To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying amen to what the
world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul
alive.--_Robert Louis Stevenson_
Keen observers of American customs, who have studied the development
of our taste in house designing and furnishing, tell us that the
best expression of our art in architecture and home decoration is to
be found in our country homes. They do not overlook, of course, a
beautiful public building in this city or that, perhaps ten altogether,
or an occasional private residence on Millionaire Avenue, which are
monuments to the genius of the men who created them and of which any
country may be proud. What they mean is that as a people we seek and
secure the right combination of utility and beauty in our homes more
frequently in the country than in the city.
At first thought such a criticism may seem to be an exaggeration.
Is it reasonable, we ask, that people of good sense, such as most
Americans are, really succeed better in planning, building, and
decorating the houses which they are to occupy but a few weeks in the
summer than they do in developing their city homes? We are told that it
is true and that there are good reasons for it.
_Simplicity of Country Life._--It is the life in the country and at the
seashore that is the simple life, the natural life, the life that sets
us free from the accumulated burden of mere "things." Here we come to
forget for a time the many and find pleasure in the few. Here we are
to feel the joy of living. Nature is all about us, and she gives of
her bounty freely. Our wants are few because we are so well satisfied
with the free gifts. What wants we have keep step with our needs here
as they do nowhere else. We care less for what others have; we are more
individual, more rational. Here we generally demand what we really
need and we more frequently obtain it. And this is true whether it be
something that appeals to the æsthetic side of our natures or whether
it be that which ministers to our material needs. In seeking the
beautiful for the simple home in the country we do not so often forget
the useful; for here, away from the world of museums and studios
and collections, we learn that art is possible without paintings and
statuary. In the exterior form and colouring of the shingled cottage,
set like a gem on the hillside or by the sea, in the harmonious
arrangement of its interiors, with every article of furniture chosen
only for use and comfort and placed where needed, and with decorations,
cheerful but restrained and subordinate, suggestive of more glorious
colours and more interesting things in the world without--in such
surroundings we have beauty and utility combined. Here we have the time
and the opportunity to realize the truth that all art is one and that
it may find in the problems of decoration in the country home, if not
its highest mission, its most open field for giving to appreciative
people the pleasure of seeing and enjoying the beautiful.
_Opportunities for Constructive Art._--If it be true that there is a
more universal recognition of the true principles of art in the better
class of our country homes than in our city homes, it is proof, if
proof be needed, that the elements of art expression are found in the
simple, natural materials of every-day life. It may be that in the
development of art amid simple surroundings "necessity is the mother
of invention," and that, more or less naturally, simplicity is thrust
upon us. The general habit of our time is to extend the vacation
period in the country or at the seashore to the point of making a home
there for every summer season. But only a few can carry wealth and
elegance with them. A great majority must be satisfied with simple and
inexpensive homes. At first we accept them as the only thing possible,
and then we discover that in their very simplicity they offer the best
of opportunities for true æsthetic expression. And this opportunity
is largely for the younger members of the family--for the boys and
girls whose vacation period is more extended, whose interest in the
summer home is perhaps the more vital and whose imagination is the
more susceptible to the art suggestions of nature. We have seen that
it is possible for boys and girls to build and furnish a house under
the exacting requirements of city life. How much easier it must be to
build a cottage for the summer season, decorating and furnishing it in
harmony with the simple needs of a vacation home.
If such a suggestion meet with acceptance, those who undertake the
work will find much practical help in the problems outlined in the
foregoing chapters. It is not expected, of course, that the directions
there given will always be exactly followed. In the furniture problems,
for example, soft woods like pine and spruce may be substituted for
the harder woods specified. Very attractive as well as very useful
simple furniture has been made in this way at a merely nominal
expense. Staining and finishing may easily bring it into harmony with
colour schemes; but the bright, fresh colour of new pine and spruce
is in itself by no means unattractive. The smooth, exposed beams
of the ceilings and walls, if of well chosen stock, may be stained
a beautiful gray green or a soft brown. A good colour suggestion
may be found in the weathered gray of the hewn timbers of very old
buildings. The effect of a ceiled-up wall or of a dado may be easily
obtained by stretching burlap or denim over the studding or over a
backing of inexpensive sheathing. These materials are very durable and
inexpensive, and they may be found in a great variety of beautiful
shades. They make excellent portières. A lighter, thinner material like
scrim is better for window draperies. All these fabrics afford good
surfaces for decoration by stencilling. Stained or painted soft wood
floors, covered with grass cloth rugs or the more dainty hand woven
rugs like those described in the chapter on weaving, with simple,
useful furniture, a picture or two, and a few choice pieces of pottery,
complete the equipment for a charming living room. If it all be the
product of home industry, the cash outlay for the material need not
be over forty dollars, though an outlay of ten times that amount for
better materials would not in the least interfere with such a room
being decorated and furnished by the unaided labours of the amateur
artists and craftsmen of the family.
[Illustration: A fireplace in field rock]
The chief expense would naturally be for the living room, dining-room,
and kitchen. The dining-room, however, may well be simply a corner or
alcove of a large living room. Such an arrangement greatly increases
the value of a single fireplace, which will be required to give the
summer home the sense of perfect comfort. This may be of rough field
rock and should be large enough to take one-cut fireplace wood. The
chamber furnishings may be very simple indeed. Furniture dealers make
a point of supplying beds, bureaus, chairs, and cabinets of simple
design, unfinished, so that the purchaser may stain them to harmonize
with any desired colour scheme. But such furniture, or good substitutes
for it, can be made very inexpensively. For example, the stock for
a good bed will not cost over seventy-five cents. Cases provided
with shelves and curtains in place of drawers, made at a cash outlay
possibly of one dollar, will serve for bureaus. The cost of materials
for building an eight-room cottage in every way satisfactory need not
exceed five hundred dollars; and such a cottage could be beautifully
furnished by clever boys and girls at an expense for materials of one
hundred and fifty or perhaps two hundred dollars.
[Illustration: An inexpensive bed]
In the exterior finishing of summer cottages nature generally needs
very little assistance. No colours harmonize so well with the gray
rocks, sere fields and marshes, and the evergreen trees by the
seashore, as the weathered grays of the shingled cottage. The window
frames, door frames and facings, painted to preserve them, may be
of the same colour or in dull green or brown, plainly marking the
outlines of the house but without unpleasant contrasts. A stained roof
in slate gray or creosote brown is also in keeping. The underpinning
and outside chimneys in the field rock of the locality are eminently
fitting. The house among the hills will stand more colour because the
colours of nature are richer, especially in the autumn season. But
wherever the house may be, it should repeat in its larger surfaces the
prevailing colour tones of its natural setting. It should seem to fit
into its surroundings as if it belonged there and would always remain
there, a part of the simple, natural beauty all around it.
[Illustration: A country house]