DOI Heft:
No. 32 (November, 1895)
DOI Artikel:Scott, Mackay H. Baillie: The fireplace of the suburban house
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17295#0115
The Fireplace of tJie Suburban House
quite achieving our modern ideas of comfort, will been necessary to have made a special effort. Now,
serve as an example of that simple homely dignity however, the whole weight of custom and usage is
of style which should be aimed at, and so will make in the other scale, and the beautiful in house
a very good starting-point in the consideration of decoration is necessarily the eccentric ; the common
fireplace treatment. A vision which may be help- property of the many has become the special gift
fully conjured up whenever we are tempted to of the few.
lapse into pettiness or flimsiness of treatment, or To return to the fireside: let it be borne in mind
that its beauty will be mainly achieved in a
negative way; by adding nothing to the few
essential features, nothing to the effect, by
setting the right thing in the right place and
then doing nothing more.
That acquisitive magpie-like tendency
which results in the accumulation of orna-
ments which do not ornament, and furniture
which does not furnish, must be held sternly
in check, and the final result must bear the
impress of a discriminating and thoughtful
mind.
It is not enough that the things so ac-
quired are beautiful—as few of them are in
the true sense of the word—unless they
possess the particular kind of beauty which
shall be in harmony with the character of
our home—unless they add their influence
in enforcing that quality of inviting homeli-
ness which is the one thing needful in home
decoration.
In planning an ingle it is not desirable to
construct it in the usual way—that is, form-
ing a recess in the centre of one side of the
room ; for if this recess is made deep enough
to secure a comfortable seat six or seven feet
long on each side of the fire, the cosiness of
the ingle-nook is gained at the expense of
the room itself, which is left out in the cold.
If, on the other hand, the recess is made
shallower, the seats on each side become
undesirably shortened.
In most cases it will be found better to
avoid this symmetrical form of ingle-nook,
and to make the recess so that one of its
sides is formed by the end wall of the room.
This will allow of a long seat on one side of
the fire without removing the fireplace from
the room itself.
whenever the constant and quietly insistent influ- The seats in an ingle-nook are very important
ence of our surroundings lead us to insensibly features, because, as they are fixed and immovable,
adopt in some measure the ideal of Mr. Podsnap it becomes a point for very careful consideration
and his kind. For it must be remembered that at that they should be placed at exactly the right dis-
one time everything in connection with the making tance from the fire, and that they should be so
of a home was almost invariably done in the right proportioned as to be sufficiently comfortable;
way, so that to attain the degree of ugliness which otherwise one may be in the position of a man
marks the average house of to-day, it would have known to the writer who, finding the seats in his
102
BEDROOM FIREPLACE DESIGNED BY M. H. B. SCOTT
quite achieving our modern ideas of comfort, will been necessary to have made a special effort. Now,
serve as an example of that simple homely dignity however, the whole weight of custom and usage is
of style which should be aimed at, and so will make in the other scale, and the beautiful in house
a very good starting-point in the consideration of decoration is necessarily the eccentric ; the common
fireplace treatment. A vision which may be help- property of the many has become the special gift
fully conjured up whenever we are tempted to of the few.
lapse into pettiness or flimsiness of treatment, or To return to the fireside: let it be borne in mind
that its beauty will be mainly achieved in a
negative way; by adding nothing to the few
essential features, nothing to the effect, by
setting the right thing in the right place and
then doing nothing more.
That acquisitive magpie-like tendency
which results in the accumulation of orna-
ments which do not ornament, and furniture
which does not furnish, must be held sternly
in check, and the final result must bear the
impress of a discriminating and thoughtful
mind.
It is not enough that the things so ac-
quired are beautiful—as few of them are in
the true sense of the word—unless they
possess the particular kind of beauty which
shall be in harmony with the character of
our home—unless they add their influence
in enforcing that quality of inviting homeli-
ness which is the one thing needful in home
decoration.
In planning an ingle it is not desirable to
construct it in the usual way—that is, form-
ing a recess in the centre of one side of the
room ; for if this recess is made deep enough
to secure a comfortable seat six or seven feet
long on each side of the fire, the cosiness of
the ingle-nook is gained at the expense of
the room itself, which is left out in the cold.
If, on the other hand, the recess is made
shallower, the seats on each side become
undesirably shortened.
In most cases it will be found better to
avoid this symmetrical form of ingle-nook,
and to make the recess so that one of its
sides is formed by the end wall of the room.
This will allow of a long seat on one side of
the fire without removing the fireplace from
the room itself.
whenever the constant and quietly insistent influ- The seats in an ingle-nook are very important
ence of our surroundings lead us to insensibly features, because, as they are fixed and immovable,
adopt in some measure the ideal of Mr. Podsnap it becomes a point for very careful consideration
and his kind. For it must be remembered that at that they should be placed at exactly the right dis-
one time everything in connection with the making tance from the fire, and that they should be so
of a home was almost invariably done in the right proportioned as to be sufficiently comfortable;
way, so that to attain the degree of ugliness which otherwise one may be in the position of a man
marks the average house of to-day, it would have known to the writer who, finding the seats in his
102
BEDROOM FIREPLACE DESIGNED BY M. H. B. SCOTT