why this was adopted. The dark rail echoes the dark doors of the first floor. I^^^M^ >tu i ! P In < li I ItL J ■■il^^' 'Ml 1 'il'l , B li ^^^■t^^^^^^^^^^^^H^^^I Plan of stairway which is typical for the end of a long hall. The rather elaborate paneled dado starts in the hall and the paneled risers are un- usual. Stair dados are usually the same height as the rail, and should be flush with (in the same plane as) the plaster above them. Stairways between walls should be studied to give pleasing openings (in position and proportion) in the walls from which they start. An arch over the opening makes a separate motive of the stairway. The lack of arch here called for a treatment of u all which was a continuation ot the treatment of the hall. Staircase as viewed from the living-ruum. The detail is well shown. Observe the twisted newei-post and the three different designs in the balusters. The richness of effect is due in part to the elaborate wood-detail and in part to the strong dark values of rail, treads, and carpet. Notice that the dark of the rail is repeated in the cap of the dado. An expensive stairway both to mill and to build. 24 The Bookcase as an Element of Design & ..nnmnmiimilH t 'nnimniiriirriiiinii "XJt iuoioiaijijuuiu r "»" Bookcases mav be considered either as pieces of furniture or as elements in the design of a room ; and they should be considered as one thing or the other, never as a combination of the two. It is possible, of course, to design a setting for a bookcase which is merely a piece of furniture ; but when this is rightly done, the bookcase is taken, to start with, as one element in the design, and if the bookcase is later dispensed with, the design of which it was a part is left incomplete. For all practical purposes, a bookcase i must be either of ■&. room or in it. As here considered bookcases are of the room. The first thing to establish is the importance of the bookcase to the room, and then to give it a setting and location commen- surate with this. A library may be almost entirely bookcase, almost all the wall-space being given up to the shelves. The result, in such a case, is walls of books, and the design, recogniz- ing this, should seek merely to complete this wall with the necessary finish. Architecturally con- sidered, bookcases are better when set into a wail than they are when set against it ; but either treat- ment is legitimate. The set-in bookcase becomes a panel in the wall, and as such, must be appropriate- ly framed and held in place. Panels of books are best placed in pairs — as a panel on each side of some leading architectural motive like a fire- place or a window. The single recessed bookcase is well placed in the middle of a wall only when it is large enough to command this imponant location. Smaller recessed panels, irregularly Thib projecting bookcase is balanced bv a similar one on the other siiic ut the window. Ob- serve that the detail is of the same character as the detail of other wood-finish in the room. placed, are possible in a room when the surrounding wood- finish is of a dark enough value to make them inconspicuous through lack of contrast. The projecting bookcase is more of an accidental feature in a room, and for this reason may be given a more casual setting. Care should be taken, however, to keep it from becoming con- spicuous ; it should be tied in, or grouped with, other motives or, at least, with other woodwork. Certain principles which apply to the recessed bookcase, apply also to the projecting one. These have chiefly to do with plan : placing one of two bookcases on either side of a door or window tends to make both of them inconspicuous. It is doubtful if a single projecting case can be legitimately put in the centre of a room ; so planned, it is likely to simulate a piece of furniture. If a bookcase is of con- siderable length, its effect in changing the proportions of the wall surface against which it sets should be borne in mind. It ought then to be more impor- tant, or less impor- tant, than the plaster wall above, never of equal importance. Consider the wall as divided, vertically, into thirds, and let the bookcase occupy either one or two of the thirds in height: in one case the wall predominates, in the other the bookcase. It is not, of course, impossible to build good bookcases, as an afterthought, into good rooms, without losing quality in either room or book- case. But in any new house the bookcase problem is much simpler if it is taken up and solved as a part of the general inside finish. 'Ih n I f^/j^/ff. fn|#0 = nio m l^jin/r (Q (0 ~1 z^iami. ■1 1 1 ^=-- S M <4 1 - *! _:^ti^V5Vt- toi4 AWv^fe d f to5^ "^^^t^^-STA-ir foist- ,H i:fti.tvei> To&feA.r»mt, '-l^ 9 I 3 '■ -t-] ;7 A K l J •^1 1" 2. The simplest bookcase is built up of common boards. This one, an excellent example of the informal type of design, has in ad- dition to the boards a moulded top and a moulded base. The white paint, to correspond to the other white finish, makes it of the architecture rather than of the furniture of the room. A BOOKCASE which is a piece of furniture. Together with the tapestry it makes a focal point in the room — an intended ef- fect, as the placing of the other pieces of furniture around it as a centre proves. 26 unusual variation of uncommon architectu- •reatment of bookcases, c fire-place breast pro- ^ into the room, mak- ing a pocket on either side. I The idea is to fill up these kcts in some useful and ; ropriate way. The usu- al result is an entire wood end, with cupboard doors, or drawers, or both, open- ing into the pockets, and sometimes with pilasters the full height of the room, one on each side of the cupboards. Frequently the cupboards are treated as open bookcases held in on each side by the pilasters. Here all architectural de- tail has been omitted, but the architectural idea has none the less been ex- pressed. The photograph on the right is a simpler rendering of the idea expressed above. Here the panel of books con- centrates the attention in a single centre of in- terest. The color of the books builds up to and supports the color in the painting. The left-hand pic- ture shows the use of a corner cupboard as a book-case — a legiti- mate treatment where ihe volumes are of a money value demand- ing the protection of glass. An elaborately finished library in which the book- cases occupy most of the available wall-surface. The effect of a wall of books with their colorful and varied bindings is al- most that of a rich tapes- try. Few families have collectinns of a size which would warrant this quan- tity of shelf-space ; the treatment idea can easily be applied on a smaller scale. The essential thing to remember is that book- bindings have a color val- ue, and that they may be arranged in large masses with this fact in mind. 27 ' f'////'////////; ^^ ^-. XW^^Z^ZZM. Hofg- % \ r \m S -^i- -^ ^^ •v////^/////y/m /•i"»«»«-^ W/'//y////////y/////////7^ ^ I + • II ^^^ . - " . 