The client required the house to have a good comfortable living-room for the general family life; another good room for entertaining guests and callers; a small den for his own use, with desk, safe, and sample cupboards; four bedrooms, one to be a bed-sitting-room for an only son; and a kitchen with the usual offices. The house was to be arranged to give as much open-air life within as possible. As the site is exposed to the prevailing winds, and the best prospect is in the direction whence they blow, some form of court upon which the rooms might open, suggests itself as a means of obtaining the needful shelter. The stableyard not being very suitable for the purpose, the house is grouped about a very small central court, round which a corridor is planned fitted with sliding windows, so that it can be converted at will into a sort of small open air cloister by sliding the sashes down below the sill. This is roofed over at as low a level as possible, to avoid anything of the feeling of a well, which a court, as small as this needs must be, might soon produce. The main roof also is made to slope away from the court in all directions, so that a good deal of sunlight may find its way in. Upon this corridor the main rooms open with wide double doors, and the court being protected against wind on all sides, it is possible, except when extremely cold, to have the living rooms much more open to the fresh air than is usual. A ventilating stove prevents cold draughts in winter. The kitchen, butler’s pantry, front and side entrances, and stairs all communicate with the corridor, but so as not to destroy the privacy of the living rooms by obliging anyone to pass the doors when going from one to the other. Pleasing vistas are obtained from the rooms across the court, and from the corridor into the rooms, such as it is not often possible to contrive in so small a house. This charm of vista should always be thought of when planning. The living-room, as the most generally occupied, and therefore most important room, is placed at the south corner, having the double outlook to south-east & south-west, and getting all available sunlight and the best of the prospect. It is not enough to give a room windows in the right direction, however; the room must be so arranged that it shall, so to speak, turn its face right; and the windows be so placed that one would naturally look out of them from the most usually occupied parts of the room. For this reason an angle window commanding the pick of the view is thrown out on the south-east side. This brings the sun well into the room, and at the same time provides a good well-lighted position for the piano, from whence anyone can easily face to the whole room while singing. For the same reason the fire is put on the north-east wall; and, that a thorough sense of cosiness may always be obtainable, it is placed in a deep recess or ingle.

Now an ingle affords a very good instance of how easy it is to misuse the old examples which we study, and that in two manners. For while some neglect altogether the suggestions which they offer, others copy the old forms without troubling to understand them. To make use of old features legitimately, of course, one must first understand the reasons which called them into being, the difficulties which they were designed to meet: and when similar reasons or difficulties present themselves to us we may then avail ourselves of the solution which they indicate, not copying slavishly the details, but taking the principle and working it out to suit our own particular circumstances. The ingle had two main uses: the first was to protect a wide open fire from the cross draughts arising from badly fitting or open doors, shutters and windows; the second was to afford sheltered seats near the fire, where the aged and feeble could rest and anyone could keep warm in cold or rough weather. Incidentally, no doubt, our forefathers appreciated the value of contrast, the charm of the ruddy fire-lit space glowing red in the grey ill-lighted building, and the cosiness of the sheltered low recess in the wide and lofty hall. To obtain this charm, as is often done, by forming an ingle so small that one cannot sit in it comfortably, is merely to remove the fire further from the room; while on the other hand, to arrange a large ingle, as is also sometimes done, with a modern tiled register stove set in a chimney breast, is to lose the feeling of sitting on the hearth, and the charm that springs from the fire being able to cast its glow all over the recess and be seen from every part where one can sit. The ingle adapted to modern use, and justifying the space it occupies in rooms of moderate size, must be large enough to be comfortable for one to sit in regularly, a place where one can live, not merely sit to be roasted. The fire must be so designed as to have something of the feeling of the old fire on the hearth, and must not be cut off from the recess or in any way allowed to grow into a fireplace within a fireplace. It is generally well to make the whole recess into the hearth, and we often arrange for the fire to burn in a suitably shaped fire-brick hollow, which answers all purposes excellently. The ingle must be protected from cross draughts, otherwise the fire cannot be sufficiently exposed. Fenders are best avoided, and anything like a loose coal-box is a disadvantage. A coal-box can often be contrived in the thickness of the wall. When properly arranged, and fitted with comfortable low seats, the ingle always proves to be a favourite part of the room; the place where people naturally go to sit and rest.

