A Pleasant and Homelike Cottage Designed for a Small Family

This design for a cottage is best suited for the suburbs or for a village, as the shape of the building is such that it needs plenty of ground around it. If it were built in the open country, it would look particularly well on a large lot where there are plenty of trees, as for example the site of an old apple orchard, as the gnarled trunks and low spreading branches would give the ideal setting to a house like this.

In the event of the house being built in a locality where field stone could easily be obtained, it would be advisable to use this material for the first story, as suggested in the illustration. The gables and roof are shingled and an admirable effect could be produced by using rived cypress shingles darkened by the application of diluted sulphuric acid. This brings out all the color in the wood and also brings it into complete harmony with the stone.

The porch at the front of the house is eight feet wide, permitting the use of a hammock and such rustic furniture as is needed for veranda life in the summer. The second and smaller porch at the rear of the house opens into the dining room and may be used as an outdoor dining room (luring the warm months.

The vestibule inside the entrance door is very small, serving merely to cut off the draught from the door. This is one of our earlier plans and has narrower openings between the rooms. Were we to make it over now, we would suggest that the partition between the hall and the living room on the side toward the front be taken away as far as the vestibule, making the hall a part of the living room. The narrow passage between the fireside seat and the staircase could remain unaltered, or the post-and-panel construction might be put across, making a doorway in which could be hung a portiere. Although the doorway between the living room and the dining room is very wide, yet the division is indicated sufficiently to separate the space into two distinct rooms. If this arrangement should be preferred, the opening could be left just as it is and either curtained with heavy portieres, or partially filled with a large screen which could be spread across or removed at will. It would, however, be more in accordance with the later Craftsman arrangement to remove even these slight partitions, leaving only the chimneypiece to mark the division between the rooms.