DRESSING-ROOMS AND BATHROOMS
Lucky indeed is that suburban householder who finds himself the proud
possessor of one or more dressing-rooms beside the orthodox bathroom,
which, thanks to the march of the ages, is now to be found in the quite
small houses which are only meant for such a humble individual as the
ordinary city clerk. As a rule, there will be a dressing-room leading
out of the ‘best’ bedroom, and if this need not be used as described in
the chapter on nurseries, it were well to contemplate it and consider
carefully if it cannot serve the purpose of a small private retreat for
the house-mistress, should the ‘third room’ have to be devoted to the
maids, or to the master, or even to schoolroom purposes. For it is
absolutely necessary that she should have such a retreat; and if the
bathroom be available for the husband as indeed it should always be in
a little house, where visitors are the exception and not the rule, there
can be no reason why the dressing-room should not be so arranged that
the wife could use it in the daytime, ay, and even see her more intimate
friends there, if she cares to do so. I have twice had houses which have
had fireless dressing-rooms, and these were, of course, very difficult
to deal with, even when the rooms were used as dressing-rooms only, and
I do not quite know what I should have done had I not had other rooms
available for myself. Yet as both dressing-rooms were on the outside of
the house, fire-places or stoves could have been placed there, and, of
course, ought to have been erected at once. But the bathroom in each
case was used for a dressing-room, and the hot water always kept at a
proper state of warmth even in the coldest weather; though in both cases
fire-places were available had it been necessary to have greater heat.
But when frost appeared we were always ready for it; we kept gas and
fires burning whenever pipes were likely to freeze, and as all the
outside pipes were properly protected, I have never had a pipe burst
myself and have never experienced in my own person the miseries I have
had so graphically described to me by sufferers from this most
disagreeable consequence of carelessness and the improper manner in
which pipes are fixed and the supply pipes managed by the ordinary water
company.
But first let us consider how the dressing-room can be arranged should
it be necessary to use it during the day as a species of sitting-room or
boudoir for the mistress of the house. Of course all dressing-rooms
should be painted and decorated to match, or else to harmonise with the
bedrooms to which they are attached, but I think a harmony rather than
an exact copy should be the aim of whoever wishes to use this room as a
boudoir for some hours at least during the day. Suppose, for example, we
have a very sunny bedroom, and we have selected a soft green paper, such
as Smee’s ‘green ash,’ and a rose-frieze for it, in that case we could
have a pale pink paper in the dressing-room above a matting, or
Japanese leather dado in green and gold, with all real ivory paint, and
the furniture here could be in the stained green wood which I always
admire so much, and of which it seems impossible to tire. We could have
the green ‘Isis’ matting and rugs on the floor, and the curtains could
be of sage-green serge; this would make a charming room, and while it
would not slavishly copy, neither would it flatly contradict the scheme
of colour in the bedroom.
In the same way a blue bedroom could have a yellow dressing-room
attached, and this could be managed by selecting some real yellow paper,
and placing it above either a gold-and-brown Japanese leather dado, or,
yet again, above a matting dado, remembering that the matting used for
this purpose must never under any circumstances have the smallest
pattern on it; if it have, the look of the wall will be spoiled and the
decorations will be anything but a real success. I am compelled to
impress this fact upon my readers, because I have often seen a house
spoiled simply because a matting dado to the room meant to the owner
merely a dado made of matting; and she had not realised that chessboard
patterns or large diamonds are entirely out of place in this situation.
The only matting that should be used is the thin plain string-coloured
kind made on purpose, and which is sold at Shoolbred’s, Oetzmann’s, and
sometimes at Wallace’s for 10½d. a yard; sometimes Treloar sells it for
something less in a roll of 42 yards, but this matting is essentially
what the French call ‘_a vende d’occasion_,’ and has often to be really
looked for until the right thing is found. If by the way a red and cream
paper is put above a matting dado, and red paint is required to be used,
a matting should be found which has a red thread running through it in
an irregular way; it must not on any account have a set or formal
pattern on it, or it will not be the success that it deserves to be.
Yet another hint, on no account should the dado or frieze rail be in the
least degree heavy, the lighter it is the better, and I do not care for
it to be more than an inch, or at most an inch and a half in depth. A
wider rail always brings itself far too prominently before us, and
attracts undue attention, while the lighter the rail is the cheaper will
it be; and once more I say use ‘goehring,’ and then matters will not
fail to be all that they ought to be. If the paper is yellow and the
dado is brown and yellow, the paint can be brown also, while the
curtains can be blue, as can the carpet, or else plain, patternless
matting can be used, and the usual rugs.