1 8 - *-1'- S: lilll ' * : . ^- 1 ^ THAtt^ of~&Nt Ei 41 % Thc kind of bookcase built merely as a place to put books and found afterwards to be good — not a safe method and only oc- casionly successful. It is much safer to know why you are going to do what you do; your ideas may be wrong, but they are more likely to be satisfying than no ideas at all. This particular accident was lucky be- cause the resulting bookcase is simple in de- tail, good in proportion, and, most of all perhaps, because it is a good abutting mo- tive for the fireplace. Bookcases as a part of a wall, treated as panels of color. The panels themselves are studied for proportion, and are excellently framed by the surrounding woodwork. The excuse for the book- cases is made by thickening the walls. This is a thoroughly good example of the architectural use of bookcases. 28 An excellent example of hanging book- case — light, delicate, simple, and in good form. The idea back of this kind of book- case is the idea back of a picture or a tapes- try — all of them are wall decorations. This one is probably screwed to the wall and is certainly painted white, and these facts would seem to make it a part of the archi- tecture rather than of the furnishings ot thei room. It can, however, be taken down and placed elsewhere, and it can be re- painted a rich brown, like the old hanging bookcases in Down-Eastparlors, from which probably, it descended. A VERY unusual example of bookcase, and one more helpful on account of its idea, perhaps, than on account of the way in which this idea has been worked out. Here is a bookcase treated as a part of the architecture of the room, and at the same time as an architectural background for a piece of furniture. The lack of entire success is probably due to the fact that its use as background is about equal to its use as bookcase. One or the other should predominate. IThe Fireplace and Its Over-Mantel ^An Old Fireplace in Hingham HiNGHAM is justly proud of its valu- able traditions and its historic houses. From the years 1633 and 1634, when the first settlers made their homes in this little cove, its history has always been more orless intimately connected with the history of our country. Many of these historic houses have been well preserved to us by the pious care of the descendants of those who built them more than two hundred years ago. And in many of these homesteads we find that the present occupants spring from the old family tree, and that the house with its fur- nishings is a record of over two cen- turies of unbroken family life. So we find among these families a true ap- preciation of and love for the beauties of the early Colonial architecture and furniture. The picture shows a room not so old as many in the neighboring houses, but very interesting from the aesthetic point of view. We should note sev- eral features of design, — the chance creations of the builder rather than the result of studious efforts for effects, — all of which contribute to the beauty of the room. The simple mantel, composed chiefly of large boards, very rest- ful in the absence of ornament and mouldings — a mantel easily reproduced, and with equally good effect, at small expense in many of our modern houses. In connection with the mantel, note the simple brick treatment of the long hearth, the proportions of the opening, the cement facing, the interest created in the useful wood-closet which was originally an oven. And note the pleasant absence of the wall-board above the shelf, which always changes, in surface and color, the background of objects on the shelf. The doors are very typical, but they are well worthy of study for the excellent proportions of panels to each other and of rails to stiles. The relatively low ceiling is not so low as to give any one a feeling of oppression, and it is in this very important meas- urement of ceiling height that we find the room to be so well proportioned. The door closing on the top of the first step is characteristic of this work, and may seem to many to be poor design. But others of us are fond of this feature, for a distinct picturesqueness it has and a feeling even of mediaeval days. Dl2AWlNa>5 OF MANTEL.5 "From Old Hoi;5"e>3 DOOJL. TO 1 ELLVATION OF WALL IN DINING R.O0M SHOWING MANTEL. V//////^y////. Plan SHOWING HEAfOTH /e «» A 3 o A OfJ O^en y. II I I ^ I ' ! i I i 4- n3 I I I I II I Dook. TO 51J5L Porch \ % u*h- VA///y////////////A '///////y/. # Mantel .Shelf yy/r^ moo/a r/ta t/^^c/er ^ y2^ Mouldld Architrav AR.O u N J> BooRjs (^ Win: VlNDOV/S Y^^^TTTTTTTTTTTyTTT- I Door. PANEL^oULDINd Details ahl 5hown at half of their. full 5ize 31 Ellvatioh of manteu Scale. I"!'.!'-!'-! — k// '£^^ a!i !i li |i |ii:! ii T^ g K^ ' ' ■'■ ' ^^— ^ j! ' !'! ' ! '! "^ j>-. Li ^ka r^y J& o a /< S &77777777r77777777777777:^ J>oo C I ^^ 'PlajsI op R^ooM. Scale, i i i i i i i^ ./ o I. t. s, A e &fr. 32 Old-fashiisned fireplace. The board frame to the opening, with its simple edge-moulding and shelf, is appropriate to the plain board doors and plain dado, with their slight mouldings. Much of the charm of this mantel is due to the informal, almost casual, treatment of the parts, particularly their varied sizes. The original finish here was a group of simple panels surrounding the opening. The middle was evidently taken out and the shelves put in its place. The shelf, also, is a modern addition. Observe that the plaster has the effect of comfwjsing with the surrounding woodwork and so reduces the apparent size of the opening. A Few Notes on the Building of Chimneys and Fireplaces Fireplaces and chimneys are built of other materials besides brick, but brick is the material most often used. Whenever the chimney is not exposed, is is usually built of a common brick called a " chimney brick." Bricks exposed to the eye or to the weather, as in outside chimneys, tops of chimneys, fireplace- facings, hearths, etc., are of a