AMERICAN FLATS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22981, 8 March 1938, Page 4

AMERICAN FLATS

PLENTY OF CUPBOARDS HEAVY FURNITURE ABSENT American apartmonts may sometimes seem crowded, but of one thing the tenant can always be sure—there will be large and convenient 1 cupboards. The newer flats are no less well provided in this respect. A three-roomed flat with kitchen and bath will have at least three cupboards into which the owner can walk and hang up her things. Mnny rooms are built in fairly long rectangles, the entrance to which is narrow. The bulge which makes the entrance narrow is the cupboard of the next room. Th-jse closets are the size of powder-closets at least. They could be, and sometimes are, turned into little kitchenettes. In bigger apartments the closet has room in which to hang things, to accommodate shoes on the floor in comfort, and often it has high shelves upon which suitcases can be put away. Hats have a stand to themselves. The result is a much better ordering of things and a total absence of heavy, stick-out furniture. There is more wall spneo, because these cupboards, being constructed with relation to the general plan, are fitted in as conveniently as possible. Almost they are small rooms, and in a whole apartment scheme they constitute an important part of the whole. Kitchen walls are linc-d with cupboards, with a depth according to the necessities There is the 'call broom cupboard, the cupboard for china and glass, that for food, another for dustpans and no forth, yet another for kitchen cloths and for utensils of various kinds. However much th' 3 architect has to squeeze his rooms, ho could never venture to build a house without a proper supply of large cupboards.