SMALL BUNGALOWS

Evening Star, Issue 19588, 21 June 1927, Page 2

SMALL BUNGALOWS

ADVANTAGES DISCUSSED If your small house is unaffectedly a modern bungalow, you are free to add to or subtract from its prescribed lines and character rather more than in any other more specific type of house. You i must not run to marble or gilding or gargoyles. It must be kept plain and timplo of line. Rut there seems no reason why a modern bungalow should not run to color just as far as the whim of its owner dictates. If the owner is possessed of no color sense, better for him to leave this matter to his architect. But, if he has decided views and' inclinations about color, let him, by all means, indulge them and have his bungalow painted to his own. choice. This is the only way Australians are going to develop a national, individual style _of house-building. If the personality and positive whims and ideas of the owners are expressed in the lines and colors and capricious styles of their houses, there will probably be a few eye-sores blotchiijg the landscape of our suburbs. But this, a positive expression of individual ideas, including some very bad taste, maybe—will be preferable and more hopeful for the future of our achitecture than a negative reticence and dull timid acquiesence with anything that architects (governed by overseas ideas, for the most part)_ like to insist upon. This especially applies to the small house, like folk-songs, native costumes and customs, small houses more intimately express the character of the people themselves than the environment of the wealthy and superior upper classes, particularly in a young nation. The grander, more stately edifices are more inclined to be cosmopolitan; they are built upon classic lines, and are more premeditated in plan and purpose. NOW COME INSIDE. And inside, there are many don’ts for the small house, often learnt through bitter experience; just as often culled by critical observation of the houses of friends and relatives. Now, ’.vhat is wrong with your bro-ther-in-law’s _ new bungalow? He has some expensive furniture, some rather good picture—ah, yes, the walls! That is the trouble. The pictures look nothing on those walls. The hard, white plaster chills everything, kills the Qolor and the tone values of the pictures, makes the pink of the cushions, t ,, '> lampshades, the carpet, appear cm.* harsh, and everything else unsympathetic ! In new houses, of course, a certain lapse of time must be given for the plaster to dry before papering can be attempted. But as soon as the plaster is properly dry,- do paper the walls of the small house. It will bo found that it needs far less furnishing, far less anxiety about colors, once a good neuttai-toned paper clothes' those stark walls. That neutral -background will servo to give- everything its proper value. Colors that might, even have been supposed to clash will resolve themselves into relative places in the general scheme.' A bowl of flowers that before looked quite unimportant and scraggy wall glow in flaunting beauty, and take up and accentuate other color notes in the room. Colored calsomines cannot give -the effect that a paper—even a cheap one—affords. Wood-panelling tends to make rooms look smaller, and it is not suitable in a small house, unless, perhaps, for the hall.

Then with the furniture. If you have some good period, furniture you are very fortunate, and you should be able to make your house look charming. But don’t be obsessed with the period mania. Some mixed pieces will not spoil _ your room; and when once yon are given over heart and soul to a period it mdans that all your decorations, even your ornaments and picture frames, should conform. This is cramping and sometimes dull in ultimate result. It has rather the effect of a very symmetrical “repeat” pattern, which causes you to count and count until you become maddened and distracted. With the super-period furnishing scheme the brain becomes feverish in looking for matches, in accounting and measuring and assorting. . . . Subconsciously,

the history complex is kept working over time, till the {esthetic senses are jagged and jaded. In a largo house there is more room for period orgies, and relief can be given to a Jacobean dining room by means of a Louis V. drawing room, a George V. breakfast room, and a Stanley Bruco study. THE CHOICE OF FURNITURE. In choosing furniture for_ the small house avoid cornery pieces if possible. Rounded edges take up less room, and they are not so sharp to kndek against, either. Hardwood floors, of course, are best; but be wary of too many small rugs that can be tripped over. Two large nigs are. bettor than three small ones. In a small house where the living room is in constant use—the real dwelling room —it is best to have cretonnes or good linens as coverings for the conch and chairs. Chenille and tapestry become shabby very soon, and don’t look as “homey” and cheerful as chintzes. It depends upon the character of the room, of course. Floral cretonnes are quite out of place in a formal style of room. Jacobean, or even Adam and Heppelwaite, look foolish with cretonnes. Arras or good washable poplin could be used; but tapestry is most suited. Mission styles or William Morris furnishings, or farmhouse stylo, give the setting for cretonnes. But if your suite is figured or floral have plaintoned cushions, with a few black ones included. In a small house several small tables are preferable to one largo one. It gives the inmates a better chance to segregate when they wish; it offers something of the idea of space and nrivacy that are the advantage of the large house. A couple of collapsible card tables or table “nests” are helpful and space-saving. SPACE-SAVING FURNITURE. Built-in furniture, wherever possible, is, of course, admirable in the small house, which is another reason why strictly “period” furniture is unwise. Most modern houses row have a built-in sideboard, servery hatch, and any amount of wardrobes, pantries, and cupboards. These are the excellent fix-ings-that make a small house often preferable and more comfortable than a largo one nowadays. See to it, when building, that your walls are thick enough to be pretty well sound-proof. Privacy is difficult enough to obtain in a small house; but, if the walls are well filled, so as to be pretty well sound-proof, it is possible for a person to study, in a room next to the loud speaker’s recitals, and the

piano can bo played after the gaby’s bedtime. In the small house, these are the things that matter, most tremendously, aren”t they?—“H.K.,” in the ‘Australian Home Beautiful.’