Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/331

 309 WOMAN'S HOME I may be laid down as a general principle that the comfort and convenience of a house is in the inverse ratio to the length of its stair- carpeting. We may now consider the interior of the house in more detail; but before we step inside we will glance at the porch. A well-designed porch is a desirable addition to any house regarded solely from the point of view of appearances. It is also a very real convenience. In wet and windy weather, particularly at night, its shelter is welcome to the one who waits on the doorstep. There is no excuse for bundhng indoors with a dripping umbrella and mud -stained boots. When " speeding the parting guest " the porch stands between the hostess and neuralgia or one or other of the worse ills that lurk in our easterly winds. If facing south it serves another useful purpose in protecting the paintwork of the front door from blistering and prematu re shabbiness. Not so effective for shelter as the porch, but preferable to no shelter whatever, is the canopy shown in the illustration, a device which has also much to recommend it on the score of appearance. The Hall Initial impressions go for much. In entering a house for the first time one generally sums up the household on the strength of a hasty survey of the hall. Narrow halls, which hardly deserve the name, are dark, comfortless, draughty, and inconvenient in many ways. They do not lend themselves to decorative treatment. Strive as they will, they have to admit that, after all, they are nothing but ordinary passages. There is no space for those con- veniences one expects to find on entering the house, and any attempt to remedy the omission produces a state of congestion inconvenient to the inmates and repellent to the visitor. These attenuated halls have had their day, and, except only in the cheapest property, have given way to more spacious entrances. The up-to-date suburban villa at a modest rental of £35 has a hall five feet in width, which is the very least width •insistent with comfort. When the width of the hall exceeds that of the front door by two feet or so, the usual practice is to light it by windows on one or both sides of the door, an arrangement infinitely preferable to the now discredited fanlight. In halls of ample width a fireplace or stove becomes possible, either of which is a con- venience that adds immensely to the comfort of the household in winter. Not only does the hall stove strike a note of homeliness and welcome, but its warmth ascends the stairway, diffusing a genial temperature throughout those spaces external to the rooms, which usually are so cold by contrast with the rooms themselves. The so-called " square " or " sitting hall " is possibly the best of all, provided it is screened from the front door draught by a vestibule, in which case it becomes a really useful room for occasions, and may Two arrangements of hall with fireplace (a) Ordinary type for semi'detached villa (b) "Sitting Hall, a better type be made to form a charming introduction to the rooms beyond. The Staircase Intimately related to the hall is the stair- case. Staircases vary greatly in design and detail. Perhaps the most objectionable kind is that which faces one directly on entering the front door, starting from a sufficiently wide hall, but usurping space that had better have been thrown into the latter. There is only one excuse for such an arrangement. It gives a straight course to the stairs, and that permits of fitting the carpeting without the need for turning in, a clumsy and wasteful expedient that cannot be avoided on stairs which are angled. Apart from this difficulty with the car- peting, angled stairs are not altogether free from danger to the incautious. A well- designed staircase should have a square expansion at each turn. The rise of each step should not exceed 6} inches, and the width of tread should not be less than 1 1 inches. This gives an easy angle of ascent with ample foothold. Stairs which rise at a steeper angle are fatiguing and dangerous to those descending them. The minimum width of the staircase consistent with con- venience is 3 feet.