But I am digressing from the plan, and must return to the living-room which we are designing. There the ingle is of somewhat special construction, having several small windows to afford peeps out towards the court and the view, and to give light conveniently placed for reading; and also having cupboards for the display of oriental pottery. The seats are made long enough to recline on.

A large sunny bay facing the fire is arranged to be used as a dining recess, except in very cold weather. Such a recess relieves a living room from being uncomfortably blocked up with a meal-table. The bay also gives us a west window through which the evening light will come.

In all rooms there is a part by the door where no one willingly sits, because of a certain lack of comfort; it is well to keep such part of the room as small as possible. Very often a room may be actually improved by being reduced in width just where the door opens, while the space cut off may be put to valuable use. In this case the sheltered south-west balcony, which is obtained by narrowing the two rooms opposite the doors, adds greatly to the amount of open air life it is possible to enjoy, and makes it easy to have the pleasure of frequently taking meals in the open: the little window by the sideboard is convenient to hand things through for this purpose. A recessed balcony is, in our climate, much more useful than any projecting verandah. It is possible, owing to the extra shelter, to sit in such a balcony two or three times as often as in the verandah with open ends.

In this room, a sideboard, a large cabinet and the other important furniture, form part of the scheme: they are thought out and designed with the building. In the treatment of the room advantage is taken of the beams and lintels required for the recesses, and where these are lacking a deep picture rail carrying line with them is adopted, under which the sideboard, cabinet, and most of the windows are arranged to finish, leaving an unbroken frieze above, and giving a sense of order and unity to the whole. This frieze is decorated with a painted suggestion of landscape; but in simpler treatment, if whitewashed, or coloured with the ceiling, it would be light & satisfactory. The lower portion of the walls, under the decorated frieze, is finished in plaster tinted to the required shade by mixing colouring matter with the skimming coat; this forms a good, plain, solid-looking background for either pictures, furniture, or the people who inhabit the room.

Where economy is any consideration we may keep rooms as low as possible, giving additional space outwards, which is as valuable as space upwards for use as an air reservoir, and for all other purposes so much more valuable. This house is nine feet from floor to floor.

The hall, or entertaining room, being intended for less constant as well as more formal use, takes a somewhat simpler shape. Placed at the west corner with windows south-west and north-west it gets all the sunshine during the afternoon and evening, when most occupied. It is immediately accessible from the entrance, and opens upon the balcony and garden through a double window. The fire is placed in an ingle contrived under the stairs and half landing, an arch being used in this case to carry the chimney stack and form the recess. The flue from the fire is brought over on to the arch by means of a copper hood. A little bay, partly in the porch, lights this ingle. The messenger’s seat in the porch, a cupboard, and a coal box complete the utilization of the space under the stairs, which is thus not only made to add to the convenience, but also to contribute something to the interest of both the room and the porch.

Adjacent to the entrance is the small sanctum. Here, again, something is taken off the square room, which, while improving it rather than otherwise by giving a recess for desk and pigeon holes, enables us to have a small vestibule with cupboard for visitors’ hats and cloaks. A comfortable corner between fire and window is left clear for easy chair and reading stand.

Behind the living-room, with its fireplace at the back of the living-room fireplace, is placed the kitchen. It occupies the east corner of the house, and has its main window to the north-east, the right aspect for a kitchen. There is a small window to the south-east, to light the range and make a comfortable place for sewing or reading. One corner between fire and window should always be kept free from doors in a kitchen, so that there may be a place to sit in; and a still more comfortable kitchen results, when it is possible to collect all the doors on one side.

