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192
The House in Good Taste
·
Elsie De Wolfe
25
IV
THE
LITTLE
HOUSE
OF
MANY
MIRRORS
One
walks
the
streets
of
New
York
and
receives
the
fantastic
impression
that
some
giant
architect
has
made
for
the
city
thousands
of
houses
in
replica.
These
dismal
brownstone
buildings
are
so
like
without,
and
alas!
so
like
within,
that
one
wonders
how
their
owners
know
their
homes
from
one
another.
I
have
had
the
pleasure
of
making
over
many
of
these
gloomy
barracks
into
homes
for
other
people,
and
when
we
left
the
old
Irving
Place
house
we
took
one
of
these
dreary
houses
for
ourselves,
and
made
it
over
into
a
semblance
of
what
a
city
house
should
be.
You
know
the
kind
of
house--there
are
tens
of
thousands
of
them--a
four
story
and
basement
house
of
pinkish
brownstone,
with
a
long
flight
of
ugly
stairs
from
the
street
to
the
first
floor.
The
common
belief
that
all
city
houses
of
this
type
must
be
dark
and
dreary
just
because
they
always
have
been
dark
and
dreary
is
an
unnecessary
superstition.
My
object
in
taking
this
house
was
twofold:
I
wanted
to
prove
to
my
friends
that
it
was
possible
to
take
one
of
the
darkest
and
grimiest
of
city
houses
and
make
it
an
abode
of
sunshine
and
light,
and
I
wanted
to
furnish
the
whole
house
exactly
as
I
pleased--for
once!
The
remaking
of
the
house
was
very
interesting.
I
tore
away
the
ugly
stone
steps
and
centered
the
entrance
door
in
a
little
stone-paved
fore-court
on
the
level
of
the
old
area-way.
The
fore-court
is
just
a
step
below
the
street
level,
giving
you
a
pleasant
feeling
of
invitation.
Everyone
hates
to
climb
into
a
house,
but
there
is
a
subtle
allure
in
a
garden
or
a
court
yard
or
a
room
into
which
you
must
step
down.
The
fore-court
is
enclosed
with
a
high
iron
railing
banked
with
formal
box-trees.
Above
the
huge
green
entrance
door
there
is
a
graceful
iron
balcony,
filled
with
green
things,
that
pulls
the
great
door
and
the
central
window
of
the
floor
above
into
an
impressive
composition.
The
façade
of
the
house,
instead
of
being
a
commonplace
rectangle
of
stone
broken
by
windows,
has
this
long
connected
break
of
the
door
and
balcony
and
window.
By
such
simple
devices
are
happy
results
accomplished!
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
