HOUSE AND GARDEN 
410 
June, 
i9 T 5 
sleeping porch and is planned to open directly from the bed¬ 
room. To be thoroughly comfortable for sleeping it should be 
screened, while casement sash are almost a necessity to protect 
one from sudden showers. My experience with country sleeping 
porches has been that the 
enjoyment they afford is 
largely dependent upon 
how carefully these facts 
were considered. 
The rainy-day porch is 
not ordinarily made a part 
of summer homes, and in 
consequence a wet day is 
usually a gloomy one 
spent indoors. It could, 
however, be made very 
attractive if a little 
thought were put upon its 
planning and construction. 
Often one end of the liv¬ 
ing-room can be utilized. 
With a succession of 
broad windows or, if de¬ 
sired, casements opening 
to the floor, that would 
give a wide view of the 
landscape (for a rainy 
day discloses many beau¬ 
ties in the country that 
the bright sunlight fails 
to bring out), this feature 
might be attractive on both wet days and dry. 
Dining on the porch is seldom possible, except in well-screened 
enclosures. Care should be taken to select a position protected 
from the rays of the setting sun, which are even more objec¬ 
tionable here than in an indoor dining-room. When screened 
porches arc mentioned the first pictures that rise to one's mind 
are the temporary and often hideous makeshift affairs that one 
sees so frequently, but there is no reason why the screening of 
the porch should detract from its appearance. Demountable 
screens designed in well- 
proportioned panels with 
carefully fitted doors 
should be planned in con¬ 
nection with not only the 
dining-porch but in all 
places where screens are 
a necessity. 
One fortunate feature 
of the summer home is its 
unstudied informality. In 
place of the dozen sepa¬ 
rate interests of the city 
house, there is a spirit of 
communal life that does 
away with the necessity 
for complicated planning. 
The living-room should 
be made large enough to 
serve the needs of the 
family as sitting-room, 
library, reception room, 
and even in many cases 
as dining-room. A huge 
and broad fireplace pro¬ 
vides a fitting keynote for 
the decorative scheme and 
in its lines may be made to express open hospitality and the lack 
of set conventionality- Its practical value will be appreciated 
most on damp days and evenings and in chilly weather, when its 
fire will be sufficient to dispel the interior dampness of the whole 
(Continued on page 444 ) 
The lack of a far-reaching outlook from the house can often be compensated by developing 
the garden — which is the foreground of one’s view 
This group includes the desirable features for a moderate-priced home in the country — a house commodious enough to 
accommodate a small family and its guests — a garden and a garage. The sight, moreover, is ideal, being removed from 
main road, having large trees to shade the house, and sufficient grounds for the children to play in 
