The house and its equipment online

THE HOUSE AND
ITS EQUIPMENT



HUDSON A KEARNS

I.IMrrKI). PRINTERS

LONDON, S.I :.




AN INTERIOR BY MR. I.UTYENS.



THE HOUSE AND
ITS EQUIPMENT



EDITED BY LAWRENCE WEAVER




LONDON :

PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICES OF COUNTRY LIFE
20, TAVISTOCK STREET, CO VENT GARDEN, AND BY
GEORGE NEWNES, LTD., 8-n, SOUTHAMPTON STREET,
STRAND. NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS



1 -



CONTENTS.



INTRODUCTION

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY . .

COLOUR IN THE HOUSE

PLASTER-WORK

WOOD-PANELLING

ARCHITECTURAL FURNITURE

FIREPLACES

WOOD CHIMNEY- PIECES ..

THE BILLIARD - ROOM

LIBRARIES AND BOOKCASES

THE CHILDREN S ATTIC..

THE CASE FOR MODERN FURNITURE

THE DESIGN OF GRAND PIANOS

HOW TO CHOOSE OLD FURNITURE

FLOOR COVERINGS

WATER SUPPLY FOR COUNTRY HOUSES

SEWAGE DISPOSAL

KITCHENS AND SCULLERIES

REFRIGERATION

AN UP-TO-DATE GAMIC LARDER

THE BATHROOM

A REVIEW OF LIGHTING SYSTEMS

ELECTKIC LIGHT IN COUNTRY HOUSES

ELECTRICAL WORKING, COSTS ..

WATER -POWER INSTALLATIONS

THE ILLUMINATION OF ROOMS

AIR GAS IN THE COUNTRY HOUSE ..

ACETYLENE IN THE COUNTRY HOUSE

HOUSE TELEPHONE INSTALLATIONS

LIGHTNING CONDUCTORS

DRY-ROT . . . . . .; ;. . . \ f | .<;..: : : . .

THE CARF; OF THE^ HOUSE . " .* "*..-,

ON GARDEN DKSftVJ j.tJKlSERAJ J; .YJ : , . , .".

GARDEN -HOUSES .. .. . . "

OUTDOOR DINING-ROOMS

THE ART OF TREILLAGE

PERGOLAS

ORANGERIES

GLASSHOUSES

IRON GATES AND RAILINGS

STATUES ON GATEPIERS

STATUES ON BUILDINGS

HARD COURTS FOR LAWN TENNIS

USES OF REINFORCED CONCRETE

INDEX



PROFESSOR



C.

c.



THE EDITOR
ERNEST NEWTON
HALSEY RICARDO
F. W. TROUP
J. A. GOTCH
H. B. QUENNELL
II. B. QUENNELL
ARTHUR T. BOLTON
Til 1C EDITOR
THE EDITOR
THE EDITOR
C. H. B. QUENNELL
KATHLEEN PURCICLL
BASIL OXENDEN
C. H. B. qUENNELL
W. H. BOOTH
ALBAN II. SCOTT
II. B. QTTTCNNICLI.
DUDLEY G. GORDON
DUDLEY G. GORDON
C. H. B. QUENNELL
MAURICE HIRI)
MAURICE HIRI)
BERNARD MEKYYN DRAK1C
MAURICIC II1RI)
V. ZING I.E R
MAURICIC HIRI)
MAURICE HIRD
MAURICIC HIRD
MAURICE HIRD
W. II. B1DLAKIC
A. ALBAN II . SCOTT
GERTRUDE JEKYLL
.. H. 1NIGO TRIGGS
II. AVRAY TIPPING,
.. H. INIGO TRIGGS
A. LYS BALDRY
.. F. INIGO THOMAS
H. AVRAY TIPPING,
J. STARKIE GARDNER
THE EDITOR
THE EDITOR
C. H. B. QUENNELL
C. KICMPTON DYSON



Vll.

