BUILDING AND HOMES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 141, 11 March 1930, Page 16

BUILDING AND HOMES

.(By

“JACK FLAKE.” )

BALANCE IN ROOMS INTERIOR ARRANGEMENTS THE EFFECTIVE GROUPING OF FURNITURE The attainment of a harmonious atmosphere in a room, an American authority observes, does not come from colour alone. It is true that wall paper offers the easiest solution for a Colourful and individual background. If, ou entering a living room, one feels a certain satisfaction and that every object is properly placed and that nothing is superfluous, it is because the objects have been arranged by the occupant with a sense of comfort and balance. Orderliness is one of the main features of interior decoration. It is a combination of balance and proportion. A room having these qualities gives one the impression that the occupant has a cool, calm point of view.. Such a room is never, cluttered up with too many meaningless pictures on. its walls or too many scattered pieces of poorly selected furniture strewn about the room. A second desirable feature is the placement of the furniture in such an arrangement as will make a harmonious picture. Harmony does not mean monotony; there should be enough surprises to make each room interesting. Most of us seem not to be endowed with the sense of balance and proportion which it has required years of study for artists to develop. This is why our homes, especially our living rooms, arc likely, to become rather poorly-arranged affairs, even though the furnishing may be beautiful and well chosen.

The fireplace grouping of furniture is one of the important features,which give the living room a correct balance. Common sense tells us to place the most comfortable pieces before the fireplace. The things about the mantel are among the first that attract one's attention. Most mantels have some wall decoration, either a picture, a piece of tapestry, or a mirror. 'Care should be taken that these be of the right size, neither too large nor too small, and that the edge of the picture frame or tapestry docs not meet the edge of the mantel. A tall object, as a 12-inch clock, in the middle, with two six-inch candlesticks on the ends, makes a bad balance. A better feature would be the use of electric sconces about a foot above the shelf instead of candlesticks. The object in the centre should not be higher than the end pieces. Better still, remove the 'clock to another part of the room. Do not spoil a beautiful picture above the mantel by placing a clock in front of it. • '

Another feature in' the fireplace grouping is the davenport, which, if placed at right angler with the fireplace and with two armchairs which equal the davenport in value of, size, or with one armchair and a, large reading table (not a small gateleg) will give the group a correct balance. , \ If the room is fairly large and tliere are other chairs and a few tables backed up against the walls at regular intervals, these must be broken up into groups so that they will not appear formal. Notice a room after people have left it and you will find valuable suggestions for grouping furniture. Chairs should be so placed fts to make good conversational groups. One of the problems of furniture grouping is the ever-present piano, perhaps not often used. Because of its bulk and clumsiness, occupying an important space in the living room, it may lie the first thing one sees on entering the room. If the piano is placed to one side of the centre of the long wall, a grouping which produces a feeling of similar heaviness must bo placed on the other side of the wall centre. A floor lamp, to give height, a desk, chair, and picture to give width and weight similar to the piano grouping could be suggested. An occasional table to fill in the bare space of wall is not sufficient, as it creates a lack of balance. Since this is the day of the small house or apartment, many will ask how one can balance when ones whole domain can be seen at a single glance. It is true that the small room must be handled with restraint: but even a small living room, if given an artificial sense of spaciousness, can look as well as a large room. Four factors must be observed in creating an illusion of spaciousness.: These are colour, pattern, proportion, and balance. , POINTING BRICK WORK Some hints on repairing brickwork that has fallen into a bad condition are given by .a writer in the “Illustrated Carpenter and Builder’’: —“lf the joints of the brickwork have not weathered too badly, it might be best to ‘tuck point’ it. To do this, rake out all the joints to a decent depth (half an inch or so), rub down the brickwork with a piece of brick of the same colour, brush off well all dust, and well damp the work; stop or fill up the joints with strong, well-tem-pered mortar, to which some cement can be added (say one in three), and coloured to match the bricks as near as possible. Sample pats shold be made and allowed to dry to arrive at the proper shade of colour. If the brickwork is dirty, stained and irregular in colour, it would be best to give it a wash made up with a pound of Venetian red and a pound of Spanish brown, with a gallon and a half of water, and to ■ fasten the colur and prevent its washing off a pound of white copperas dissolved in fairly warm water should be added to each three gallons, of the wash. (I am assuming" the bricks arc red in colour.) Some bricklayers use alum in the same proportions, or half a gallon of stale beer in lieu of the copperas. The whole of the brickwork and stopping should receive the wash, and sufficient for the whole job, or, at any rate, for each wall, should be mixed at a time to avoid difference in colour. The pointing should follow whilst the stopping is fresh. The putty for this should be made with chalk lime and be of decent age, and mixed with silver sand, a peck of which is sufficient for half a bushel of lime. Should grey lime putty be used, double the quantity of silver sand. a little oil can be mixed with it to make it work more pliable. It should be well beaten up and tempered and laid on with a proper jointer,' and the rough edges cut off with ' a “frenchman” or old table knife f sharpened to a point which is slightly turned up.” i

