78 
House & Garden 
Tli e soft blending of colors character¬ 
istic of fine tapestries adds muck to that 
atmosphere of warmth and comfort so 
desired in the home. 
Inquiries invited through your Decorator 
May we send you our new 
booklet “A" “Tapestries 
with Histories’’ 
All fabrics imported from 
England—Petit Point, Gros 
Point and exquisite needlework 
ARTHURH LEE gSOES K3 
Makers of Fine Fabrics 
1501 HEYWORTH BUILDING 2 WEST 47th STREET 
Chicago New York 
BIRKENHEAD 
England 
Adventures In Quaintness 
(Continued from page 76) 
that you find mule bells tinkling musi- deliciously purple and pink in blossom¬ 
cally through the night, spring water 
sparkling from a pump at the end of 
your garden, and a swim awaiting you 
at your kitchen door. 
However, the business of life will call, 
and bypaths may be only refreshing in¬ 
terludes that fit for the following months 
of stirring endeavor. But one fares 
forth into the world with a more orig¬ 
inal viewpoint, a happier mind. Tired 
after a strenuous day in the marts of 
the city, one may find rest in remem¬ 
bering so vividly, that almost it seems a 
new and renewing experience, the sun 
beating down on one stretched under a 
green parasol along the sweet warm 
deck of a slow gliding boat; in feeling 
again the dark fragrance up the hollow 
between cool, high, rhododendron hills; 
in floating luxuriously with the cur¬ 
rent of the canal past quaint white¬ 
washed houses, rose gardens, and banks 
of wild buttercups glittering under blue 
skies. 
In City Nooks 
In every city, if sought diligently, one 
is rewarded by finding something odd 
and worthwhile ... A low, squat, 
rough-hewn gray brick building on a 
narrow bystreet just off the teeming 
shopping district, designed by an archi¬ 
tect to house his own offices, but with 
the major part divided into complete 
apartments reached by passing through 
a gray-walled lobby paneled with 
French mirrors and leading to the quiet 
gray elevator at its far side. An exclu¬ 
sive little apartment house, artistic as 
well as modernly convenient, appealing 
to those seeking the unusual rather than 
the sumptious. Many of these folk 
there be, proved by a five-foot waiting 
list. Or perhaps one is rewarded by 
stumbling across a love of a four-story 
dwelling house in a tiny old street that 
looks as though it had popped out of a 
book or a dream: a dwelling long since 
turned into a semi-apartment place so 
quaintly artistic and desirable looking 
that the dwelling back of it has been 
annexed by a clever sunroom passage¬ 
way affair shown in one of the draw¬ 
ings. There are all sorts of ideas team¬ 
ing about that are warranted to make 
life a gayer business, and none more 
potent than those providing romance in 
the otherwise humdrum settings of 
everyday living. 
As one advances in these experiences 
of quaintness new vistas are opened. 
Not only do piquant old streets long 
outgrown call to us with the lure of 
remodeling, not only does the far sum¬ 
mer world beckon us to adventure in 
homemaking for our weekending hus¬ 
bands »and kinfolk; but as we start to 
travel the road that curves from the 
door of convention toward all sorts of 
unexplored venturings, our minds are 
suddenly opened wide to possibilities we 
Would never have seen before. A way 
of using the old ivy-grown mill for a 
fine mansion; transforming the archi¬ 
tecturally beautiful barn into a castle in 
Spain, rehabilitating the bungalow by 
the brook into our ideal of what a 
home may well be; building wings, trel¬ 
lises, sinking ponds and laying out the 
colorful lines and masses of flower 
gardens. 
“ The Box Stall” 
By all that is enchanting in quaint¬ 
ness, I am now thrilled with the ad¬ 
venture of living in what was once a 
box stall, so I may constitute a fair 
judge of what things can be after 
transition. Few houses could be found 
nestling among the trees so snugly as 
mine, for branches literally reach over 
its roof in protection; apple trees and 
lilacs peer into my bedroom windows, 
ing time; cherries bob at the back door; 
and in winter from every casement 
Japanesque tracery may be seen thrown 
against the sky by the bare black limbs 
of the trees. Approaching the house 
down the path under the spruce trees, 
one would scarcely think this tiny place 
designed for any but casual occupation, 
so small does it seem in the midst of 
its guardian foliage; stepping upon the 
brick-floored portico, one might feel 
sure that one was experiencing the larg¬ 
est portion of a small abode, for the 
porch-place, set firmly upon the ground, 
high-ceilinged and columned, reaches 
across the entire front of the house. So, 
we anticipate with glee the effect of our 
living room upon the stranger within 
our gates: we always hear in tones of 
surprise, “Why, I had no idea your 
house was so large 1” as they step over 
our household. 
For inside, the house is planned very 
commodiously. The living room meas¬ 
ures 12' by 22', running, as the portico 
does, across the width of the house, ex¬ 
cept for a small dining room that is 
built on at one end. This living room 
was the original box stall and housed 
two coal-black steeds; one may still 
trace the sliding barn doors, one of 
which is filled in by the Colonial door¬ 
way that leads to the porch, the other 
walled up, though slightly recessed, and 
could be used for shallow bookshelves, 
or curtained as a background for a sofa. 
This last I have done, since from this 
vantage point one obtains a pleasant 
view of the large fireplace and the great 
north-light studio window directly op¬ 
posite. The windows are a delightful 
feature in the design of the living room, 
and are made possible by three sides of 
the room being detached: high case¬ 
ments are set into the porch side, low 
casements into the end, and the studio 
window in the center of the other long 
wall; a wide doorway into the dining 
room is cut into the other narrow end 
of the room. 
The Living Room 
This living room, beautifully propor¬ 
tioned with its high ceiling, with sand 
plastered walls, and much ivory wood¬ 
work, is distinctive, quite barren 
of furniture. From the beginning I 
have had a definite feeling that it should 
be uncrowded, and as far as actual 
pieces of furniture go, it is finished. As 
I desire, I shall replace a few of the 
things by finer pieces, transferring up¬ 
stairs those I discard. Charm has 
grown with the fire on the hearth, send¬ 
ing ruddy reflections onto the ivory 
Colonial overmantel; with the built-in 
shelves filled with colorful books, with 
the flame silk draw curtains at the win¬ 
dows peeping from behind the side 
drapes of sand colored cloth; with the 
figured linen on the sofa backgrounded 
against hanging folds of King’s blue; 
with the soft rose of the lampshades, 
with the gold, jade green, old blue, 
flame, sand and orange of squashy pil¬ 
lows placed in the chairs; on the walls 
with the few paintings, with the Chinese 
red tones glowing on the inside of the 
desk. 
Don’t be afraid to adventure in 
quaintness: ’tis a satisfying game of the 
gods, and fits one at last for the fine 
culmination ... a dream house come 
true that has grown with the years. 
For one day you will find yourself 
walking with glad footsteps down your 
own lane of lombardies, lifting the 
quaint latch of your own door under 
low eaves. Then be sure that the world 
will come thundering to your gate and 
you’ll hear the thud of your knocker 
of brass. For you will have captured 
that illusive thing which we have come 
to know as Charm. 
