Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/489

 465 WOMAN'S HOME SittingTOoms — Bay Windows— Position oE Fireplace — Bedrooms, their Situation, Suitability, and Arrangement — The Nursery — Casement versus Sash Windows — The Question oE Doors and Floors — The Kitchen Premises ■yHE dining-room which is entered from somewhere near the front door is objec- tionable as likely to involve collisions between the incoming visitor and the dish-bearing maid. The question of outlook may affect the choice of the meal-room, particularly if it is also to be the general sitting-room of the family. A well-lighted room with a cheerful prospect is a perpetual tonic. In narrow-fronted houses it often happens that the first-floor front room is so much more roomy than either of the ground-floor sitting- rooms that it may be put to use as a drawing- room. This applies to rooms which occupy the whole frontage, standing over both ground-floor front room and hall. This alter- native, of course, is only possible when ample additional bedroom accommodation exists. The bay window is a feature that adds much to the comfort of any room. It not only increases the angle of outlook, but it adds appreciably to the floor space, and redeems many a room which, without it, would be called small. Rooms which approximate to a square are better than long, narrow rooms, unless the latter happen to be lighted from both ends, which is rarely the case. Even then there is a balance of ad- vantage in the square room, in which there is more open space about the dining-table. Rooms of irregular shape, termed " cor- ner y," lend themselves bet- ter to decorative treatment than severely square ones, and pro- vide nooks in which the house- wife will fit her furniture with good effect. The problem of making a home is always <. solved in one of two ways. Either the house has to accommodate a given quantity of pre-existing furniture, or the furniture to be bought to fit the house. In the former case one has constantly to bear in mind the size and amount of furniture, and it is well to The long, narrow room has the disadvan^ tage of being dark at the end far from the window. The fireplace should be placed as shown above Convenient arrangement of bedroom. Bed so placed as to avoid draughts between door and chimney be provided with measurements of the larger pieces, as the eye is not able to gauge space to a nicety. Nothing is so disappointing as to find that some well-treasured cabinet or sideboard must be discarded because in the new house there is no place where it will fit. The position of the fireplace in a long, narrow room should be on one of the long sides. If otherwise, it will be found that one end of the room will monopolise the heat of the fire, the other maintaining a tempera- ture but few degrees above the open air. The drawing-room is always so personal in its furnishing and decoration that each particular searcher for the ideal home will recognise the possibilities of a given room without hesitation. The drawing-room and its contents should sum up the taste and skill of the lady of the house. It is her special domain. Wherefore it would be as imperti- nent to advise on the merits of this or that room as to dictate the style of the searcher's new summer frock. It may be pointed out that much that has been written here about sitting-rooms in general applies to the drawing-room. Outlook