A chamber in a rural cottage could be a kitchen, dining room, bedroom or a living room where guests were entertained and small animals were sheltered in winter.

    Wooden houses in Pieniny were built of fir logs with gaps between the logs filled with moss or swarf. They usually had two living chambers: the black and the white one, separated by a hallway behind which was a storage pantry. The Ruthenians usually had only one chamber and the hallway.

    Chamber interiors were usually arranged diagonally with two unchanging elements: the stove and a sacred corner, with the centre left empty. The ceiling was supported on three logs under which there was a crossbeam with the construction date of the house, builder’s name and a rosette motive carved on it.

    One of the corners of the chamber next to the entrance wall belonged to a stove used for baking and cooking, with an open fire from which the smoke would spread through the room or be carried up to the attic through a kitchen hood. Kitchen utensils were kept on a bench next to the stove with some smaller ones kept in an open cupboard. The opposite side of the chamber diagonally across from the stove housed a sacred corner with benches next to the walls, a table and stools. There was a foldable ‘ślufanek’ bench next to them and a long shelf was hanging on the wall with a gallery of sacred paintings. A bed was standing between the stove and the opposite wall, with a pole for hanging the clothes above the bed.