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Remodeled Farmhouses

<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> <h3>THE GEORGE E. BARNARD ESTATE</h3> In remodeling a farmhouse, one should plan to build wide verandas, overlooking pleasing views. These can be glass-enclosed, so that during inclement weather one need not stay indoors. Out-door life is a part of the essentials in planning a summer home, and it means so much to the house owner that every possible means should be devised to secure it. With this object in view, why not lay out around the house attractive flower beds? Just a plain lawn does not mean much, but planted with trees, effective shrubbery, and well-planned gardens, it furnishes an inducement to sit on the porch and watch the ever changing views. In attempting this work, plan for vistas, well-selected spaces through which one can get glimpses of the world beyond. Have an objective point in view, so that the beauty of the setting sun and the clouds clothed in rainbow hues make it more attractive. Panorama effects are always interesting and are obtained through judicious planting, for one must remember that a plain level lawn in itself has few features that attract. Let the units be carefully spaced, and if there are walks or drives near the house, lay them out where they will not detract from the picturesque effect that you desire. An exception can be made with the English or flag treads, which make a charming adjunct to the grounds when grass grown. In the early days, the first settlers had their flower beds close to the house, probably because they did not then interfere with garden space. The effect was pleasing, for it added to the simple attraction of the early building. It is a good plan, after remodeling a house, to carry out this scheme of our forebears and have a narrow bed following the line of the house. Trees also are always effective; they break the roof line and shut off objectionable views. If you have no trees, by all means plant some. Screens can be devised by planting shrubbery, which makes unnecessary a latticed enclosure and is all the more interesting if the shrubs bear flowers, adding a bright spot to the color scheme. They are very practical as well, since they serve many purposes besides shutting off objectionable portions of the grounds. If rightly planted, they serve as windbreaks and can be arranged to frame a vista. While evergreen is often used for this scheme, yet shrubs such as the lilac, forsythia, bridal wreath, flowering almond, and many others are suitable. Plant these so that there will be a continuation in bloom, and also with reference to a definite color scheme. A remodeled farmhouse set back from the road without any surrounding decoration of garden or hedge cannot be picturesque, for merely a stretch of green lawn leaves it bare and uninviting, no matter how much you cover the house with vines. The composition of house and garden should be carefully planned, all the more if the estate is extensive, with plenty of land that can be used for this purpose. It is not much trouble to plant shrubs, and they need little cultivation. In the woods near at hand you can usually find plenty that will serve the purpose, if economy has to be considered. In planting the garden there are many things to be regarded; one of the most important is the sequence of bloom. This should be arranged with a view to color effects, for nowhere will one's taste be more conspicuous than in the garden plot which surrounds the house. There is no doubt that the harmony of color is a vital question, and complementary ones should be grouped together. Yellow should never be left out of the garden unless one wishes a very quiet effect; red is a favorite color and contrasts well with white. It must be remembered that quiet colors can be used in greater profusion than glaring ones; and if the exterior of the house is white, it permits one a much wider latitude in the choice of colors and in the arrangement of pleasing effects. The combination of house and garden that is found on the George E. Barnard estate of Ipswich, Massachusetts, is ideal and the result of many years of careful thought. The house was originally a small and unattractive farmhouse which contained only four rooms; it was dilapidated and forlorn in appearance and situated in the midst of uncultivated grounds. It was the location which attracted the present owner, for he saw here great possibilities for development; so he purchased the estate with a view of surrounding the house with gardens. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_093.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="388" alt="Before Remodeling" title="" /> Before Remodeling</div> The house has been added to, a little at a time, by throwing out here a room and there a veranda, instead of completing the whole work at once. Vine-covered verandas now surround three sides of the house; the shrubbery has been well planted. From the time the garden was first started, it was the desire of the owner to paint in flowers what other people have painted on canvas. Steep hills that obstructed the view at the side of the house have been converted into gentle slopes; bare spots have been thickly planted, and colors have been combined so that there is no inharmonious note in the finished garden. Careful planning eliminated straight lines, but not even the slightest curve in a flower bed was made until after due consideration. The flowers were planted to fulfill, as near as possible, the scheme of a landscape picture, and each plant not in perfect harmony was removed. The effect as one sits on the veranda is like looking at an immense canvas, where the pictures change with every move, for the estate is a masterpiece of color and bloom, depicting a different phase of landscape on every side. In remodeling the house, so many changes have been made that it is almost impossible to tell the manner in which the improvements were effected. There is not a room in the house but has been thoroughly changed, nor one that has not been enlarged. The service quarters are all new; they have been placed in the rear, where they do not intrude on the scheme that has been carried out in remodeling—that of making an attractive house in keeping with the setting of the grounds. The main house is at the front and has been kept in practically the same general style as when purchased. The entire rear portion of the house has been added a little at a time, until now it is most complete in each and every detail. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_094.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="430" alt="The Front of the House" title="" /> The Front of the House</div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_095.