The interior plan of this house makes it a good one either for week-ends or for semi-permanent use. Indeed, if you like to commute, it could be occupied all year ’round, since it has all the comforts of a modern city home. There’s one master bedroom, connected directly with the bath, and a large bunk room for guests. If bunks are used here, be sure to build them along the lines of a ship’s berth, just for a nautical atmosphere.
As a matter of fact, a beach house is just the place where lots of imagination can be used. Door knobs and other hardware of bright brass, a colored ship’s lamp over the front door, and perhaps a couple of real portholes instead of the small windows in the bunk room and the bath, would lend a very salty air. Such items can be bought at any ship chandler’s. The living room, for example, might have a “deck” of scoured oak, with linoleum in the other rooms inlaid with anchors and other seagoing devices. Lengths of fish net, complete with leads and corks, make fine window drapes—and above all, get a small ship’s bell to call all hands to meals.
FIVE ROOMS in a ONE ROOM CABIN
The amazing things that can be done in a limited space with a curtain or two and some careful planning with furniture, are nowhere better demonstrated than in this one-room cabin. The designer started with nothing but an 18 × 20-foot rectangle for a floor plan, yet he has evolved a comfortable week-end cabin for at least four persons.
The exterior walls of this cabin have been treated in an unusual manner which makes something quite unique out of what might have been just another cabin. The end walls, chimney and porch are constructed of rough-hewn stone, while the front and rear walls are board and batten. The roof could be shakes, shingles or slates. Of course, this same cabin could be built any one of a number of ways, using logs or shingles instead of the stone and wood combination. The front door, to carry out the atmosphere of simplicity, should be of planks.
The cabin, which was the inspiration for the one illustrated here, had an interior of cedar panels, uncolored except for a treatment with hot oil. This makes a good wall finish, although if you prefer them, plywood or wall board would be appropriate and not costly. Because of its limited size, perhaps a light interior of natural or tinted wall board would be most satisfactory.
Just inside the front door, at the left, is a kitchenette with two built-in seats and a drop-table to form a dinette such as many apartments have. Additional seats may be built on the other side of the kitchenette if desired.
At the far end of the room is a space for two double beds or bunks. The latter would be more pleasing, since they offer attractive lounging places during the day. Between the bunks is a washroom and two closets which form a partition and divide the space into two bedrooms. A sliding curtain conceals the bedroom end when desired.