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8

12
16
23
32

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196
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203
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209



INTRODUCTION



TIIK welcome given to Small Coitn/rv Houses of To-day, which dealt with the planning and archi
tectural treatment of about fifty typical houses by well-known architects, seems to justify
the publication of this, a companion volume. In the lormer book the aim was to consider
each house as a definite architectural conception. It was shown how many and how
greatly differing are the motifs that may justly be employed in giving form to needs which are, in
the main, the same for all houses. Though six of its chapters were given to the description ol old buildings
which had been repaired and altered to meet new conditions and needs, the design of new houses received
the lion s share of consideration. The scheme of the present volume is altogether diflerent, though the
aim is the same, vi/,., to enlarge the healthy interest, already widespread, in all questions that concern
the practical equipment and decorative amenities of the house. Many volumes have been published
in which a single writer has endeavoured to cover the whole field, but such a collide >eem-~ to demand an
amount of knowledge and critical ability which it is unreasonable to expect. The method here adopted,
of securing contributions from twenty-three writers, between whom the forty-three chapters have been
divided, is obviously more likely to secure expert advice on subjects so diverse. It will, however, be
found that the general attitude of all the contributors is the same, in so far as they plead with the public,
to approach all questions relating to the house and its equipment in an architectural spirit. The
book roughly divides itself into three sections. The first fourteen chapters deal with the treatment of
various rooms and with different means of beautifying them by plaster-work, panelling, and furniture
aptly designed and chosen. The next seventeen are devoted to practical questions, such as drainage and
lighting. The last twelve take us from the house toils encircling garden, in consonance with the plea (set
out by Mr. Ernest Newton in the first chapter) that house and garden should be considered together as
constituent parts of an artistic whole. While no one book, or, indeed, anything short of a library, can
include all the subjects involved in so vast a problem as the equipment of the house, it is hoped that
this volume will stimulate and help those who are not wholly satisfied with their homes and desire to
better them. LAWRENCE \YEAVER.



241505



THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT.



DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY



The New Renaissance



of English House-building The Smzllish House Arts iinl Crafts Mt)\ cm<*nt
(itirdcn Design Relations <>j Architect and ( lien/.



THE history ol the English race is very clearly written in its domestic architecture. \Ye arc a
home-loving people, and from the earliest settled times \ve have given serious attention to the
art ol house-building. Well into the last century our traditions were practically unbroken,
and it is possible to date without much difficulty every house that was built up to that tune,
and to trace from their houses the changes and developments in the in inner of lile of the people
who lived in them. These changes were slow and leisurely, as became a quiet and naturally rather
conservative people. Railways, more than anything else, killed this traditional art, but there were, of
course, many other contributory causes. The nineteenth century began an era of change in the outlook
and the modi ol lile of the whole country. Communities which from time immemorial had lived remote
Irom the greater centres of activity, content in their seclusion, suddenly found themselves caught in the
stream of modern
developments, a n d
t h e i r pleasant,
uneventful existence
r u d e 1 y i n v a d e d .
1 lome industries
\\cre transplanted to
l.ictories. a n d t h e
.raftsman h a d t o
.:ivc way to the
mechanic. I t w a s
exciting, but no sort
of time for the
further development
of traditional archi
tecture. In the
sixties and seventies
we bewail to set lie
down attain, but by
that time traditional
a re h i t e c t u r e was
practically dead.

This is very
rough-and-ready his
tory, but it is near
e n o u g h for t h e
purpose of dating
with more or less

accuracy the renaissance of English domestic architecture. The pioneers of this renaissance
Norman Shaw, Nestield, Philip Webb, Devey and some few others each picked up the thread of traditional
design arbitrarily and gave to his buildings a personal character, so that their designs, although based on
old work, were in no sense mere copies ; they aimed at catching the spirit of the old building rather than
at the literal reproduction of any defined style. This was the starting-point of the great development
that has taken place in domestic architecture during the last forty years. Circumstances were favourable.
The great commercial activity of the period produced almost a new class men who from small beginnings
had made large fortunes and were fired with an ambition to " found a family." Their first step towards
this object was to buy land and build a house. Since that time to the present day almost every note in
the possible scale of house design has been struck. We were asked forty years ago to invent a new style,
and we have invented a dozen. We, have had houses recalling the buildings of the seventeenth and




.- "".-

I. -" THK SMALLISH HOTS!



THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT.




O



a
H



DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY.



eighteenth centuries, and of earlier periods ; \vc have made full play with building materials, concrete,
stone, tiles, pebbles, rough-cast, in all sorts of skilful or playful combinations of colour, form and texture ;
we have used all motifs, from adzed beams and rough stone to gilded and painted ceilings and marble
floors ; we have even tried our hands at the Art Nouveau : though it has not taken so much hold of England
as of the Continent. Doubtless it has its place in the general development of things, and, in fact, the
work of some of its ablest exponents has a certain directness, reticence and refinement which gives it a
character of its own that is not unattractive. But in the hands of the wilder spirits it seems to me simply
a bizarre sort of nightmare, defying every law of construction and natural form, and even decency.

