If you are building a new house I strongly advise you to have at least
one room with a group of deep windows, made up of small panes of leaded
glass, and a broad window-seat built beneath them. There is something so
pleasant and mellow in leaded glass, particularly when the glass itself
has an uneven, colorful quality. When windows are treated thus
architecturally they need no glass curtains. They need only side
curtains of some deep-toned fabric.

[Illustration: By permission of the Butterick Publishing Co.
BLACK CHINTZ USED IN A DRESSING-ROOM]

As for your single windows, when you are planning them you will be
wise to have the sashes so placed that a broad sill will be possible.
There is nothing pleasanter than a broad window sill at a convenient
height from the floor. The tendency of American builders nowadays is to
use two large glass sashes instead of the small or medium-sized panes of
older times.

This is very bad from the standpoint of the architect, because these
huge squares of glass suggest holes in the wall, whereas the square or
oblong panes with their straight frames and bars advertise their
suitability. The housewife's objection to small panes is that they are
harder to clean than the large ones, but this objection is not worthy of
consideration. If we really wish to make our houses look as if they were
built for permanency we should consider everything that makes for beauty
and harmony and hominess. There is nothing more interesting than a
cottage window sash of small square panes of glass unless it be the
diamond-paned casement window of an old English house. Such windows are
obviously windows. The huge sheets of plate glass that people are so