The curtains were soft cream-colored net.  One wall was made up of windows, another of doors and a cupboard, and against the other two walls we built two long, narrow consoles that were so simple anyone could accomplish them:  simply two wide shelves resting on good brackets, with mirrors above.  The one splendid thing in the room was a curtain of soft green damask that was pulled at night to cover the group of windows.  Everything else in the room was bought for a song.

[Illustration:  THE PRIVATE DINING-ROOM IN THE COLONY CLUB]

I have said much of cupboards and consoles because I think they are so much better than the awkward, heavy “china closets” and “buffets” and sideboards that dominate most dining-rooms.  The time has come when we should begin to do fine things in the way of building fitment furniture, that is, furniture that is actually or apparently a part of the shell of the room.  It would be so much better to build a house slowly, planning the furniture as a part of the architectural detail.  With each succeeding year the house would become more and more a part of the owner, illustrating his life.  Of course, this would mean that the person who planned the developing of the house must have a certain architectural training, must know about scale and proportion, and something of general construction.  Certainly charming things are to be created in this way, things that will last, things immeasurably preferable to the cheap jerry-built furniture which so soon becomes shabby, which has to be so constantly renewed.  People accept new ideas with great difficulty, and my only hope is that they may grow to accept the idea of fitment furniture through finding the idea a product of their own; a personal discovery that comes from their own needs.

I have constantly recommended the use of our native American woods for panelings and wall furniture, because we have both the beautiful woods of our new world and tried and proven furniture of the old world, and what couldn’t we achieve with such material available?  Why do people think of a built-in cupboard as being less important than a detached piece of furniture?  Isn’t it a braggart pose, a desire to show the number of things you can buy?  Of course it is a very foolish pose, but it is a popular one, this display of objects that are ear-marked “expensive.”

It is very easy to build cupboards on each side of a fireplace, for instance, making the wall flush with the chimney-breast.  This is always good architectural form.  One side could have a desk which opens beneath the glass doors, and the other could have cupboards, both presenting exactly the same appearance when closed.  Fitted corner cupboards, triangular or rounded, are also excellent in certain dining rooms.