better class, for both practical and aesthetic reasons. Where chimneys are not exposed to the air, and when a flue- lining is used, the walls need be only four inches thick. Where chimneys are exposed to the air, and even when flue-lining is used, the walls should be eight inches in thickness. The action of the weather on the thinner wall is likely to kill the draught. Back of fireplaces that come in an outside wall, there should be an air-space ; also between the flue-lining and the outside wall. In order to gain the eight-inch walls above, chimneys are fre- quently thickened just below the roof. This creates a kind of re- versed shelf, from which, when the bricks are saturated by a long- continued rain, water is likely to drip. This danger can be avoided by certain expedients. Probably the best method is to use sheet lead in such a way that it will conduct the water so that it will disappear between the flue-lining and the brick; there will be so little of it, that the likelihood of freezing can be disregarded. Chimneys should have eight-inch walls whenever and wherever the flue-lining is not used. The introduction of terra-cotta flue-lining has served to reduce the amount of space occupied by chimneys, and to make them more nearly fire-proof. These flue-linings are made stock size, but vary slightly for difl^srent parts of the country. Fireplaces are built over and over again, which do not woi properly ; but there is no reason why this should be so. Tl only really definite rule that can be given to ensure the prop working of fireplaces is that the flue (inside measurement) shou be from one-eighth to one-tenth of the area of the fireplace opei ing — that is, if your fireplace is four feet high and four feet wid it will surely work, so far as the size of the flue is concerned, it is one-eighth of sixteen square feet ; and it will almost sure work if it is one-tenth. If the flue is a round flue, it will work it is one-twelfth ; and as a matter of fact, it will probably woi if it is considerably smaller than this — but this cannot 1 guaranteed. The nearest to a definite rule that can be given is that the dep of the fireplace should be one-third the width when the wid: exceeds three feet six inches. It is never desirable to make tli depth less than one foot two inches. The splay on the sides the fireplace should be set at an angle of 60 to 45 degrees to tlj facing, and should be in the same plane from facing to back, ar not — as most masons build their fireplaces — with a four-inc; set-back from the facing to the splay. Of course, these poin should be taken in connection with others, which, howeve cannot be stated in such precise terms. The throat is a very important matter. It should rise from tl smoke-shelf to the flue at an angle of not less than 60 degree The opening into this throat should be the full length of tl fireplace between splays and about four inches from front to bac The smoke-shelf is most important, as it diverts any dow current of cold air, which always comes down the back of the fli 34 A MODERN Colonial fireplace and mantel of good proportions and design. The decoration is effective by reason of its close proximity to simple surfaces. into the warm air current at the front of the flue. For this reason, the smoke-shelf should always be above the top of the fireplace opening. There are a number of patent cast-iron throats on the market, which, if used, ensure the proper relation between fire- place and flue, and which have in them the damper which a good many people nowadays insist upon having. The ordinary "tip and slide" damper, if placed with care, should not interfere with the draught. Dampers are useful to keep birds and flies out of the rooms. The size of the opening itself depends more or less directly on the size of the room, and for this no rule can be given, really, except the old rule of finding an example which one likes and following it. Fireplaces in houses are no longer necessary from the practical point of view ; for that matter, thev have not been necessary since stoves came into use, and they become increasingly less so as one improved method of heating follows another into our houses. But this is from the practical standpoint. Actually, we are using firephces more and more. A hundred years ago the usual thing was to brick up the fireplace when a new stove came to take its place. Now, however, we realize that fireplaces fulfill, for many of us, an interior and personal need, and we are taking the brick walls out of the old ones and building new ones into our new houses. They are therefore a fundamental consideration in the design of all principal rooms. Fireplaces, when used, inevitably become focal points or centres of interest in a room, and this fact should be kept in mind in planning for them. It is not always easy to place a chimney in a position which makes this possible, but the result, if achieved, justifies the This plan of the fireplace above gives a better idea of the composition as a whole. 35 ^^tzM^sz: ,&.-"rT.o-St- — .— i ^■■'■■•'.•■^ . 1 . >.-. -t .■ ^J^-KT I't.AK I extra necessary thought and cost. In a simple square or rectangular room, the fireplace may well centre on a wall surface, not neces- sarily the centre of the room. The fireplace motive includes not only the opening and the facing, but all the other finish, usually wood, immediately adja- cent, as frame, mantel, over-panels, side pilasters, and the like. The opening itself and the facing im- mediately surround- ing this are the starting-point. The opening, whether brick (the usual one), tile, soapstone or iron, used singly or in combination, is not a thing to slight if the best result is sought. The facing need not be of the same material as that of the opening. The brick facing, with its small units, may be too small in scale. If so, the bricks can be plastered with cement, and the re- sulting cement fac- ing painted any de- sired color. The least possible amount of wood-finish to a fire- place is the simple "roll-moulding," or architrave, which Another piece cf modern work, which gains effectiveness by means of proportion and simplicitv. The fireplace and adjacent doors should be studied as a whole in relation to the side wall of the room, as shown in the plan above. simply frames the opening and facing. This may be used where it is desirable to preserve plain wall-surfaces. Add to the architrave a frieze and mantel, and