VI 
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I 
& 
SOME NEW IDEAS ON FURNISHING. 
fonet «wi3 Ptciortul 
ame 
iGHlj 
itiiuon. 
Dear Niece : I am glad to hear you have con¬ 
cluded to exchange the hoarding-house for a comfort¬ 
able home of your own ; and I want to give you my 
advice about a few things before you undertake it, 
as one who has never tried it has a good deal to learn 
in going to housekeeping. 
You seem to be worried and sorely perplexed be¬ 
cause the house your husband has selected has one 
room which you will have to use for both sitting-room 
and parlor, and it is about this room that I wish to 
speak. As your room is large, I think it will be an 
a< vantage to a small family like yours, and with your 
limited means, to have it all in one. When I began 
to keep house I thought, too, that a parlor was in¬ 
dispensable } and although we had a cosy, 
handsome sitting-room, which was good 
enough in which to receive any of our 
guests, I could not rest until your uncle 
bought parlor furniture for a room which 
we needed more as a bedroom, and had 
bedroom furniture for; although he had 
to go beyond his means to do it. I hope 
there are not many young people as fool¬ 
ish as I was. I never enjoyed that par¬ 
lor; we did not use it except when we 
had company, and do what I would, it 
would have the stiff, company look, and 
my friends always seemed to enjoy them¬ 
selves better in the little sitting-room. 
A parlor is a necessity where there 
are grown young people in the family, 
or their means warrant them in enter 
tabling a great deal of company. Such 
a room is much more easily kept in order 
if the furniture belonging to each depart¬ 
ment be kept by itself. For instance, 
near one of your windows place your 
machine, your sewing-stand, or basket, 
or whatever you use in that capacity, your 
low chair, and one for the machine. 
And here let me tell you, I use one of 
those large, deep sewing-baskets, and have no need 
of a stand, as it is lined with bright silk, and, standing 
on the floor by the machine, forms a handsome little 
piece of furniture, and holds all the unfinished sew¬ 
ing any one ought to have around at a time. Ma¬ 
chines now have so many drawers and boxes they 
hold everything else needed for sewing work'. 
Your library, or parlor part of the room, should 
contain a table, sofa, an easy chair or two, a fancy 
paper-holder, your bookcase, or shelves, as the case 
may be, and your organ and music stand. Your table 
need not be marble-topped or polished mahogany of 
some intricate design, to add to the elegant appear¬ 
ance of your room, as I know you could not afford 
anything of that kind; but it should be round, and 
covered with a warm-colored cloth to match the sur¬ 
roundings. Some designs have been given in The 
Florae Cabinet of home-made ones that would be 
quite as handsome as any you could afford to buy. 
Your sofa need not be a costly article-; you can have 
some carpenter make you a frame which you can j 
cover and stuff with your own hands; or one of the 
cottage lounges well dressed, with a large, square 
pillow at each end, covered to match the rest of it, 
looks very well. It is most economical in the end to 
buy the regular furniture rep for lounge-covers, as it 
always looks well and never wears out. A nice, 
cheap way to fix the pillows is to cover them with 
plain calico or cambric of the desired color, put a 
heavy cord around the edges, a tassel at each corner, j 
and for the side you have out knit a square worsted 
tidy, large enough to nearly cover it, and fasten it on 
cornerwise. The pillows can then be turned over 
when in use, and can be kept nice a long time. The 
tidies for the two should be different patterns, but the 
same colors. 
Put whatever articles of furniture the children may 
have in a corner appropriated to their use, and let 
them be required to keep that part of the room in 
I want to tell you how to make several nice pic¬ 
tures for this room. Gather a number of ferns of 
different varieties, clover, ivy, and geranium leaves, 
sprays of blackberry vine, oak, and maple leaves, 
and any others you may think would be nice, and 
bleach them to a pure white by immersing them in 
a solution of chloride of lime, one cupful of lime to 
a half-gallon of soft water being about the strength 
required. Have the solution in a glass jar, so you 
can tell when they are white enough ; it will take 
several days, some longer than others. When white, 
take out and lay in a book until wanted for use. 
They look lovely, arranged in the form of a wreath 
or bouquet, on black velvet and framed in a deep 
frame. 
A pretty companion picture for this is made by ar¬ 
ranging brilliant autumn leaves, which have been 
carefully pressed, in the same form on white velvet, 
and framing to match. The leaves and ferns must 
be fastened to the velvet with mucilage 
in some places, and some stitches with 
white thread taken across the stems where 
they will not show. 
Some of our magazines give colored 
title-pages which form handsome mats 
for bunches of pressed flowers. For ex¬ 
ample, I have just made a picture out 
of the beautiful plate in the January num¬ 
ber of the Demorcst. I covered the cen¬ 
tre, which contained the title of the book, 
with a bouquet of pressed pansies and 
ferns, and framed the whole, and you 
would be delighted with it. A pretty 
cross to put on a bracket, is made by 
tying candle-wicking on a plain wooden 
cross, so as to leave ends all over it, 
and crystallizing this as you would 
Thr Last Song of Winter. 
order. Children cannot begin too early to save 
mamma’s steps, where, as in your case, she has all her 
own work to do. Just as much as older ones, these 
little men and women need something on which to 
seat their guests. Too many small chairs are apt to 
be in the way, but small wooden boxes, fitted with 
lids with leather hinges, and covered with ingrain 
carpet or some stout rep goods, are always handy, as 
they can be used for footstools, and as receptacles for 
the children’s toys or picture-books. If a small sofa 
frame is made, so that the seat is a lid that can be 
raised, and the whole covered and stuffed, it will do 
as well as these boxes. Their small chairs should 
always be furnished with tidies, and quite small girls 
can be taught to make them, with spatter-work on 
! linen, or with two colors of dress braid, cut in equal 
! lengths and pinned on a pillow' so they can be woven 
i together in the form of a checkered square. All the 
| ends must be fastened, and a fringe of zephyr put on 
| or a border crocheted. 
grasses; cover the foundation with dried 
moss, and trail a delicate pressed vine 
over it. 
Your children can make small brackets 
for their part of the room, by getting the 
triangular pieces of gilt moulding that 
come out of the corners when frames 
are made, tacking two together and fast¬ 
ening on a little shelf, covered with gold 
paper. One or two of these looks well, but do not 
have too many of any one kind of ornaments un¬ 
less you want your room to look like a fancy 
store. 
Such a room papered, carpeted, and curtained 
nicely, which you can afford since you do not have 
to furnish a separate parlor, will be elegant enough 
in which to receive any of your guests, and you will 
find it much easier to entertain them than it would 
be in a room set apart for that purpose. Then, be¬ 
sides, you will have a beautiful room for yourself and 
your children to live in, and in which to receive your 
husband w r hen he comes home from his daily toil. 
We should always remember that beautiful surround¬ 
ings have a refining influence on our families, and 
look to their interests first. 
I meant to tell you some things in regard to your 
dining-room, but my letter is too long already, and 
I’ll have to leave it till the next time. 
Aunt Mollie. 
iTC 
