Country Style Home Plan

¶ Country home with court, pergolas, outdoor living rooms and sleeping balconies.

Country Style Home.
House designed for outdoor life in a warm climate.

Open Country Living

¶ Life in a warm country, where there is much sunshine and where it is possible to be out of doors during the greater part of the time, was specially taken into consideration in the designing of this house, for the plan makes as much account of the terraces, porches and the open paved court as it does of the rooms within the walls of the building. Such a plan would serve admirably for a home in California or in the Southern States, but would be advisable only for specially favored spots in the North and East, as its comfort and charm necessarily depend very largely upon the possibility of outdoor life.

Materials

¶ As originally planned, the walls of the lower story are to be built of cement or of stucco on metal lath. The upper walls are shingled. The roof is of red tile and the foundation and parapets are of field stone. As with all these houses, though, the materials used are entirely optional and can be varied according to the taste of the owner, the requirements of the landscape or the limitations of the amount to be expended, as the building would look quite as well if constructed of concrete or of brick, and with clapboards in the place of shingles.

Country House with Pergola.
Corner of house showing pergola and sleeping porch.

¶ If a wooden house should be preferred, the walls from top to bottom could either be shingled or sheathed with wide clapboards, while the roof is equally well adapted to tiles, slates or shingles.

Exterior

¶ The first of the perspective drawings gives a view of the whole house as seen from the rear, showing the pergola at the back and the design of the roof, which we consider specially attractive. The second drawing shows the side of the house instead of the front, as by taking this view it is possible to include both porch and court and also show the balcony and outdoor sleeping room on the upper story. A broad terrace runs across the front of the house and continues around the side, where it forms a porch which is meant to be used as an outdoor living room. This porch is nearly square in shape and is either tiled with Welsh quarries or, if a less expensive flooring be desired, is paved with red cement marked off into squares that measure about nine inches each way.

¶ This floor has a close resemblance to one made of Welsh quarries and is dry and durable. In flooring a porch of this kind it is always better to avoid the use of plain brick, as this porous material gathers and holds moisture to such an extent that the floor is seldom dry.

Interior

Entrance

¶ The entrance door opens from this porch into the hall, which is separated from the living room only by two panels open at the top after the usual Craftsman fashion, the wood running only a little above the height of the two bookcases, which may either be built in or movable, as desired. Directly opposite this entrance is the large fireplace, which is recessed so as to form a fireside nook. Seats are placed on either side and the tiled hearth extends the full length of these. Back of them, in the small recesses left on either side of the fireplace, are built-in bookcases with casement windows set above.

Bay Window Terrace

¶ A square bay window, below which is a broad window seat, looks out upon the terrace, and double glass doors from both living room and hall bring this part of the house into very close communication with the outside world; an important feature in the planning of a house intended for life in a warm climate where there is little rain.

Dining Room

¶ The dining room has every appearance of being merely a large square recess in the living room, as the division between them is only indicated and the dining room is just large enough to afford comfortable accommodation for a good-sized dining table and the necessary furniture. The sideboard, which is built in, occupies the entire end of the room and a group of three casement windows are set in the wall just above it.

Hall & Kitchen

¶ The floor plan shows the convenient arrangement of the hall, staircase and closets, everything being grouped within a small compass so that not an inch of space is wasted. The arrangement of pantry and kitchen is equally convenient and plenty of cupboard room is provided for dishes and the necessary kitchen utensils.

Fireplace

¶ The chimney that is used for the kitchen range has space also for a flue leading from the fireplace on the porch outside. We are greatly in favor of these outdoor fireplaces, because there are many days and evenings when it is almost warm enough to stay out of doors, and yet without a fire it is not quite comfortable. Also, a fire in the open air has always something of the charm of a camp fire. The placing of this one is peculiarly desirable, as it not only makes a pleasant sitting room of the porch, but also has much of the charm of a garden, as from the porch one steps down into the court, which is surrounded on the outside by a vine-covered pergola and which may be paved or not, as desired. Even when these courts are paved they often hold growing trees or a fountain, so that both shade and the nearness of green, growing things are possible, while the court itself seems merely an extension of the porch. The den, which can be closed off by doors from the rest of the house in case privacy is desired for work or reading, has double doors leading to the square entrance porch and also to the court.

Second Floor

¶ On the second floor there are three large bedrooms, plenty of closet room and three baths. One of these is for the exclusive use of the maids and opens from the maids room at the back. The other two are placed so that each one is accessible from two bedrooms, counting the outdoor sleeping room as one. The linen and clothes closets are so placed that they occupy the least possible amount of space. The central hall is more in the nature of a corridor running around the four sides of the staircase well, and at the back is a long window seat built beneath a group of windows that look out over the court and pergola.

Interior Decoration

¶ The matter of interior woodwork and general scheme of color and decoration would depend very largely upon the part of the country in which the house is built. Its design is primarily that of a California house and reflects the spirit which rules the new architecture that is springing up in that country. Therefore it would seem quite in keeping to suggest that the inside of the house be finished after the well-known California style, because no other would be so completely in harmony with the plan of the exterior.

Californian Style

¶ Living so much out of doors, the Californians almost instinctively make the transition between outdoors and indoors as little marked as possible by finishing the interior of their houses in the most natural way.

Floor Plans

Floor Plans

Floor Plans