H?(ie J^Fulies’ St oral lltifuiiet «lii 3 ftctorral Some iSampmiaii 
HOUSEHOLD ART IN THE PARLOR. 
By a Little Boy’s Mamma. 
Let us have parlors ! Not those stereotyped rooms, 
common in America, stiff and formal, with the tradi¬ 
tionary Brussels carpet and hair-cloth furniture, so 
suggestive of cheap hoarding-houses and second-rate 
hotels. There is never any change in these rooms. 
They are shut up, cold and dreary in winter, and shut 
up, hot and dreary ill summer. Oh, my sisters ! these 
are not parlors. A parlor is an,apartment devoted to 
social and family life; the daily gathering and resting 
place of the household for intellectual enjoyment, for 
conversation ; literally, a room to parler in, as its de¬ 
rivation implies. It should, in a manner, respond to 
and sympathize with our aesthetic and physical wants ; 
and to do this its aspect should he changed with the 
seasons; that is, we should have a winter and a sum¬ 
mer parlor. Nor need this involve a large house or 
much expense. The same room may he made, with a 
little art and taste, to assume an appearance appro¬ 
priate to the season. 
For instance, we are going to furnish our parlor for 
the winter. We will choose a small-figured carpet, in 
which the prevailing color shall he a warm, glowing 
crimson, to brighten our room in the dull days coming. 
This carpet may he cheap or expensive, as we please, 
any quality from Ingrain up to Wilton, hut must be 
small figured and so tinted as to give an impression of 
warmth. Our furniture shall he crimson to match the 
carpet, though some other colors are admissible, and 
we will have plenty of easy chairs. There is an air 
of luxurious comfort about them which is very tempt¬ 
ing, especially in winter. If, unfortunately, our furni¬ 
ture is the chilly, slippery hair-cloth, we will buy a 
few yards of crimson rep or plush, some furniture 
gimp and buttons, and an upholsterers’ needle, and 
cover it ourselves. We will not he discouraged; for 
what woman has done, woman can do. This needle 
is about four inches long, and pointed at both ends. 
Its use is easily understood after once seeing it. Even 
cane or willow-seated chairs can he upholstered at 
home, first stuffing with curled hair or “Excelsior.” 
We will have an open fire of wood or coal, and 
above all things, our room shall have a southern or 
western exposure, that it may receive the direct rays 
of the sun nearly all day. No art of furnishing, no 
bright fire, can give the charm which the sunshine so 
freely bestows. 
For pictures we will have a few good engravings 
and one or two richly tinted oil paintings or chromos. 
Of vases, and hanging baskets, and rustic stands, all 
filled with cut flowers, and running vines and bloom¬ 
ing plants, we can hardly have too many. And there 
shall be plenty of autumn leaves to grace a picture or 
brighten a dull corner. 
The curtains should either match the carpet in color 
or be white. If the latter, we will add lambrequins 
the color of the carpet or furniture. Then we will put 
here and there little home-made ornaments, and pretty 
fancies that any woman’s fingers can fashion, and our 
work is complete. And we shall find that with the 
warmth and luxury of colors repeated in the crimson 
carpet and furniture, the rich tints of leaves, and flow¬ 
ers and pictures, the bright fire and brighter sunshine, 
our little room will fairly glow with cheery comfort. 
r l hen, when all is dull and dreary without, when col¬ 
orless Nature, with her naked trees and brown fields 
stripped of their gay drapery, is waiting for her cold, 
white robe, we will turn to this cosy nest where are 
gathered the leaves and flowers—Nature’s lost treas¬ 
ures—and find there all for which we sought in vain 
without. But, nestled in this pretty parlor paradise, 
winter will quickly pass away, and we must already 
be making our plans for the coming summer. 
When we take up our carpet in the spring we will 
put it away and buy sufficient straw matting to cover 
the floor. This will be no added expense, for it can 
be bought as low as thirty cents a yard; and will not 
the more expensive woolen carpet last just twice as 
long? Next make or buy two or three green rugs. 
If we have some old woolen rags of two or three 
shades of green, we can make “ drawn-in mats,” 
clipping the ends carefully after they are drawn 
through. If these are properly done they will resem¬ 
ble green moss, and we will place them here and 
there, before a sofa or near a door. We will need a 
few yards of green “ Holland ” (cambric will do), and 
from this an upholsterer shall cut us some furniture 
covers. After these are made they must be neatly 
, fastened on with narrow green ribbon, catching them 
here and there with a needle and thread. This will 
protect the nicer rep, or plush, or broeatelle, and is 
much cooler than the warm woolen material, so com¬ 
fortable in winter. Then a yard of Nottingham cur¬ 
tain lace—the very coarsest, only twenty-five cents a 
! yard—will furnish us with a dozen little tidies, finished 
either with a broad hem or a fringe of thread. These 
are very simple, and cost almost nothing, and can 
scarcely be told from the elaborately knitted and 
darned tidies which represent so much labor or expense 
—the figures of the lace showing to perfection against 
the dark green of chairs and sofas. 
If the mantel-piece is not marble, it can be covered 
with green enamelled cloth and finished with fringe. 
