May, 1909 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 1 
‘oO 
hy 
The Porch Sitting-Room 
By Ralph de Martin 
p< HY stay within a house if one can be com- 
7 fortable without it? This is the real 
philosophy of the country home. Thou- 
sands of dollars, and sometimes many of 
them, go into the building of a handsome 
house which is no sooner completed than the 
owners proceed to devise all manner of 
ways of staying without it. Of course this is natural, and 
just what is to be expected; but sometimes the person who is 
not fortunate enough to own one of these fine houses—nor 
even possessed of the acquaintance that takes one within them 
—wonders a bit that so much money should have been spent 
on a building that is so little used. 
But back of this seeming non-use is a very real utility. 
The expansion of the country house building industry has 
taken many persons out into the country who, not long be- 
fore, knew of green fields only from the car window. Now 
one may not only learn to know the country and have all the 
comforts of modern conveniences in his own country home, 
but, which is much more important, he can learn to love it; 
and once loving it, is inevitably wedded to the soil. 
There are many things that tend to bring about this con- 
dition, but few so charming and so comfortable as the porch 
sitting-room. To say that this is a necessary adjunct to 
every well-designed country home is but to repeat a truism. 
Those of us who have it know how true this is; those of us 
who do not have it spend not a few envious hours in wishing 
for one. 
On the porch sitting-room one may live the country life in 
the most delightful manner. One’s architect, if he has been 
wise, has left nothing to be desired. There will be spacious- 
ness in width and spaciousness in length; for out in the open 
air one soon feels the crampiness of walls and narrow dimen- 
sions. Is a lawn ever too spacious for thorough enjoyment 
of outlook? So a porch sitting-room can seldom be too 
large, too ample in its area, too spacious in its physical form. 
Whether it be high or low is a question to be determined by 
the architecture of the dwelling; but here again, the utmost 
ampleness in dimension is an agreeable thing, and a useful 
one, helping in the creation of that outdoor effect which, after 
all, is the true end and aim of the fascinating outdoor rooms. 
For rooms they are and true ones. Perish the thought of 
walls and windows as essential features in rooms! Let us 
leave such things for the drafty days of spring and fall, 
and hie ourselves to the open air, where, with only a wall to 
screen our backs and keep off unwelcome drafts, and with a 
roof to cover us from the rain or as a shield from the hot 
sun, give ourselves up to the unalloyed enjoyment of our 
porch sitting-room ! 
And so we bring on to it all sorts of things that may minis- 
ter to our comfort, or which we think will do so. Of chairs 
there must be a plenty, of all sorts, shapes, sizes and kinds. 
Wicker chairs, of course, or wooden ones, for try as we may 
our porch furniture must meet with more or less exposure to 
the weather. Vastly comfortable is much of the modern 
porch furniture, vastly interesting too, and pretty to look at 
as well as conducive to long repose when one has once estab- 
lished oneself within their comfortable depths. Upholstered 
furniture is not always available for porch use, but is quite 
permissible if the porch be deep and broad, and if such 
pieces can be kept in thorough protection from the weather. 
The furnishings, however, do not end with the chairs and 
benches; rather they only begin with them. ‘There must 
be tables, too, and sometimes plenty of them. Just what 
kind and size of table we may use will depend upon the use 
that it is proposed to make of the porch sitting-room. Oft- 
times a porch will be furnished as a dining-room, and then 
the dining-table becomes the most important article of fur- 
niture and may be as large as desired, or as ample as there is 
room for. ‘lhe porch dining-room is, however, rather a 
special kind of porch, used for the most part, for this pur- 
pose alone, and quite more formal than the delightful in- 
formality that is one of the chiefest charms of the porch 
sitting-room. 
Rugs should not be forgotten, and of these there are 
several kinds intended exclusively for porch use. Water 
or weatherproof rugs have a utilitarian advantage over those 
intended especially for house use, and seem to be especially 
available for the porch. The material, however, is some- 
what independent of the question of use, since if one has 
a corps of servants, one or more of whom has especial charge 
of the porch, the care of such articles becomes a mere part of 
administrative detail. The main point in all this furnishing 
is that it be complete and comfortable, and this being the 
case the rug, be it made of what you will, is quite as impor- 
tant for the porch sitting-room as for any of the interior 
rooms of the house. 
Then come the decorative features, and of these the plants 
growing in boxes or bowls or jars, are easily the most impor- 
tant. One may, indeed, be fortunate enough to have a vine- 
covered porch, which brings the foliage right up and on to 
the house. ‘This is a charming form of household decora- 
tion, and when the design of the house and the planting 
scheme of the house grounds permit it should be developed 
to the utmost. Very lovely indeed are such vine-clad 
porches, and very lovely to sit within. But every porch col- 
umn is not adapted to vine growth, and there are many de- 
lightful porch sitting-rooms as bare of vines as though such 
a form of plant never existed. 
But the porch sitting-room is the natural meeting place 
of the house and garden. Such a porch naturally and by 
right overlooks the garden, for there can be nothing more 
unbearable than sitting on the “front” porch and watching 
the dusty procession of automobiles fly along the highway. 
One can not, indeed, sit exactly in the midst of a garden, for 
we poor human beings require various kinds and degrees of 
protection, and are seldom happy, when resting, without a 
roof above us. The porch sitting-room, therefore, naturally 
overlooks the garden, and that there may be no rude un- 
bending line of demarcation between the house and the gar- 
den, we bring on to our porches some choice plant treasures, 
stand them in boxes or jars as handsome as we possess, and 
the work of arrangement is complete. 
How far else one may go in furnishing these outdoor 
rooms is largely a matter of individual taste and the actual 
uses to which they are put. A tea-cart is often useful and is 
always quaint and charming. Of cushions and pillows there 
will be exactly as many as can be spared from the interior 
rooms. Electric lights, when the house is so illuminated, 
should not be forgotten, for there will be many occasions 
on which they will be extremely useful. The creatures that 
fly by night hardly render the use of porch lights available 
for evening purposes, but the power to light should always 
be provided and will be found of frequent utility. 
