40 
House & Garde 
The FLOORS, WALLS and CEILING of a MODERN KITCHEN 
For Sanitary Results Tile, Cement and Linoleum Are Advisable 
With Enameled Wood as an Alternative 
EVA NAGEL WOLF 
S INCE cooking has 
become a science, 
the kitchen has been 
transformed into a 
laboratory. Certainly 
no surgeon could find 
fault with the sanitary 
conditions of the mod¬ 
ern kichen. Not a 
crack nor cranny is left 
for dust or dirt to col¬ 
lect in and the corner 
is taboo. The joining 
of walls and floor is no 
longer an angle for they 
now merge with a 
sweeping curve when¬ 
ever the materials ad¬ 
mit of such treatment. 
Best of all there is not 
an inch of space but 
can be washed. Even 
old kitchens can be re¬ 
modelled so that those 
who are not building a 
new home can take 
heart; the most ap¬ 
proved kitchen can be 
theirs if they will but 
re-cover floor and walls 
along the hnes sug¬ 
gested on these pages. 
First let us consider 
the treatment of the walls. Time was when 
they were papered as were the other rooms of 
the house; the patterns differed perhaps, but 
still paper covered the walls, absorbing the 
greasy smoke and quickly becoming unsanitary. 
Then appeared glazed waterproof paper de¬ 
signed specially for bathrooms, a step certainly 
in the right direction. But this wall covering 
was not sanitary, despite the fact that it could 
be readily cleaned, for the heat and the steam 
quickly caused it to loosen from the walls. 
Something more durable was necessary and the 
painted plaster walls seemed to be the only 
solution. This treatment presented a smooth 
surface that admitted of washing but not as 
satisfactory as a glazed surface such as tiling 
afforded. It was more difficult to keep in prop¬ 
er condition than the tile, although an improve¬ 
ment over the earlier materials. 
The most approved material of all for the 
kitchen walls is the 
glazed tile. The tiles 
are cemented in place, 
becorriing a part of the 
wall instead of a wall 
covering. When con¬ 
sidered too expensive 
to cover the whole 
wall it is used only as 
a wainscoting with 
the upper wall and 
ceiling painted plas¬ 
ter or metal tiling. 
Walls of this type 
combined with a tiled 
floor make a most lux¬ 
urious kitchen. The 
room may be white, 
unornamented, or any 
color scheme adopted 
that the fancy dic¬ 
tates. All comers and 
angles are fitted with 
cove or angle tiles 
and when the floor is 
tiled a sanitary base 
connects the two. 
When there is to be 
but a wainscoting of 
the tiles the top is 
finished with a suit¬ 
able cap mould, 
which may repeat the 
general color scheme of the room. 
Metal tiling is less expensive than the glazed 
tiling but at present somewhat difficult to ob¬ 
tain as all metals were commandeered by the 
government for war purposes. However, it 
answers the purpose in no mean way for walls 
and ceiling. It may fashion the wainscoting 
when upper walls and ceiling are painted, or 
when tiles are used for wainscoting the re¬ 
mainder of the wall surface may be covered 
The entire floor and wall space is tile, colored on the floor and white Tile floor and wainscot are advisable for the laundry—glazed tiles 
on the walls with a color band. From the residence of V. T. Burner, on walls and patterned on floor, with painted plaster walls and white 
Esq., Milwaukee, Wis. enameled woodwork 
