44 
House & Garden 
I N many instances the reception or entrance hall 
of the average city apartment is a dark pocket. 
It is a buffer between the outside hall and the in¬ 
side home. Yet its use and position require that it 
should be furnished with distinction and given suffi¬ 
cient atmosphere of cheer to mark the hospitality of 
the owner in the mind of those who come to call. 
Some decorators have been satisfied with making the 
hall a barren, forbidding place, with the usual con¬ 
ventional furniture, often cold and impersonal, and 
placed there because imagination could not conceive 
anything else. 
In a room of such small dimensions interest is 
given by the peculiar nature of the individual ele¬ 
ments in the decorative scheme. An example of this 
is seen in the hallway illustrated here. The decora¬ 
tive elements are: on one 
side, a 17th Century Flem¬ 
ish tapestry with an old 
Italian marble bust on ped¬ 
estal and a Capri jar placed 
before it; on the other a 
hutch with candles, a bowl 
of Capri ware, surmounted 
by a William and Mary 
mirror. In addition to these 
is an interesting church lan¬ 
tern, a wrought iron grill 
over one door, and a strip 
of damask bound with heavy 
gilt galloon on the other 
door. Between these pieces 
is established the harmony 
of age that all antiques pos¬ 
sess, but individually each 
element is interesting. These 
pieces are assembled in a 
small room of which the 
walls are stone, certainly a 
forbidding enough back¬ 
ground to start with. Yet 
it has been softened by the 
tapestry and the rug, given 
interest by the contrasting 
door treatment, and is 
lighted by a lamp that casts 
a soft warm glow over the 
walls and furniture. In the 
choice of the hutch one finds 
a departure from the usual 
THE SMALL HALL¬ 
WAY in THE CITY 
APARTMENT 
Some Suggestions for Its Dignified 
Furnishing 
The furnishings of this hallway are mellowed by time, each piece being an antique; 
and its interest lies in the merit of each piece—the Flemish tapestry, the hutch, the 
mirror, the old Italian church lanterns and the grilled door. Emil Feffercorn, decorator 
method which would be to use a console. In the 
treatment of the doors one also finds a departure 
from the ordinary treatment which would have been 
to make them uniform. 
Unless one wilfully wants a dark hall—which is 
scarcely conceivable—the walls should be left light in 
tone so that as much light as possible can be re¬ 
flected and a sense of added size be given the room. 
A plain paper—oat meal or one of the new favorite 
“blends” can be used. Foliage paper or stripes are 
scarcely advisable. Even a better treatment would 
be to paint the walls, antiquing the last coat. 
The essential furnishings consist of a table, con¬ 
sole, hutch or bench; a mirror, one or two straight 
backed chairs, one or two simple dignified pictures, 
a soft tone rug, and an interesting lantern. Build¬ 
ing on this basis, the dis¬ 
tinction of the hall will de¬ 
pend upon the distinction of 
each piece and their arrange¬ 
ment in the confined space 
of the hall. 
This arrangement, in turn, 
is also limited, because the 
hall is only a passage and 
no furniture should be per¬ 
mitted to prevent easy ac¬ 
cess. A clear passage should 
be maintained. 
Whether or not you can 
use the hallway for a recep¬ 
tion room will depend en¬ 
tirely upon its size. But 
even the essential furniture 
mentioned above will suffice 
for this purpose. Those 
pieces can adequately ex¬ 
press the hospitality of the 
house, however small the 
hallway may be. Keep it 
light in color and dignified 
in line. Let it be a promise 
of the rooms to come, a 
■ promise of their interest and 
their personality. Yes, even 
in the limited space of a city 
apartment you can know a 
house and the personality of 
its owner by the hallway it 
keeps. 
THE ROOF THAT IS MADE of SHINGLES 
Materials and Methods of Laying That Contribute Toward 
Maximum Durability 
ERNEST IRVING FREESE 
V 
'HE most durable shingles are those 
made from cypress. Next in point 
of durability comes the redwood 
shingle and then the cedar. For a satis¬ 
factory shingled roof, the chosen material 
should be one of these three. 
Cypress has been called the “wood eter¬ 
nal” and, even though this description be 
not literally true, it is certainly a fact 
that this wood is possessed of a surpass¬ 
ing durability. An instance is recorded 
where hand-split cypress shingles re¬ 
mained on the roof of a Virginian man¬ 
sion for a hundred and four years with¬ 
out deterioration. 
Redwood shingles, while perhaps not 
quite so durable as those of cypress, pos¬ 
sess the remarkable and paradoxical char¬ 
acteristic of being somewhat fire-resistant. 
This property, together with their pecu¬ 
liar richness of color, renders them high¬ 
ly prized as a roofing material. Again, 
redwood shingles are especially durable in 
damp situations; they have therein been 
known to outlive even those of the best white cedar. 
The durability of any shingle is vastly increased 
by dipping the shingle in a preservative oil or stain 
previous to laying. Redwood, natural, will remain in 
serviceable condition for periods of twenty-five to 
fifty years: if dipped, the years of its life will be 
doubled. Red cedar, natural, will endure ordinary 
service for perhaps fifteen years: if dipped, it will 
last nearly twice that long. But note this: the shingles 
should be dipped not merely for a fractional part of 
their length but for their entire length. Moreover, 
they should be sound and well seasoned—free of 
knots and sap. Then, in applying them to the roof, 
heavily galvanized nails should be used. All of these 
matters contribute in due measure to the life of the 
roof covering. 
The accompanying sketches indicate two methods 
of laying shingles. The construction shown in 
sketch No. 1 is the more economical of the two and, 
at the same time, the more conducive to the preser¬ 
vation of the shingles. It has, however, one disad¬ 
vantage ; it does not possess the property of insulation. 
Attic rooms, under this kind of a roof, ordinarily 
(Continued on page 60) 
The more economical method 
of shingle roofing, shown to 
the left, consists in nailing the 
shingles direct on to the strip 
The second method, shown 
below, provides an insulation 
chamber against heat and cold 
and preserves the shingles 
