The editor will gladly answer queries pertaining to 
individual problems of interior decoration and furnish¬ 
ing. When an immediate reply is desired, a self-addressed 
stamped envelope should be enclosed. This department 
will also purchase any of the articles here described for 
subscribers living at a distance, or will furnish the names 
of the places where they may be obtained. 
Porch Awnings 
WNINGS for the porch so often 
give more or less trouble. The 
new canvases are attractive in color and 
design, blit, made in the old style, are 
heavy to raise and bulky when drawn 
into their smallest compass. 
A Chicago woman who has always 
complained of the undesirable features 
of the old porch awnings, this year 
solved the problem to her own satisfac¬ 
tion by using in her northern Michigan 
country home the kind much liked for 
window awnings in city apartment build¬ 
ings. 
The openings of her porch were di¬ 
vided bv pillars into window-like spaces, 
larger or smaller, and the illustration 
shows how much airier this arrangement 
is. 
The main point is, however, that with 
a simple touch tliev g^ up like a window- 
shade, making a compact roll at the cen¬ 
ter of the opening (in the case of the 
narrower space), while the larger one 
goes up to the top — iron supports and 
all. 
Curtain Fixtures 
N excellent device that, like many 
another time and trouble-saving 
convenience, is small and inexpensive, is 
a pair of permanent fixtures for curtain 
rods. They are inserted with little 
trouble directly into the frame of the 
window, are practically invisible, and will 
fit any ordinary metal rod, so that there 
need be no further cause for disfiguring 
window frames with nails or screens, 
even when new rods are to be put up. 
The fixtures consist of two little metal 
cylinders or holders about half an inch 
in diameter. One is about half an inch 
long, the other one and a quarter inches, 
and the longer cylinder is fitted with a 
spiral spring. Half-inch holes are bored 
in either side of the window frame in 
the required places, and the fixtures are 
driven in with a hammer. In putting up 
the rods an end is inserted into the 
longer cylinder first, and the spring ad¬ 
mits of its being pushed in far enough to 
slip into the other fixture on the oppo¬ 
site side, when the rod is released and 
fits firmly into place. Once put in, a set 
of the fixtures will last indefinitely, and 
they can be used for sash curtains as well 
as for the longer ones. 
Ideas for the Kitchen 
F OR convenience, comfort and attract¬ 
iveness of appearance, the kitchen 
of the average California house is not 
to be improved upon, and, from the 
whiteness of its woodwork to the least 
of its labor-saving devices, it is a thing 
of real beauty and not just a place given 
over to household drudgery. Perfect 
plumbing, with the best of fixtures, elec¬ 
tric lights in every necessary place, gas 
The new awnings are attractive in color and have a 
simple adjusting apparatus 
or electric stoves, cooling closets, and 
drawers and cupboards without number, 
make it easy for the presiding genius, 
whether mistress or maid, to accomplish 
her daily tasks with the least amount of 
trouble, and there are many features of 
these kitchens that might well be copied 
all over the country. 
The cooling closet, which in California 
takes the place of the refrigerator for a 
large part of the year, is a small, square 
cupboard extending from floor to ceiling, 
fitted with woven-wire shelves and ar¬ 
ranged so that there is a constant cur¬ 
rent of cold air from bottom to top. In 
the kitchen illustrated there is, in addi¬ 
tion to the cooling closet, a refrigerator 
that is placed in rather an unusual way. 
A built-in space made especially for it 
opens both into the kitchen and the back 
porch, so that ice can not only be put in 
from the porch at the rear, but by closing 
the doors in front the refrigerator can 
be completely shut off from the kitchen. 
This makes it possible to eliminate the 
refrigerator from the kitchen entirely, 
and yet it is in quite the most convenient 
place, when it comes to the saving of 
steps. 
The excellent scheme of placing the 
sink in such a position that there is a 
window directly over it is one that means 
unlimited comfort in the way of light 
and air for the household worker, and 
the size of the draining boards is an¬ 
other noticeable convenience, those in 
many kitchens being even larger and 
longer than in the one illustrated. Every¬ 
thing tends to the systematizing and less¬ 
ening of work in the arrangement of 
these kitchens, and not the least im¬ 
portant feature is the amount of well- 
planned cupboard space which gives lit¬ 
erally a place for everything. In the 
cupboard illustrated there are special 
compartments or shelves for everything 
that one could possibly need in cooking, 
both in the way of food materials and 
utensils, and, besides the kneading board 
that slides in under the open shelf, there 
are tw^o deep, tin-lined drawers, one for 
flour, the other for bread or cake, both 
of which are proof against dampness, 
and mice as well. 
(388) 
