402 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 1906 



WHEN YOU BUILD, GET THE 



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FAIR BUILDING 



EASTON, PA. 



The Sunlight " OMEGA" 



Acetylene 



"Ike Ideal 

 Home Illuminant 



Why not enjoy the comfort or a perfectly 

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In your home is impossible without the 



Minneapolis Heat* Regulator 



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R. SWEATT, President, 1 st Avenue and G Street, Minneapolis, Minn. 



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Hr 



ADJ UST 

 HERE 



~'S AUTOMATIC 



THE KITCHEN — DECORATIVE 

 ASPECTS 



THE decorative aspect of the kitchen 

 are precisely the aspects which are 

 most apt to be neglected and misunder- 

 stood. People who spend hundreds and thou- 

 sands of dollars in decorating the other parts 

 of their houses are prone to leave their kitchen 

 wholly out of their decorative schemes and 

 look with amazement upon any proposal to 

 view the kitchen in a decorative manner. The 

 real facts of the case are that there is a radical 

 difference in meaning between the terms a 

 decorative parlor and a decorative kitchen. 

 The word decorative is a comparative one and 

 the decoration of a parlor is something quite 

 different from the decoration of a kitchen. 



This must have been apparent from a peru- 

 sal of the preceding papers in this series. 

 There is no place for decoration in a kitchen 

 as it is understood in the other parts of the 

 house. Neither walls nor ceiling, windows, 

 doors or floors offer any opportunity for dec- 

 orative applications such as are made as a 

 matter of course elsewhere. 



Yet the kitchen should have a certain dec- 

 orative effect. It should be a pleasant, cheer- 

 ful apartment. Much work and heavy work 

 is done within it, and the burden of all labor 

 is lessened by being performed in agreeable 

 surroundings. The room must be pleasant to 

 go into and be pleasant to stay in. It must be 

 pleasant to work in and, if possible, a pleas- 

 ant place to rest in — the cook will use it for 

 that purpose from time to time, and perhaps 

 the other servants. In many houses it is a 

 composite room, used for many different pur- 

 poses, used all day and every day. Every- 

 thing which tends to make it agreeable is a 

 help in every way, and will greatly repay any 

 expense incurred in obtaining this effect. 



A dainty, delicate, refined room a kitchen 

 can rarely be. The work to be done there is 

 too various and too heavy for any such qual- 

 ities to be desirable or possible. It is a room 

 which must not only be kept clean, but which 

 contains every possible aid to cleanliness. This 

 is as far as it is possible to go toward refine- 

 ment, and it is quite far enough, as those who 

 have labored with refractory servants in dingy 

 kitchens will be aware. 



If the room is not agreeable by position and 

 construction it behooves the mistress to do 

 what she can to relieve these drawbacks. If 

 the walls can not be white and bright they 

 can at least be clean and covered with a ma- 

 terial or coating that permits ready cleaning 

 and which entails no especial hardship in 

 washing them down. If it has been built 

 under personal supervision it should have 

 rounded corners, the windows should open 

 freely from top and bottom and should be 

 ample enough to freely light the room. It 

 should be a part of the required work that the 

 range or stove be kept well polished, and por- 

 celain sinks and well-constructed, well-cov- 

 ered tubs will add greatly to the desired effect. 

 There is no opportunity and no need for grace- 

 ful furniture; there are other rooms in which 

 such pieces have their proper place; but such 

 furniture as is used should be well made, plain 

 and straightforward, and thoroughly adapted 

 to its use. With all these things duly con- 

 sidered a very considerable step will have been 

 taken toward giving the kitchen a decorative 

 effect, speaking kitchenly. 



The dresser and cupboards, the closets and 

 racks should be of the same wood and should 

 be neatly hung and placed. The various uten- 

 sils should be kept in an orderly manner, the 

 different sorts together in one place and sep- 

 arated from those of another sort. It will be 

 found an advantage to keep as many as possible 

 within doors or in drawers. Every exposed 

 vessel means another object to clean and dust, 