you have the next simplest fireplace de- sign. This as a basis may be elaborated greatly before calling in other elements to gain importance. If the elaborated mantel will not serve the purpose, the other elements may be used. It may be that size, rather than elaboration, is want- ed in the motive. Ordinary boards will give more size, but if this effect is crude, use panels. Pilasters may be ad- ded at the sides and cornice at the top. If more elaboration is needed, bring back the mantel and su- perimpose it on th« rest. There is a pro gressive enrichmeni of detail as you fot low along these sev- eral stages. No fireplace mo- tive should be con- sidered, without con- sidering also the fin- ish to beapplied to it Paint or stain wil qualify effects in col- or, value, richness and all of these art elements in giving significance to th( fireplace as a whole 36 Type of mantel applied to a breast which is partly plaster, partly wood. Distinction and refinement characterize the motive as a whole. It is especially noteworthy as a study in contrasts. Observe that the large plain panel is framed by minutely detailed members ; and that the several elements of the mantel itself are so related, that a decorated member is always in direct contrast with a plain member. 87 Panels and Ceiling Beams This fireplace motive as a whole is architec- turally placed in the room, and the placing is given appropriate em- phasis by the architec- tural details of which it is composed. The hor- izontal panels are held firmly in place by, and contrasted with, the strong pilasters. This type, in the earlier work, is seldom found to have a shelf; but modern adaptations fre- quently do have shelves; if used at all, they should be very simple. The facing and hearth are of tiles, these used as a decora55t feature but composing in value with wood- i work. The tile hearth] composes, in the same way, with the floor. ' The fireplace itself has i a plaster surface-finish ' applied probably to i brick. In a case like this, where the fireplace motive is merely the central feature of an all- wood end, it must be considered with refer- ence to the rest of the finish. Study the photo- graph in connection with the drawing. 38 Wood Ceiling Beams In ColonialDomestic Architecture =DeTAI L^ OF ieAMS Plan C?fCe.I1_INQ ,k P,'>'/ ^ey»rv Ci^M,^/- ^ '^'c./r,-^ ^^^ailofBejmm 'B Va m ' f «6"o t' /— »-i/ ' — — — SDeTAIUOPBEAM "o" =.h^. Typ/cau Mouupiajgs ON ^ELAMS ;4// ieswS in fhjs ivork. <3re. /£' -l-o- > 3 X i- i » Px-AK OF CeIL-IMQ ^^ ^$^1^^— -—^ C/^ Z/fuse 3, ^ Xi^r^ a //// * j-^ 1 ^ *H ?UAiSl 31) Here the fireplaces may be considered as inconspicuous but obvious focal points. The upper one is strongly marked by the black paint applied to both the brick-work and the plaster facing. The lower one shows the woodwork brought to the very edge of the opening, and so in strongest contrast with the black of the shadow. In both cases the contrast of black with white is so marked that it compensates, in the way of giving importance to the fireplaces for lack ot size. This is not to say that the lack of size is a defect : quite the contrary. If the openings were larger, they would be out of scale with (too large for) the room. Either there is no fi-ame to these fireplaces, or the frame is tlie entire wall of the room. This is a typical early treat- ment, and had its origin in the fact that the inside walls of a house were frequently made up of wood panels, which were carried right past the fireplace (a hole being left for this) from wall to wall of the house. 40 Coraiot) 3hii ^oor is of laler period (51e-7a.fior) c)ca>1e J^''=r-o" Ce-'fio&1-a^i1 of Cornice) 102.11 \\i\rd'b of fi;l[ ^j^cf) V ^/M. ^rick^- arovn3 i?i re p lace) 41 This seventeenth-century jianeling shows a happy arrangement of the panels and the studied proportions between the rails and stiles ot the panels. Paneling in the William Lincoln House This house should not he confused with the General Lincoln House, which is more historically famous as the home of the general who received the sword of Cornwallis at the surrender of Yorktown ; but it probably dates from about the same time as this latter mansion. However, we have no records that tell ex- actly when its original structure was built, or whether it shared in the historic happenings of the revolutionary period. The oldest portion of the house, of which this living-room is a part, dates from some time late in the seventeenth century. It has been oc- cupied for many years by descendants of Samuel Lincoln, and its chief interest is a domestic rather than an historic one. Characteristic details of many of the houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are well exemplified in this house, so a brief resume of these typical forms will conduce to a fuller ap- preciation of the room illustrated. We find the two-and-a-half- story house with a large central chimney so placed as to provide open fires for the surrounding rooms. A staircase leads to the upper front rooms. Frequently another stairway, in the rear, leads to the back second story, and when additional rooms were added, other ladder-like stairways were also built. On either side of the front entrance hall is a large room, with the side containing the wide fireplace paneled in its entire length and height. The rooms have comparatively low ceilings, sometimes not more than seven feet above the floor, and a great beam or summer-tree visible be- low the ceiling. Our picture shows one of these typical front rooms. The ceil- ing is lower than we find in the houses of our own time. But it is not, as some may suppose, so low as to be depressing. On the contrary, much of the spaciousness, the quiet dignity of restraint, the true domesticity, that give to this room its character and charm, are dependent on just this very important dimension of ceiling height. The cement facing about the fire opening and the large square quarry-tile hearth are also typical of this early work. But the most notable feature in the design of the room is the paneled wall. The panel moulding is very simple in its section profile. It the result of the constructive mind, working in an orderly dire tion. The builder first felt the need of softening the corners his rails and stiles. This he did by the introduction of one oft most primitive forms, the quarter-round moulding. Then t inner portion of the panel must necessarily have a tongue th will