HOME BUILDERS PAGE

Stratford Evening Post, Volume III, Issue 349, 2 May 1935, Page 2

HOME BUILDERS PAGE

A GOOD HOME IS A GREAT ASSET

A Sound Investment that Brings a Handsome Return HOME-BUILDING is a problem that faces nearly every citizen at least once in a life-time. And it is a problem calling for the greatest consideration. It would not be erring a great deal to say that about 80 per cent, of home-builders must consider cost Erst —and in times not long past comfort and convenience often came after this first consideration—but, fortunately, costs today are down to bedrock, a factor in home-building which gives the home-builder all the advantages. For he can now, through reduced labour and material costs, and, last but not least, a generous subsidy from the Unemployment Board on all new buildings, erect a home at an economic cost, combining all the conveniences and comforts that modern home experts have devised.

And there is this, too. Once erected, a new home is a :ermanent and valuable asset. It is a ‘live” asset. Even

the speculating builder will find a new dwelling a splendid investment —one which will bring him in a handsome return for his outlay.

Because of the beneficial effect the building' subsidy has had in increasing the demand for workmen and stimulating the building and allied trades generally, the Unemployment Board has extended the subsidy to cover alterations, painting, etc. Make use of this opportunity to have jobs done—costs were never so low for labour, building materials and, in addition to this there is the extended subsidy.

Thus the advantages offered home-builders today are greater than they have ever been. Not only by reason of the points outlined, but because in recent years home-design has undergone a great and advantageous change —a change which has produced the modern type of home. Keep in touch with modern home development when considering the erection of your new home.

The drawing room has come back into fashion. With the romantic note that is creeping into furnishing, the greater elegance in clothes and manners that is discernible, and the abandoning of the stark as the only ideal, this gracious room returns to favour.

The drawing-room is a room for the larger or the wealthy home, and in its very nature is a rather precious setting. But in the

larger homes with several reception rooms the elegant and formal drawing room has a place in the life of the family. The ideal drawing room is spacious, but not so large as to be overwhelming. The windows are high and well shaped. One soft colour is used over all walls, doors, skirtings and ceiling, keeping the atmosphere of light and space. If the room can be built with a domed or curved roof or with the ceiling a storey and a half high, it adds dignity and makes a break from the work-a-day informal units of the house. The furniture should fit the uses of the room, which are purely social, tea and talk, cards, music, and so on. A piano, if included, needs careful placing and should have its position decided early. A most successful seating arrangement is to have two parallel couches, one each side of the fireplace, with a rug between them, and a low table for serving tea at the end of one of them.

With a narrow table at the back of the other holding a lamp and cigarettes they make a charming group. A lady’s writing table may be included, and also cupboards, built-in or otherwise, for housing special pieces of china. A very modern and sophisticated way of treating these is to have them backed with peach-coloured mirror glass reflecting the contents.

Pictures, glass or statuary may be added to fit the decoration. This is the room where; a piece of furniture can earn a place upon its beauty alone. There is no formula for the modern drawing-room. It is reborn brand new for us to mould. It provides an opportunity to combine contemporary feeling with the romantic tradition and achieve new forms and an aesthetic triumph.

Mirror may also be utilised for a table-top, the panels of a screen, or the tiles that surround a fireplace. It is a much used modern material and gives that brilliant and fanciful touch that is so appropriate to this room.