As we review this half-century of house-building there are, perhaps, four points especially noticeable.
In the first place, it is the day ot the smallish house. The Nash of our time would find the " country
seats " and " noblemen s mansions " no longer being built. And this smallness of the house has resulted
in a peculiarly intimate touch. Perhaps the most marked leature of our modern domestic architecture
is its indi\idual character. Every part of a building from start to finish is minutely designed. The
projection, depth and contour of each moulding is carefully drawn ; the colour and texture of walling and
roofing materials, and the manner in which they shall be used, are carefully considered and made to

contribute to the
gen e v a 1 e I fee i ;
mantel - pieces, grates
and panelling, door
handle s and hinges,
even nails, are all
drawn and made to
our liking. The in
evitable drawback to
this intense! y
personal practice oi
architecture is that,
while it develop-; the
art of design, it does
little or nothing for
the craft of building.
The architect ha>.
so far as he can,
trathered up the lin,>
of traditional build-
i n g . a n d c o 11 -
scientiously o r
capriciously lollo\\>
one or the other
just as his fancy for
the moment dictates.
The builder of the
ready-made house is
totally unmoved by
this intensive archi
tectural culture ;
and while the con
scientious architect is striving after perfection, the speculating builder gaily devastates whole districts,
his only ideal being the greatest apparent accommodation for the lea* actual cost. It is all a little
bewildering, and it is difficult and not very profitable to attempt to forecast the future.

In the second place, this re\ival of domestic architecture has been accompanied by a parallel
revival in the arts subservient to house design by what is known as the " arts and crafts " movement.
Those who can remember the pre-Morris days know to what depths the arts of house furnishing and
decoration had fallen wall-papers of a ghastly green, with gold fleur-de-lys dabbed on at regular intervals ;
the " suite " upholstered in crimson or sky blue repp ; the distressing carpets and amber-dyed sheepskin
mats. Morris changed all this and gave us fine colour and pattern. It is impossible to over-estimate
his influence, both direct and indirect. He created a standard both in design and workmanship, and
although, of course, his views and dogmas were not universally accepted, he opened people s eyes to possi
bilities of which they had not even dreamed. Those who had been vaguely oppressed by their surroundings
became conscious of the cause of their discomfort, and demanded something better, even if they were
not prepared for a complete reversal of their former views. This demand created a supply. Makers




3. AN ARCHITECT



THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT.



ot stuffs and wall-papers really did what they could to meet these new requirements ; naturally, with
varying success. Many architects assisted the manufacturers by designing wall-hangings, carpets and
other fabrics.

The third point is the revival of the lost art of garden design. The " House Beautiful " still
required a setting. The architect who had given so much thought to the building was forced regretfully
to resign the laying-out of the garden to alien hands ; the cult of the curly path, of the kidney-shaped bed
and clump of pampas grass was well established and not easy to dislodge. Gradually, however, people s
interest was aroused by garden books and illustrations of the fine old gardens scattered up and down the
country. Now the architect plans the garden almost as a matter of course. The dethronement of the
nursery garden designer and the installation of the architect in his place has come about rather suddenly.
The architect is sometimes a little embarrassed by the confidence reposed in him as a garden-maker. His
knowledge of planning and his powers of designing an effective " lay-out " may in some cases exceed his
horticultural learning. Of course, lie need not be a specialist in this line, but he must have a fair working
knowledge of plants and their habits, of when and where to put them, or his garden will be shorn of more
than half its interest. It is the contriving of cunningly-sheltered nooks for one kind of plant and the
naked exposure of others that is three-quarters of a well-conceived garden plan. This applies much less,

of course, to the
arrangement of large
and quite formal
gardens than to the
small garden, which
requires a far more
delicate and intimate
handling.

