By taking upon ourselves the duty of self-taught lessons of sincerity and common sense, and suitability.

By learning what is meant by color and form and line, harmony and contrast and proportion.

When we are on familiar terms with our tools, and feel our vague ideas clearing into definite inspiration, then we are ready to talk about ideals.  We are fit to approach the full art of home-making.

We take it for granted that every woman is interested in houses—­that she either has a house in course of construction, or dreams of having one, or has had a house long enough wrong to wish it right.  And we take it for granted that this American home is always the woman’s home:  a man may build and decorate a beautiful house, but it remains for a woman to make a home of it for him.  It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses.  Men are forever guests in our homes, no matter how much happiness they may find there.

You will express yourself in your house, whether you want to or not, so you must make up your mind to a long preparatory discipline.  You may have only one house to furnish in your life-time, possibly, so be careful and go warily.  Therefore, you must select for your architect a man who isn’t too determined to have his way.  It is a fearful mistake to leave the entire planning of your home to a man whose social experience may be limited, for instance, for he can impose on you his conception of your tastes with a damning permanency and emphasis.  I once heard a certain Boston architect say that he taught his clients to be ladies and gentlemen.  He couldn’t, you know.  All he could do is to set the front door so that it would reprove them if they weren’t!

Who does not know, for instance, those mistaken people whose houses represent their own or their architects’ hasty visits to the fine old chateaux of the Loire, or the palaces of Versailles, or the fine old houses of England, or the gracious villas of Italy?  We must avoid such aspiring architects, and visualize our homes not as so many specially designated rooms and convenient closets, but as individual expressions of ourselves, of the future we plan, of our dreams for our children.  The ideal house is the house that has been long planned for, long awaited.

[Illustration:  In this hall, simplicity, suitability and proportion are observed]

Fortunately for us, our best architects are so very good that we are better than safe if we take our problems to them.  These men associate with themselves the hundred young architects who are eager to prove themselves on small houses.  The idea that it is economical to be your own architect and trust your house to a building contractor is a mistaken, and most expensive, one.  The surer you are of your architect’s common sense and professional ability, the surer you may be that your house will be economically