COUNTRY HOMES
To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.—Robert Louis Stevenson
Keen observers of American customs, who have studied the development of our taste in house designing and furnishing, tell us that the best expression of our art in architecture and home decoration is to be found in our country homes. They do not overlook, of course, a beautiful public building in this city or that, perhaps ten altogether, or an occasional private residence on Millionaire Avenue, which are monuments to the genius of the men who created them and of which any country may be proud. What they mean is that as a people we seek and secure the right combination of utility and beauty in our homes more frequently in the country than in the city.
At first thought such a criticism may seem to be an exaggeration. Is it reasonable, we ask, that people of good sense, such as most Americans are, really succeed better in planning, building, and decorating the houses which they are to occupy but a few weeks in the summer than they do in developing their city homes? We are told that it is true and that there are good reasons for it.
Simplicity of Country Life.—It is the life in the country and at the seashore that is the simple life, the natural life, the life that sets us free from the accumulated burden of mere "things." Here we come to forget for a time the many and find pleasure in the few. Here we are to feel the joy of living. Nature is all about us, and she gives of her bounty freely. Our wants are few because we are so well satisfied with the free gifts. What wants we have keep step with our needs here as they do nowhere else. We care less for what others have; we are more individual, more rational. Here we generally demand what we really need and we more frequently obtain it. And this is true whether it be something that appeals to the æsthetic side of our natures or whether it be that which ministers to our material needs. In seeking the beautiful for the simple home in the country we do not so often forget the useful; for here, away from the world of museums and studios and collections, we learn that art is possible without paintings and statuary. In the exterior form and colouring of the shingled cottage, set like a gem on the hillside or by the sea, in the harmonious arrangement of its interiors, with every article of furniture chosen only for use and comfort and placed where needed, and with decorations, cheerful but restrained and subordinate, suggestive of more glorious colours and more interesting things in the world without—in such surroundings we have beauty and utility combined. Here we have the time and the opportunity to realize the truth that all art is one and that it may find in the problems of decoration in the country home, if not its highest mission, its most open field for giving to appreciative people the pleasure of seeing and enjoying the beautiful.
Opportunities for Constructive Art.—If it be true that there is a more universal recognition of the true principles of art in the better class of our country homes than in our city homes, it is proof, if proof be needed, that the elements of art expression are found in the simple, natural materials of every-day life. It may be that in the development of art amid simple surroundings "necessity is the mother of invention," and that, more or less naturally, simplicity is thrust upon us. The general habit of our time is to extend the vacation period in the country or at the seashore to the point of making a home there for every summer season. But only a few can carry wealth and elegance with them. A great majority must be satisfied with simple and inexpensive homes. At first we accept them as the only thing possible, and then we discover that in their very simplicity they offer the best of opportunities for true æsthetic expression. And this opportunity is largely for the younger members of the family—for the boys and girls whose vacation period is more extended, whose interest in the summer home is perhaps the more vital and whose imagination is the more susceptible to the art suggestions of nature. We have seen that it is possible for boys and girls to build and furnish a house under the exacting requirements of city life. How much easier it must be to build a cottage for the summer season, decorating and furnishing it in harmony with the simple needs of a vacation home.
If such a suggestion meet with acceptance, those who undertake the work will find much practical help in the problems outlined in the foregoing chapters. It is not expected, of course, that the directions there given will always be exactly followed. In the furniture problems, for example, soft woods like pine and spruce may be substituted for the harder woods specified. Very attractive as well as very useful simple furniture has been made in this way at a merely nominal expense. Staining and finishing may easily bring it into harmony with colour schemes; but the bright, fresh colour of new pine and spruce is in itself by no means unattractive. The smooth, exposed beams of the ceilings and walls, if of well chosen stock, may be stained a beautiful gray green or a soft brown. A good colour suggestion may be found in the weathered gray of the hewn timbers of very old buildings. The effect of a ceiled-up wall or of a dado may be easily obtained by stretching burlap or denim over the studding or over a backing of inexpensive sheathing. These materials are very durable and inexpensive, and they may be found in a great variety of beautiful shades. They make excellent portières. A lighter, thinner material like scrim is better for window draperies. All these fabrics afford good surfaces for decoration by stencilling. Stained or painted soft wood floors, covered with grass cloth rugs or the more dainty hand woven rugs like those described in the chapter on weaving, with simple, useful furniture, a picture or two, and a few choice pieces of pottery, complete the equipment for a charming living room. If it all be the product of home industry, the cash outlay for the material need not be over forty dollars, though an outlay of ten times that amount for better materials would not in the least interfere with such a room being decorated and furnished by the unaided labours of the amateur artists and craftsmen of the family.
A fireplace in field rock
The chief expense would naturally be for the living room, dining-room, and kitchen. The dining-room, however, may well be simply a corner or alcove of a large living room. Such an arrangement greatly increases the value of a single fireplace, which will be required to give the summer home the sense of perfect comfort. This may be of rough field rock and should be large enough to take one-cut fireplace wood. The chamber furnishings may be very simple indeed. Furniture dealers make a point of supplying beds, bureaus, chairs, and cabinets of simple design, unfinished, so that the purchaser may stain them to harmonize with any desired colour scheme. But such furniture, or good substitutes for it, can be made very inexpensively. For example, the stock for a good bed will not cost over seventy-five cents. Cases provided with shelves and curtains in place of drawers, made at a cash outlay possibly of one dollar, will serve for bureaus. The cost of materials for building an eight-room cottage in every way satisfactory need not exceed five hundred dollars; and such a cottage could be beautifully furnished by clever boys and girls at an expense for materials of one hundred and fifty or perhaps two hundred dollars.
An inexpensive bed
In the exterior finishing of summer cottages nature generally needs very little assistance. No colours harmonize so well with the gray rocks, sere fields and marshes, and the evergreen trees by the seashore, as the weathered grays of the shingled cottage. The window frames, door frames and facings, painted to preserve them, may be of the same colour or in dull green or brown, plainly marking the outlines of the house but without unpleasant contrasts. A stained roof in slate gray or creosote brown is also in keeping. The underpinning and outside chimneys in the field rock of the locality are eminently fitting. The house among the hills will stand more colour because the colours of nature are richer, especially in the autumn season. But wherever the house may be, it should repeat in its larger surfaces the prevailing colour tones of its natural setting. It should seem to fit into its surroundings as if it belonged there and would always remain there, a part of the simple, natural beauty all around it.
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
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