Let us enter a rich home and see how the rooms are arranged. We pass through a great oaken door painted green and furnished with a heavy iron knocker, to enter a high and commodious vestibule, the walls of which are hung with pictures, deers’ heads or other hunting trophies. On one side is a broad oak staircase with a lion, griffin, or dragon beautifully carved at the base, and holding in his paws the same coat-of-arms that is carved in front of the gable. Facing the entrance hangs a magnificent oil painting. In less wealthy homes the vestibule is encased with blue and white tiles, and the floor is also laid in the same, and a carved oak or stone bench faces the door. As this “_voorhuis_,” or vestibule, is used by the less fashionable as a living apartment, there also stands here a table, and on the wall a mirror in an ebony frame, and many polished brass vessels and Delft dishes and plates give a homelike character to the spot. A house of this type has a verandah outside, on and under which the small merchant conducts his business, although his office or “_comptoir_” is at the back. If this happens to be a school, the master or mistress teaches his or her class under the “_luifel_”; or, if an inn, this is the meeting or smoking-room.
The “_comptoir_” is also found in the homes of the rich, and the lady of the house often sits there with her children, not because it is the most attractive place, but in order to keep the better rooms neat and clean. In rich houses many of the rooms are known by individual names,—some according to the use to which they were put, others on account of the hangings, the name of the occupant, or an important piece of furniture. Hence we have the salon, dining-room, show-room, the sleeping-room, the little cabinet (office), the gold leather room, the damask room, the matted room, the room of Adam and Eve, Mr. Arends’s room, Miss Emerentia’s room, Mr. Cornelius van Beveren’s sleeping-room, etc., etc.
In wealthy homes the walls of some rooms were encased in tiles, decorated with painted figures, flowers, arms, or pictorial scenes or mottoes; and upon these hung many fine paintings in richly carved ebony frames. In some houses every available space on the wall in every room was occupied by a picture; so that from top to bottom the rooms were filled with masterpieces of art. Some rooms on the ground floor were hung with splendid tapestries, representing hunting-scenes, Biblical stories, coats-of-arms, mythological and historical legends and stories, etc., etc. Other rooms were hung with embroidered materials, with red velvet, with gold or silver flowered borders, or with gold or stamped leather of various colours and patterns. Sometimes, also, the walls were panelled and wainscotted, particularly where beds or cupboards stood. In poor houses the walls were simply whitewashed or covered with square tiles of gay colours. The ordinary burghers strewed their floors with fine sand, and often arranged it so deftly by means of the broom in a design of flowers or geometrical figures that one would think a figured carpet was laid upon the floor. In rich homes the floor, as a rule, was covered with fine Spanish matting; and when guests came, a rug or carpet was spread over this, but on their departure it was carefully rolled up and put away. Some of the floors—often those of the garret—were laid in coloured tiles.