New-York tribune., 1921-07-24
By B. H. Cranwell
OF Cstvtis Companies

There is a great deal of difference
in the impression one gets in walking
through vacant houses. One place may
scem desolately bare and empty while
the other many seem to lack only rugs
and curtains to bring it to life. You
But have you ever gwen thought to
the reason for it? The next time you en-
ter an empty house look about the rooms
and notice whether there are any
buiit-in features about them. If there
are, the chances are your impression
will be of the second kind. Nothing
produces the effect of place that is
built to be lived in more than GER
tain structural features.
From this angle, built-in furniture is
just as important consideration in the
house that is built to rent or sell as in
the house that is built to order. The
impression made upon the prospective
renter or buyer is great factor in the
amount for which the house can be
rented or sold. Before the family can
live in any house, certain provisions
have 10 be made for their comfort
Like running water, lights and gas, the
installing of certain furniture is quite
as necessary. The more of this furni-
ture is built into the house the less
movable furniture will have to be
bought in order to make the home
livable. The buyer is justified in pay
ing more for home we'll equipped in
this way.
This furniture gives him also the
assurance of greater harmony in the
house. Such pieces should be of an
architectural character not only har-
monizing with each other, but with the
type of house itself.
Built-in features seem to add to the
size of the rooms and do increase
their usable space, because they usu-
ally utilize space that would other
wise be useless-such as corner cabi-
net, a hanging wall cabinet or the
various cupboards and closets that are
built between partitions.
Ruby Ross Goodnow in her book,
The Honest Home, has this to say
about permanent furniture: "There is
another subject which really should be
considered while the house is in the
shell. and that is the matter of built
in furniture. 1t doesn't matter whether
your house is still in embryo;
whether you are making over an old
house planned and built by some one
else, you can make it very much more
your own by building in certain
things. You may have lived in your
house for years, and still find there
are advantages in built-in furniture
that you cannot afford to disregard.
"To be good at all, it must be very,
very good. Otherwise it isn't furni-
ture. Granting that it is we'll de-
signed, we'll constructed, and logical
part of the room, it's case may be
summed up pretty much as follows:
at is more interesting than detached
furniture, because it has flavor of
the designers personality; suggestion
of judicious planning.
at is more dignifed, because it has
been planned for permanency.
"It is more decorative, because it has
been considered as a part of whole,
and therefore has an architectural rela-
tion to the room.
"It is more reposeful, because it
keeps its place as part of the wall.
at is more durable, because it can
not be mauled about by the careless.
at is more economical, because it
may be constructed at a nominal cost
of labor and material, and, once fin
ished, it invites no further outlay.