THE IDEAL FLAT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 22 January 1927, Page 17

THE IDEAL FLAT.

FURNISHING AND DECORATION. Out of the gloom of Piccadilly in the drab hues or fN or ember, writes Mi's Wilfrid Ashiey in the Daily Mail' I stepped into tne sunshine of London s wonder fiat in the new Devonshire House. 1 was on the tip-toe of expectation, for I was anxious to compare this newest achievement in architecture, decoration, and furnishing with the rooms of my new house in amith square —Gray fere House, Westminster —where 1 have attempted to lealise my ideas of decoration. l walked into the hall, and thought I had entered a country house, so spacious was it with ite large pictuies. And then I came upon the dining-room, and discovered what is the cleverest feature about the architecture there are no doors visable inside the fiat anywhere. They are hidden in the walls, and so one gets none of that shut-in effect of the average flat. There are pleasing vistas, and the device makes the piace look much larger than it ieally is. The decorative scheme here, as elsewhere in the principal rooms, is slightly Adam in character, picket out here and there with pale peach and orange, contrasting with deep reds, and creaking an illusion of sunshine a happy medley of comfort and beauty. The drawing-room, like the diningroom, has antique furniture. It has a restful, lived-in character that makes an immediate appeal to the woman of taste, who realises that colour is essential in the British climate. There are no large patterns, no heav y material, and light, unlinecl tafleta curtains. There are no waL-papers anywhere, the walls being painted with liar enamel. Wall-papers should never be encouraged in any London room, as walls painted in a plain, soft colour are more restful to live within. My one criticism is that there are too many pictures. Tney bewilder a mind in need of rest after the whirl and bustle of London’s streets. But that is a matter of taste.

There, are three principal bedrooms, and the one I saw struck me as almost perfect. People do not devote enough care to the decoration of a room in which one spends nearly half one’s life. Here is peace in a room carried out in a style that was popular at the close of tile 18th century, the wails being designed to form a setting for the furniture, which is entirely painted and decorated with flowers and ornaments. The general colour scheme is in soft tones of old gold, russets, and brown; but I think the room woidd look better without the curtain on the wail behind the bed, especially when one considers the limitations of the modern housemaid.

To each bedroom is attached a bathioom, with a marble floor and porcelain taps, and the floor is warmed! 1 was informed that this was the first flat in London to be warmed by the invisible heating system that comes from America. It can be shut off entirely by the occupier at any moment. In the servants’ quarters, complete with bathroom, and entirely separate, having their own entrance and lift, l found an electric cooker, an automatic washer, an electric mangle, and an electric refrigerator. The one thing wanting, it seemed to me, was a little more space.

The cost? Here axe the figures: — Lease for 99 years, £13,000; decoration £ISOO, antique furniture, approximate cost £1000; pictures, approximate cost £1000; total £16,500.

Another famous residence which is undergoing a change is Stanhope House, Park Lane W., a palatial building possessing a main marble staircase and a secondary one of oak, which has been sold to the Wakefield and West Riding Permanent Building Society, of Wakefield, and will be opend by them as a branch London office. The house, a mansion facing Stanhope Gate, and close to Dorchester House and to Sir Philip Sassoon’s fine residence at the corner of Great Stanhope Street and Parke Lane, was built regardless of cost by Mr. Hudson, of soap fame. In 1923 it was sold by Mr. Hudson and became the Hospital for Gentlewomen.

Although not the first trade invasion of Park Lane, this is the first time that one of the mansions has been converted for office use. At each end of Park Lane there are places of business —estate agents, a branch of a famous bank, wine merchants, and motor-ear agents- —but hitherto the middle of the famous thoroughfare has retained its purely residential charcatex. Stanhope House is to be staffed with a colony of Yorkshiremen from Wakefield. The secretary- of the society said to a Daily Mail reporter: “We are going to use Stanhope House to -decentralise our work, and do away with a large amount of postal business. We are Tiatliex pleased with Stanhope House because it is unusual to get bold of an unrestricted freehold in London nowadays. As Stanhope House overlooks Hyde Park, there was a doubt as to whether we could put our business sign up. But this has now been cleared up.”