If a blue square carpet is preferred, and lucky is she whose house
contains a dressing-room large enough for this, the ‘Dunelm’ carpet is
the best to have. It is made in most excellent colourings, is all wool,
and very thick, and, moreover, is very inexpensive considering its
admirable qualities. But as a rule a dressing-room resembles a tube or
part of a hall more than a room, and as such we must think about it. It
is generally long and narrow, and has a window in the most awkward
situation, with, maybe, the door opposite; while the fireplace, if
fire-place there be, is about a foot to the left or right of the door,
and admirably situated for anyone who may be on the look out for a
cold. This absurd situation can often be successfully treated by making
the door open into the room on the fire side, thus making the door
itself act as a species of screen to whoever may be sitting in the room.
This alteration gives at once a place for a box-ottoman or an arm-chair,
or one of Hewetson’s admirable ‘courting settees,’ which can be placed
with one end against the wall, standing straight out into the room. The
high back of this settee shields anyone using it from draughts, and
these are further to be combated by hanging _portières_ over the door,
inside and out, which will complete the task, already satisfactorily
commenced, by a judicious use of ‘Slater’s patent.’
Then we have to consider very seriously how to arrange for the raiment
that all men collect in such astounding quantities, and from which it is
so desperately hard to part them, try how one will to get possession of
venerable garments, which are of no possible use to the owners, but
which would be of immense service to many unfortunates who all too
often have not only no decent clothes, but do not possess any at all.
This is however a vice all men develop sooner or later, and as they are
made absolutely miserable by casting from them the oldest rag they may
have, it is best in extreme cases to let them have their foolish way,
taking care the moth does not enter into possession, and at the same
time ensuring that they have not over-much space in which to keep their
miserly delights. In a ‘combination’ room all shirts and underclothes
can be kept in a charming piece of furniture Liberty sells, and which
looks like a cabinet mounted on a couple of good deep drawers. It is
made in plain white wood, clamped and ornamented with beaten iron and is
very inexpensive indeed. In the deep drawers can be kept shirts and
trousers, while there are plenty of smaller drawers in the cabinet part
for socks, ties, handkerchiefs and other garments; coats being kept in a
second cabinet, or else in a box-ottoman, or hung up behind the curtains
of Wallace’s ‘P. T. C.’ wardrobe, which can be erected in any corner of
the room and has nothing at all of the bedroom about its appearance.
I have seen a most admirable piece of furniture at Oetzmann’s, which he
calls a desk washing-stand, and which would really be invaluable for
such a room as this. When closed it is exactly like a desk with a flat
top, and could be used as such in the day time most conveniently, but
the top must not be laden with odds-and-ends, books, paperboxes or
similar encumbrances. These should all be in one of Shoolbred’s capital
little cupboard tables; another of these, by the way, being procured for
the boots and shoes in wear. These cupboards would hold three or four
pairs of each, as they have a division-shelf inside, and though I know
starvation is suggested to the ordinary male, to whom such small
provision of foot-gear is indeed nothing short of pauperism, I venture
to suggest that it is sufficient for every day, and that the rest of the
stock can live in a proper boot cupboard in some other locality, which
can easily be found if the house-mistress is clever and able to see at
once the utmost capacity of the special rooms which are available for
such a purpose. Indeed, a properly-made boot-cupboard can stand on one
side of quite a narrow passage, and would never be noticed; for it could
be either the proper one Wallace makes on purpose for boots, or else be
formed merely
[Illustration]
by placing three narrow shelves, one above the other, the top shelf
enamelled the colour of the paint in that special passage, and the whole
concealed from view by a double serge curtain, nailed along the top
shelf with ornamental nails. This curtain must not be run on a rod, for
it is no trouble to lift it; while if it be on a rod, it will be always
out of place, and leave the boots and shoes on view in the most
embarrassing manner. The contents of the shelves can be kept from dust
by nailing Holland on the shelves of a sufficient width to fold over the
boots, and so keep them quite safely from any undue accumulation of
dust, while the top of the outside shelf can be used for ornaments. But
the fewer of these there are in any passage the better, especially in a
small house; one does not require more dust traps than one is absolutely
obliged to have lest the place should appear barren and devoid of
prettiness and attractive plenishings.
The over-mantel must serve as a toilet-glass, and this arrangement I
personally prefer to any other, especially in the winter; but if the
husband shaves--as it seems to me so many more men do nowadays than
formerly--despite the hateful influenza, fogs and other trifles born of
the end of the century, a regular shaving-glass can be set for him when
the room is put ready for him at night; this can be removed to the
bathroom during the day and the room need not give it a home then on any
pretext whatever!
