38 
House & Garden 
WHEN YOU INHERIT A BROWN STONE HOUSE 
Do Not Condemn It Utterly, for With Discreet Handling 
It Can Be Made Habitable in the Modern Taste 
ALEXANDER KING 
W HEN the only sur¬ 
viving member of 
the family belong¬ 
ing to the Age of Inno¬ 
cence goes to join the other 
characters in that charm¬ 
ing book, in realms be¬ 
yond or above, and in due 
time the will is read, you 
may find yourself heir to 
the brownstone - front 
house, with the contents 
thereof. 
What can you do with 
it? 
Obviously it was in¬ 
tended you should live in 
it, keeping up the family 
traditions on the tidy sum 
at present paid to your 
landlord for the modern 
flat. 
The first visit to your 
new domicile is calculated 
to leave you cold. It is 
narrow, the stoop is high, 
and the rooms beyond the 
polished walnut door ut¬ 
terly impossible. A par¬ 
ticularly difficult feature 
of these spaces is the soar¬ 
ing height of ceilings, 
coupled with great length 
and constricted width, 
producing a most unpleas¬ 
ant impression of bleak 
corridors rather than 
rooms. In addition to 
this, curiously formed 
plaster details conspire 
with top-heavy black wal¬ 
nut wood trim to produce 
a strangely dismal effect 
on one accustomed to well 
planned and graciously 
decorated rooms. Where 
in this cheerless setting can you properly dis¬ 
pose your charming 18th Century antiques, 
culled with so much care for the present flat? 
Of course, when alterations can be made 
without counting the cost, it is simply a matter 
to turn over to the architect of your choice. 
Reconstructions recently done under the direc¬ 
tion of some of New York’s best architects have 
been amazingly successful, but such transfor¬ 
mations are both costly and time-consuming. 
In these days of inheritance taxes and practical 
economies it is worth while knowing what can 
be done with a typical brownstone-front house 
without indulging in elaborate structural al¬ 
terations, with the inevitable outlay involved. 
The accompanying illustrations offer an 
amazingly simple solution of the problem. 
Directions run in this fashion. Send for the 
W al nut paneling 
(by means of paint) 
and gold daimask at 
the windows pro¬ 
vided a charming 
background for fine 
old furniture in the 
living room 
painter (and make sure he 
knows his business). 
While waiting for him, get 
in the truckman from 
around the corner and 
have him cart away to 
auction all the black wal¬ 
nut horrors not perma- 
n e n 11 y attached. The 
picture marked “before” 
will give a working idea 
of what to eliminate. And 
only in rare instances can 
you afford the luxury of 
sentimentality about these 
original furnishings, if the 
house runs true to form. 
When the painter ar¬ 
rives, he will protest vol¬ 
ubly at the idea of paint¬ 
ing over the black walnut 
trims. Very well then, of¬ 
fer him the alternative of 
producing the effect of 
walnut by painting the 
plaster walls, paneling 
them and finally graining 
them to match these trims. 
This was done in the case 
of the living room shown 
in illustrations. Behold! 
our Mid-Victorian horror 
has become a charming 
walnut paneled room 
reminiscent of the Re- 
gence. Only the most dis¬ 
turbing gewgaws of wocd 
trim were removed and the 
arched tops of the book¬ 
cases reproduced for win¬ 
dow cornices to balance 
both ends of the room. 
The rest is paint. Mould¬ 
ings are applied quite sim¬ 
ply on the original plaster 
in the usual way. The 
arrangement of large balanced panels on long 
wall spaces greatly helps the bad proportions, 
and a clever disposition of furniture still fur¬ 
ther reduces to livable comfort this long nar¬ 
row gallery. 
The stair hall which opens into this trans¬ 
formed living room, has been made far more 
spacious and hospitable in effect by a careful 
management of light. The original wainscot 
and other woodwork are painted jade green, 
and the walls gilded and aged to give a becom¬ 
ing background for a fine old mirror and 
needlework sofa, formally placed. Appliques 
and tall jardinieres in the Directoire taste com¬ 
plete this attractive arrangement. Another 
mirror on the opposite wall near the entrance 
door, helps to coax much needed light into an 
(Continued on page 74) 
Before the altera¬ 
tions the living 
room was a bare, 
mid-Victorian gal¬ 
lery, totally lacking 
in interest or livable 
and comfortable 
qualities 
