32 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
The old question of “Why the cook leaves home?” is best answered by the kitchen. Make 
it a pleasant and interestmg place to work in, and she'll stay. The decorations here can 
be stenciled. The chairs and fittings are enameled in white. The floor is black and 
white tile 
THE KITCHEN AS A 
PLEASANT PLACE 
Make It Sanitary and Evident— 
But Also Make It Interesting 
J. A. RAWSON 
A CERTAIN statistician has figured that 
the average length of employment of 
a cook does not exceed three weeks. The 
same authority has also found that only one 
in twenty housewives can honestly say that 
she enjoys working in the kitchen. 
Why, then, do cooks leave home? 
Why, then, does the housewife want to 
come out of the kitchen? 
Obviously, the work or the kitchen must 
be at fault. A great deal of the pleasant¬ 
ness or unpleasantness of work in a kitchen 
depends upon the kitchen itself. The 
thoughtful householder, therefore, who 
would keep her cook or make kitchenwork 
pleasant, must start with making the kitchen 
a pleasant place. This can be accomplished 
by making it efficient and sanitary, and by 
making it interesting. 
Health and Efficiency 
To a large degree the kitchen is the 
health department of the house. From it 
comes the daily strength and sustenance 
of the household, and, if anything goes 
wrong in the kitchen, the entire household 
soon knows it and suffers from it. 
Hence the kitchen should not only radiate 
cheer and contentment for its own occu¬ 
pants, but should also be qualified at all 
times and at a moment’s notice to dissemi¬ 
nate those same attributes throughout the 
home. Do not, therefore, attempt to dec¬ 
orate or adorn it at the expense of its work¬ 
ing efficiency, or insist upon ornamental 
features that are not useful, or permit any 
form of decoration or equipment that is 
not sanitary first and ornamental second. 
Make health and efficiency the first con¬ 
siderations always, and determine upon the 
decorative scheme to conform thereto. 
That you can do without limiting your range 
of choice in the decorating, since practically 
without exception the sanitary furnishings 
are ornamental if chosen with good taste 
and, conversely, the ornamental things have 
to be sanitary nowadays. 
What Sort of Floor 
Quite naturally, the kitchen floor pre¬ 
sents the first and greatest problem in san¬ 
itation. For its preservation and decora¬ 
tion, if it is of wood, it must be closely 
laid; and there is an infinite assortment of 
paints, varnishes and finishes which keep 
it in good repair. If it is to be painted, the 
question of the color scheme for the entire 
room arises then and there. The bare wood 
floor with rug or mat here and there was 
the primitive form of treatment which is by 
no means obsolete yet. But if something 
more modern and ornamental is wanted, 
there is first of all linoleum as a removable 
covering, and then as permanent surfaces 
there are tile, rubber and cork, each in 
an endless variety of designs. 
Finoleum’s advantage is that it can be 
easily laid, without assistance from carpen¬ 
ter or mason, on old or new floors. Its 
washable quality is well known, and the 
assortment of patterns is large and adapt¬ 
able to any decorative theory. For kitchen 
floors the more expensive grades are best. 
Their designs run continuously through the 
entire thickness of the material, hence they 
can wear down to the last thread before the 
outlines of the design are lost. 
Finoleum, however, has its limitations; 
it will wear out and require replacing from 
time to time, and, while it prevents much 
moisture and dirt from being absorbed by 
the board floor, it nevertheless covers up a 
great deal of dirt and dust that inevitably 
find their way between the widths and 
around the edges. Moreover, mopping or 
scrubbing is bound to leave moisture in the 
seams where it may do much harm. 
Rubber and cork, as flooring materials, 
have undoubted merits. The cost of instal¬ 
ling under ordinary circumstances is about 
$1 a square foot. Rubber tiling has endless 
decorative possibilities, is waterproof, has 
an easy and quiet walking surface, and can 
be laid by an ordinary mechanic. The only 
preparation required for the underfloor is 
that it should be built of good material, and 
made smooth and level on the surface. 
Either wood or concrete is suitable for this 
Irving J. Gill, architect 
Besides being sanitary the kitchen should also 
be fireproof. Here the walls and floors are tile, 
the furniture enameled wood and the built-in 
fitments enameled iron 