It is an excellent thing to have instead of either the ottoman or the
courting settee a sofa-bed which resembles a couch by day, and can be
turned into a regular bed at night, for often such a bed can be most
useful. I like the ‘grasshopper’ couch, which I have only seen at
Hamilton’s, at Ship Street in Brighton, but this has no provision for
the bed-clothes. These could be placed quite well in a drawer made under
the couch; or Shoolbred has a species of convertible box-ottoman which
would perhaps be best, as the bed-clothes could be quite well placed
there during the day. Yet another cheaper method would be to purchase
one of the folding beds with wire mattresses complete, sold by Story &
Triggs for about 18s. 6d. These could have the extra mattress and
pillows put into frilled cretonne covers all day, the bed-clothes being
folded and put under the mattress comfortably during the same period.
Of course, a deep cretonne flounce should be placed round the frame of
the bed, which under these circumstances would look like an ordinary low
broad sofa. The bed should be pushed against the wall, against which
pillows and cushions should be placed, and this would make a species of
back, against which it would be possible to lean most comfortably. Given
this, the desk washing-stand, and two or three low and comfortable
chairs, and I think little else is necessary.
If much sewing has to be done, a little work-table can always be brought
here from any other larger room, for there are plenty to be had now
which hold a great deal of work, and yet can be carried by one hand. I
have seen one specially good table the top of which is deep and is
fitted for all kinds of sewing, while the under tray has a bag-like top
of sateen or tapestry drawn together by strings, and this, I am assured,
is invaluable for holding socks and other garments which require mending
and overhauling by materfamilias herself. I am no ‘stitchist,’ and I do
not think I ever possessed a thimble since my very earliest schoolroom
days, and even then it was more often lost than available for its
purpose, and I can most certainly say that I never had the smallest
desire to know how to sew, but there are heaps of women who love to
work, and of course there are more still who are obliged to do it and
take it as a matter of course. And if the special mistress who may want
to use the dressing room during the day is in any way devoted to her
needle, she must have a good work-basket which she can remove when not
in use, and which can stand in the bedroom or sitting-room when she does
not require it. If the dressing-room is thus arranged I am sure it will
add immensely to her comfort, for here she will have a refuge from
everyone, and be able to be alone for some hours during the day, in a
room where she will not be easily accessible and which will have nothing
of the bedroom about it. That, by the way, is a great consideration; for
let no one, not even in the smallest house, fall into the desperate
error of sitting in the room in which she sleeps. I have twice had
similar rooms where, of course, the bedroom portion has been carefully
screened or curtained off, but unless one is a chronic invalid, such an
arrangement is no good at all, and even if one is ill, and yet is able
to get up, it is far better to go into a second room on the same floor,
for no screen or curtain can give one any sense of real seclusion, and
no one can have a room properly aired or cleaned unless it is left when
one rises and not entered, save perhaps for dressing purposes, for the
rest of the day. Therefore resist the temptation of the idea of a
combined bed and sitting-room, unless you are reduced to one room only
for all purposes, or are not a householder, or are a ‘paying guest’
(polite language for ‘lodger’) in someone else’s abode. Under these
circumstances, Wallace’s ‘worker’s room’ must be sought after and found,
and its arrangements of course, make any room habitable at once. If the
dressing-room is used, as suggested, for a retreat, the bathroom must be
arranged in such a way that the master of the house can dress there with
comfort; but no garments of any sort must be kept there, neither must
the linen closet be on any account near the hot-water apparatus which
dominates the bathroom. If it is, the linen will become yellow and
rotten, and in a small house it is much better to apportion the linen
into so many special amounts for each room, and keep these portions in
the rooms for which they are intended. An extra cupboard being put up
somewhere: perhaps in the maids’ sitting-room, in which all table-linen
can be kept. Great attention must be paid to the linen closet, and
something should be bought for it every year without fail. As a rule I
am no friend to ‘sales,’ and believe not one jot in the ‘ruinous
sacrifices’ and ‘vast reductions’ which characterise them, but linen can
often be purchased most wonderfully reduced in price at such times, more
especially at Walpole Brothers in New Bond Street, and the
house-mistress should always avail herself of these opportunities to
keep up her stock, not laying in vast quantities, but keeping it up to
its full strength. Unless this is done it is wonderful how soon a small
stock of linen wears out and disappears, and one has the vexatious and
expensive task of renewing the whole at once, which no one should ever
be called upon for one moment to do.