All this is
rather a tremendous
result to h a v e
achieved in so short a
time, c-pccially when
i t m ;i s t be r e -
membeivd that for
perhaps the larger
half of that time
architects had but
little support from
the public. T h e r e
were many unrecorded
and, fortunately,
bloodless battles be
fore the architect and
his client saw eye to
eye. I should be
claiming too much to

assert that victory is ours all along the line even now ; but the growth of public interest
and appreciation is very marked, fostered and dictated, no doubt, as much by the attention
drawn to domestic architecture by books, magazines and weekly papers as by the direct influence
of the architect. The omniscient daily Press alone lags behind, and has still to discover the
art of architecture. With a few notable exceptions architectural criticism in the daily papers has
not advanced much beyond the penny-a-line stage ; and there is no doubt that the architecture
of public buildings, with which the daily Press is chiefly concerned, has not made quite the same kind
of advance as domestic work. The reason for this is that in the latter architect and client are in touch ;
they discuss requirements and detail*- ; there is a sort of partnership. Public architecture, on the other
hand, is generally the result of a competition. The architect has no direct employer, but has to work
to hard-and-fast printed directions ; there is no elasticity of give and take ; and it is all " in the air."
Elaborate drawings have to be made showing many details and features if a competitor is to have a chance
of success ; and when successful he cannot leave these features out ; he is the slave of his fine drawings.
In the case of a house there is opportunity for much personal explanation, which, indeed, is often required.
The client certainly is in many instances not attracted by the elevation of a house, which is quite right
when built, but not, as a drawing, sufficiently effective to get a chance if it were subject to the conditions
of a competition. The fourth and the most important point is the genuineness of the progress. It is
quit:? clear that if the revival had been merely a revival of externals a sort of Christmas-card




_|. LOCAL MATERIALS: WELSH SLATES IN WALES.



DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF TO-DAY. 5

architecture it would have hail no vitality, and would have deservedly died out long .ago. But it
has been a real attempt to grapple with the requirements of modern life. Of course, it was hardly
to be expected that it should have been wholly free from extravagances and affectations. We
have-, pel haps, used the farmhouse motif beyond its proper limits For a house of moderate si/.e.
and for people of simple habits, it is, of course, legitimate ; but it is a common-place of house
building that, as far as possible, the wishes and requirements of those who are going to live in the
house should be met. I say "as far as possible" because people s wishes arc sunn-times rather
chaotic, and an architect lias occasionally to invent their requirements for them. But, speaking generally,
we may sav that domestic architecture will progress more naturally and soundly if the architect honestly
laces the often difficult problems set him, instead of enforcing his own individual views. The ordinary
man who wants a plain, simple house, with well-lighted rooms, carpeted floors and all that goes to Un
making of a comfortable home, is rather hardly used when lie finds that lie has to sit in a sort of low,
farmhouse kitchen, with a gritting floor and a reluctant log tire. And yet, if the architect has dude-, to
his employer, the employer no less has duties to his architect. A certain give-and-take is necessary.
1 he architect, with his experience, should be left full freedom in details. But if the employer has definite
views as to the way in which he wants to live, it is no part of the architect s duty to tell him that he is
mistaken. Perhaps he will like many rooms, one, for every part of the business of life, or lie may preler
one big room for general family use. That is his business ; but it is the architect s business to make a whole
of these units. Some wholly incongruous teat lire is often introduced and insisted on alter the general
scheme is complete and the work begun, and the result is deplorable ; whereas if a point had been made
of it at first, the architect would have had a chance of making it the pivot on which the whole of his
design turned.

But, on the whole and this is the most encouraging point about the present position in domestic
architecture -the real progress made has been the result of interaction between architect and client. It
has been a real attempt to solve new problems. Practical needs, instead of being ignored or overlooked,
have brought about new types of plans. Considerations of aspect have settled the position and sequenee
of rooms. The materials available for building in different parts of the country have impoM-d limitations,
and suggested certain methods of using them. The proper lighting and most convenient arrangement
of domestic offices ; the position of fireplaces ; the disposition of beds and other furniture all t [un
practical problems are of the essence of any scheme for the planning of a house, and each in its turn, when
successfully solved, has helped towards the realisation of the vision which is always enticing 11- to further
efforts, the ideal house which everyone wants a house compact but spacious, noiseless, light, airy and
cheerful, cool in summer and warm in winter, well ventilated but free from draughts, a house that costs
little to build and less to keep in repair, yet " built for eternity " and comely and pleasant to look upc:n.

KKNF.ST NEWTON, A.K.A.



THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT.



COLOUR IN, THE HOUSE.

