House & Garden 
64 
Miss S words, Inc. 
Interior Furnishings 
18 East 48th Street 
New York 
Radiator Obtrusiveness 
Solved With Our 
Decorative Metal Grilles 
W HY consider for a moment 
having the machinery of your 
heating system in the form of radia¬ 
tors, always in insistent prominence. 
Let us suggest ways of obscuring 
them, with decorative metal grilles. 
Ways that easily convert the objec¬ 
tionable into tbe desirable. Ways that 
turn the. ugly into the harmonious. 
We will advise how the 
grilles should be used to 
secure greatest heating 
economy. This is an ad¬ 
mirable treatment. 
Send for catalog 66-A 
Tuttle & Bailey Mfg Co 
5 2 Vanderbilt Avenue 
New York 
The Care of Furniture 
(Continued from page 62) 
and is cool, add enough kerosene oil 
to reduce the mass to the consistency 
of vaseline. Apply it with a woolen 
rag, the best form being a pad made 
by rolling up a narrow strip like tape. 
It will take two or more applications 
to fill the pits. 
Ink Spots and Stains 
Ink spots are very difficult to eradi¬ 
cate. The common cure is spirits of 
niter, which causes the stain to turn 
white; it should then be wiped off 
with a cloth. Two applications may 
be needed. Rust stains may be taken 
off with Russian water, made from 
oxalate of tin in a solution of oxalic 
acid. 
Many stains on wood will go when 
treated with an ounce of oxalic acid, 
dissolved in one gill of boiling water. 
If this fails, try nitric acid slightly 
weakened with water. Very dirty 
hardwood may be cleaned with the 
following formula : First coat it with 
kerosene oil, letting it stand for an 
hour or so, to soften up the dirt; rub 
it off with a. cloth; then wash with 
soap and water; let it dry; rub with 
crude oil to a polish. If it is then 
allowed to stand for some time, it 
may be further polished by rubbing. 
If the surface is in a very bad con¬ 
dition, more oil may be substituted 
for the soap and water, and pow¬ 
dered rottenstone sprinkled on it. 
This should be rubbed gently, first 
with a circular movement, then 
with the grain of the wood. When 
the surface has become smooth and 
bright, wipe off the rottenstone, and 
finish as you would after the soap 
and water method. 
V 
The Exterior of Colonial Houses 
(Continued from page 23) 
Clapboard is one of the accepted 
treatments in the clothing of the Co¬ 
lonial timber frame. It has been 
ivell used in the residence of Charles 
H. Bush. Esq.. Cranford. N. J. 
though the richer examples 
have molded trim with 
ornamental heads in the 
form of delicate cornices. 
Careful study was always 
made of the small rectang¬ 
ular pane of glass, using it 
as a module for the pro¬ 
portion and size of the 
various window openings. 
It gives “scale” to the 
building, producing a defi¬ 
nite relation of parts to 
each other and to the mass, 
and the delicate wood 
strippings form delightful 
vistas from the room with¬ 
in. I cannot emphasize too 
much the importance of 
these small panes of glass 
in both the upper and 
lower sashes, for they, with 
the blinds, prevent the 
window openings from 
taking the form of blank 
holes in a barnlike wall. 
The blinds, indeed, form 
spots of color which are as 
important to the composi¬ 
tion as the windows them¬ 
selves. Yet the average 
house builder seems to 
have formed a prejudice 
against small panes and 
blinds on account of the supposed 
difficulty of cleaning this type of 
window and the annoyance of oper¬ 
ating the blinds. In most cases the 
window has a flat narrow trim, al¬ 
though the richer examples have 
molded trim with ornamental heads. 
Exterior Colors 
Where the house was built of brick, 
this material was usually of a cheap 
grade. It was dull red and uneven in 
form and color due to the scarcity 
and cost of brick in the early days, 
and also the general desire for sim¬ 
plicity. Where shingles and clap¬ 
boards were used, they were widely 
spaced and carefully arranged in 
alignment, in order to intersect mem¬ 
bers of the trim at proper horizontal 
division, thus softening the walls into 
the windows and avoiding harsh 
breaks. Some shingles were of cedar 
and others of cypress, and all the 
early examples were hand hewn and 
uneven, producing a charming “tex¬ 
ture” in the walls. 
If paint was used, it was generally 
white in color and confined to the 
trim, columns, balustrades and cor¬ 
nices, the shingles and clapboards be¬ 
ing whitewashed. The roof shingles, 
and sometimes the shingles on the 
walls, were allowed to weather a sil¬ 
ver gray from their natural state. 
We find blinds painted green and also 
white, the green sometimes aging to 
a dull blue. 
Great care was used in the placing 
of the down spouts or leaders, where 
they could be afforded, and tbe posi¬ 
tion and height of the chimneys 
played an important part in the gen¬ 
eral design. The planting, too, made 
a conspicuous contribution to the im¬ 
pression the house conveyed. 
Our Colonial house, then, takes tbe 
form of a rectangular building with 
a low roof, a simple entrance just off 
the grade with windows on each side 
and corresponding windows above, 
and a single window, or perhaps a 
group, over the door. Porches and 
chimneys at the ends complete the 
picture. The most noticeable feature 
is the general lowness of the building. 
