The servants’ quarters in this house are very well planned.  In the back yard that always goes with a house of this type I had built a new wing, five stories high, connected with the floors of the house proper by window-lined passages.  On the dining-room floor the passage becomes a butler’s pantry.  On the bedroom floors the passages are large enough for dressing-rooms and baths, connecting with the bedrooms, and for outer halls and laundries connecting with the maids’ rooms and the back stairs.  In this way, you see, the maids can reach the dressing-rooms without invading the bedrooms.  The kitchen and its dependencies occupy the first floor of the new wing, the servants’ bedrooms the next three floors, and the top floor is made up of clothes closets, sewing-rooms, store rooms, etc.

I firmly believe that the whole question of household comfort evolves from the careful planning of the service portion of the house.  My servants’ rooms are all attractive.  The woodwork of these rooms is white, the walls are cream, the floors are waxed.  They are all gay and sweet and cheerful, with white painted beds and chests of drawers and willow chairs, and chintz curtains and bed-coverings that are especially chosen, not handed down when they have become too faded to be used elsewhere!

V

THE TREATMENT OF WALLS

Surely the first considerations of the house in good taste must be light, air and sanitation.  Instead of ignoring the relation of sanitary conditions and decorative schemes, the architect and client of to-day work out these problems with excellent results.  Practical needs are considered just as worthy of the architect as artistic achievements.  He is a poor excuse for his profession if he cannot solve the problems of utility and beauty, and work out the ultimate harmony of the house-to-be.

If one enters a room in which true proportion has been observed, where the openings, the doors, windows and fireplace, balance perfectly, where the wall spaces are well planned and the height of the ceiling is in keeping with the floor-space, one is immediately convinced that here is a beautiful and satisfactory room, before a stick of furniture has been placed in it.  All questions pertaining to the practical equipment and the decorative amenities of the house should be approached architecturally.  If this is done, the result cannot fail to be felicitous, and our dream of our house beautiful comes true!

Before you begin the decoration of your walls, be sure that your floors have been finished to fulfil their purposes.  Stain them or polish them to a soft glow, keep them low in tone so that they may be backgrounds.  We will assume that the woodwork of each room has been finished with a view to the future use and decoration of the room.  We will assume that the ceilings are proper ceilings; that they will stay in their place, i.e., the top