project into the rails and stiles, a thin edge that requirec bevel or chamfer. The result was a quarter-round and be\ raised panel moulding which is very typical of the Colonial wo of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. There is nothi suggestive of the superficial applied moulding. It is soft and ) not over delicate, and thoroughly constructional as well as beau ful. The moulding of the door architrave is very simple, a typic moulding applied to the main surface of the paneling. There no discordant note in the entire wall. The whole is rich in elTe yet the design, like the construction, when resolved into its fu damental terms, is found to be very simple. The panel work during the first part of the eighteenth centt was characterized by many of the features which were in voj during the latter part of the seventeenth century, but rooms W( generally higher and more spacious, and there was more on mentation of the interior woodwork. Panels were large and wt proportioned according to the available space, a single panel bei customarily used for the chimney piece. Paneled walls are primarily of period character, and this shot be taken into account when considering their use in a particu type of house. It is not, of course, impossible, or in bad taste, adapt a certain style of paneling to a house which makes no p tense of following period styles and where a general method furnishing is desired or planned for. Many modern architects, fact, make a practice of designing these non-committal derivatic for such purposes. But if there is any pretense of followinj specified period style, it should be remembered that paneling one of the key-notes of period work, and its proper use should the subject of study on the part of both architect and owner. 42 Living R.OOM in William Lincoln Hou-sl ///n.^ A<9r?^ Af^3S. ^c//// e9j^oty/ /Yoo PLAN OF WALL- 5HOWIKG HEAILTH 5CA1.E.'U44± i„jf^- y/// Ar.CHITR.AVE. of MAMTE.U ^ 5HE.1-F Panel Moi/ldimq M / X>oor Ce/A\^J X^ Door.Tr.1 m dltail5ar.l dtiawn at Half of their, actual 5ize Cor^nIcjE--^ >5^// / / 43 Woojb GeiMNG BeAMs vv^^ '^^* " '" ^'^ ' "' ' ^ ' ' ' ' ' " ' ' ' ' ' /,y/jjj,,.. t ?F=h^ - t o" x/S - 2)e.tmls ok Ceilinq Beam 5 | Alcove, im Liyinq- HauLx Cov E.D Wood C^-ii-rH^ TYPICAt. ChAMPFE.R,S ori CE.1LIMG Beams Secher. £Uk3// 'H 49 l; b J :x=i= 1 I I ^^ "Si I I I ^^ n IB i^ 'I =C=q= J=t: mi /7c. :^ FHONT LLLYATION 'L^=M=i ^/../ tc >} Mouldings at Point X DILAWN AT 4AI-F THLi;^. FuLl- J)LrAl V.J AT •P LA)^ PanllAAoulpino ^HLLF 5(t I MoULDINac/" DLTAI'L/ ail at Point,^" J'HOWN AT THLIL FULL /; ^[IL Panll MouLJ)iKa c/HLLF 61 A China Cups oak d \H AN OLD HOUSE. IN HINGHAM MASS WOOO ^ ^' O JolLi^ Woor> ^ ^ o V ^ O . N O . J O 's. ^ P^ASTtR I ■///////// / / // /■ /■/ / V V V ^ / V fPLONT fLLE-VATlON Ai_L Voois Finish IS PAINTE.O WH/TE- " ' ' iV////'/E \ Plan GR.APHIC 5CAX.E- 1 '^ IIJ U J |<» RsR. DRAMVINQS ABOVE- ^: Knc 15 * J)ka W£.R.S Sash 6R.ACK.e.x K e-Y •E'i-pC' K .5h e. Cjr.aphic Scale. FOF- X5E.TAli-S i^ 52 11 iil m ill III E i The china closet with a glass front is usually thought of as a display-place for the best family china. This alone would make it a prominent element in a room, necessitating a carefully chosen position. More important than the china, however, is the dark value which a glazed recess always has ; and when this dark spot is in direct contrast with white wood-work, as here, it should be in a position which tends to preserve the balance of the room. This china cupboard, becau.'-e of its wooden doors, is primarily a part of the general wood-finish. Like all the detail here, it is as simple as possible. The charm of it is undeniable, but the secret of this charm is not easy to detect. Probably it is due in part to its quaintness of form and to its casual, almost accidental position. To reproduce this charm is a more difficult feat, and requires more study than to achieve the one above, or any of the more formal examples. 58 A BUILT-IN corner cupboard with numerous sources of interest. Moulded wood doors at bottom and shell cove at top are purposely made interesting to contrast with the plain plaster wall, which in turn serves as a background for the china. The shelves have a decorative outline projecting at the middle of each shelf, which accents the pos- ition of the largest piece of china. The projection of the doors marks them as part of the cupboard instead of part of the dado; usually the frame of the opening runs down to the floor and the doors are inside this frame. 54 Closets and Wardrobes Closets, properly speaking,are con- tained within the construction and are part of the plan of a house. Ward- robes, properly speaking, are enclosed fitments of one kind or another, and are part of the design and finish of the rooms in which they are placed. Practically considered, the two things have no clear lines of separation, so that closets often contain elaborate fitments and wardrobes are sometimes merely projecting or recessed closets. Whether closets or wardrobes are to be used, they should be thought out in the earliest stages of the plan- ning of any new house. The usual and right placing of closets is between the partitions of the several rooms, in such a way that they do not break up, by projecting, the main walls of the rooms. A little effort in planning will almost always achieve this result. It is important from both aesthetic and practical standpoints, that doors to closets should be carefully placed. If the furnishings are considered when the room is being planned, they will show the amount of wall-surface necessary to accomodate them, and so force a practical loca- tion for the closet doors. From the point of view of design all doors, including closet doors, should be so placed as to have a pleas- ing relation to the cest of the woodwork in the room. Closet doors, by reason of their lack of importance, have this advantage over principal doors : when of necessity they are badly placed, they can be painted in color and value like the body-color of the wall- paper, and thus made in- conspicuous. The simplest and us- ual equipment for ordinary house-closets is a wide shelf high up, with hook- strip or hanger-rod (or both) below it, and a shoe- shelf at the bottom. It is a good plan to raise the closet floor to the top of the threshold,— one-half to seven-eighths of an inch above the floor of the room — so that it may be easily swept. Walls of closets should be covered with oil paint rather than papered. A wardrobe may be either fixed or movable. If mov- able, the question arises whether it is to be treated as part of the room or as merely a piece of fur- W AIL D H.0BL5 1 {.,■.::'•- 1 - ■-•■ ' -"•If J. '- m""P 1 .... .