So many people possess what is called a ‘hot closet’ in or near the
bathroom, that these words of advice are not so out of place as they
appear to be at first sight when writing about this special chamber; but
the charms of this said ‘hot closet’ must be resisted if the linen is
meant to wear, while great care must be taken to see that every single
thing sent home from the laundress is properly aired, not only before it
is put away, but also before it is taken into use. Damp clothes may kill
or maim a person for life, and clothes may quite well become damp again
after the first airing, more especially if they are kept in the ordinary
cupboard of the very ordinary suburban residence.
Now if the bathroom should have to be used as a dressing-room, it must
not have more furniture in it on that account than would be placed there
under ordinary circumstances, but it should be papered with a really
good tiled and varnished paper, and the wood-work should be enamelled
‘real ivory.’ I think Godfrey Giles’s ‘Mexican Tile’ paper simply
perfect, but this is a little expensive; still, if it cannot be
afforded, it will serve as a hint to go upon, and Mr Giles must be asked
for something in the same admirable colouring, but in a less expensive
make. At the same time a cheap paper will not do in a bathroom; if we
use one, the steam from the hot water will soon destroy it and make it
flabby and untidy; and we shall either have the expense of re-papering
or have to endure the sight of a torn and spoiled wall, which will make
us unhappy every time we enter the place. The ceiling in the bathroom
should always be colour washed the same pale cream colour which is used
for the cornice, and the floor should be entirely covered with cork
carpet. If the window is overlooked at all, it should be filled in with
cathedral glass in leaded squares, or else should be stippled all over;
we should then have serge curtains to draw easily over the glass, but we
should never put muslin here: it rots at once, and is always flabby and
disagreeable to look at and touch, and no decorative considerations
should allow us to put it where it must be so singularly out of place.
In writing of the bedrooms, I quite forgot to urge upon my readers the
fact that they should never under any circumstances allow themselves to
be talked into buying the detestable regulation towel-horse, which is
always in the way, and can never under any circumstances be necessary,
while no skill can make it anything save an eyesore. Its place can
usually be taken by putting a brass rod on very small brackets at each
end of the ordinary washing-stand, or on the wall itself should the
washing-stand be a round or a corner one, while a good brass rod must be
put on the bathroom wall for the same purpose, sufficiently out from the
wall so that the wet towels do not touch the paper. Moreover in
well-regulated houses, the bath towels should be dried by the housemaid
at the fire, and each person should bring his or her towels into the
bathroom when he or she is about to use it, and take them away again
when the bathing is finished, the brass rod being used merely to hang up
the bath blankets, though they also must be duly dried by the fire, and
not be laid down on the floor except the bath be in the process of being
used.
These bath blankets can be purchased ready embroidered of Mrs
Hanbury-Jephson, Towcester, and, like every other thing, should be
bought to harmonise with the colours already used in the decorations of
the room. If we have some good brass hooks on the door on which to hang
the raiment we either take off or are about to put on, and have also one
good strong kitchen or Windsor chair, and a proper lavatory glass with a
shelf to hold brushes and combs, we shall not require any more furniture
here, for remember steam and heat spoil anything in the way of good wood
or manufacture; but I do plead very hard for a lavatory basin, with hot
and cold water laid on and a self-emptying basin. It does not seem very
much to ask for, but I wonder how often such a contrivance is to be
found in the orthodox small house? Yet it is in just such a residence
that these necessities should be found, for if hot and cold water be
easily get-at-able, what an amount of servants’ work is saved! No one
minds washing his or her hands in the bathroom, while if there is no
such convenience, the maids have continually to be placing hot water in
the bedrooms and emptying basins, to say nothing of the fact that heavy
jugs have to be lifted and replaced every time the bedroom washing-stand
is used. This is a thing which is bad even for a strong servant and
hurts a delicate woman in a serious way, therefore let us hope that
lavatory basins will soon be found in all houses, small and big, and
that the labour-making washing-stand may soon be numbered among the
dead-and-gone mistakes of an ignorant past.
Another thing that no one seems able to rise above is the usual mahogany
margin to any fixed bath, which always become disgracefully untidy, and
makes the bathroom look squalid before it has scarcely been used. If the
house belongs to the tenant, I should advise him ruthlessly to paint the
mahogany with Aspinall’s bath enamel, which does not mark with water; if
he is only a tenant, the margin should be covered at once with the
American leather which has a woolly back, cut out and fixed to the
shape. If this is not done, the expensive process of French polishing
will have to be resorted to when the house is left; besides there is the
fact to consider that the margin will always be an eyesore, because of
the manner in which people will either rest the soap on it or put one
foot up on it, or even sit on it, while they are drying themselves after
their bath.
