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SOME NEW IDEAS FOR THE PARLOR. 
Nothing so much destroys the look of parlor as suits 
of furniture and angular arrangements. It is far bet¬ 
ter to have pieces of two or even three sets of parlor 
furniture, if you will buy furniture in suits. The ar¬ 
rangement of furniture in this show-room, as a rule, 
reflects the mind of the owner, The crotchets, kinks, 
or go-by-a-line woman will arrange her apartment 
after the fashion of her mind. There is no end to the 
fine effect that may be produced; it is a question of 
money as to the richness and magnificence of the 
room; but the beauty and artistic feeling of the room 
is not a question of cash. There are parlors and par¬ 
lors. The amount of money lavished on them is not 
a test of merit, and every man and woman with a 
maximum of taste and a minimum of money, by 
clever arrangement of common things, can vie with 
upper-ten neighbors. In a case of this kind artistic 
feeling and common sense has the advantage of sur¬ 
plus cash. ■ The writer will not attempt a model 
parlor, but simply suggest novel treatments, from 
which the housekeeper can select such ideas as will 
please the owner or will best suit the conditions of the 
apartment. 
A novel effect can be made by the use of cheap, 
gaudily painted Japanese fans. Three of the same 
general tone of color, spread open-spaced in a circle 
around the chandelier and against the ceiling, will 
make a handsome centre-piece. The butts of the fans 
will have to be sawed off some distance from the han¬ 
dle and then tacked to the wall. To hide the jointure, 
they should be pushed under the brass washer. They 
can also be used with effect to cover an unsightly pipe- 
hole, provided it is equi-distant from the side walls. 
There is a general tendency to overcrowd the wall 
with pictures. Better a very few large pictures than a 
number of small ones, in considering the general 
make-up of the room. Paintings and engravings 
should not be indiscriminately mixed in groups, and 
small pictures should be grouped together rather than 
hang unaccompanied on the wall. Family portraits, 
unless possessed of intrinsic merit, become the sitting- 
room or bed-chamber, but not the parlor. Some pic¬ 
tures may be suspended by the artificial vines of ivy 
or autumn leaves, advertised nearly everywhere. Be¬ 
hind others a bottle of water standing on a shelf or 
supported by a string, in which living vines can 
be planted, in time will twine up the cord and 
around the picture-frame. One of the most artistic 
methods of bestowing a picture, especially if it be the 
gem of your collection, is to place it upon an easel 
made of some dark wood. Your carpenter can make 
one for you at a trifling cost, out of pine, if better wood 
cannot be obtained, which may be stained in imitation 
of some of the handsomer species. 
One great rule to be observed is to avoid the litter¬ 
ing up of the mantel piece with a variety of small 
articles, such as mugs, plaster casts and china figures. 
A couple of long vases of odd pattern, with a hand¬ 
some clock, or some of the many unique articles of 
vertu which have become so abundant is much more 
tasteful. A multitude of books or daguerreotype 
cases generally find their way to the mantels or 
centre-table in the hamlets and villages, and are out 
of place, and help to mar many an otherwise pretty 
room. One handsomely illustrated volume, or two at 
the most, are in better taste. The appearance of the 
card-case and imitation receiver savors too much of 
affectation to ever be allowed in the parlor. A vase 
for cut flowers, which is always better with the flowers 
arranged in seeming confusion, and vines trailing to 
the floor and over the table edge, may in the winter 
be replaced by a wax boquet, if the owner can make 
up her mind to do without the glass cover and can 
submit to their transfer. What-nots are a nuisance 
after the admirable designs of Mr. Clarence Cook for 
curiosities, and small fry generally, which of course do 
not belong to a parlor at all, but rather to the library, 
music, or billiard-room. If you have nothing but a 
small mirror, do without any in the parlor. Japanese 
scrolls, hung on rollers, can be used with effect, espe¬ 
cially if the tendency of the room is too dark or sub¬ 
dued. Better one large than two or three small ones. 
The fireplace may be filled with rockery, or an old 
stump with ferns, ivies and moss. A bright-plumaged 
specimen of the taxidermist’s skill adds greatly to the 
picture. I know of no one thing in a parlor, among 
the many devices in ferns, etc., that can at all compare 
with this design, if carried out with proper spirit. 
A remarkably handsome mantel-piece or framing to 
doors and windows may be made by using unpainted 
pine framework throughout. Over the fireplace a 
sentence in German text may be drawn in pencil, and 
in other places geometrical designs or arabesques in 
bold, decided figures; or vines and flowers with an 
occasional bird or two may be attempted if the person 
who executes the drawing is a free hand, otherwise 
you had far better stick to angular figures. Then 
with a steady brush go over the whole work, filling 
around the pencil mark, and not inside of it. The 
best coloring matter to use for this purpose is the 
finest kind of black varnish, shading inside the lines 
with india ink and camel-hair brushes. After this 
is thoroughly dried, several coats of the very best car¬ 
riage varnish. The richness of the unpainted pine 
may be much heightened by sandpapering the varnish 
off a couple of times ; but the tendency is to blur the 
outlines, and unless great care and dexterity be ob¬ 
served your work is irretrievably spoiled. The naked 
wood, after this treatment, will very closely resemble 
inlaid gold work. In a room, however, art would be 
best served by attempting the mantel-piece alone. 
