HOUSE AND GARDEN CORRESPONDENCE 
FITTING UP A JAPANESE TEA-ROOM 
Mrs. M. writes; 
I wish very much to fit up a Japanese tea-room at the rear 
of my house; I could extend a porch which is there and have 
it enclosed in the proper style. Would you kindly give me some 
suggestions for the arrangement of this. I wish it to be absolutely 
correct as far as possible. Of course I know that very little furni¬ 
ture is used in a real Japanese tea-room; this we could not follow, 
but the setting could be eminently correct. Do they not use an 
effect of the grille panels What coloring for the walls ? What for the 
woodwork ? I can have long sliding windows set in if you advise. 
I have obtained from a Japanese friend a correct drawing 
of a Japanese tea-room. This is, as you will see, almost totally 
bare of furniture; it will, however, convey to you a good idea 
of the arrangement. The panels set above the door which could 
lead from your living-room into this tea-room are of an especially 
attractive effect; the wood should be stained black. The walls 
covered in a Japanese grass cloth, pewter grey in tone. Much 
blue and white ware can be used for holding flowers. Your tables 
for this room should be low and of teak wood. Chairs of bamboo 
or Hong Kong would accord best with the simple treatment of 
the room.— Margaret Greenleaf. 
HEATING THE HOUSE 
I am about to Install a heating apparatus in my newly remod¬ 
elled house—a hot air apparatus from necessity, and should be 
greatly obliged if you would advise me how it may be made safe 
from a hygienic point of view, economical, and generally efficient. 
K. L. B. 
The only perfectly hygienic method of heating a house is by 
some system which introduces an ample volume of pure, warm, 
fresh air with suitable provision for the extraction of the waste 
gaseous products, which accumulate in the house from the 
lungs of the inmates, the lighting apparatus, etc. 
If one can go to the expense of indirect steam heating with an 
exhaust fan or two in the attic, run by a small electric motor, 
the desired result is attained if the apparatus as a whole is properly 
designed. The expense of such an apparatus is often prohibitive, 
however, for moderate cost houses, and the hot air furnace is 
the usual substitute. The weak points in the furnace installa¬ 
tion are, first leaky j'oints in the combustion chamber, which 
allow products of combustion to escape into the hot air supply, 
loss of heat through imperfect insulation of the pipes, and inability 
to supply heat to rooms located at a distance from the heater. 
The faults can be overcome, 
but not in a cheap appara¬ 
tus. 
, Briefly, then, you must start 
with a good furnace. If the 
house is large and especially 
if it is long or irregular in 
plan it is more economical to 
have two smaller, than one 
large furnace of equal heat¬ 
ing capacity. Avoid long hori¬ 
zontal runs of pipe in the 
cellar and pay for good insu¬ 
lation on the pipes and in the 
stud partitions. And not least, 
but of extreme importance, 
have a watertight, amply large 
cold air inlet to a window; 
this of course controlled by a 
valve. See that the air comes 
from an uncontaminated 
source, open to air and sun, 
and protected from direct 
exposure to violent winds. 
The fundamental defect of the 
hot air furnace is the feeble 
motive power for sending the 
air to the points desired, but 
this defect can be minimized 
by attention to the points 
noted. 
C. E. 
PERGOLAS 
I received “Picturesque English Cottages, Etc.” by express last 
week in perfect condition. Thank you. I am intending to 
build this fall, and am very much interested in pergolas. The 
article in the July House and Garden entitled “Garden Por¬ 
traits” by Margaret Greenleaf, was very interesting. She speaks 
of Miss Carlisle’s ideas and sketches of the correct dimensions. 
I only wish she had told what these correct dimensions were. 
Can you give me any literature on this subject, and do you 
publish anything that will furnish correct ideas I H. R. C. 
The term “correct” applied to the dimensions of a pergola 
or any other object can only mean correct for the particular time 
and place under consideration. What Miss Carlisle meant, 
I fancy, was that the pergolas she illustrated were correct from 
the point of view of giving ample sunshine and air circulation, 
as contrasted with more contracted pergolas, which sometimes 
are mere leafy passageways. There are no rules with regard to 
pergola construction. House and Garden has from time to 
time published many illustrations of them and our forthcoming 
book, entitled, “American Country Homes and Their Gardens” 
shows a number of pergolas which might, perhaps, be of some 
service to you. C. E. 
248 
