File:American homes and gardens (1908) (17965454008).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar51908newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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j>HE perfect house is rarely found. It is seldom that the test of living in a place fails to reveal its deficiencies, and even if, when built, a house completely suits its oc- cupants, time necessitates changes. When a room is unsatisfactory, when no amount of furniture or of bric-a-brac avails to really furnish or decorate it, the reason usually is found in the lack of structural features. Every room should have some center of interest. This may be a fireplace nook, a window-seat with interesting outlook, a group of built-in bookcases, or some other fitment. Whatever it is, its treat- ment must serve to make it the most important feature of the room, with other points of interest subordinated to it. This matter of interest does not belong entirely to the pictorial aspect of a room. An uncomfortable room is never interesting. An air of comfort, of restfulness, is a vital ne- cessity in a house, and conduces to mental as well as to physical ease. This lack of comfort and of convenience is often felt by women, who realize the need of these qualities in some room in their own homes, and yet who dread to undertake what seems to them a difficult problem. The building of a special piece of furniture to fit a particular place in a room will re- quire, they imagine, the services of an architect, and the making of careful plans, as well as the employment of a skilled cabinetmaker. This, it is felt, would mean great expense as well as a great deal of trouble. Any clever woman who engages a good builder, one whose specialty is the making of alterations in houses, or a good cabinetmaker, can, with his assistance, do her own design- ing, and contrive fitments for her house that are both con- venient and beautiful. The expense is rarely greater, and in many cases much less than would be the cost of purchasing good pieces of furniture to serve the same purpose as the fitments. Each fitment that is built into a room should be simple in construction. If carefully adapted to its purpose, a "simple piece is far more effective than one covered with moldings and machine-made ornament, which increase its cost in pro- portion as they decrease its real value. Good construction and beautiful finish must constitute the chief attraction of this class of furniture. In planning a design the lines of base- boards, frieze and picture molding in the room must be considered, and the fitment made to conform to these or to other architectural lines in the room, or at least to combine agreeably with them. All fitments should be of the same finish as the interior woodwork in a room. In designing cupboards or sideboards, drawers and shelves should be made of proper dimensions for holding table cloths, tray cloths and serviettes. Commodious accommodation for table linen is not often found in the sideboards and serving tables on sale in the shops. Ingenious devices in these and in other pieces of built-in furniture, such as desks, may be indulged in, and opportunity is given to the amateur designer to con- sider in every possible way her own comfort and convenience. One of the charms of the structural feature built into a room lies in its perfect adaptability to its place. It is difficult
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A Unified Arrangement of Dining-room Fixtures Built-in Sideboard and Closets A Grandfather's Clock Built Into a Corner

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