The larder has its window in the back porch, to get a north aspect; while thorough ventilation is secured by an opening on the south-east under the eaves where the sun cannot reach it. The cellar was added after the preliminary plans were made, the scullery being re-arranged to allow of it. This latter is shaped to obstruct as little as possible the squint window in the living-room ingle, and at the same time faces south, which, as there is no fireplace, is a good aspect for it.

The staircase rises from the corridor, and as it is accessible from all parts without passing the doors of the reception rooms, a back staircase is not needed. Where economy is a consideration the back staircase is one of the first things which may be dispensed with, for it adds so little real comfort in proportion to its cost.

The bedroom plan follows pretty closely the ground plan, the bedrooms also leading off a corridor round the inner court. All four bedrooms are arranged so that in addition to being convenient as bedrooms, they have at least a corner near the fire comfortable to sit in. In small houses to regard a bedroom as a sleeping room only is a mistake. The accommodation is greatly increased when each member of the household can use his or her bedroom as a private den also. The balcony is repeated on the first floor—the bedrooms being as serviceable without the space it occupies—and by reason of the parapet and overhanging eaves, it is even more sheltered than that on the ground floor; and it is thus possible in two bedrooms to sleep practically in the open air in almost all weathers. It has special value, too, as an addition to the west room, which is designed for the boy’s bedroom and study. Here the bed fits in a deep recess out of the way; a washstand is contrived in the sill of the window of the same recess, which is slightly bayed to give the needful room; and a curtain may be drawn across, cutting off all the special bedroom appliances; so leaving a good comfortable study. A window is put to bring the south-east sun into bedroom No. 3, the wide sill of which in the rather narrow room may be used for a dressing table. In bedroom No. 4 an over-hanging window recess is carried out on the joists, to avoid the want of comfort which one always feels on the window side of a room when the door opens right in the corner, as here. This room has also a little window towards the court to bring in morning sun; and thus all the bedrooms get through ventilation and plenty of sunshine.

Of the treatment of the rooms little need be said. The recesses by the chimney breasts are fitted with cupboards and bookshelves, which are designed to include simple framings or mantels for the fireplaces, and the cornices of which are arranged to match the cornice over doors and windows and to carry line with a picture rail running round the room. Wall papers or other decorations stop at this rail, all above being taken in with the ceiling. This arrangement enables the ceiling to be broken up by the slopes of the low roofs without giving the ugly odds and ends of papered wall, which really are the only unpleasing feature about a ceiling broken up in that way.

During the whole of the planning the elevations are of course kept in view, and the block design carried away in the mind from the site constantly exerts a modifying influence. The difficulty usually is to maintain sufficient simplicity; so many features are suggested by little conveniences of planning that one has continually to cut them out, never to seek for them merely for the sake of effect.

This plan which we have just considered, representing, perhaps, rather a large house to be classed as “small,” does not quite illustrate one point to which we attach very great importance in the designing of small houses. The second plan shown gives me an opportunity of referring to this. Here a special effort was made to obtain one room giving some sense of space in a house not large enough to contain several large rooms. In all small houses much must be sacrificed, but it seems to us to be infinitely less of a sacrifice to reduce the number of rooms, than to reduce the size of them all. In every small house it should be a first consideration to secure one room large enough to allow of some interest being worked into the room itself, and to afford some comfort and dignity of life to its occupants.

In the plan now before us the hall was made into the chief living room; it is carried up two stories to provide for an organ gallery. The gallery leading to the balcony, the landing, and the staircase, are all thrown into this hall; the stairs are so arranged as to afford a screen to the fire, and form a sort of deep ingle with low ceiling under the landing. The low ceiling continues under the organ gallery and the balcony, the central part of the hall being open to the full height. The sense of cosiness in this ingle is greatly enhanced by contrast with the lofty open space outside; while the variety in lighting, whether when the morning sun streams in at the great east window, or when the ingle glows red in the gathering dusk, adds a perpetual charm. In the gallery is a second fire, with a lounge seat by the organ, under a kind of canopy formed by the half-landing of the second floor stairs.

