AN ARTISTIC WELLINGTON HOME.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 58, 2 December 1907, Page 3

AN ARTISTIC WELLINGTON HOME.

It would be difficult to find a more artistically designed or a moro usefully contrived house than a certain pretty white and green one that stands far back from the road on the seaward side of Hobson, Street. This, again, is a liouso in tho planning of which a woman has had a part, and tho result is light and airy, and altogether charming. Three things 0110 notices particularly as .characteristic features of the interior. One is the amount of white woodwork. In hall, and stairway, and in nearly every room all the woodwork is painted white. This gives a-charmingly light; and'fresh "effect, and it does not, as one might be inclined to think, bring sorrows to the maid, for, as - it is ' dono with glazed whito. paint, it is easily cleaned, and a damp cloth will quickly remove tho marks of little fingers. This is an important point. Everyone knows -how dirty ordinary paint gets, and how soon it is scrubbed off, leaving brown lines of woodwork showing through. Another thing to note is the great number of windows. They are in everywhere, the houso with light. On tho seaward side, .both downstairs aiul up, what, would _iri other houses be a short verandah and balcony is curved out like a bay window and enclosed with glass, each very large window consisting of many small panes. This makes two delightful little sitting-rooms, white and sunny, with a magnificent view of the harbour, and the lower one opens directly on to the lawn.' Then there is the decorativo effect of the doors, of which there arc many, for the house is well supplied with cupboards, and in each caso the door of room or cupboard door, is made, so to speak, in-Empire style with short upper panels, which is much more artistic than the usual long-waisted style. _ . ' _ To begin at tho beginning, which is the front door, one enters a tiny porch with whito walls and red tiled floor, and from this a whito door leads to the hall, which is papered in gobelin blue, and carpcted in shades of green and grey. Hero the,doors show their decorativo effect, seven: of'them against the -blue of the walls, and a little door in tho white stairway leads to a'small, shelved cupboard under tho stairs. A lightly framed staircase runs up from the hall to the rooms above with a' square turn above tho first three stops, and a landing,, the width of tho'hall, halfway up. There arc windows across the whole width of this landing, so that both the hall and. tho upper landing are excellently lighted. 'On one side of tho hall is a pretty smoking-room papered in green, with a frieze coming far down the wall to a depth a few inches lower than the door, where it meets a fiat white picture rail, which runs round the wall, meeting here the whito woodwork of the mantelpiece, and there tho white bookcase. It is a cosy room, with many books and pictures, and the deep frieze adds to tho snug effect by making tho ceiling appoar lower than it really is. The charming drawing-room has a , light cream paper and a delicately-coloured frieze. The white mantelpiece, set cornerwise, has a fireplace and hearth of red glazed tiles, and the casement curtains havo a tiny stencilled pattern of green; but most of the colour in the room comes from the-pictures, of which there are a great many hung low on tho walls. The dining-room is very uncommon and artistic. The walls are hung with ordinary brown paper, and tho wide low friezo has in it a touch of vermilion to match tho vermilion-painted woodwork of tho doors, wainscoting, windows, and mantelshelf. The fireplace is built of pale yellow unglazed bricks, and the hearth is tiled with the same shade. The Mirzaporo carpet is a delightful blending of grey and all sorts of colours, whose names .sound inharmonious, but which blend as beautifully as tiny flowers in an oldfashioned bouquet. Tho furniture in this room is of oak, made in the Mission, style. The designer of tho house believes that every room should, when possible, havo a cross light, and so, though half one wall is taken up by a built-out window, on the adjacent wall a small window has been set high up, which admirably achieves its purpose. Tho kitchen arrangements are particularly good. Opening, from tho dining-room is a pantry where are largo cupboards for glass and china, and everything necessary for tho serving of food invtlio dining-room. Next door is tho kitchen with a gas stove and an ordinary range fitted in a while-tiled recess, and beyond, still in tho same lino with the other two rooms, is a largo, well-lighted scullery, perfectly arranged with a largo sink, set in tho middle of a long table, and a shelf above for pickles, essences, etc. Set in tho wall 011 the other side of the scullery is a cupboard for vegetables, and another to hold the safo, and at tho end is a door that opens into the coal box ,so that without going out of tho house the maid can get the coal supply for tho house. Another door opens in the samo way from tho scullery into the woodshed. Thoro are a great many clever contrivances about this house. Perhaps one of the very best is to be seen in a dressing-room upstairs where there is what looks like a largo cup- , board built into a square window. The top

of tho cupboard forms a dressing-table, and of course the windows on three sides of tlio tabic afford an excellent light. But there is no cupboard there after all. The dressingtable top is really the Hoar of an oriel window, which is supported by brackets outside, a most ingenious contrivance for economising space. Those arc a few of the charms of this delightful house.