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="414" alt="The House from the Terrace" title="" /> The House from the Terrace</div> Dormer windows have been let into the roof in order to give better lighting, and the wide verandas have been railed in, to provide an up-stairs living-room, from which one gets the best views of the garden. The lower veranda is furnished with well-chosen willow furniture, each piece being carefully selected so that there are no two alike. It has been given a setting of ornamental bay-trees in green tubs and huge pottery vases filled with masses of bloom. The most attractive part of the veranda is at one side of the house, where it is paved with brick and lined on the one side with evergreen trees and on the other with scarlet geraniums. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_096.jpg" width-obs="453" height-obs="600" alt="The Pergola-Porch" title="" /> The Pergola-Porch</div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_097.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="421" alt="The Hall" title="" /> The Hall</div> The hall or morning-room was a part of the original house. It is entered directly from the veranda and has been so treated as to present a different series of pictures from the time one enters the door until one leaves, each room which opens out of it being carefully designed for harmonious effects. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_098.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="433" alt="The Alcove in the Living Room" title="" /> The Alcove in the Living Room</div> At the left of the room is the staircase which leads to the second-story floor. The low mahogany risers and treads contrast with the white balusters which are topped with a highly polished mahogany rail. Doors have been removed so that the adjoining rooms are glimpsed as one enters from the veranda. This room is hung with a Colonial paper showing delicately tinted red flowers against a gray background, and its beauty is heightened by the leaded glass windows of the china closet at the right and the simple fireplace with its brass accessories. Every bit of furniture here is old Colonial and is upholstered in green to match the color of the hangings. A long French window opens on to the veranda and gives glimpses of the beautiful gardens. The upper portions of the old cupboards that were in the house have been glassed in. The floors have had to be re-laid. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_099.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="431" alt="The Den" title="" /> The Den</div> Particularly noticeable is the den which is at the left of the hallway. Here the color scheme is green, the walls being covered with textile; the wainscot is painted white, and the hangings at the window brighten the plain effect of the wall treatment. There is no crowding of furniture, but a dignified atmosphere pervades the entire room. It is an apartment such as one loves to find—quiet and restful. These two rooms occupy the entire front of the house. Opening from the hall is a long reception-room which was originally a part of the old house and which shows two rooms thrown into one, with an addition at the end nearest the avenue. This is done in old blue velour and is furnished in mahogany. The plain tint of the wall gives an admirable background to the fine old pictures which hang here and there. Every piece of furniture in this room is Colonial. Ionic columns outline the wide double windows. Light and air have been carefully considered in the remodeling of the entire house and have particularly been sought in designing this room, as is shown by the many windows on either side. At the farther end, to one side, a French window leads to a glassed-in veranda which is used for a breakfast-room. This room is a feature of the house, for it has been set in the middle of the terraced grounds that lie at the side of the house, so that one can get the full benefit of the picture garden with the slope of the hill beyond rising to meet the blue of the horizon. In the reception-room, as in every room in the house, wooden doors have been removed and replaced by glass ones which act as windows to reveal the room beyond. It is a most unusual treatment,—this picture idea carried out inside as well as outside of the house,—for there is no spot in the whole interior where you do not get a vista of some kind. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/ill_100.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="461" alt="The Dining Room" title="" /> The Dining Room</div> Beyond the reception-room is the dining-room. This, too, is a long, narrow room and has been added, since the house was purchased, but so fitted in that it is seemingly a part of the old house. This room is divided into a dining and a breakfast-room and is used during inclement weather. Heavy draperies make it possible to shut the rooms off from each other if desired. The entire end of the breakfast-room has been given up to groups of long French windows which are repeated on either side, making a wide bay window. Here again has the picture effect been carried out, for the windows act as a frame to the mass of harmonious blossoms beyond, with their setting of green. The dining-room proper has a paneled Colonial landscape paper; the furniture is of the Empire period, while at the farther end of the room have been let in on either side of the long windows an attractive china closet. Here, as in every room in the house, we find wainscot and the same use of white paint. At the rear of this dining-room are the service quarters which consist of a large, sanitary, and well-equipped kitchen, butlers' pantries, servants' dining-room and sitting-room. The chambers in the second story are entirely separate from the rest of the house. The second floor shows at the right of the staircase a most delightful morning-room which is large and square with an open fireplace. This is a particularly attractive room, for it commands magnificent views. The rest of the house is given over to chambers which are laid out in suites and furnished with old-time furniture. There is an atmosphere about this remodeled farmhouse that is refreshing and most unusual. It has taken years to satisfactorily develop the owner's idea of combining house and garden in one harmonious color scheme. In the exterior this is changed each year, the favorite combination being lavender and white. This is attained by the use of heliotrope and sweet alyssum which outline the terraced wall and which show a carpet of green for central effect. The veranda is a harmony of green and white which is carried out in the awnings, the foliage, the willow furniture, and the white of the exterior and the balustrade. In the interior there is not a jumble of different colorings, and the rooms have been so arranged that they present a series of pictures brought about by the use of plain colors that perfectly blend. This has not been the work of a day or a year, but of ten years of careful study and is one of the most instructive lessons for those who are planning to remodel an old farmhouse and to introduce into its interior finish harmonious, restful, color schemes. <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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