The same principle we have applied to furniture, etc., 
with most excellent effect. Little conception of the 
richness and high tone of the wood can be bad until 
the work is seen. 
A white-painted mantel-piece is an abomination ; 
better plain black or stained wood. A few hassocks 
and rich rugs may be distributed around. In this, as 
with many other articles, if the tone of the walls and 
carpet is dark, the minor articles should be bright, 
which will greatly diminish the sombre tendency. 
The rugs and stools, under ordinary circumstances, 
should not be of shade or color of the carpet and walls, 
but will look well if they match in a general way the 
lambrequins, or if the pattern is the same as that of the 
carpet in different colors, especially if in bold geome¬ 
trical figures. Gracefully hung curtains suspended 
on brass rods or rings have a much handsomer effect 
than the very finest blinds, even should the former be 
of the plainest material 
Singing birds are a nuisance in the parlor, their 
proper habitation being the veranda or sitting-room. 
Wardian cases, aquaria and ferneries add to the beauty 
of a room. A handsome bookcase may be placed in 
the parlor, especially if ornamented with busts and 
protected by curtains instead of glass doors. In place 
of the vase of flowers, or additional thereto, a very 
pretty ornament may be made by using a high wicker 
sewing stand and filling it with cut flowers; or for a 
small sum you can purchase a photographer’s head¬ 
rest, and attaching a basket or metal pan to the top 
of the movable iron rod, till it with cut or living flow¬ 
ers, vines, etc. The rod can then be raised or lowered 
to suit the growing foliage. A few large brackets 
may be placed in odd corners rather than in the broad 
sido wall, on which to place such nick-nacks as gene¬ 
rally find a place on the what-not. 
The corners of the room deserve attention, espe¬ 
cially in a sparsely furnished room, and are susceptible 
of many different treatments, some of those suggested 
by Mr. Clarence Cook being of the greatest variety. 
A bust on a bracket or pedestal fills a corner nicely, 
and handsomely if the bust or statuette is rather large 
and of rare workmanship, and will admit of curtains 
divided in the middle and drawn back at the sides with 
cord and tassel. Light rose or blue curtain with silver 
or yellow fringe or Grecian border, should be sus¬ 
pended on a half circular rod and topped off with a 
Moorish cap of the same material, with border or 
fringe at the juncture of the same. The background 
of the figme should be maroon, or possibly black, in 
order that it may stand out better. A handsome vase 
might be used in the same method, but the effect is 
not as good. A trophy corner has also a fine effect in 
a room. Brightly burnished arms and flags may be 
effectively grouped in a corner, either based on a small 
pedestal or half way up the wall and standing out from 
them; crossed cutlasses, Turkish arms and an ancient 
shield, spears, bows, arrows and the like, make a 
bizarre design for a centre-piece over the mantel or 
between windows, or better still, in the library. 
As before remarked, all these, or modifications of 
them, will go far to make your best room a pleasure 
to the eye. There is great danger of overdoing the 
adornment; the more so if the room be small, and 
great care should be taken not to overload the walls 
or the floor with an incongruous collection of hangings 
and furniture. There are very few who are gifted with 
good taste and judgment sufficient to handle a mass of 
material and reduce it to a happy adjustment. The 
general tone of the best room in summer should be 
airy, comfortable and restful to the eye. The winter 
parlor-should be very warm in tone and fill the eye 
with color. Easily overturned tables, chairs and un¬ 
substantially fastened brackets, pictures, etc., should 
ever be guarded against. One wants to take in 
pleasure through the eye as well as in conversation, 
and a well arranged apartment is a great quickener of 
conversation and happy thoughts. The parlor should 
be unique as well as suggestive to the organs of sight. 
One delights to see something in the general outfit 
that is different from the ordinary imbecilities of house¬ 
furnishing. Then, too, the room is taken as a reflex 
of the owner’s tastes and habits. If he or she be 
gifted with romance, it crops out in furniture, carpets, 
pictures, and bric-a-brac. It is a criterion of taste 
and artistic sensibility, and the owner of a fine parlor 
compliments the world at large in preparing a fine 
apartment wherewith to please all other eyes besides 
his own; for, say what you will, all of us live, more 
or less, in fear of the censure, and covetous of the 
praise, of all the rest of mankind, even down to such a 
practical matter as the appearance of our shabbiest 
room, to say nothing of our best. The parlor should 
not be too fine and bandboxy, so as to oppress man¬ 
kind with the length of your purse; nor so fine as to 
make it uncomfortable for your own family; and your 
friends fearful of motion in the grand chamber, lest all 
the magnificence should come tumbling about their 
ears. The sight of magnificent furniture, wrapped in 
the swaddling clothes of brown hollands, is a melan¬ 
choly one. Warren Walters. 
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