We should likewise always have plain, unpainted deal shelves put up for
the hot-water cans in the bathroom; and if, as is the unsavoury case in
many bathrooms, there is a housemaid’s sink there, the shelves should be
put just over it, and should have gimlet holes in them for drainage;
this will keep them from rotting, as no housemaid I ever met could be
persuaded to dry a can before she put it down, and months of wet cans
are guaranteed to spoil and rot the stoutest undrained shelf which I
ever came across. Oh! if only every single person would know and learn
each separate detail which goes to make up the perfect house and
housekeeping, life would not be half as expensive, half as ‘sketchy’ and
untidy as it now is in the vast majority of households, where people are
content to jog along comfortably if things are just bearable, and where
no preaching will, I fear, induce them to cultivate the twin talents of
observation and regularity, which alone suffice to keep any house going
in the way it most undoubtedly should go.
When the bathroom has been used it should be properly aired, and the
moment it is quitted the housemaid should go in, throw up the window,
top and bottom, and take away and dry the towels. If the weather is
cold, the fire or gas must be kept going night and day to keep out the
frost, and always the floor must be wiped over and the bath blankets
hung up until they can be properly dried, then will the room remain nice
much longer than it otherwise would. The mistress of the house herself
must see that the bath is properly dried after use, and that the basin
and housemaid’s sink are duly cleaned and disinfected. For even soapy
water decays and smells, and drains that are used for nothing else can
be as offensive, even if they are more innocent than others, about which
lurk absolute and imperative danger. It is well to cover all outlets for
water with very fine hair or wire netting. I personally prefer hair, as
that is much finer than anything else. Then there is no chance of any
drain being stopped up as nothing save water can pass through it. The
sink basket sold by most ironmongers is a very good possession, and acts
in much the same way, but the netting does just as well, and should be
nailed across the housemaid’s sink about an inch above the bottom, and
be erected just above the plug-hole in a lavatory basin, thus saving
endless heartburnings, and endless sending for that fearsome creature,
the regulation British plumber. There should be no _portière_ inside the
bathroom door, but most certainly there should be one outside. It
prevents sudden surprises, and, furthermore, conceals the room from
passers by, should the door be left open, as is all too often the case,
by either a careless maid, or a yet more careless user of the room!
There is one more aspect of the suburban villa to consider, I am sorry
to say, and that is the one where there is neither a bathroom nor a room
which can be adapted for the purpose, and where all baths have to be
taken in the different rooms themselves. In such a house as this there
must be large squares of American leather ready for use, to be covered
in their turn by bath blankets, on which the bath itself can be placed.
These would be for use in the bedrooms, and then the dressing-rooms must
be used as dressing-rooms, and will allow of no compromise or other use
at all. In this case, I very strongly advise a high dado of plain brown
patternless linoleum or oil-cloth, having the paint the exact shade of
the dado, above which can be either a good blue or yellow sanitary or
tiled paper, while the floor must be covered entirely with plain brown
cork carpet, on which one or two rugs can be placed, the inevitable
bath-blanket being put under the bath itself, and the rugs put out of
harm’s way for the time. These precautions will allow of the wondrous
amount of splashing which invariably marks the progress of a man’s bath,
while the furniture for such a room should be regular dressing-room
furniture, removed as far as possible from the spot sacred to the bath.
A good housemaid will carefully look over the furniture when she ‘does’
the room, and will rub off at once any marks of soapy water she may come
across. But such excellent and conscientious maids are few and far
between, except in the ‘highest circles,’ and they don’t inhabit
Suburbia; therefore should every mistress cast an eye over every room
once a day, and see for herself that the depredations of her husband,
and all too often those of her visitors too, are carefully eliminated.
It used to be difficult, nay well nigh impossible, to buy really good
and suitable dressing-room furniture, and I have had many a painful hunt
after wardrobes which were not evidently meant for the raiment of
females alone; but now all is altered; and should we be able to afford
it, we can buy an admirable wardrobe at Wallace’s which has a place for
everything a man can possibly require, and this with a boot-cupboard, an
ingenious combination toilet-table and washing-stand, a couple of
chairs, and a comfortable basket chair, form the most perfect equipment
a man can want, whether he reside in the suburbs or in any other part of
the civilised globe. But he must have no room for unending hoarding,
else will the heart of the house-mistress fail her by reason of the
fearful amount of rubbish he will accumulate, and from which nothing
will induce him to part!