If any pieces are left, we will cover little triangular 
and semi-circular pieces of wood, finishing with 
fringe, and put up about the room for bracket shelves. 
On one of these we will place a statuette with an ivy 
growing around it; on the next a rustic basket, filled 
with ferns and drooping vines ; on another a. vase of 
flowers, and on the mantel baskets filled with the 
various ferns, and mosses and vines. 
Observe one thing in the arrangement of a summer 
parlor: There should be very few blooming plants, but 
rather mosses and ferns, not only because these grow 
better in darkened, shaded rooms, but because there is 
a dewy coolness and freshness about them which 
brings suggestions of green forest depths and shadowy, 
mossy glens, and makes them most appropriate for 
some scorching summer day, from the parched field or 
the dusty street, lead him into this shaded bower, with 
its cool, white matting and mossy green mats, its 
windows shaded by green blinds and draped with 
white, its furniture in its green and white unifonn, its 
vines, and mosses, and ferns, all in Nature’s own fresh 
livery, and as he sinks into the green depths of an 
easy chair he will almost think lie is on some mossy 
bank deep in the heart of a forest. And as he looks 
around this little paradise, once an empty room with 
four blank walls, will not his heart grow warmer to¬ 
wards the new, fair Eve, whose deft and willing hands 
have thus transformed it ? 
our summer sitting-room. 
But to many of us, the few dollars needed to carry 
out these suggestions will bo an obstacle. “ Ah,” you 
say, “John works so hard, I do not like to ask him.” 
Well, don’t ask him, then. Think a moment. If you 
have leisure you might earn it yourself; and he has to 
find so many dollars. Had I space I could tell of 
many who have thus lifted their husband’s burdens, 
and made home beautiful, and were none the less 
wifely, and motherly, and womanly for so doing. 
How one gave music lessons to a neighbor’s children; 
another obtained copying from a law office; another 
brought home sewing from a hurried dressmakers; 
another wrote articles for a popular periodical; another 
wrought embroidery for a variety store; and still 
another, boarding in the country for a few weeks, took 
herself and two children into the “ berry field,” and 
thereby not only “ put money in her purse,” but also 
roses in her own and her children’s cheeks, and health 
and strength in every muscle. 
Now when you have succeeded—and you will if you 
toy and that tired husband comes home to dinner 
BRACKETS -ERET SAWING. 
Ladies can make a great many things which are 
both fanciful and useful out of wood in making brack¬ 
ets. They might begin on cigar boxes, which work 
very easy. Take any desired pattern and mark it on 
the wood; make little holes so that the saw can go 
through, then have aviso fastened on a bench or table, 
put the board you design to saw into it, then you can 
get a key-hole saw, or if you can get a frame to hold 
the little saws with, begin to saw, following the lines. 
By the time you have sawed out two or three it will 
become quite easy, so that you can begin on black 
walnut and make them any style or size you wish. In 
putting them together use small screws, which hold 
much better than to glue them. Of course you would 
know that rubbing them with sandpaper and oiling 
them is indispensable in order to have them look well. 
Then there are sofas, and chairs, and bedsteads for 
children. Look at a large sofa, .and draw a pattern to 
suit you ; mark it on your board and saw it; saw out 
where it is to be upholstered in the back; then for the 
ends take a square piece of board the size you want; 
then take another strip and glue on the side close to 
the edge for the rolling part; whittle it round, then 
with a screw fasten these ends to the back. Then 
saw out your front piece with the legs and all on. 
Make your pattern so that the ends will fit round the 
rolling part; then glue it on. When you glue it put 
it in a vise, squeeze it up tight, and let it remain till 
morning. To upholster it you can get pretty shades 
of velveteen. Fix the back first. Fasten it at the 
top first with glue, hold it rather full, then fasten it at 
the bottom; then put in curled hair or cotton enough 
to make it set out full, then take a piece of loose board 
and cut it the shape of the hole and put it in, and glue 
a piece of black alpaca, or something of the kind, over 
it. Then fasten some pieces at the top of the ends, put 
a little cotton under it and fasten at the bottom; then 
take a piece of board the size of the bottom and make 
your cushion on it and put it in, and it is done. 
It may look formidable to some, but a little mother 
gumption and a good deal of perseverance will ac¬ 
complish it. I have made a great many for children, 
and never saw anything on the subject, nor saw any¬ 
one do anything, but I set my wits to work. Many a 
mother and sister might make young hearts glad in 
making these things. Then there is the big chair up¬ 
holstered in the back and sides to match the sofa. 
Then other chairs with a fanciful back and a cush¬ 
ioned bottom; also little bedsteads can be made by 
looking at larger ones and drawing a pattern. Begin 
on plain ones, and you will soon get in the elaborate 
little cradles and picture-frames. In short, there will 
be an innumerable number of things that you can 
make when you once get into it, and then if you like 
the business well enough you can get the Fleetwood 
Scroll Saw, which works like a sewing-machine, and 
then you can do very nice work and very quickly. 
Oneida, N. Y. W. B. H. Folts. 
