[oral ftaKuief ujitl JHeiaimt 
HmiB 
A PLEASANT COTTAGE HOME. 
Inquiry is made of us very frequently for designs of 
pretty cottages very cheap, say less than a cost of $1,500 
to $2,000. It is very difficult to produce acceptable 
designs for such low-priced houses, because either 
building materials and labor are too costly to warrant 
the possibility of cheap homes, or if one call be built 
for so low a sum, it is almost always devoid of some 
ornaments, which seem absolutely 
necessary to make the cottage an 
object of beauty, as well as of con¬ 
venience. 
The design we present this month 
has the merit of both convenience 
and a reasonable degree of ornament, 
and yet will not exceed $2,000. In 
tbe interior of our State or country 
districts, a good carpenter will build 
it for less than $1,500. 
In this design the verandah, bal¬ 
cony, eaves, brackets, dormer win¬ 
dows and gables, are very simple and 
easily constructed, while the orna¬ 
mental appearance of the cottage 
comes from the climbing vines and 
pleasant surroundings introduced by 
the artist. 
Were we building for our own taste, 
we would introduce a little more 
ornamental work, and make the 
architectural beauty complete. The 
following is the plan and arrange¬ 
ment of the rooms : 
The front door opens into a vestibule A, six feet 
wide and nine feet long. From the rear of this a 
passage extends to the staircase hall E, which opens 
out to the yard, or into a hall if desired. B, the 
parlor, is fifteen feet square, and connects by means of 
a small passage with the living room D. This living 
room is twelve feet by seventeen, and opens into the 
staircase hall at a point convenient to the back entrance 
to the house. Across the hall, and near the head of 
the cellar stairs, is a good sized closet or store-room a , 
fitted up with shelves and cupboards, and lighted by 
a single window. 
Tue sitting room C measures thirteen by fifteen, 
and has two doors, fine opening into the vestibule, 
and the other into the passage back of it. 
The second floor is divided mainly like the first, and 
comprises three chambers, a bathing room, and five 
closets besides the hall. 
Physicians of the day affirm that carpets which can 
only be taken up once a year are injurious to the 
health—insomuch that the woolen fibres retain dust 
and noxious gases. 
Our attention was next turned to the windows. 
How a woman’s soul delights in window curtains! 
These were hung as they often are in England: a bar 
of wood, two and a half inches in diameter, ran across 
the top of the window, in place of the usual gilt cor¬ 
nice ; on it were hung nine hooks of wood, resembling 
pot-hooks of our grandmother’s days, and to their 
Design for a Pleasant Cottage Home. 
lower curve was attached a white dimity curtain, the 
upper part turned over in the form of a valance, which 
was finished with a fluted trill, as was the front edge 
of the curtain. The space between the two windows 
was filled with book-shelves—three in number—the 
lower one four feet long, and each one above decreas¬ 
ing half a foot in length. They rested on cast-iron 
brackets, secured by screws in the wall, and were also 
covered with a solution of Spanish brown. A carved 
bracket above the shel ves supported a bust of Minerva, 
and a table beneath held writing materials and the 
OUR COUNTRY COTTAGE. 
“Now remember the trite saying, ‘ Don’t buy any 
thing which you cannot afford to use and to replace 
when worn out,’ for thereon hangs the economy of 
housekeeping,” said my Aunt Martha—herself a house¬ 
mother of the good old time—when I began to furnish 
a snug little cottage that was to be to me “ home.” 
If the kitchen is the stomach, the parlor is no less the 
heart and brain of a house, so, after clearing it of 
plaster, rubbish, etc., I began to furnish it, first having 
the walls papered with light gray, bordered with crim¬ 
son. The floor was then stained a dark mahogany 
color, with a solution of Spanish brown and spirits, 
to the distance of three feet from the wall; the centre 
of the floor being covered by a heavy drugget, in colors 
gray mingled with crimson, which deepened into a 
wine color. 
Ground Plan. 
latest magazines, while its counterpart, on the other 
side of the room, held the inevitable work-basket. 
The mantel-shelf was covered with a lambrequin of 
crimson rep, and for each chair and the sofa I had 
made a cushion of the same material. But the beauty 
of the room centred in a chromo, which hung over 
the mantel-piece; clusters of bright prairie flowers 
blooming among sombre tinted grasses, which rose in 
waving tussocks, and in the far distance blended 
dimly with a pale blue sky. The finishing touches 
given to the parlor, I next turned to the large room, 
which was to serve for kitchen and dining-room. On 
one side of it were two windows, and a door opening 
on a rustic porch. At the far end of the room was 
the chimney; and a “great grief of mind unto me” it 
was to think of the stove that must soon stand before 
it, with its relay of pots and pans in full view of the 
dining-table, until at last the good fairies brought to 
mind a folding clothes-horse which had been stow r ed 
away in Aunt Martha’s garret for years. This I 
brought to light, covered it with strong, unbleached 
cotton, and gave it (muslin and all) six coats of burnt 
umber paint. Afterwards, coming 
across some colored prints, taken 
from books on flower culture, I 
pasted one in the centre of each 
panel, and the screen, when placed 
across the room, dividing it in two 
equal parts, was really pretty. The 
window curtains were gay chintz. A 
table, six splint-bottomed chairs, 
and two box ottomans, covered with 
chintz, made up the furniture of 
what I then dignified by the name 
of dining-room. After keeping house 
a short time, the prospect of a visit 
from a wealthy friend made my heart 
fail. “Would she be happy without 
luxuries, and what would she 
think?” “Ah! there’s the rub,” 
said plain-spoken Aunt Martha. 
“Now, I advise you, when Mrs. L. 
comes, to be yourself; take her into 
your every-day home life, and if she 
is a sensible woman, she will be 
happier and love you better (which is 
the real thing) than if you aped her own style of 
living.” My aunt was right. Mrs. L.’s first remark, 
on entering the spare chamber, was, “Now, this is 
cosy; how I shall enjoy it all.” And again, as she 
stood by the wash-stand, “Ah! a pitcher of hot water 
as well as cold; how pleasant to think your friends 
care enough for you to take so much trouble.” Yes, 
the room was cosy, although cheaply furnished. The 
window-curtains were chintz; in design, a green vine 
trailing over a pure white ground. The bed-spread 
was of chintz, and the small rocking-chair, drawn 
near the glowing fire, had a cushion of the same, 
while two tea-boxes—the lids fastened on with hinges 
-—were covered with it, and, under this guise of otto¬ 
mans, served to hold soiled clothes and shoes. The 
floor was painted gray; and as there was no carpet, I 
made rugs of coffee-sacks, woolen, when cut into 
strips, being easily drawn through the meshes, in 
loops, with an afghan needle; some old green merino 
dresses served for the centre, and pieces of crimson 
worked up into borders. In lieu of a bureau, I had a 
good sized box hung round with chintz curtains, and 
above it a glass, which reflected from the other side 
of the room a small table; and the wash-stand, 
which, like the toilet-table, was a box hung with 
chintz, and having shelves within. 
The surroundings of this cottage harmonize with 
the interior, and are simple, inexpensive, and pleas¬ 
ing, the details of which will be reserved for a future 
paper. 
Anne Haslett. 
TRUE NOBILITY. 
From yon blue heavens above usbent v 
The grand old gard’ner and his wife 
Smile at the claims of long descent 
Howe’er it be, it seems to me 
’Tis only noble to be good; 
Kind hearts are more than coronets, 
And simple faith than Norman blood 
-Tennyscm. 
