76 
House & Garden 
DECORATING THE HOUSE FROM WITHOUT 
For spots of brilliant color on the ex¬ 
terior of the house nothing can take 
the place of ornamental detail in glazed 
tiles, such as the circular design that 
forms here an over-window decoration 
Unusually luxuriant 
in its ornamental 
detail is the parge- 
try that surrounds 
the also lovely case¬ 
ments on this old 
English house of 
brick and half-timber 
W HAT can be done in the way of 
accomplishing beauty by the wise use 
of applied ornamental detail on the 
outside of the modern house has not yet 
been fully realized. History shows us 
architecture repeatedly reacting from sim¬ 
plicity to elaborateness and then back again 
to an ultra simplicity. Francis the First 
could not endure the thought of an un¬ 
decorated inch of space in any of his rooms. 
The Puritan, on the other hand, stripped 
his life bare of every expression of beauty; 
color, design, sweet sounds, were all the 
devil’s means to render more seductive that 
wide and flowery pathway sloping so easily 
and comfortably into the black pit of 
pleasure. 
The simplest kind of stucco house can 
be made a dwelling place of personality 
and charm by the building in of ornamental 
stone details. Panels, lintels, and friezes of 
terra cotta can be used to decorate such a 
house. Or, if preferred, tiles can be set 
in over the doorway, over the windows, in 
(Continued on page 106 ) 
A block of cut 
si one, mediaeval 
in character, set 
effectively in the 
rough plaster sur¬ 
face of this blind 
gable, makes a 
fine bit of in¬ 
tegral decoration 
