m,
though there is no doubt that a whole book on the subject might
profitably be written. To touch upon the subject as lightly as space
will permit, we can probably do no better than to suggest the obvious
type of mantel for one or two of the more common architectural styles,
and recommend that in other styles the architect be allowed sufficient
latitude in design and expense to distinguish this important feature of
hall, living-room, dining-room or library with the characteristics of
the style he has worked out for the house itself.

The modern home along Colonial lines is perhaps the commonest problem,
and incidentally the easiest, for the old models of delicately detailed
white-painted wood mantels are so well known and so universally admired
that modern reproductions along good lines and reasonable cost are
easily obtained.

For the English plaster or half-timber house the architect will
doubtless design a special mantel, in scale and in harmony with the dark
paneling and other architectural woodwork, probably with a paneled
over-mantel if the cost is not too rigorously held down.

In a house which breaks away from the historic architectural styles, as
so many of the stucco buildings of the day do, the mantel treatment
offers particularly interesting possibilities. Frequently the mantel is
done away with entirely and the chimney breast treated independently as
a whole.

With the very informal type of summer home where a rough stone for
facing and chimney is employed, the mantel treatment can hardly be kept
too simple and unobtrusive in its rugged strength. A heavy log, planed
to a smooth top surface and resting on two projecting stone brackets,
is frequently used with good effect. The chimney breast may be stepped
back at the shelf height to form a narrow stone ledge, or the breast
left without any shelf. Many simple variations with the informal brick
chimney breast will occur to everyone. In general, with these summer
shacks or bungalows, the fireplace is the chief architectural feature of
the living-room and for that reason will stand a moderate amount of
embellishment, but this latter should take the form of a slightly better
finish of the materials used throughout the room rather than the
introduction of more elaborate and costly ones.

[Illustration: A fireplace and chimney breast of field stone,
chosen with care and laid with more than average skill]

MENDING POOR F