ART IN THE HOME

Southland Times, Issue 18623, 22 August 1919, Page 2

ART IN THE HOME

THE NEW COTTAGE FURNITURE. “This exhibition has been arranged to show that the humblest home can be made pleasant and inviting at no greater expense than would be incurred in making it ugly!” With this cheerful introduction one entered the Shoreditch Technical Institute in London, where a show of furniture designed for working-class homes is open to the. public. The exhibition includes a complete set of furniture of very beautiful design for a five-roomed cottage —living-room, parlour, and three bedrooms. It has been made with a view to those essential principles—cheapness, fitness for purpose, strength, and ease in moving and cleaning. Every housewife who is so fortunate as to become the possessor of a reproduction of any piece of this furniture will bless the ingenuity and forethought of the designer, who has abolished dustcollecting corners, brass fittings, and all fastenings likely to “go wrong,” Even the looking-glass, which we are assured can be /made at a less cost than the ugliest, rickety pre-war mirror, is not only a thing of beauty, but works on a wooden rack which cannot possibly get out of order or need propping up with a hairpin. Nor is there any lack of variety in design. In the living-room are shown several different types of chairs,* dressers, and tables, made of birch, stained pleasant shades of brown, and polished. A “tip up” coal box, made in wood on rockers, is an interesting detail showing the care which has been given to fitness for purpose. BEDROOMS. The “best” bedroom is left “in the white” —that is to say, the wood is not polished or stained. Note the “tambour” shutter in place of doors for the washstand (a device which is actually cheaper than doors), and the very useful cupboard in the chest of drawers, with a sliding rack for bats or bonnets.

The second bedroom was described by one of the early visitors as a “dream.” It is difficult to believe that this furniture is made of deal. The construction is specially adapted for painted work, and the method of painting is novel and extraordinarily successful. It is carried out in four colours. Indestructible paint is used which can be applied without priming. We all remember the hideous old-fashioned “graining” which, although giving a good wearing surface, was anathema to any person of taste, since the groining was intended to imitate a more costly wood. But imagine the old grinning comb used under the direction of a colourist, not to imitate oak or maple, but to produce vibrations of pure colour. Imagine a soft blue ground with a delicate trellis of green, and an edge of manganese purple—the combined colours of a Persian tile.

Imagine this effect in infinite variety, blue on red, grey .on white, yelow on black, and giving a wearing surface reminding one of fine ■ lacquer. And think of this process having been earned out by the students of the Brixton School of Building as an experiment in the use of a medium long neglected ,as ! a “finish” for furniture, which will show no marks .of wear, which is very cheap, and which will bring gay colour into the humblest hpme. It is no use saying that the working classes will not appreciate this kind of furniture; no one sees it without longing to possess it. There is a corner washstand in green and rod, with little chintz curtains and a washable linoleum top, which would look well in any small bedroom; in the specimen room at Shoreditch the whole effect is of sweetness and light. The window curtains are discovered to be merely unbleached calico, decorated with a simple border quickly executed in machine stitch with blue cotton —costing very little, and made by the girls in training, under the lady superintendent, Miss Plowright. Hie girls have also mads the effective bedspread in- blue Bolton cheering, and, the covers for the loose cushions for chairs and couch. In the parlour are two easy chairs, very comfortable, with adjustable backs, these are made at the lowest possible cost, and by a wise provision if the two chairs are. put together they make a comfortable “day-bed” for a child. There are two types of sidoboarda jn the parlour, both excellent in design and finish, also a sofa with a drop-end, which can be used as a bed. The only anxiety displayed by the many visitors to Shoreditch is as to where they can buy this new furniture, for assuredly it is not only the cottager who will desire it. All the specimens whown have been designed by Mr P. A. Wells, bead of the cabinet-making department of tbe institute; all have been set out and made by tbe elder boys in the Technical Day School. Mr Wells, with fine public spirit, has registered none of the designs, and through the agency of the Design and Industries Association the County Council has given permission for the designs to be used for commercial purposes, on condition that the manufacturer’s name and the source from whieh the designs are obtained are given, It is to be hoped that some supervision will be exercised in the reproductions, for which there will certainly be a great demand; especially will care be needed in the painting process. Carried out under a colourist there are infinite possibilities for tbia method, but in the hands of the untrained tradesman it might be horribly abused.—Ernestine Mills, in the Westminster Gazette.