24 
House & Garden 
THE CLOSET END OF IT 
How a Little Discussion of Odd Corners with Your Architect 
May Result in the Eventual Fulfilment of Heaven’s First Law 
By GRACE NORTON ROSE * Drawings By JACK MANLEY ROSE 
The combination of settle and china closet is especially 
feasible when the living room opens into the dining room. 
It also serves instead of a partition to define the rooms 
T HE man of the house rare¬ 
ly concerns himself with 
closets, until inconvenience 
brings him face to face with the 
lack of them. The woman of 
the house nearly always makes 
an instant appraisal of the 
closet space of a prospective 
home. The wise architect, a 
man who has acquired the femi¬ 
nine point of view but who 
aims to please the master of 
the house as well, avoids cut¬ 
ting into his big spaces and 
cluttering his house with 
strange passageways and inter¬ 
fering doors. He knows that 
there must be closets, but he 
tucks them away in the least 
obtrusive corners. 
In these days of national 
economy, the utilization of 
waste space has the appeal of 
the “efficient.” It is easy enough 
to proclaim that there ought to 
be no waste spaces, but let any¬ 
one try to build a house with¬ 
out them! If you carefully 
watch your building in the pro¬ 
cess of construction, you may 
discover your carpenter ceiling 
up all sorts of under-the-eave 
spaces, between-wall jogs and 
attractive little poke-holes that 
might, with some ingenuity, be 
used to great advantage. It is 
nearly always too late, as the 
nails are going in, to make the 
most of these discoveries, but earlier in the 
construction a systematic examination of 
your house with the architect might be well 
worth while in ultimate satisfaction. 
In our complicated scheme of things there 
is much that clutters a house. Many kinds 
of closets are needed for the attainment of 
restfulness in your rooms. 
Where Closets Are Essential 
Take for the first instance that indis¬ 
pensable hall nook for outdoor wraps, mo¬ 
tor trappings and rainy day attire. What 
a bore it would be to keep all those utili¬ 
tarian articles with our choicest garments 
upstairs; and what a relief to be able to 
shed them somewhere downstairs upon en¬ 
tering the house! It is an excellent thing 
to have this closet ventilated, tiled and 
roomy so that damp garments may hang 
there instead of being draped over all the 
available furniture. It should, of course, 
contain those unfortunate articles of furni¬ 
ture, the hatrack and umbrella stand. 
An under-the-stairs closet, lighted and 
used as a telephone booth, has great ad¬ 
vantages, and probably completes the hall 
equipment. There are houses where the 
bottom stairs have been utilized as little 
drawers in which shoe and hat brushes, 
whisk brooms, driving gloves or other motor 
appurtenances may be kept. Concealed by 
the moldings and panelings common to stair¬ 
ways, and drawn out on the side, they are 
not nearly as absurd as they may sound. 
The living room and the library, of 
course, need book shelves; since many care¬ 
ful housekeepers prefer keeping their books 
under glass, it is well to build in bookcases 
wherever possible. On either side of the 
fireplace is an approved location. The illus¬ 
tration shows a scheme that is economical 
of floor space and very practical in a low 
ceilinged room. Where the settle provides 
the separating wall between living and din¬ 
ing room, as in this same illustration, china 
and glass cupboards may be added on the 
dining room side. 
Concealed radiators offer an excuse for 
window seats, and these are often employed 
in the glassed-in porch or breakfast room. 
If they are ever built in a room used by chil¬ 
dren. they may hold playthings. 
The dining room needs its share of 
closets, and nothing is more alluring than 
the quaint corner cupboards of Colonial 
days. Since these are not to be picked up 
out of their proper environment every day, 
thanks to the returning sanity of their own¬ 
ers, they are often built in. Dining room 
corners are not extremely useful and to 
utilize them thus means space economy. 
A butler’s pantry, as we all know, should 
be practically all closet, providing that there 
is ample counter room upon which to set 
the dishes removed from the dining room, 
and an adequate sink in which to wash them. 
Open shelves for dishes in everyday use, 
and cupboards for fine glass¬ 
ware and extra china are quite 
necessary, as well as closeted 
shelves for linen, and space for 
such dry groceries and provis¬ 
ions as it seems wise to keep in 
a butler’s pantry. It is often 
practical to keep the bread and 
cake boxes there, utilizing 
otherwise waste space. 
No matter how many ideal 
kitchen cabinets you possess, 
the kitchen must have a cold 
closet for the refrigerator and 
numerous shelves. A closet for 
vacuum cleaner, brooms, and 
all the requisite instruments of 
dust chasing is a good thing, 
as is a laundry closet for ar¬ 
ticles appertaining to wash day. 
Upstairs Arrangements 
Upstairs, while space for 
clothing seems of uppermost 
importance, bed linen and clean¬ 
ing things should have their 
place. Built-in wardrobes are 
much in favor, and their very 
shallowness is an asset where 
clothes are concerned. Some¬ 
times the eaves permit of a 
series of drawers let into the 
wall, or hat box storage spaces 
and shoe cabinets. A window 
seat that, instead of a lid that 
lifts, has a side that drops out 
on the floor and displays the 
footwear arranged on a double 
shelf, will be found a great convenience. 
Of course, we are all familiar with the 
medicine chest set in between studs in the 
bathroom. Other shallow cupboards could 
be fitted very usefully, especially in the 
kitchen and pantries. Sliding panels in the 
dining room and boudoir give endless satis¬ 
faction. These panels may hide a small wall 
safe, a laundry chute, a dumbwaiter, shoes 
and slippers, sheet music, cocktail mixings, 
sewing paraphernalia, sporting gear and the 
like. It is said that this is an age of few 
subterfuges, but it is also an acknowledged 
fact that for beauty’s sake much is covered 
up. A tiny slot in the bottom shelf of the 
medicine chest will carry old safety razor 
blades down into the partition where they 
can do no harm. A shallow cupboard, like 
a second medicine chest, may be set in the 
wall near the floor at the head or foot of 
the bath tub to hold extra soap, cleanser or 
ammonia and cloths for cleaning the fix¬ 
tures, things one wants always at hand, but 
that are unsightly when in evidence. 
Under the Eaves 
In the nursery or play room, under-the- 
eaves space may be used as cupboards for 
toys. As little folks love to play about on 
the floor, lack of headroom does not at all 
interfere with their comfort. Low closets 
with rows of books placed at a convenient 
height for the kiddies to hang things on, in¬ 
culcate the habit of orderliness. The low 
