The Studio yearbook of decorative art (1916)

CANADA
the particular style of the house may be, steep pitched roofs, covered
with slate, tiles, sheet metal (either copper or iron, but not sheet lead),
or very often wood shingles, prevail. A roof upon which snow and ice
may lie and accumulate is not regarded with favour, the frequent result
being damage to interior decorations.
Of course one of the predominant features of the Canadian home is the
open-air veranda and sun-room, the former being a sort of wide open
porch, seldom less than 12 feet wide, and of twice that length, and
often, of course, much larger, having a roof supported by heavy piers
of stone, brick, or stucco, or possibly by large classic columns of wood
or stone, and frequently floored with red quarries set in Dutch way
with wide joints, and sometimes with pattern borders. These out-of-
door rooms are the most used in the house for several months of the
year, and needless to say are comfortably furnished, generally with
wicker chairs, tables, couches, etc., which, in case of driving storms, are
quickly removed to places of shelter. Flowers, shrubs, vines, creepers,
and tropical plants in tubs add to the charm of these most necessary
rooms. The sun-room is a similar apartment with quite a different pur-
pose, being entirely enclosed, as much as possible with glass, and
occupied as an ordinary sitting or living room at times when, on ac-
count of the weather, the veranda is not available. These rooms are
frequently used as sleeping porches, the whole being enclosed outside
the casements, which swing in, with metal fly-screening, a necessary
protection against the ubiquitous mosquito.
What are the outstanding features of Canadian homes ? Wide entrance
doors with ample platforms opening into large entrance halls, equiva-
lent to a reception-room in their proportions, and mostly used in this
way upon those occasions when large gatherings occur. For then
the carriages are directed to a second entrance, generally spoken of as
the servant’s or tradesman’s entrance, and usually having a staircase, of
quite decent size, leading from the basement to the top story of the
house; guests thus arrive at the dressing-room, disrobe and come down
the main staircase to find their hostess receiving in the hall, and during
the entertainment the main entrance door would not be used at all for
entrance purposes. This would, of course, only apply to very large
evening entertainments, and one can readily imagine the advantages of
the addition of the hall in its use as a reception-room. Of course it
usually has a fireplace, and the main staircase may or may not ascend
from this hall. Wide open stairwells are quite unusual, except in the
homes of multi-millionaires, where monumental formality so frequently
displaces what one naturally feels is artistic and comfortable. Of these
latter homes I do not wish to speak as they are much the same every-
where. But, to continue, surrounding this large hall one finds, in some
direction (it may be partly above, or partly below, or all on one floor),
an ample and fully equipped cloak-room ; not a little place under the
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