„ t::::4 1* ■1 O - 'l ° 5k.lt, LLtVATlOM SLCTionCC I III skllf — k 1* 4a— Plan WAlinOBL5 rOE. ULSlDENCt HALL MOUNT HOLYOKL COLLLGL B»AINt«.0 AHO Ltt^J AaCMTi io/TON ruLLSizt Drr^iL or Bonn. Sittir AwTowiL Hack. niture. We are considering here only such wardrobes, whether fixed or mov- able, as are part of the room. Wardrobes from the point of view of design are part of the wood-finish; they are often built of the same stock as baseboard or mantel, and are usu- ally painted or stained to match. This means that they should have a definite part in creating the interest which wood gives to a room. Interest is not conspicuous, but results from contrasts appropriately made, between the ele- ments of a design. Build the wardrobe as an element, properly related in form, position, and size, to other wood elements of the design. The plan of the room frequently gives the clue. A recess in a wall is often a good location, but not an inevitable one, for the wardrobe. If the fireplace breast projects into the room, the space on one or both sides of it may well be filled in with wardrobes. Or, again, wardrobes may themselves be made to project into the room on' both sides of a window or door. The single projecting wardrobe is a more difficult thing to handle satisfactorily than the double one. It is most likely to be a success when it is immediately adjacent Isssy to other wood-finish. The wardrobe may take the place, not only of closets, but of chiffonier, bureau, and dressing-table. It all depends on the fit- ment which it contains. The fitment is merely an arrangement of shelves, drawers, pigeon-holes, etc. in any order that will sat- isfy the owner's needs. The man's fitment is quite common, with its subdi- visions for his several ar- ticles of apparel, and con- tains much accommoda- tion in little space. Afford- ing space for everything, from suits to collar-but- tons, it may be contained behind a single pair of wardrobe doors. A wom- an's fitment is more com- plex and may require sev- eral pairs of doors each of which conceals a fitment of different accomodations. Another feature usually considered to be essential for a woman's wardrobe is a mirror. The long mirrors frequently used on ward- robes do less injury to the room if they are placed on the inside of the door. rl.oy 55 A LINEN-CLOSET fitment of great flexibility. The corrugated lin- ings, together with the edge-moulding in drawers and shelves, make it possible to vary as desired the distance between any two units. Such a fitment can be built into a recess or into a project- ing wardrobe. In cither case outside doors should be used. Linen closet fitted with open front drawers ; the sides of the drawers protect the linen and the open fi-ont exposes it to view. The drawers may be made removable or not, and may be built with fronts which are hinged at the bottom and open down. The open front necessitates the outside door to the closet. 56 1 iii i" r i" .1." c II it. I "i- -II. t " MM - i^ :.E:rLnVATtoK Che fitment which is built into a wall may be adapted to almost any purpose. One side of this is a woman's wardrobe, and the •her a kind of speciaky closet. The doors, when closed, sim- !ity in effect a really complex arrangment. Jn design, the doors for lis kind of closet should relate themselves properly to the other \ood-finish. This is a linen closet which is conceived as a part of the sewing- room and is fitted up with adjustable shelves. The piece is fixed in its position but might have been removable, in which case it would be built in two parts, — a base, including the drawers, and a top, — to facilitate handling. =15= =1^ DrofiJe /Ae At^sA ooss/^/e^ rcJ^/e.cf/on.s for /Af^y person. tyAo /s ^ress/n.^- /n. orc/er ro oer3/n. GX.ce'/enJ resu/rs soecf/u ivA/re H'oo o 11 <-> 'So <-> o II- -Jo — T- J' 7)aorJ. oo oV o v/ vJ^ o^ 1 1 _ D c n Q D l/mlrr/Zi, ^icA 1 r 1 Cas e. a as jAo iva. o ~- Case. B 6feY3A/on. of C33g"C"<3/2c/CsSg"^" , Mincers ^/le^ ^rjcA ^or j//i/mS e/oors ^ranf^rs ^c/c* 3c^/t^s/ji/e sit/A Lo/nc/olO S'O" tJAoc- 3oK ic/ot*!-! n /--f' (^e^ /ft/es ^r^H^ars i.a-Jt J^/c^/3 I I 1 . I : Jccr/ofz of Case. yj. JecA/o/zcfC^se^ Sec //on of Jcafc of fma// ^s/a/As '/ ^ Ce/An.^ y J^rackj oizJ + Si7 83/<>///2, , I I I I I I I I I I I I I /ncAai. Jca/e of jCar^G. '^e/^/As v^^^////v^ ^JJJJJJ Af/rror,_^l J//cffr2^ OoorS ^mmj 3 a i M? Ao//ers v/zc/e. '^/rror Jlfu/Zioa g/^Qoors CcPJe ''^" 58 I MTEKIOK-^ KRAliG £M EKT5 yJmdoi) Recess 1 5 z'-Z'deep •©ravpers ia'^&orrjjcf ^oo lcca.se. fn. deep \v^afl Shelf ai arm. i-4" Jeep ^^^^»^ tOinSoY^ Seal- An.5 Z)oo)C< .c2kse^ I'txro cortae/r- . 59 The Serving Pantry Ideal arrangements Jor shelves, cupboards and accessories, with detail drawings shown on opposite page. The serving pantry is the link between the master portion of the house and the service portion. It should have combined in it the good proportion and beauty of the former and the convenience and practicability of the latter. Broadly speaking, the serving pantry should accommodate the table-linen, china, glass, and silver used in the dining-room, should contain proper facilities for the washing and care of table service, in proper proportion to the household served, together with the opportunity for proper storage and care of the tools of the trade. It is often desirable in houses with no maid, or with one maid, to omit the serving-pantry sink, as in either case the table service is perhaps more conveniently washed in the kitchen sink where more space can be given to adequate washing facilities. This materially reduces the plumbing expense, and there is no reason why as cleanly conditions should not prevail in the kitchen as in the serv- ing pantry. A house designed for two or more maids should have a sink in the serving pantry, and, if space will allow, this sink should have two compartments, each with standing waste and over-flow, one for washing the dishes and the other for scalding them. No single sink should be less than 16" by 24", inside measurement, or should be without a movable tray draining into the sink, to hold the dish-drainer; or the counter should be grooved to conduct the water from the drainer back to the sink. These