PLANNING A NEW HOUSE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 575, 30 January 1929, Page 9

PLANNING A NEW HOUSE

SAVING SPACE AND LABOUR CUPBOARD ROOM You can leave a good deal to an architect when you are planning a house but there are some things to which housewives should give special attention, and brick fireplaces, built-in wardrobes, cupboards or drawers instead of boxes in your window seats, and a sensible dresser in the kitchen, are just a few of these. Brick fireplaces, so a well-knpwn architect declares, should be in all houses, but especially in those built in exposed places. There are many reasons for this, but the principal one is economy. Labour, heating and cost of installation are cheaper. It was not tor nothing that in olden days people took a hot brick wrapped in flannel to bed with them. Bricks hold the heat for hours, metal lets it go again almost immediately. ADVANTAGES OF BRICK FIREPLACES Brick faces do not burn off or crack, and will stand knocks that would shatter cast iron. There is no metal to contract, so the bricks do not work loose—and there is originality. The brick fireplace can be built to suit your room and yours alone. Most master builders have one man capable of building a brick fireplace, even if it is an elaborate one. A simple bedroom design will cost about £3, more elaborate designs may take four days to build and are proportionately dearer. A PRACTICAL BUILT-IN WARDROBE The best type of built-in wardrobe is the quite unobtrusive one made by taking a foot from two neighbouring rooms and putting the wardrobe between the walls, one half having a door into one room and the other opening into the other. They are, in effect, copies of the old secret passages. Their advantages are that there are no corners, no tops and no little space between the wardrobe and the floor to invite dust. If the built in wardrobe has to be in a recess the top quarter should be shelved to take spare hats, winter shoes and so on. Box window seats, the architect has decided, are invitations to untidiness and hoarding, and are extremely inconvenient and seldom used, as they should be, merely for newspapers and magazines, house slippers and work baskets. So he suggests a series of cupboards—with sliding doors, so that the vallances, when any, need not be disturbed—or deep, easily moved, drawers. You can just as easily go wrong with a kitchen dresser as with window seats. The Ideal dresser is closed at the bottom by drawers, and has a slightly raised board so that no dust can settle in the bottom, and the doors cannot stick or catch the edge of the linoleum. One drawer should be fitted with baize and divisions for cutlery and silver, and it is an improvement to have a fitted flour-bin at one side.

Fitting up the dresser has nothing, of course, to do with the architect, but the average housewife often forgets that "sets” of receptacles all the same size may look neat but are often unpractical, since some things are needed in large quantities and some in small ones. Glass receptacles of various sizes are the most practical, since you can see what you have in stock at a glance, and if they are bought from a glass factory they are substantial enough to stand hard usage. The old-time habit of keeping the dinner service on the kitchen dresser is passing more often a built in china cabinet is put in the diningroom.

AVOIDING THE DANGERS OF DRY ROT

Do not cover the floors of a new house all over with linoleum too soon. Wood needs light and air just as plants do. If new floors are entirely covered with rubber or cork or even ordinary linoleum, they are in danger of getting dry rot. In small bedrooms it is suggested that the window-ledge should extend into a bow front, fitted with two small shallow drawers so that it can be used as a dressing-table. A looking-glass that will fold flat face downwards by means of hinges is most practical for this type. Beds should never face the light. This is a dictum that must be borne In mind when planning built-in furniture. A HINT ABOUT FURNITUREBUYING Buy your furniture, if possible, in consultation with your architect. If you buy a house already built have a rough plan made of it and map out your room with tiny pieces of paper cut to scale.