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CHAPTER XXX
SUN-ROOMS
There are countless fascinating schemes for arranging sun-rooms. One
which we have recently seen near Philadelphia, was the result of
enclosing a large piazza, projecting from an immense house situated in
the midst of lawns and groves.
The walls are painted orange and striped with pale yellow; the floors
are covered with the new variety of matting which imitates tiles, and
shows large squares of colour, blocked off by black. The chintzes used
are in vivid orange, yellow and green, in a stunning design; the
wicker chairs are painted orange and black, and from the immense
iridescent globes of electric light hang long, orange silk tassels.
PLATE XXVI
Shows how to utilise and make really very attractive an extension
roof, by converting it into a balcony.
An awning of broad green and white stripes protect this one in
winter as well as summer, and by using artificial ivy, made of
tin and painted to exactly imitate nature, one gets, as you see,
a charming effect.
An Extension Roof in New York Converted into a
Balcony
Iron fountains, wonderful designs in black and gold, throw water over
gold and silver fish, or gay water plants; while, in black and gold
cages, vivid parrots and orange-coloured canaries gleam through
the bars. Iron vases of black and gold on tall pedestals, are filled
with trailing ivy and bright coloured plants. Along the walls are
wicker sofas, painted orange and black, luxuriously comfortable with
down cushions covered, as are some of the chair cushions, in soft
lemon, sun-proofed twills.
Here one finds card-tables, tea-tables and smoking-tables, a
writing-desk fully equipped, and at one end, a wardrobe of black and
gold, hung with an assortment of silk wraps and "wooleys"—for an
unprovided and chilly guest, in early spring, when the steam heat is
off and the glass front open.
Even on a grey, winter day, this orange and gold room seems flooded
with sun, and gives one a distinctly cheerful sensation when entering
it from the house.
Of course, if your porch-room is mainly for mid-summer use and your
house in a warm region, then we commend instead of sun-producing
colours, cool tones of green, grey or blue. If your porch floor is
bad, cover it with dark-red linoleum and wax it. The effect is like a
cool, tiled floor. On this you can use a few porch rugs.
Black and white awnings or awnings in broad, green-and-white stripes,
or plain green awnings, are deliciously cool-looking, and rail-boxes
filled with green and white or blue and pale pink flowers are
refreshing on a summer day.
By the sea, where the air is bracing, and it is not necessary to trick
the senses with a pretence at coolness, nothing is more satisfactory
or gay than scarlet geraniums; but if they are used, care must be
taken that they harmonise with the colour of the awnings and the
chintz on the porch.
Speaking of rail-boxes reminds us that in making over a small summer
house and converting a cheap affair into one of some pretensions,
remember that one of the most telling points is the character of your
porch railing. So at once remove the cheap one with its small, upright
slats and the insignificant and frail top rail, and have a solid porch
railing (or porch fence) built with broad, top rail. Then place all
around porch, resting on iron brackets, rail-flower boxes, the tops of
these level with the top of the rail, and paint the boxes the colour
of the house trimmings. Filled with running vines and gay flowers,
nothing could be more charming.
Window-boxes make any house lovely and are a large part of that charm
which appeals to us, whether the house be a mansion in Mayfair or a
Bavarian farm house. Americans are learning this.
The window and rail-boxes of a house look best when all are planted
with the same variety of flowers.
Having given a certain air of distinction to your porch-railing, add
another touch to the appearance of your small, remodelled house by
having the shutters hung from the top of the windows, instead of from
the sides. A charming variety of awning or sun-shades, to keep the sun
and glare out of rooms, is the old English idea of a straw-thatching,
woven in and out until it makes a broad, long mat which is suspended
from the top of windows, on the outside of the house, being held out
and permanently in place, at the customary angle of awnings. We first
saw this picturesque kind of rustic awnings used on little cottages of
a large estate in Vermont, cottages once owned and lived in by
labourers, but bought and put in comfortable condition to be used as
overflow rooms for guests, in connection with the large family mansion
(once the picturesque village inn).
The art of making these straw awnings is not generally understood in
America. In the case to which we refer, one of the gardeners employed
on the estate, chanced to be an old Englishman who had woven the straw
window awnings for farm houses in his own country.
The straw awnings, with window-boxes planted with bright geraniums and
vines, make an inland cottage delightfully picturesque and are
practical, although by the sea the straw awnings might be destroyed by
high winds.
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