sinks should be made of what is known as white metal, or German silver. If expense is to be considered and appearance is not too important, soapstone sinks set into the wood-counter may be used. In no case should tinned copper be used. The top of the main counter should be set not less than 2' 10" from the finished floor, and the counter containing the sink may be set as high as 3' 2" without exceeding good practice. Most A WELL equipped pantry with a double-compartment, white-metal sink supplied through a swinging combination faucet. One side of the sink is for washing dishes, the other for draining. Shelves near the sink in a butler's pantry may be used for the dishes in daily use. The dishes may thus be washed, wiped and put awav without the worker moving from one spot. sinks are set altogether too low. The counters should always bj of hard wood, — maple, birch, cherry, or mahogany, — should be at least %" thick and not over I Vs", and should always be finished with linseed oil, as many coats as the wood will hold without gumming. Never use varnish or shellac in any form. If space will permit, the counters should be 2' deep. Below the counters the space is available for drawers and cup- boards. The space under the sink should always be left open. There should be a low base under the drawers and cupboards, about 2 V-J' to 3" high. This base should be set back under the sink about 6" from the front of the fitment, giving space for one's toes when standing in front of the sink. The floor under the sink should be raised to the top of the base, forming a kind of low shelf convenient to keep the dry mop away from any article which may be kept under the sink. The length and depth of the drawers and the number of cases of drawers should be suited to the particular conditions. A good practice is to have the top drawers — perhaps two or three in number — very shallow (not over I W deep inside) and the lower drawers graduated from 314" to 5" deep. A drawer 4" deep inside is ample to take a dozen large dinner-napkins, piled one above another. The drawers should not have the so-called " dust-lip," as this is likely to be broken by carelessness in standing on the open drawer to reach a high shelf, and is unnecessary in a well-ordered house to insure cleanliness. At convenient places between the cupboards and drawers there should be foot-pulls to pull out and siand on to reach the higher shelves. At the top of one case of drawers, it is well to put in two silver drawers, each one-half the length ot the drawers below and 2V2" to 3" deep. Into one of these drawers should be set a rack of thin wood dividing the space into 60 - ^/M//A - Cl^iS DOOR nttTlNCi _i f?7^ DR/iV/l^R '^j^s^ :.C4 ^ DETAIUS M. — « I I ft t" t .^ ^^;^ ¥ P° ~=rf ^ !TTTrprrprprP(TrTT^ ELEVATION B ELEVATION C n 1 \ JINK DCVDLE AfiNfi OOOR. TO MITCMCN "^^^'^^^ m C*« Ton, 61 *- f/jj^jfrrj ~^t^^^rj\ f ±o}4- "Cr*ic.rpto:K: proper compartments to hold knives, forks, spoons of all sizes, bread-and-butter knives, and all the commonly used sil- ver. A proper soft lining should be placed over the bottom of the drawer and the rack laid in place. Using this rack instead of making the partitions station- ary, makes it possible to clean the drawer in case anything is accidently overturned into it. The second silver drawer is in- tended for separate pieces, carv- ing sets, etc., and should in turn be divided to suit its use. In some cases, drawers for napkins are divided, to keep the sets from getting mixed up in opening and shutting the drawers. As to the cupboards, they may be single-door, double- door, and with or without shelves. The floor of the cup- boards should always be about Vi" above the bottom of the cupboard doors, as a threshold makes it hard to brush the cup- board out. Knobs for opening should be simple in shape and easy to get hold of; and friction catches, without any latch, make opening and shutting more convenient. The space from the top of the counter to the ceiling should be used for cases with glass Well-planned pantry cupboards and shelves with glass doors. The refrig- erator, a portion of which appears at the extreme right of the picture, has r.n ice-door to the rear porch, which is shown in detail on the opposite page. doors, and, in some instances, plain open shelves. These cases and shelves should not be higher than is generally useful ; one shelf in a glass door case may properly be too high to reach from the floor, but as a rule not more than one. No open shelf too high to reach from the floor should be put in. If the ceiling is fairly high, the space above the glass door cases may be taken up with low cupboards with wood doors where extra dishes, jars, jelly tumblers, etc., may be stored. The space be- tween the counter-top and the bottom of the first shelf, or the bottom of the glass-door- case, should be approximately i' 4". In very low-studded rooms, slightly less than this is permissible. The glass case should be i' 2" deep, if possible, from front to back inside the doors. This depth allows for standing platters and the like up at the back, with ample room for the largest plates in front. All the shelves should be grooved at the back, to take standing dishes. Shelves in the case should be behind muntins in the doors for the best appear- ance, and, in designing the doors, correct spacing of shelves should be in mind. The shelves 62 The refrigerator is a natural part of the pantry equipment, and should be so placed as to allow an ice-door to be cut through to the rear porch. The illustrations here show the relation of a rear porch to the house as a whole, and close- up views of the outer refrigerator door on this porch, open and closed. The window in the left-hand picture is the one at the end of the pantry on the opposite page. a rule should be the full depth of the case, but an intermediate shelf about 7" wide is often most convenient for saucers and other 11 pieces. It is advisable to make the shelves of hard wood to match the countertop. This avoids painting, and consequent scratching m the dishes. The shelves should be set in a ^elf-cleat so shaped as to protect the plaster. jt- y *" r~ A place to store trays may be arranged for in any lone of the cupboards under the counter, or may be put above the table-leaf cupboard. The space should be divided with thin wood partitions, cut out in the centre so that the trays may be easily pulled out. The table-leaves