HOUSE AND GARDEN 
May, 1914 
389 
The cooling closet is located in a compartment in the 
kitchen and opens also on to the porch outside for 
the convenience of the ice man 
A Simple Guest Room 
C HARMING is the harmony of this 
restful and artistic bed chamber, 
with its fresh, grey and white striped 
wall paper and cut-out border of rose- 
clusters, joined by a blue ribbon. The 
chintz used for window drapes, bureau 
and dresser covers, as well as the top of 
the little stool, in front of the dresser, 
has the same design as the wall border, 
on a background of grey and white lat¬ 
tice. The round, soft chair cushions in 
the wicker chairs are made of the chintz; 
also the spread and hollow card board 
bolster, which contains the pillows when 
not in use. 
The rag rug in front of the old ma¬ 
hogany bureau has for predominating 
colors soft pinks and blues, grey and 
white. The little oval foot rug beneath 
the white enamel stool is made of long 
strips of blue silk, braided over flannel, 
coiled and sewed by hand. 
Over the beautiful built-in dresser of 
white enamel, with glass knobs, is the 
unique feature of the room; that of the 
Japanese stencil window. The sashes 
were cut to fit the stencils, which can be 
purchased at almost any Oriental store. 
They are six*teen inches one way and 
thirteen and twenty-one the other; of 
mahogany colored, fibrous material ex¬ 
actly the same tone as the furniture. The 
intricate details of flower, vines and but¬ 
terflies are joined by hair-like filaments. 
The Japanese use these stencils to stamp 
the patterns on kimona crepe, and they 
can be purchased at a moderate price, 
the cost varying according to the amount 
of work in the design. With the sun¬ 
light coming through them they are reallv 
beautiful. 
There is such a great variety of these 
stencils, and the choice in color and de¬ 
sign is so wide that the prospective house 
furnisher should experience no difficulty 
in finding something to harmonize with 
The excellent scheme of placing the sink under a window adds greatly to the comfort of household workers 
and the size of the draining-boards is a real convenience 
In this simply furnished guest room a charming effect is produced by the built-in dresser, the chintz coverings 
and the Japanese stencil window 
whatever decorative scheme she proposes 
to carry out. 
Wiring the Old House 
P ROVIDED good workmen, the wir¬ 
ing of an old house for electricity is 
a simple task—not a dirt-making and dan¬ 
gerous one. The word simple is used to 
indicate the absence of fuss and general 
tearing up; the task itself is not so simple, 
because it requires trained workmen to do 
it well. But as for demolishing the walls, 
tearing up polished floors and generally 
disturbing the comfort of the house—per¬ 
ish the thought! The electrical worker is 
the cleanest of the mechanics; he usually 
carries with him a canvas bag to catch all 
ceiling dirt, and he covers the floor with 
canvas to protect it wherever necessary. 
It is unfair to class him with the decorator 
with his sour paste and turpentine and 
scraps of paper; the carpenter with his 
lumber and litter and noise; the mason 
with his plaster and grit and dust; or the 
plumber with his grease and grimy tools. 
The electrician's tools and material are 
dirtless and free from odor, and he pro¬ 
ceeds with his work in a simple and in¬ 
genious way that interests everyone. 
The reason more old houses are not 
wired for electricity seems to be that there 
is an idea abroad that it requires the tear¬ 
ing a house to pieces to install the wires, 
and few people desire to supplant lamps 
or gas at the cost of ripping up perfectly 
good floors and chopping away wall plas¬ 
ter, etc. The electrician of to-day does not 
destroy—he builds. With the help of a 
clever tool called a “snake” he threads the 
wires in their flexible covering in and out 
in open spaces between beams in the walls 
and under floors. He does not rip up the 
middle of a bedroom floor nor chop holes 
in the baseboard to “find” his wires; he 
fishes cleverly with his “snake,” and when 
it is necessary to open a floor anywhere, it 
is done in a closet where traces will not 
show. 
