56 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS. 



If the windows have shutters for closing at night, they 

 require very little drapery. Plain white shades, with a 

 border matching the color used in furnishing the room, 

 will look well, and in winter small, cornice-like lambre- 

 quins of a warm, bright tint might be added. Pale, sun- 

 shiny buff, with a touch of scarlet here and there in 

 borders, lambrequins, cushions, and the like will give a 

 bright and cheerful tone to this room, so that, even in 

 stormy weather, it will have about it hints of fair skies. 

 In ceiling and walls this tint is cheaply obtained in calci- 

 mine. The wood-work, if of clear pine, can be varnished 

 without paint. If old and time-scarred, it had best be 

 stained walnut-color, or oiled and varnished. The large 

 square of carpet should be in a small leafy and mossy pat- 

 tern, of dark and light brown, with a brown and scarlet 

 border. Twelve yards, three breadths four yards long, 

 will make an ample "rug" for a room twelve by fifteen 

 feet, or even larger. 



If there are some household purses that cannot afford 

 even these twelve yards, let no one be heart-broken ! I 

 have know T n more than one charming, home-like room 

 whose only carpet was of woven rags, or a glossy coat of 

 "ppruce yellow," with a braided rug before its pleasant 

 hearth. 



Rag-carpeting, in the manufacture of which the whole 

 family might join one or two evenings in each week, can 

 be made so as to be quite tasteful, as well as substantial, 

 and should be preferred to the cheap, easily worn and 

 easily faded hemp and cotton -ingrain carpeting. For in- 

 stance, if a carpet for this buff and scarlet room is lack- 

 ing, color all the old white rags and white-ground cali- 

 coes a deep orange, sew them in balls by themselves, an 1 

 then twist them with balls made of all colors, except red, 

 which must be saved for the bordering. The twisting 

 can be accomplished by winding a ball of each into one 

 ball. Ten balls of orange, estimated at a pound each, 



