May 10, 1931

Detroit News Quilt History Project; Michigan State University Museum; Susan Salser

Detroit, Michigan, United States

A column from the Interior Decoration Department home series describing the Comstock house.

Chimney Provides for a Recessed Fireplace
Stairway Arrangement at Side of Living Room Increases Downstairs Space and Enlarges Upstairs Hallway
Here is a house that radiates friendliness. There is a suggestion of welcome in the extension of the entrance beyond the front wall line. Moreover, the tall brick chimney promises a deeply recessed fireplace which will do it sit of cheer on cold winter evenings.

And there is variety here, too, as shown in the grouping of the windows and the change from brick on the first floor to stained shingles on the second floor with the front gable in stucco with English panel trim.

Placing the stairway at one side of the house provides a considerable larger living room with a antique coved ceiling and stippled walls. The dining groom also has covered ceilings and textured walls accentuated with detail panel molding. These rooms are well arranged for attractive placing of furniture.

A large kitchen with a tile sink and built in cupboards and closets permits the utmost in convenience. A breakfast book with textured walls enters off the kitchen.

A decorative stairway with wrought iron hand rails leads to the second floor which comprises three cheerful bedrooms, each of which permits of cross ventilation. The bedrooms are finished in the soft graduated pastel tints. The bath room has tile floor and walls, recessed tub and shower with tiling four feet six inches high.

Here is a decoration scheme that could be carried out in this home that would tend to make it harmonious in exterior and interior.

Living Room: Woodwork, walnut finish walls, rough plaster surface in an antique parchment color, floor covering, medium green Wilton made to cover the floor entirely up to the show molding, glass curtains ecru French marquisette, over draperies, green ground cretonne with Jacobean design in copper, orange, rose, lavender and black, furniture, sofa with covering of copper red piped in green, a pair of extra pillows to be covered in Roman striped taffeta to harmonize with the colors in the...

Name of today's home- The Comstock.
Plan Number, Detroit News Plan No. 421.
The home to be 24 feet wide, 26 feet deep, not including extension for vestibule and front steps or breakfast room. Will go on 34-foot lot with side drive.

Basement walls of concrete blocks 12 inches thick, waterproof with damp proofing cement below, grade outside, painted inside, brick above grade.

Exterior walls on all sides face brick veneer to belt line with stone trim around doorway. Front gable stucco with English timber trim, other walls and gables stained shingles. Steel window casements and sash throughout first floor, with plaster jambs, wood on second floor.

Interior trim sap gumwood upstairs. Detail trim.
Bathroom floors and walls four feet six inches' high tile; double shell Pembroke tub with overhead shower, square bracket washstand standard toilets, Venetian medicine cabinet.

Walls of Living Room and dining room antique plaster, stippled ornamental panels and cove ceiling Kitchen and breakfast room walls painted and tinted. All ceilings throughout the house painted.

Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.