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.

Wall tables, or consoles, may be of the same wood as the woodwork or of
marble, or of some dark polished wood. There are no more useful pieces
of furniture th