172 



The Country House 



It is a most unfortunate thing that, generally speaking, the kitchen and its 

 relations to the dining room and the rest of the house are not more carefully studied 

 than they are. Of course there are some few good examples, but one that is 



at all complete is a 

 rarity. T h e early 

 Colonial kitchen was 

 a haphazard affair, 

 frequently large, 

 and, as already 

 stated, used as a 

 dining room and a 

 sitting room in ad- 

 dition to its prime 

 purpose. 



1 he kitchen of 

 to-day presents a 

 unique and impor- 

 t a n t problem. 

 Where we once 

 cooked in brick 

 ovens or before the 

 wood fire, we now 

 have carefully de- 

 signed coal and gas 

 ranges. These are 

 usually hideous in 



design, but meritorious in their working. In the planning, we should consider 

 the uses of the kitchen, what it shall contain and where those things are to be 

 placed. The cook, in preparing the food, stands in certain places and uses 

 certain things, which should be within reach and thus govern the arrangement. 

 Keep the kitchen as small as your fittings will allow without cramping. If the 

 cook should be able to stand in the centre of the room and by revolving on her 

 heels perform her duties, both time, space and the cook may be saved. The 

 principal trouble with the average kitchen lies in the fact that there is an unlimited 

 amount of travel involved; no thought is apparently given to the saving of steps. 

 One can hardly blame cooks for not staying long in some kitchens; the wonder 

 is that they show such patience as they do. 



Ventilation plays an important part in kitchen planning. This room being a 

 generator of heat and odour, it should have ample provision made to take care 

 of these. A hood over the range with a vent into the chimney is an excellent 

 provision for the disposal of these. If the kitchen flue can be made large enough 

 to carry the ventilating duct in the form of a sheet-iron pipe, the actual working 

 of the vent will be much benefited. As some heat is apt to find its wav to the 

 ci-iling and above the line of the hood, a second vent may be made next to the 

 ceiling in the chimney breast, or better, the flare of the hood may b? confined to 

 the depth of the floor above, making it practically out of the room. Kitchen 



Dining room at Jamaica Plain, Mass. The end treatment is highly interesting 



