The Studio yearbook of decorative art (1916)

COTTAGE INTERIORS AND DECORATION
buildings, can only be removed with great difficulty and at prohibitive
cost. Thus all who hope to make their dwelling-house a home, a
place where comfort and peace may be felt and as full of pleasant-
ness as may be, first of all have to decide what manner of building
coincides with their ideas. This decision made, the prime difficulty is
to find it. Diligent search often brings no satisfactory result, and those
who really have a care for their future home cannot do better than
build what they actually require. By so doing the basis is laid for those
interior effects that have been pictured in the mind.
Many things have to be considered when cottage equipment is the
theme, and practical matters occupy an important place. People who
spend their lives in cottages obviously wish to live in a small way, and
be freed as far as possible from the minor worries of domestic labour.
Cottages should be planned and fitted in such a manner that only a
minimum amount of work is necessary for their proper upkeep. This
question has a more im-
portant bearing upon the
ultimate artistic result
than may at first appear.
Rooms and fitments
should be placed where
they can be most con-
veniently used. The kit-
chen should be near to the
room in which meals are
taken ; a fitted dresser
should not be far away
from the dining-table ;
the disposition of many
other details is deter-
mined by practical use,
and the internal and ex-
ternal appearances of the
building are consequently
largely governed by the
plan. Utility,again,unites
with art in many other
ways. For instance, dull
black iron, or wooden
door-latches and stair-
rods are far more suitable
for cottages, and require
less attention, than those
of polished metal. Stained


THREE-PANEL DOOR