Modern Cupboards Have No Skeletons

Radio Record, 29 July 1938, Page 44

Modern Cupboards Have No Skeletons

OOD cupboard space is the real secret of an orderly home. After the yawning plenty of the vast Victorian cupboards, whose depths were plumbed but seldom and then with great effort, came the cupboard famine. A quarter of a century ago every bride had to buy wardrobes and linen presses, cupboards for shoes, hats, saucepans. She was lucky to find a housemaid’s cupboard, The modern architect is cupboard conscious. One suspects that, now and again, his wife looms over his shoulder and says: "Be sure to put in enough cupboards." And so he does. The built-in wardrobe has revolutionised the modern bedroom, Elven if it is not already there, it can be installed at little expense by any carpenter. If it is painted to match the rest of the woodwork it recedes harmoniously into the bedroom scheme in a way that no

wardrohe, standing out importantly from th: wall, can ever do. PIVIDE your wardrobe into sections, Allow plenty of hanging space. Arrange the rods high enough to take your longest evening frock. There is: nothing ‘more enraging than a hanging. cupboard so short that every dance means an hour’s prelude at the ironing board. Plan the rest of the space to take folded lingerie, stockings, searves, aceessories, Arrange a shoe rack if there is room. Insist on a hat shelf, and install therein hat stands, "Line" is what you pay for in a hat, and all the money spent on "line" can be wasted in a couple of nights on an unyielding shelf, While the children’s clothes are still short, make their wardrobe do double duty. Have two hanging rails-one at the top for the younger members, another halfway down for the children promoted to dressing themselves. Older children can have one inexpensive pine wood cupboard each, and so learn the art of tidiness,

"THEN there are toy cupboards-a real boon in a young and busy household. One each if you can manage the space, If not, a single one strictly divided into compartments. The nicest children’s eupboard I ever saw cost one pound and a couple of Saturday afternoons, It was madé of three-ply, and. housed the possessions: of three children. Hach had ‘their special compartment named, ' oe It had shelves for. the strange agsort : ment ‘of treasures beloved of schaol children, places for the more disreputable nursery books, bim-shaped receptacles at the bottom for the litter at small toys. , , It was white outside, :a vivid scarlet, inside, and, according to its designers, was the greatest: contribution towards peaceful living in the whole. house. In. your. _ living-room-cupboards again, There is no lovelier decor for €he simple room than that provided . by books, atiractive pieces of china or glass. Long. low bookcases on either side of a chimney place, or beneath a window, give character to any room. A cupboard in the centre of each set of shélves will house all the ~ paraphernalia of the needle-woman, ~- Another will allow for a supply of magazines and thé newspapers which somebody always wants after they have’: been tidied into the dust-bin. Shallow cupboards are best for storing linen, unless you set up shelves round the walls of a deep one, Shelves’: the width of folded sheets, blankets | and towels mean that you can find (Continued on page 54), 9 °°

No Skeletons (Continued from page 44.)

exactly what you want at a glance. Very deep cupboards should be lighted inside, A tiny sixteen candle-power bulb will save much groping and consequent bad temper. Glass-franted cupboards for china or -, glass or for any other interesing’ collec- . tion; These can be brought in units and added to. when required. They are dustproof, and in modern woods extremely decorative, * , oe be