December, 1909 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 47 
“I 
The Interior Details of the Bungalow and Its Furnishings 
By Kate Greenleaf Locke 
stage of development and the poitage I 
would draw many distinctions, and if we 
are to evolve it in the completeness of its 
beautiful possibilities from our present ar- 
chitecture we must clearly define the char- 
acteristics which make it something sep- 
arate and apart from the ordinary cottage. 
We should also insure that these features are embodied 
in its construction: The living-room, for instance, in a bun- 
galow serves in many cases as an entrance, parlor and recep- 
tion-room combined, the type of house permitting an uncon- 
ventional style of living; this is as it should 
be, and it is certainly convenient and economical, 
but in it the cosy seclusion of cottage-parlor is 
impossible. 
In the search for something that will satisfy 
a man’s need of beauty in his home surround- 
ings, his craving to live in “good style” (a 
craving which does not desert him because his 
income is small), we arrive at the bungalow. 
To have the charm and beauty of his home im- 
Fig. |—Ordinary window arranged to give a picturesque effect 
press the visitor who enters it is the natural and most 
wholesome ambition of many men and women, and the com- 
monplace cottage, with its mill-made doors and windows 
turned out of the same mold with hundreds of others, does 
not satisfy this ambition. The bungalow may be made to 
satisfy it. 
On the inside, as on the outside, there should be evidence 
of a rough-hewn hard finish to the woodwork, and while 
this has an expensive sound, as hand-work usually costs more 
than machine-work, it is not so in this case. The finish is 
so simple and so rustic as to take little time to accomplish it. 
The wood is stained and often left without further treat- 
ment, though it is sometimes rubbed down with oil, which 
deepens the color, or it is painted dead-black without var- 
nish, a simple matter and a cheap one, but very effective. 
The beams of the ceiling are often rough-hewn, the grilles 
are of flat slats or of lattice-work, and there is a marked 
absence of turned-work and no polished surface except upon 
the floor. 
Cement and terra-cotta floors are most effective and pic- 
turesque in the living-rooms and dining-rooms of bungalows, 
and are found to be as comfortable and as easily warmed 
as any other sort when they are overlaid with thick rugs. 
The cheapest floor which carries a good effect is an ordinary 
plank flooring planed down and painted smoothly with sev- 
eral coats of the best paint, or stained a dark brown and 
shellaced, in which latter case the shellac and a slight stain 
Fig. 2—A mantel of red brick and stained wooden walls 
will have to be renewed at least once a year. 
When the flooring is a poor one the cracks 
should be filled in before the paint is applied. 
Still less costly is a floor covering of Japanese 
or Chinese matting laid over several thick- 
nesses of newspaper and tacked tightly and 
smoothly. When small rugs are laid on the 
matting it forms a background for them which 
is pretty and durable. Wool terry, or filling 
in plain colors, should also be laid over floor- 
paper or many thicknesses of newspaper and tightly fastened 
down. This gives a background of dull blue, soft red, green 
or brown, and may be used effectively with or without rugs. 
Walls paneled to the ceiling, as in Figure No. 5, 
with stained wood or wainscoted up four feet on the side- 
walls, ceiling-beams with sand-finished plaster between them, 
inglenooks at the fireside, brick or stone chimneys built in 
the room with projecting chimney-breasts, are frequent fix- 
tures of a bungalow interior. 
It will be recognized at once that these things sweep away 
all possibility of an ordinary or commonplace effect, and 
substitute one of individual beauty and picturesque charm. 
In the use of these delightful accessories to the builder’s art 
there is a field for much artistic feeling to express itself, but 
there is also great danger of overstepping the line of beauty 