To obtain this spacious hall the remainder of the house has been reduced as much as possible. Only one other small room, for den or meal-room, is provided, with kitchens, offices, and four bedrooms, two of which are on the second floor. Lest you should be inclined to think that only for people living a very exceptional life would it be advantageous to throw so much space into one room, I will next refer to a design drawn for a London literary man, who, though not able to afford a large house, still by reason of his position required occasionally to be able to entertain a good many people. Here the first consideration has been to obtain a hall which would be at once a comfortable living-room and a dignified entertaining room. The meal-room has been kept as small as would just allow of a little dinner-party being given in it. The fire is placed in one corner, the sideboard in another; had it been possible to put the door also in a corner it would have been still more convenient, for in a small dining-room it is in the corners that there is a little space to spare. The narrow Hampstead building plot, having a south-west aspect, and the best prospect to the south, dictated the general arrangement of the house and the placing of the best room at the south corner. This room is spanned by two arches to carry the wall of the study over; within one of them is placed the fire recess with seats and fitment, thus using up all the space under the stairs to add to the size and character of the room; while the stairs themselves, which are shut off from the vestibule by a door, are also open to the room, the quarter-landing forming a small gallery overlooking it.

The staircase is such an essentially interesting and decorative feature in a house, and the space under and around it may be made to add so much to a room both in size and individuality, that it always seems a pity to shut it off in a mere passage. In old houses the charm of some departure from the plain room is well recognised, for the favourite view, alike for the artist and the photographer, is always that which contains some peep of stairs from the hall, some gallery, balcony, ingle, or deep window recess. When the most is made of such advantages as can be claimed for the bare square room, they seem but a poor compensation for the loss of character and charm.

Over the hall in this house are placed the client’s study and bedroom, the two being combined that both may have the benefit of the whole air space: book cases and curtains screen off the bedroom portion. Double doors and double windows are fitted to this room, for perfect quiet both by day and by night is essential; and further to secure this, ventilation is obtained independently of the windows by means of two fireplaces and an air shaft built in one of the stacks. The client’s wife, son and daughter all proposed to make considerable use of their bedrooms in the day time.

But I must pass on now to cottages, the second part of our subject. The distinction between a small house and a cottage, never a very clear one, has been further obscured by a common affectation of simplicity. The word certainly suggests a simple shelter for a simple form of life, and for our purposes I propose to regard as a cottage any house in which separate accommodation is not provided for servants. Provision for domestic help there may be, but it must be “as one of the family,” not constituting a separate class to be separately provided for.

To cottages, what has been said about the advantage of securing a good living-room, even at great sacrifice of other conveniences, applies with additional force. For not only is the total space at our command usually less, but the number of functions which the living-room has to provide for is greater, many of the functions of a kitchen being added to it. To combine the comfort of a living-room with the convenience for work of a kitchen will tax our skill in planning, and as the space we can give becomes less, our care in the disposal of it must become greater.

Let us again proceed by way of example, taking a largish cottage designed for a client who wished to live a quiet simple life, yet on a scale that would allow of his enjoying the more necessary comforts and refinements. The site is near a small Derbyshire town, and consists of a mound caused by the out-crop of some shale grit. On the north runs a stream, to which the ground falls precipitously; the road is to the west, and there is a steep fall here also; to the east the fall is slight, while to the south the ground rises gently. There are fine views in all directions, most interesting to the north, least so to the south. The client, however, desired the main windows of the living-room to be to the west, having a special liking for the evening light. The site seemed to demand a simple oblong house with plain span-roof kept as low as possible, forming a sort of crest on the steep-sided mound.