STRAY NOTES FOUR ROOMS IN ONE The Viennese architect, Fritz Gross, a designer of beautiful villas and an interesting painter besides, is the inventor of a one-room dwelling which does duty for four —a dining-room, a study, a bedroom and a parlour. The trick of making four rooms out of one without erecting walls or using folding screens is accomplished by making the furniture function as a separator so that a division into four parts is brought about (says Max Hayek, in tlie "Illustrirte Zeitung,” Leipzig). “Ou entering the one-room dwelling, which was planned especially for a bachelor's home, but may also be of great use as a small family dwelling, one admires the wise arrangement of the furniture, which afords the greatest possible utilisation of space. “In one corner stands an extension table with four chairs. The room walls constitute two walls of this divided space, and the third wall is formed by the front of the secretary, a modern, practical piece of furniture, which, as the Viennese say, ‘plays all parts.’ “This secretary, made of ornamental woodwork, has glass doors sliding on ball bearings, a little smokipg box, a little liquor box, a bookshelf, and, in addition, book supports on the top, moving on rails. The opposite side of this secretary forms one wall of the study and the bedroom. Here the manifold piece of furniture appears as a writing desk with many pigeonholes, four drawers and a bookshelf. There is also room for a desk telephone. On the projecting shelves at the narrow side one may place small objects. “The other corner of the room shows a bed, which during- the day is transformed into a sofa, into which is built a small bookcase filled with books within reach of the person resting on it. A rotating (or inlet) lamp is the source of light in the evening. Such a corner is cosy, and invites one to rest. The bed linen is kept in a ventilated space below. “The living-room shows a combination of linen and shoe cabinets and clothes wardrobe with sliding garment carriers, shaving and dressing mirrors, space for a home pharmacy, and a ventilated par- | tition for shoes. “The buffet, with a charming little case for glasses above, and fina’Rf the isolated stove of brickwork and tiles with a ceramic surface, a simple wrought iron grille with ball metal work, and the niches with little green lacquered shelves for flowers, complete the harmonious effect of the room. One feels: ‘lt is good to be here 1’ “In conservative Vienna, where rich people still live to-day as they did during the time of Makart, architects like Fritz Gross are exceedingly valuable paec makers for the modern improvement of dwellings.” CARPETS The general rule in furnishing is to start with the carpet. As a matter of fact, an oversea authority observes, we should start even lower than that, with the underfelt. The necessity for a good felt is not always recognised, but it is really of vital- importance. The soft springiness of an underfelt will double the life of a carpet, and add greatly to the comfort and warmth of a room. In carpeting the stairs, too, we should always use felt pads. Where they are used the life of the stair carpet, which is always subjected to heavy wear, is lengthened considerably, and in addition the thud of feet on the stairs is lessened. When we arc requiring a carpet for our room, we have to make an important decision. Should we choose a carpet square, leaving polished wood surrounds? Or should we cover our floor completely in a;self-colour carpet? This depends to a certain extent on the type of floors wo have. In some new houses tlieye are very good parquet surrounds, and in them we could not do better than have a carpet squiire in a pattern which .harmonises with our furnishing scheme. On the other hand, particularly if we are going into an old house, the floor boards maybe very rough and uneven. If a surround is left, cracks and unevenness in the boards will collect dust and make it difficult to keep , the room clean. Here, all-ovfer carpeting is a sound proposition. Now, for choosing the actual carpet. The colour must necessarily be selected to harmonise with the general scheme of decoration. But we should try to avoid the use of mauve or purple shades. There are many other colourings which will prove more satisfactory in most rooms. Sometimes we fear to choose a lightcoloured ground. And yet beige or warm biscuit are amongst the best ground colours a carpet can have. They do not, as is sometimes imagined, easily show marks —quite the reverse, in fact. Moreover, such natural colours blend with every conceivable furnishing scheme and form a foundation for the curtains, chair covers, and so on. In the new carpet designs there is a wide choice of beautiful patterns and shades. New carpets divide themselves into three categories: (a) Conventional Persian, Turkish, Chinese and pictorial designs; (b) floral or pictorial designs showing either a ’“repeat” of flowers against a broken background, or a large realistic design of a flower garden; and (c) modernist designs in purely geometrical patterns which rely to a great extent on the clever juxtaposition of harmonising colours. For the drawing-room or bedroom, to which it is desired to impart a delicate feminine touch, we might ehoose one of the many designs which portray a beautiful English garden on a ground of warm biscuit colour. For a dining-room in oak we could not do better than select one of the more conventional Persian, Chinese, or Turkish designs, with an all-over pattern which does not obtrude itself upon the . eve. This makes a very good background for a dining-room, and tjie wealth of design from which we have to choose is tremendous. A i;oom which is essentially modernist must have a modernist carpet. Here we should have one of those geometrical designs, preferably built up on shades of beige, biscuit, and nigger, with touches of red and blue to give life to the pattern. Modern furniture depends for its effect to a great extent on the use of beautifully grained woods. One carpet design which I have just seen exploits this idea cleverly, for it has the appearance of a beautiful veneered panel of fiftured walnut. In a modern walnut lounge this carpet would emphasise the figuring of the wood. To make a carpet last as long as possible, turn it round at least once every six

months. This will give rest to those parts which have’borne the hardest wear, as it will distribute the wear evenly over the whole piece. We should take this point into consideration before deciding upon the design which we propose to buy. SUMMARY OF TENDERS CLOSING DURING THE PERIOD MARCH 11 I’o MARCH 25, 1930. Swan. Lawrence and Swan —Tenders for additions for Poncke Rugby Club. Close noon, March 13. Atkins and Mitchell —Tenders for residence, Wadestown. Close 5 p.m. today. W. E. Cuff, Esq.—Tenders for erection of a factory. Close March 30. District Railway Engineer—-Tenders for removal of dwelling. Close noon, March 12. W.C.C.—Tenders for erection of golfhouse. Wakefield Park. Close 3.30 p.m. March 17.