Rules for Designing a Farmhouse

From the Register of Rural Affairs, 1855, 1856 & 1857

After a greater or less number of rooms has been fixed upon, according to wants and circumstances, the next step is to arrange them in the most convenient and economical manner. This is a difficult task to a person of inexperience, but may be greatly assisted by observing the following rules, and by the examination of published plans.

1. Proportion may be shown in the smallest cottage as well as in the most magnificent palace - and the former should be carefully designed as well as the latter. However small a building may be, let it never show an awkward conception, when a good form is more easily made than a bad one.

2. Discard all gingerbread work, and adopt a plain, neat, and tasteful appearance in every part. Far more true taste is evinced by proper forms and just proportions than by any amount of tinsel and peacock decorations. A marble statue bedizened with feathers and ribbons, would not be a very pleasing object.

3. More attention should be given to the convenient arrangement and disposition of rooms in constant daily use, than those employed but a few times in the course of a year. Hence the kitchen and living-room* should receive special attention.

4. In all country houses, from the cottage to the palace, let the kitchen (the most important apartment,) always be on a level with the main floor. It requires more force to raise a hundred pounds ten feet upwards, whether it be the human frame or an assortment of eatables, than the same weight one hundred feet on a level. To do it fifty times a day is a serious task. If the mistress superintends her own kitchen, it should be of easy access. For strong light and free ventilation, it should have, if possible, windows on opposite or nearly opposite sides.

5. There should be a set of easy stairs from the kitchen to the cellar. Every cellar should have, besides the stairs within, an outside entrance, for the passage of barrels and other heavy articles.

6. The pantry, and more especially the china closet, should be between the kitchen and dining room for easy access from both.

7. The bathroom* should be between the kitchen and nursery*, for convenience to warm water.

8. Let the entry or hall be near the center of the house, so that ready and convenient access may be had from it to the different rooms; and to prevent the too common evil of passing through one room to enter another.

9. Place the stairs so that the landing shall be as near the center as may be practicable, for the reasons given in the preceding rule.

10. Every entrance from without, except to the kitchen, should open into some entry, lobby, or hall, to prevent the direct ingress of cold air into rooms, and to secure sufficient privacy.

11. Let the partitions of the second floor stand over those of the lower, as nearly as possible, to secure firmness and stability.

12. The first floor of any house, however small, should be at least one foot above ground, to guard against dampness.

13. Flat roofs should be adopted only with metallic covering. Shingles need a steeper inclination to prevent the accumulation of snow, leakage and decay-more so than is frequently adopted. A steep roof is, additionally, cheaper, by admitting the use of a less perfect material for an equally perfect roof, and giving more garret room.

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*Editor’s Notes:

These rules from an old farm journal have some good advice for today’s designers.

The objection to “gingerbread” and basement kitchens was the author’s reaction to popular plan books of the day. The architects who published them usually only had formal rooms on the first floor, and always festooned their homes with elaborate, expensive and hard-to-maintain wooden decorations. Architects, back then, tended to design ostentatious, silly homes.

The “nursery” was a first-floor bedroom that also functioned as a sick room and guest room as necessary. A “living-room” back then wasn’t formal at all. It was an all-purpose room for dining, gathering, reading and, well, living. Formal occasions happened in the parlor. Since there was no indoor plumbing, the “bathroom” was just the place for a portable tub.

You’ll find more time-tested advice at The Backroad Home, linked from the Resources section of our sidebar. You’ll also find a companion set of rules, Rules for Planning a Farmhouse, by using the search box.

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