DOI Heft:
Domestic architecture
DOI Artikel:Scott, Mackay H. Baillie: A country cottage
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41871#0020
A COUNTRY COTTAGE
From the porch the small outer hall is entered. This is not large enough to
look like a small sitting-room where no one sits, with a fire which no one
lights, and yet it is of sufficient dimensions to have the appearance of a roomy
passage. It has afloor of red tile or brick with white walls; while near thisfirst
entrance a lavatory and cloak-room is placed and a small stair, of oak if funds
permit, or otherwise of deal, painted green, ascends to the upper floor. Oppo-
site this on the right are steps down into a small study (p. 6), separated from
the outer hall by a thick wall which is recessed for bookshelves, for books look
their best when thus embedded in the home itself. The floor of this room is
lowered for the purpose of gaining a little more space for the bedroom under
the sloping roof over it; but this lowering of the floor also lends a particular
intimate quality to the room. The small study has a correspondingly small
fireplace and two windows, each with a table in front of it—one for writing
and the other for drawing. It has, moreover, a large and roomy cupboard
and two wide recesses for books.
Returning to the outer hall again one may note the three doors in a line
which make it possible to see right through the house, from the first en-
trance across the shade of the garden-room to the garden beyond, and this
arrangement of doors to the living-room localizes the draught between them
which does not cross the room itself but only a recessed part of it. The liv-
ing-room (p. 7) is the principal apartment of the cottage. It is a dining-
room as well as a hall or house-place, except on those occasions, not a
few, when the garden-room which adjoins it can be used for meals.. Its
walls are thick and its windows, which face south and west, in these thick
walls gain a liberal breadth of sill. A small pantry divides the living-room
from the kitchen and part of this is arranged as a hatch for convenience
of service.
The kitchen premises occupy the remainder of the ground plan and are com-
pactly and conveniently arranged. These would have tiled floors and brightly
painted green woodwork, with white walls and bright red curtain blinds, giv-
ing to the whole an air of Dutch cleanliness which, should funds permit, one
would like to carry further by lining
the walls with those white Dutch
tiles which have a touch of blue in
the corners only.
On the first floor are four bedrooms,
a bathroom, and linen cupboard.
One of these bedrooms is arranged
as a dressing-room, with bath and
fixed basin, adjoining the principal
bedroom.
On the attic floor, on one side of the
central stair is the servant’s bed-
room, with tank-room beyond, and
4
GROUND PLAN
From the porch the small outer hall is entered. This is not large enough to
look like a small sitting-room where no one sits, with a fire which no one
lights, and yet it is of sufficient dimensions to have the appearance of a roomy
passage. It has afloor of red tile or brick with white walls; while near thisfirst
entrance a lavatory and cloak-room is placed and a small stair, of oak if funds
permit, or otherwise of deal, painted green, ascends to the upper floor. Oppo-
site this on the right are steps down into a small study (p. 6), separated from
the outer hall by a thick wall which is recessed for bookshelves, for books look
their best when thus embedded in the home itself. The floor of this room is
lowered for the purpose of gaining a little more space for the bedroom under
the sloping roof over it; but this lowering of the floor also lends a particular
intimate quality to the room. The small study has a correspondingly small
fireplace and two windows, each with a table in front of it—one for writing
and the other for drawing. It has, moreover, a large and roomy cupboard
and two wide recesses for books.
Returning to the outer hall again one may note the three doors in a line
which make it possible to see right through the house, from the first en-
trance across the shade of the garden-room to the garden beyond, and this
arrangement of doors to the living-room localizes the draught between them
which does not cross the room itself but only a recessed part of it. The liv-
ing-room (p. 7) is the principal apartment of the cottage. It is a dining-
room as well as a hall or house-place, except on those occasions, not a
few, when the garden-room which adjoins it can be used for meals.. Its
walls are thick and its windows, which face south and west, in these thick
walls gain a liberal breadth of sill. A small pantry divides the living-room
from the kitchen and part of this is arranged as a hatch for convenience
of service.
The kitchen premises occupy the remainder of the ground plan and are com-
pactly and conveniently arranged. These would have tiled floors and brightly
painted green woodwork, with white walls and bright red curtain blinds, giv-
ing to the whole an air of Dutch cleanliness which, should funds permit, one
would like to carry further by lining
the walls with those white Dutch
tiles which have a touch of blue in
the corners only.
On the first floor are four bedrooms,
a bathroom, and linen cupboard.
One of these bedrooms is arranged
as a dressing-room, with bath and
fixed basin, adjoining the principal
bedroom.
On the attic floor, on one side of the
central stair is the servant’s bed-
room, with tank-room beyond, and
4
GROUND PLAN