May, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



21 1 



A Garden Room 



By Carine Cadby 



VERYONE can live out of doors in hot 

 weather, but there is so much in-between 

 weather when it is just too cold or too 

 windy to be quite in the open and when one 

 yet longs to be out of doors. It was just 

 such a time when a bright sun was shining 

 and a very cold wind blowing that my sister 

 Joan and I thought of having a hut built in our garden that 

 should be a kind of garden room. And such a success has it 

 been, and so much pleasure have we had out of it, that I can 

 confidently recommend it to all those who love an open-air 

 life. 



We had also been bitten with the craze for sleeping out of 

 doors, so that our hut was also to be our night abode as 

 well as our garden room. 



We interviewed our local builder and carpenter and ex- 

 plained what we wanted. Our ideas on the subject — just a 

 little house, with two sides open and a few shutters to put 

 up — seemed so lucid and clear to ourselves, but when our 

 village architect arrived with plans that looked like a cross 

 between a chapel and a stable we had to get the advice of a 

 practical cousin. And for the sake of those who for health's 

 or pleasure's sake wish to live or sleep more in the open I 

 will describe our little garden room. It is a square hut, ten 

 by ten feet, built of weather boarding, with a boarded floor. 

 It has two sides solid and two sides open (namely, south and 



west) so that there will almost always be a shelter. The 

 roof slants to a point so that the rain can run off. It is well 

 tarred and has felt as well, for unless the little room is quite 

 weather-proof it would lose half its value, and it would be 

 a cheerless experience to wake up one rainy night with the 

 wet dripping through on to one's face. 



The west side opens to the ground, and has three large 

 shutters which can be put up for shelter, should the wind 

 draw from that quarter; the south side has what the local 

 carpenter called a "dado" of about three feet in height, and 

 a door in the middle the same height. This side has five 

 small shutters, so that one can make it a solid wall or only 

 shut off a corner or part of it, just as the vagaries of the wind 

 demand. With all these shutters it will be seen one has a 

 good deal of latitude, and it is amusing how soon necessity 

 teaches one to be weather-wise, and one soon learns which 

 parts to shut up and which to have open. One boisterous 

 night that blew our hair about on our pillows taught us 

 more than all our practical cousin's explanations. 



Of course, we could have had a revolving house, but the 

 size we wanted would have been most ruinously expensive, 

 and our little room has only cost us under seventy-five 

 dollars. 



We gave a good deal of thought to the furnishing, our 

 idea being to have as little in it as possible, no hangings or 

 upholstery or anything unnecessary that should make it like 



The Room in the Woods 