are best kept in some closet out- side the pantry. A plate-warmer is a very useful article in the serving pantry. A radiator may be made use of for this purpose, placed in a zinc-lined cupboard with wire grill doors. Radiators for this purpose, made up of two or three shelves, may be had from the manufacturers. An electric plate-warmer is the most satisfactory, as it is available in summer as well as in winter. These plate-warmers come in stock sizes and must be set in slate-lined compartments, pref- erably under the counter. The serving pantry, so far as painters' finish is concerned, should properly be finished in harmony with the dining-room, for it is really more a part of this room than of the kitchen. If paint is used, it should be enamel, glossy enough to be cleaned eas- ily. Shellac or varnish-finish should be avoided on natural wood ; oil-finish is much better. The floor should be in harmony with the dining-room floor, and should be finished in oil. The door from the kitchen to the serving pantry should be double-swing, but the door from the serving-room to the dining-room should be single-swing, opening into the din- ing-room, hinged to act as a screen when open. t H-^1 r i ' f :^, 1 IIH'^ V If^ A i \r f •u, ' i ii.iiii 1 \ 1 V^> \ ; 1 .; ; i W'l L -^jiig rsrA -irt g O^rrrramirl B^Jtr^£HT:KT.,r Kitchen Details and Their Arrangement The kitchen cabinet shown in the accompanying cut was designed for the particular location shown, but is of such dimensions that it can be used in any kitchen. The prin- cipal aim in designing this cabinet was simplicity, and provision for large storage capacity, ample work- ing space, and the avoidance of some of the unnecessary appli- ances found in many cabinets, which, though ingenious, take up considerable spaceand are not often used. The special features of this cabinet are described as follows. The large storage cupboard is 34 by 36 inches, and is 1 1 inches deep, with movable shelves which can be raised or lowered to suit one's individual needs as to height between. The doors are of ground glass, and the inside of the cupboard is finished in white enamel. The cupboard is fastened to the lower part of the cabinet by screws, so that it may be easily taken off for transportation. Another feature of the cabinet is the table-space under the cup- board, which can be used for temporary storage if desirable, and which is enclosed by the drop-front which slides back under the cup- board when the table is in use. The large table-top, 27 by 42 inches, is made of pine, covered with pol- ished zinc, and underneath is a large mixing board which is drawn out when in use. The flour-bin at the right is di- vided into two compartments, giv- ing storage room for both bread flour and pastry flour. This bin Cabinet and counter in a kitchen which takes the place of pantry. The cup- boards and drawers below serve to centralize the activities of the worker. The cabinet, open, showing the simple and commodious arrangement of drawers, shelves and working surface. A detail drawing is shown on page 65. has a balancing weight, and an automatic catch which keeps it open when flour is being taken out. The upper left-hand drawer is divided into small compartments of convenient size for knives, forks, spoons, and small cooking utensils, while the other three drawers arc used for larger utensils. One of the special features of this cabinet is the large drawer at the bottom for pots, kettles, and large utensils ; this is found to be much more convenient than the cup- board which is usually provided for this purpose, where the article wanted is often at the back, or hid- den by other things in front. This drawer, which is 22 by 23 inches and I I inches deep, has ample ca- pacity and is deep enough for large utensils. The drawer slides easily, being fitted with brass rollers; and when wide open every article can be seen at a glance. The outside of the cabinet is made perfectly smooth and without panels, in order to avoid dust- catchers ; and the cabinet is fitted with ball-bearing roller casters, so as to be easily moved when floors are cleaned. The material used for all outside surfaces is plain oak, stained a light golden brown by burning with chromate of potash and rubbing with linseed oil. This gives a dull finish, which will not be injured by the steam and moisture of the kitchen. The interior of the drawers is of white wood finished with shellac. A well-balanced arrangement of ample cabinets with work-tables beneath, which can be rolled out for use. Another good substitute for the pan- try. There are plenty of shelves and space here for all the equipment of a MiKilI house. tn j>K/t/MrxM. rot. ~-i"j*'/li^/, >i¥ in /Ci 3L :^^ ^^^ i)j;jj,j;j-JJ-IM>>J»J..J DMGR/IM OF KITCHEN ^■^^<- ^^^ a -v*: rLOOK .Bl/tS «! J|l<» |H |M PttT I r 1'^ = . i^ 67 &PLt!.llUP ._ Plan showing unsual combination pantry, serving-room, and breakfast alcove, and its relation to kitchen, stores, and ice-chest. Ar- rangements of this kind grew out of the special requirements of particular families. The large pantry means that much work usually done in the kitchen is here done in the pantry. With the help of electrical equipment, light meals could be prepared, served, and eaten without use of either kitchen or dining-room. The illustration at the left shows a view looking through to the kitchen from the pantry. See plan above. Below is the kitchen itself, with simple fitments. The porcelain sink is not commonly used in kitchens. 68 The cook's cabinet to the left contains dry stores and the counter on which to mix and prepare them. The sink is conveniently placed for this work but is not as convenient for the washing of cooking utensils. The large table by the range helps to remedy this defect. Compact combina- tion kitchen, pantry and serving-room. Flour, sugar, etc. are in buckets on shelves on the inside of the doors of the cabi- net, and swing out for convenient use when these doors are opened. Silver and linen are kept in the drawers, and dining-room dishes are in one glass case, kitchen dishes in the other. 69 McGrath-Sherrill Press Grafhit Arts Building Boston I ^^IVERsiTY OP r- _^^J^entfa day overdue. |rECC)RC APR 3 ^gg. fiovir ,947 260ct48p 22Mar'60BSi WAR 12 I960 LD 2i_j °°»'-^2,.46a2012i 8)4120 fl^ H-ost P4 *- V/ i, « , .» / GENERAL LIBRARY -U.C. BERKELEY llll B00D7b78fi5 THE UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA UBRARY