XXXIV. Making the Best of It

Ah Love! could you and I with Fate conspire, To grasp this sorry scheme of things entire, Would we not shatter it to bits—and then / Remould it nearer to the heart’s Desire!

IN England, at any rate, the average man does not generally build a house for himself, and building is regarded as an expensive luxury to be indulged in only by the rich. My present purpose is not to inquire how far such a state of things is justified or what are its causes, but to accept the fact that many people who have their clothes, for instance, made to fit them, feel bound to accept the ready-made house. This might not be so serious a matter if the ready-made house were thoughtfully planned and adapted to the comfort of the occupant, but few, I think, who have experienced life in the average villa will claim so much for it as that! But assuming that such a house must perforce be ours, it may be useful to consider in what way its interior, at least, can be modified to make the best of it. The task is not such a hopeless one as at first sight may appear, and for this reason: In the criticism of all art, an unconscious allowance is made by the intelligent observer for the limitations involved. We do not quarrel with the painter because, with his tube of flake white, he attempts to represent the brightness of sunshine. Unconsciously we make due allowance for the difficulties of his task. To make the best of the situation is all that any man can do, and the very difficulties of the task add to the interest of the final result, and make our triumph more readily applauded or our failure more easily condoned.

Those who have read of Japanese theatrical performances may remember that they include the presence on the stage of certain gentlemen in black who are not supposed to be seen by the spectator. In England, their duties would be performed out of sight; but the Japanese, while placing them in view of the audience inconspicuously attired, assume that the intelligent observer will consider it his duty not to see them. It is on some such principle as this that the undesirable features of the suburban house should be treated. One recognises at once, for instance, that its rooms are too high, aud that an ugly plaster cornice divides wall from ceiling. In such a case, the decorator may finish his treatment of the walls, at the height of the doors perhaps, with a wooden rail. All the space above that line he practically ignores. It is not in the caste of his piece, and so it may be treated in the way which will best efface it from our impression of the room, and generally the best method is to whitewash all above the rail and then leave it contemptuously alone. There is nothing to be gained by picking out the cornice with colour, or by papering with elaborate friezes and ceiling-papers this upper portion of the room. All this will but help to draw attention to what we wish to ignore. Or again, the doors and woodwork generally will probably be enriched with all kinds of coarsely designed and mechanically executed mouldings. Here, again, the same principle will lead us to avoid any scheme of painting which emphasises these features by special colours for the mouldings, or different shades of colour for panels; and here again disapproval of features of this kind can best be shown by painting all the woodwork one uniform tint. Such a principle will, however, hardly serve us in dealing with such important features as fireplaces, for instance. The more important grates, which one may almost safely assume will be cast iron coarsely designed and finished in shiny black, with a few highly ornamental tiles let in the sides, and the overmantels, white enamelled probably, in the drawing-room with all sorts of niches and shelves, must, if possible, be removed to an attic, and a better and simpler fireside arranged, so that it can be easily removed if necessary, and the old one replaced when the house is given up. If, however, the house is an older one, even if it belongs to the much-abused Early Victorian period, the mantels may be of that simple type which was almost universal, and thus possess a sort of negative virtue in being at least not artistic 1 Here it will be necessary to remove the grate only and to fix above the shelf a small overmantel designed mainly as a background for ornaments.

In many cases a few slight structural alterations may be managed with an indulgent landlord. The house, if it is in a terrace, at any rate it may be assumed, will be of the plan shown in Fig. i. It is the recognised formula. From the porch or vestibule, passing through the inner door with its leaded glass, of which the least said the better, one enters the narrow hall where the hat-stand is, and one looks beyond to the long flight of stairs, with possibly a varnished pitch-pine newel-post, which is as much too large as the balusters above it are much too small, and which seems to have absorbed the whole art of the stairs. Here, the first step in improving the plan will be to remove the partition between the narrow hall and the front sitting-room—the opening being spanned with a beam behind which a curtain is fixed. The hall now becomes a recess in the front room which may be screened with the curtain when required. The dismal passage has disappeared.

A further improvement may be made by forming a ceiling of wood panels, perhaps on fibrous plaster and wood at a low level to this recess, for its ugliness as a passage even is much increased by the excessive ceiling height, for in the suburban villa the height of its largest room is the height of its narrowest passage.

The staircase will also be shut ofF by another low opening with its beam and curtain or even by a door.

On entering from the porch of such a house, we are at once in a recessed portion of the hall or house-place, with its liberal suggestion of space and The above plan modified as suggested. freedom, instead of that chilling passage which no art of man can make homely and inviting.

Let us now consider the back room, which in a house of this kind will be the dining-room. It is generally small and cramped, and in spite of its sheet of glass, which makes it impossible to escape from the insistent presence of narrow back premises, it is also dark. It is assumed that the kitchen premises form an annexe in the rear, and are not in the basement; and their position will make it difficult to light this room properly, while the prospect from its window can hardly be anything but cheerless. But the window of the front room will give a large amount of light, and more in fact than is needed there.

