April 1953

Who's going to teach our children?

A man who taught "Problems in Democracy" in a small-town, New England public school quit a few months ago because he couldn't see how to raise a family on less than a millhand's wages.

Dollarsavers that help furnish your home

What's wrong with this family?

How to angle for privacy

Beyond shelter, every house should provide privacy-- when and where it's wanted. And that's not always easy to obtain, if your lot is within backfiring distance of a busy street.

Take are of your roses now

Have you heard the Latest Garden News?

You can be an expert quickly with the aid of this new method of propagating cuttings, which was developed at Michigan State College.

WHAT'S NEW in home furnishings?

Color is the biggest news... not new colors, but new ways of incorporating them. Color is built right into some of the new synthetic fabrics.

Dress-ups for problem windows

Before you choose your window treatment, you should know what you expect of it. If you carefully analyze what you want, and choose your curtains, draperies, and shutters accordingly, there are many things they will do for your home decorating. A good window treatment should be both decorative and functional.

A clever plant shelf will Improve your outlook

Chart your way to easier living

Does the 40-hour week apply to your home? Time was, not so long ago, when it took anywhere from 60 to 80 hours a week to run a home. This didn't leave much time for the family to relax together. We've been in a huddle with Designer Russel Wright, who's made a project of discovering the easier way to do everything around the home. With him, we worked out and tested a chart (see page 63) to help you and your family enjoy your home more.

Preplan your house for easier living

This is an unusual house. It is unusual because its owners remembered this simple rule too often overlooked: Insofar as is possible, preplan your home before it gets on your architect's drawing board.

You'll be glad you chose Colorado

At one time or other every family makes a vague promise that sometime we're going to take a real vacation-- in Colorado. "Colorful Colorado" is more than a catchy Chamber of Commerce expression that has been poured into the ears of more than 3,000,000 visitors a year.

Keep a picture outside your window

Stand-bys for your perennial borders

Sure color for shade

A house that gives yon built-in privacy

Privacy is where you make it. That may be on a narrow city lot or a wide-open country acreage. But only when you plan for privacy do you get it.

Bouquets that bring spring in

Your kitchen can have everything

It takes logical, systematic planning to make a kitchen as trouble-free as this one! Every inch of space has been accounted for by Designer-owner J. M. Little of Toledo, Ohio. It all started from a poorly lighted, inefficient kitchen. Preparing family or company dinners and cleaning up afterwards was a real chore. There was unnecessary traipsing to and fro between sink and range-- and to the refrigerator tucked away in the outer hall. But just check the "before" plan to tell you this story.

Flexible walls for convenience's sake

Hard-to-find woods at Easy-to-take prices

Ever work hard on a project which should have been made of cabinet woods, but wasn't because cherry, walnut, maple, mahogany, and the similar varieties cost so much and were often so hard to find?

Look at these young ideas in an old house

From the street, your home might look its age. But inside, you can make it as trim and livable as the new house next door. That's what the Dale Graces of Terrace Park, Ohio, found when they remodeled their 70-year-old home.

Budget decorating solves their problems

Make the most of your Furniture arrangement

If you plan your furniture arrangement carefully, you can make any room in your home serve you better.

Dividers give yon an entrance hall

Nails, screws, bolts, and fasteners

Let me have a pound of nails about this long, please," said the handyman, holding up a finger and thumb for the hardware man to go by.

Natural-wood cabinet camouflages ironer

Building in appliances is a way to get double use from space. When not in use, this ironer is out of sight. Its enclosure becomes part of the other storage cabinets in this small utility and storage room in the E. C. Middelsen home, Clayton, Missouri.

Remodel the house you can get

Sometimes it's all but impossible to get the house you want in the neighborhood where you want to live.

Save your cups!

For a striking decorating scheme Highlight one pattern

Here's a combination living-dining room where one bold pattern gets the big play. When you're using a bold pattern like this, the question is how to use it and where to use it. Overly done, the pattern becomes monotonous and loses much of its dramatic decorative effect.

Don't help them steal your car

One morning I discovered that my car which had been parked overnight on the street was gone. I had the keys with me and I remembered laving locked the doors and windows. The police believed it had been borrowed by some teenagers for a pleasure jaunt, and would be abandoned by them later. that the trunk had been broken into from behind the back seat. The spare wheel and tire were gone, also a jack and some tools. The glove compartment had been rifled of a flashlight and my driver's and ownership licenses.

Kitchen eatspot that disappears

Low-cost decorating ideas for your scrapbook

How to cure a bad code

What makes your building costs so high? Materials, to be sure.

BABIES? We want five!

We've been married two years, have two little boys, and we're planning to continue having babies until we have a family of at least five.

White walls put zest in old rooms

The question: How to give a large, old home an up-to-date interior? Answer: Withdraw all your savings and mortgage the car, or let color and a little imagination do the job.

Let a sponge do the job

Wet a sponge and you can scrunch it into corners, wipe away dirt without effort. Rinse it out; it'll dry quickly, fresh as when it was brand new.

Here's how to invite your friends over

Who? Who's to come is your first all-important decision. You'll want to mix your guests as carefully as you would a choice fruit punch. You'll be blending interests and personalities, to make this party delightfully memorable.

What size should it be?

When your youngster thinks you're mean

We were picketed in our own living room the day before Easter. The crayon-printed sign, taped to a ruler, read "UNFIAR TO CHILDREN!" Our 8-year-old son carried it on behalf of his sister, who had not been permitted to go to the movies after attending two parties that day.