The western end of the building becomes the living-room, having windows with the desired outlook. There is a window to the north to command the best of the view; another on the south side admits plenty of sun; and in addition on this side there is the outer door, placed there that it may be possible to enjoy the charm which a door opening direct from a room upon a sunny garden always gives. Such a door must, however, be so placed that while the peep out is obtained the comfort of the room is not destroyed. Here we have gathered the two doors and the stair foot together in a narrow part of the room out of the way, leaving all the rest of the space comfortable to occupy. The fire is placed on the north wall, in a deep recess; one side of which is devoted to rest, the other to work. The former is occupied by a comfortable low seat; in the latter is fixed a plate-rack, and a working dresser fitted with a small fixed bowl for washing up glass and china. All the kitchen work done in the living-room is thus confined to the one corner handy to the fire for cooking, and well lighted by the north window. The fireplace is designed to be used as a closed cooking stove or as an open fire to sit round. The floor of the recess is tiled, which enhances a little the feeling of sitting on the hearth, and at the same time affords the most easily cleaned surface for the working corner. The arrangement, though producing a little the effect of a room within a room, secures at anyrate some of the cosiness of an ingle. We are enabled to get a sheltered garden-seat by reducing the width of the recess to a more comfortable dimension. The ingle is further defined by an archway, on one side of which is fitted a writing desk, and on the other the piano is designed to stand, occupying part of the space under the rising stairs, the remaining portion being taken up with a store cupboard opening into the kitchen. A second resting place is provided by a wide low window seat in the main window. Fixed seats are arranged for two sides of the meal table, one having a high back to screen it from any draught coming through the outer door.

To this one good room is added a kitchen for the more dirty work, fitted with a small range; a good cupboard for coats and hats by the entrance; a coal-place and larder. Upstairs are four bedrooms, necessarily rather small; one has a bed-recess taken off the largest room to help it, and as it is over the low ceiling of the ingle, it gets the advantage of extra height under the sloping roof; and thus the low ceiling, which adds so much to the feeling of cosiness in an ingle, is made to benefit the bedroom over. Where some such arrangement as this is not possible, we sometimes utilize the space between the low ceiling and the floor above as a storage cupboard, and we often take advantage of it for ventilating purposes, by bringing fresh air into the room, slightly warmed by passing behind the fire, and delivering it over the opening to the recess, where it is distributed with the least possible draught. Where an outlet into a flue is desirable to supplement the exhaust due to the fire, we find this a very good place to arrange it. In a room with close-fitting iron casements, sufficiently well built not to leak excessively through floors, skirting, and door, the most frequent cause of a smoky chimney is the want of sufficient air supply, and some form of inlet is an absolute necessity. For bedrooms this may be successfully arranged in some cases through a hollow fender kerb.

All the bedrooms in this cottage are so arranged as to have a fairly comfortable corner between the fire and a window, where one can sit to read or write. An east aspect is obtained for the bath-room, and a linen cupboard warmed by the cylinder is provided.

Of the elevations I need only say that local random range stone is used for the ground story, while for the upper portion the need for obtaining four bedrooms over a house so narrow requires the use of nine inch brick walls which are rough-cast in cement. The roof is covered with local stone slate.

It is obvious that the living-room of this cottage could with much less trouble have been made a four-square room with a fire at one end and a door at the other; and might have been furnished with a mixture of kitchen and parlour furniture. But I shall have sadly missed the purpose of this paper should you not now feel, as we do, that life would be immensely more comfortable and more dignified in a room such as I have been describing, where each requirement has been considered and provided for, and which has had just the shape and arrangement given to it that seemed best to meet those requirements; where, moreover, all the furniture has been designed in keeping with its place and its purpose, so that there is no incongruity between the desk and the dresser, the piano and the plate-rack.

Time will not permit me to refer in detail to any smaller cottage plans. But enough has, I hope, been said to make it quite clear, that, whatever the size of the house, we think it should grow, both as a utilitarian plan and as an artistic creation, out of the real needs of the occupants; and that the art of designing small houses and cottages consists, not in following any accepted code of conventions, however useful these may be in their place, but in working out such a convenient and comely setting for the special life that shall be lived in them as shall enable that life to expand itself to the fullest extent, not merely unhampered by the building in which it is clothed, but actually stimulated by a congenial surrounding.