A further modification of the structure would therefore take the form of making an opening in the partition which divides the two rooms, which may be either fitted with glazed doors or with the beam and curtain as before. A small conservatory might then form the end of the vista outside the dining-room window, or if the window itself is merely modified it might take the form of making it solely a means of letting light into the room without disclosing the barrenness of the outlook. This may be done by fitting shutters glazed with leaded glass on the inside face of the wall. These could be easily removed, and besides forming a screen, they would have all the advantages of double windows and counteract those disadvantages of the large window which have already been referred to.

In making such a modification of the stereotyped villa plan, I fully recognise that it will only appeal to the more intelligent inhabitants of villadom. The conception of the house, which includes the sacrifice of the front room to the visitor, and the furnishing of it with superfine and highly polished cabinets and occasional chairs and tables, will not gladly accept for mere family uses the most important room in the house easily and comfortably furnished, with materials which will stand, and not be the worse for, constant service. In considering how such a modification of the plan will meet the conditions of family life, the question may first of all be considered from the fundamental standpoint of heating. In such a villa, the family will often be normally a “two-fire” family, and will only keep in constant use the kitchen fire and that in the back sitting-room. The inevitable result of this will be that the back sitting-room in the winter months will be the general and only sitting-room and feeding-room for the family group, or if the front sitting-room fire is kept in use the family must necessarily have their meals in the cold. When, however, the whole area of the two rooms is treated as one apartment with a good fire in the front room, the dining-room becomes a sort of recess in the hall, and shares in its heat as well as light, and the whole interior forms a roomy and comfortable setting for the family life. On occasions when it is necessary to receive visitors without infringing on the family life, this may be done either in the back or front portion of the plan, according to the convenience of the occasion. The separate uses of the back room would depend on the possibility of including another fire in the minimum heating arrangements, or a heating apparatus might be used to warm the greenhouse and dining-room, and the possibility of other retreats for members of the family would depend on the number and disposition of the bedrooms, and the possibility of heating them either by artificial means or by additional fires, while in some cases a reception-room may be placed on the upper floor, which could be reached without disturbing the privacy of the lower rooms. In cases where additional frontage allows of a garden of reasonable width at the back, the space outside the dining-room window may be used as a garden-room, and if the wide doorway to the front room is still retained this will not make the dining-room itself too dark.

Figure 4 shows another modification of the normal plan which is particularly adapted to houses where there is an outlook at the back on to the garden, and especially when this is to the south, the partition between the back room and the staircase hall being removed and a beam and curtain introduced. The whole of the back portion of the house now becomes the hall, and the front room communicating with it by double doors becomes the part of the plan set apart for the reception of visitors. As the staircase now becomes an important feature a slight modification in its Fig. 3. form is often desirable, and this can be effected by forming a square landing as shown. This arrangement is specially adapted for houses where the back room is fairly large, and in its altered form it will become the dining-hall. Here, as in small dining-rooms generally, a folding table will be desirable which can be removed when not in use, and in its reduced size used as a side-table.

In the decoration and furnishing of the villa thus modified in its structure the general principles advanced elsewhere will equally apply, and it only remains to note a few of the special Fig. 4. conditions which it presents. In the new house it is advised that the structure should in itself be complete and satisfying and not depend on superficial decoration, which when applied takes the form of clothes designed to display bodily beauties of proportion rather than to conceal defects. In the villa, however, decoration must be palliative. It is not so much a case of a house to be decorated as a disease to be alleviated, and the decorator thus becomes a physician who advises the proper treatment for each case.

It has already been shown how features which cannot be removed may be made at least inconspicuous, and how others too important for such a system may be removed and replaced by something better. A few notes may be added as to the treatment of the floor, which, in a house built as one would wish, should, as far as possible, be structural. In the villa the best treatment of the ordinary floor is to cover it with a veneer of parquet prepared with a dull glossy surface which does not require polishing. This treatment should at any rate be adopted, if possible, in the principal sitting-rooms, and considering the saving in the cost and wear of carpets its cost will be justified.

In other rooms, linoleum ot plain colour or cork carpets will form a satisfactory basis for rugs. These materials will form useful palliative remedies for bad floors, and they are considered in this connection merely because, in the house as it should be, the real floor should not require covering except to gain that sense of luxury which the deep pile of a good carpet conveys. Certain labour-saving appliances may be easily added to the house. A lift from the kitchen when it is in the basement, and a speaking-tube, and a few washstands, fitted with taps, in the bedrooms, and the use of tiles for wall-covering as far as possible in bathrooms and kitchen premises—all these will help to reduce the labour of the house.

To make the best of some old country farmhouse will constitute a more congenial task. Old houses in the country are full of inspiration and suggestion. But how seldom is the genius loci regarded, and how often one sees the serene dignity of an old house marred by all kinds of up-to-date artistic furnishings and decorations.

Whatever is done to an old building should be so conceived in harmony with the house that one should not be able to detect where the new work begins and the old ends. All should show alike an old-world beauty, comfortable, serviceable and homely. The ancient glories of the house, many of which may have been since obscured, may be replaced with only such slight modifications as may be required to meet modern demands.

In suggesting these schemes for the modifications of the average house, I am fully conscious that each case will have special conditions demanding special treatment, but in the average house this will largely consist in the judicious removal of partitions, so securing a sense of spaciousness instead of the cramped confinement of the house, which consists of a series of small compartments.