The Love of Colour Inextinguishable Nature a Storehouse, rather than a Guide The Colouring of Wall and
Ceiling The Influence of Aspect and Lighting The Sterility of Undue Caution in Choice of Colours

IT is said that " truth will out even in an affidavit," and the love of colour seems as inextinguishable.
In spite of its being treated as an indulgence, at which the virtuous hands of academic authority
are lifted in grave reproof, and its being guarded in anxious privacy lest its owners reputation should
be sent tottering from its polished base, the joy in colour breaks out every now and then in defiance
of the austerity "of our education. Love of colour is an emotional matter, like the love of melody
and the magical rhythm of some literature and poetry ; it is a gift independent of race or clime. Other
passions there are, weightier, more moral, more self-conscious, where the intellect has been tampering
with the emotions and deflecting them in various deliberately dug channels to fertilise some theorv or
philosophy of life where the artist calls on man to probe with him into the storm and stress, the problems
of existence. When such big issues are afoot colour shrinks for shelterinto the unobtrusive security
of low tones and prudent selection of tincture, or else takes on a special poignancy akin to the broken
searching melodies of Beethoven s later works. But these agitations of the heart are private not for
our sleeves, still less for our walls. And yet our walls reflect ourselves, our care and our indifference ;
their harmonies are of our own making, and so are the discords. True, there are houses built whose walls
are for ever incapable of being resolved or modulated into the beauty of fair proportion. If the first
function of the house is to be a shelter, its second is to be a bower. Driven beyond the pale of Eden, tossed
into the blind forces and destructions of that grim epitome of inhumanity Nature man s first work-
was to shield himself and his from the violence of her methods, and then next to turn some of her activities
to account on his behalf. For we must remember always that Nature is man s mortal enemy untiring,
unsleeping ; not actively vindictive, but having established, after aeons of tentative effort, a working
equilibrium of blind forces, she resents any interference with her delicately adjusted balance. She is
man s antagonist, but also his nurse. All that he knows of beauty of form and of colour he has got from
her ; his ideals of power, grandeur and spaciousness he has learnt from her ; the joy of life and the tragedy
of death are ever before his eyes ; the beating of the infinitely old winds and the infinitely old sea upon
this infinitely old world, and the tranquil swinging of the watchful stars around the pole, showed him
influences so immeasurably beyond his own that they became for him his religion, his apprehension of good
and evil. Armed with these convictions, he defies her ; defies her ideals. With Nature, motion is the
prime fact of the universe ; friction is so much interference, and her activities are bent to lessen and
eliminate friction. Man sets himself to oppose these aims ; he had, at the outset, to fight foNiis existence ;
and that, by a system of compact social vigilance, being to some degree assured, he creates, as his standard
of good, the qualities of permanence, rest and completion. In this conflict of ideals, he has to use weapons
other than those employed by Nature ; his whole life is one unending interference with her processes,
and in the matter of vigilance he is no match for her. She never sleeps ; never rests. Based on his
observations of her method, her expansions and her results, he has to achieve his ends by quite other means.
He sets himself to secure in some definite form her wayward, fluctuating charm and beauty ; he has to
synthesise her lavish profusion, endless resources, variety of detail, gradations of light and colour, com
plexity of forms, graces of movement and so forth, and, like the drawing of a flickering flame of fire, has
to evolve forms and colours that shall be symbols, and yet give the delight that the actualities themselves
afford.

Nature, then, is a storehouse, but except in a. very limited sense no guide. We move in a
smaller circle, with fewer resources, speaking another language. Her invocation to Spring, her farewell
to Summer, are not to be caught and reproduced in distemper, and yet, somehow, we have got to colour
our walls. Have we ? It wants considering. By colouring I include also the use of panelling, unpainted
and painted. The first condition to seize upon is the aspect of the house and the nature of the windows
and sources of light. The walls of a room that looks to the south may be almost colourless, whereas in
the rooms facing the north you should pile on as much colour as you can. It is in such aspects that the
rich warm brown of oak panelling tells so effectively, giving the comfort and friendliness of colour.
Windows should count as pictures stained-glass pictures and all hopes of making the walls compete
with them in colour must be dismissed. Even the use of patterns becomes a difficulty such incident,
and disturbance of the big, wide wall spaces as may be needed can often best be provided by means of



COLOUR IN THE HOUSE. 7

pictures and other works of art, very sparingly used. A useful maxim to employ is, in colouring follow the