AMERICAN FLATS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20983, 11 March 1938, Page 12

AMERICAN FLATS

THE CUPBOARD PARADISE The United States does not only build flats or apartments, it builds cupboards or closets, reports a correspondent in the “Manchester Guardian.” American apartments may sometimes seem crowded, but of one thing the tenant can always be sure—there will be large and convenient cupboards. The newer flats are no less well provided in this respect. A threeroomed flat with kitchen and bath will have at least three closets into which the owner can walk and hang up her things. Many 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. These 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 to hang things, to accommodate shoes on the floor in comfort, and often it has high shelves upon which suitcases and so forth 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 space, 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 lined with cupboards, with a depth according to the necessities. There is the tall broom cupboard, the cupboard for china and glass, that for food, another for dustpans and so forth, yet another for kitchen cloths and for utensils of various kinds. However much the architect has to squeeze his rooms, he could never venture to build a house without a proper supply of large cupboards.