IDEAL HOMES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23029, 5 May 1938, Page 5

IDEAL HOMES

GLASS CONSTRUCTION DISPLAY AT EXHIBITION PLANNED FOR HEALTHY LIFE [fbom our OWN correspondent] LONDON.. April 0 From the balcony of the house of glass, Mrs. Neville Chamberlain declared open the 22nd Daily Mail Ideal Home Kxhibition this week, and to the company of distinguished guests who had assembled to share in the opening ceremony, there was revealed not only a brilliant display of the finely presented exhibits of 500 manufacturers in surroundings planned with attractive originality, but, in the Grand Hall, a spectacle that charmed every visitor with its daring novelty no less than its unusual beauty. Bv British artists and era ft ism en a city of glass has been created, an animated and cheerful city of hanging gardens, graceful trees, delicate tracery glowing with hidden light, mirrored pylons, and gleaming glas:s in a thousand other shapes and hues. Glistening Bricks in this city, set in a little garden and shining like d jewel, is the glass house, with glistening walls of glass bricks, so smart and shining that it looks like some exclusive summer villa on the JRiviera. Yet this house is planned and intended as a thoroughly practical family home, in which life would be comfortable, healthy and beautiful. Within its light-diffusing walls, which permit no observation of the interior from outside, but include large spaces of clear glass to permit a clear vista of the outside world, are three bedrooms, a living room with an open fireplace and dining recess, sun terrace and all the essential accommodation and equipment, including air-condition-ing, built-in vacuum cleaning installation, and even a glass hot water system. The principal bedroom is a sounddeadened apartment, and none can fail to admire the glass silk used in the decoration of the walls and ceiling, the decorative doors .and windows, the illuminated glass and steel balustraded staircase, the staircase wall in pink satin-finished mirror. Snow White at Home A house of a very different nature, at once the delight and the despair of housewives and a place of wonder for all children, is the House of the Seven Dwarfs —a faithful reproduction of the curious forest home of Walt Disney's " Snow White " film. Quaint to look at with its thatched roof, timbered walls and crazy windows, it is equally a place of many surprises within, with a real live Snow White and a selection of dwarfs to welcome their visitors. Still another contrast is great-grand-mama's ideal home —four charming Victorian rooms that mirror the home life of the 'seventies. Among the treasures on display are relics of Queen Victoria's nursery at Windsor Castle. Hostesses in charge of this section wear the identical dresses worn in "Victoria the Great." New Zealand Butter In the Temple of Fitness, 1200 gymnasts, dancers, boxers, fencers, and wrestlers have set out to prove that ideal health should go with an ideal home. In the Fashion Theatre, mannequins display bewitching models for women to wear, both at home and abroad, and for the domesticated woman, there are many food and cookery displays, including a demonstration of "How the Navy is Fed"-—one of the biggest housekeeping jobs in the world, worked out to fractions of a penny per man. A large stand displaying New Zealand butter and cheese attracts much attention, and samples of both commodities are having a ready and steady sale.