Build-it-yourself storage headboard

Here's a real find if you're looking for an extra bed at a budget price. It's a smart modern bed, complete with drawers underneath for shoes or blankets, and a headboard offering plenty of storage space in a spot where there's seldom any. Total cost of the bed and headboard: $28.

They're swell to have in a pinch, but Near neighbors needn't pinch you

Life can be your own even on a 50-foot lot. Friendly and welcome as near neighbors are, they needn't look into your living room, unwillingly join you at every meal, or watch you hang out the wash. These are problems that architects are continually asked to solve, and in this case the solution has been found with no penalty for the owner. In meeting the problem, the architects have come up with a plan better than the ordinary.

Here's a ready-for everything room

If you need an extra room, one that's a catchall for family activities, it doesn't matter if you plan to build on, or to fix up one you already have. In either case, this room has ideas that will help you. Careful furniture arrangement (and a fireplace) has made it an all-purpose room. Comfortable furnishings give it an easy, relaxed atmosphere that you feel the minute you enter.

A new house with that lived-in look

What makes one home look cozier and friendlier than another? Just think about the homes in which you visited. By looking at the pictures from this home, you know it's the sit back, relax, and have fun type. It's a new home, to be sure. But the rooms shown here look friendly and inviting. It doesn't have that polished, "straight from the department store" atmosphere that the interiors of so many new homes have.

Try these arrangement ideas

New kitchen for $500

How to cure and avoid paint failure

Good, quality paint applied properly will give you a job to be proud of for years. But if the paint is not applied under proper conditions, you're going to be disappointed.

Solutions to storage problems

You may choose custom built-ins or furniture highly engineered to give you built-in flexibility. But intricately partitioned furniture and beautifully paneled storage walls are expensive.

Help yourself to better-looking rooms

NEWS about your child's health

Significant findings concerning the health and development of your children are discussed and debated at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In February, 1952, Better Homes & Gardens brought you a report on such a session. Because of your great interest in that report, here is another on new developments of special interest, compiled at the most recent national meeting of your children's doctors.

Storage space is where you find it!

French Provincial gives you Informal comfort and elegance

Just as they've always done, people who love their homes furnish them so they can live easily and comfortably. This is as true now as it was 200 years ago, when a new design was born in France. Today, that design is called "French Provincial"-- an American name for it-- which means, literally, "made in the provinces of France."

New ways with antiques

Loaded with decorating ideas

Your pet and mine

Cockers are natives of Spain, from which they derive part of their name. They are gay, lively pets, personable companions, and possess an unshakable quality of devotion. They are rarely street roamers.

"New" old house has space aplenty

How to paint a wall

Inside pointers for painters

Short cuts to extra-early home-grown vegetables

Here are some tricks that will help you feed your family better at lower cost with homegrown vegetables during the early spring. That's the time when vegetables are high-priced. Earlier vegetables save you money because you don't have to buy shipped-in produce when prices are at their peak. In addition, early vegetables will increase the yield from your garden.

Will your locks foil those sneak burglars?

Today's residence burglar is a sneak burglar. He robs with minimum equipment, sometimes only a jackknife. Then, if he is picked up, he'll have no incriminating burglar tools in his pockets.

Enjoy your view day and night

Let's look at May

Here's just a sample of what we've planned for you in our May issue.

Start off with something smaller

Buildings big enough to remodel into a home are scarce. But if you do a bit of judicious searching, you can probably find a good small building worth adding to.

Save sewing time with these short cuts

Try blacktop garden paving

You take pride in making your property look nice-- and in keeping it that way. And when you build a terrace, or resurface a driveway or walk, you like to do it yourself.

APRIL GARDEN REMINDERS: Now's the time to...

Enclose your tender tulip, lily, and Oriental poppy shoots with cylinders of mesh screening as temporary protection against rabbits.

Easy does it AROUND THE YARD

Six good garden work centers

Three good, one-story homes

Almost nine-tenths of the single-family detached homes built in the United States during a recent six-months' period were one-story homes, according to a government survey.

The diary of a Plain dirt gardener

April 1 Grass began to grow today --and I'm not foolin'. If we don't get a cold snap and setback, I'll have to get out the mower in a few more days.

Article

Yon can make your own plant boxes

Plant boxes make your favorite plants portable. Set plants in smart, sturdy boxes, and you can move them about your terrace for color where and when you want it.

This really was a problem slope!

This is a success story that started with a sloping lot so steep you could never stand on it squarely and say, "here it is. This is just right."

Article

Article

How to grow lettuce

How to grow the quickest fruit--Everbearing strawberries

Newer varieties. Red Rich, Superfection, and Brilliant everbearers are leading performers here. Evermore does well in Minnesota, Colorado, and New Mexico; Gemzata in Massachusetts; and Twentieth Century in Oklahoma and Illinois.

Garden clinic

There's an all-fear study in your open porch

Like many families (yours, too, maybe?) the Henry E. Norths had an open porch that was seldom used-- and a house too small for their needs.

Try these trim ideas on an easy-to-sew apron

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Hung a "Wet Paint" sign on that two-color job I did on the front porch, but it seems I'll have to touch it up again. I forgot about our A. K. (Alley Kat). Either he can't read or he just doesn't give a hang.