The Editor will gladly answer queries pertaining to individual problems of interior decoration and furnishing. When an immediate reply is 
desired, please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope. 
Inexpensive Furnishing 
VERYONE has not an attic of treas¬ 
ures to resort to. City-ites at best, 
have a storeroom where the kind of treas¬ 
ures one finds in an old country house at¬ 
tic are not to be found. Last summer in 
our attic I unearthed from behind a pile 
of old bed springs, mattresses, etc., three 
small old-fashioned kitchen chairs. They 
were in pretty bad condition, the splint 
seats broken, some rungs missing, and the 
old red paint was very rough. 
I took the chairs, washed them careful¬ 
ly, had new rungs supplied where they 
were missing and then began my work of 
restoration. 
I sandpapered the old paint off, getting 
down to the smooth boxwood or applewood 
of which this type of little old-fashioned 
chair was usually made. 
After the wood was perfectly smooth 
and clean, the dust made by Ihe sandpaper¬ 
ing having been washed off, I applied a 
coat of dull black paint, a second and a 
third coat following as each application 
was thoroughly dry. 
I then purchased wooden seats, which 
may be had at any ten cent store, and fitted 
them to the chairs where the splint seats 
were too far gone to be substantial. Elad 
tbe original splint seats been in good con¬ 
dition, I should have left them as they 
were, or had a maker of rush seats been 
available, I should have had rush seats put 
in. Neither being possible, I upholstered 
the seats, using hair stuffing with a good, 
stout denim covering. Over that I put 
“crinkled tapestry” in old blue. I then 
painted a little design in blue and white 
clematis-shaped flowers on the broad back 
pieces of the chairs, and they were fin¬ 
ished. 
A yard and a quarter of any double 
width tapestry will make covering for four 
moderate sized chair seats. A twenty-five 
and a fifteen cent can of paint was enough 
for the three chairs. One is apt to have 
some hair, cotton, excelsior or floss in the 
house and denim for the lining comes at 
twenty-two cents a yard. 
These chairs cost me very little, and they 
were attractive enough for the living room 
or bedroom of any not too pretentious 
home. 
By hunting around one can pick up old 
chairs at a cost of from twenty-five cents 
to a dollar and a half that can be done over 
at home into very handsome pieces of fur¬ 
niture, providing each process in the 
restoration of the whole is carefully done, 
so that the result will not be amateurish. 
I had the opportunity last summer to 
buy some very pretty chairs for a dollar 
apiece. They were old-fashioned cane 
seated chairs which had been newly enam¬ 
eled in white, at a cost the dealer told me of 
seventy-five cents each, and newly caned 
at a similar cost; rather a losing prop¬ 
osition for the dealer, but a great bargain 
for anyone who wanted some very pretty 
chairs for a white bedroom. 
In the same shop were some charming 
little chairs in very bad repair for twenty 
cents each. The greatest expense in re¬ 
storing them would have been in having 
new rush seats put in. Otherwise they 
When painted and upholstered, the old 
chair looked quite like a well-preserved 
antique 
were in excellent condition and charming 
in proportion. 
If one has not a large pocketbook, but 
a realization of what can be done at a 
moderate cost, providing one has a little 
ingenuity, a home can be furnished 
throughout for a very small sum of money. 
The largest expenditure in such furnish¬ 
ing is of time and* labor. However, the 
pleasure of gathering the odd bits together 
and the enjoyment in doing the work, to 
say nothing of the satisfaction one takes 
in the finished result, more than repays 
one for any inconveniences in the process 
of accumulation and restoration. 
Decorating Over Wall Paper 
HE condition of our living room 
when we undertook to redecorate 
was this: A room with north and east ex¬ 
posure with natural oak trim in very good 
condition, a red brick mantel, the red in¬ 
clining toward brown and the walls cov¬ 
ered with a much-faded dark green crepe 
paper. 
The ceiling had a six-inch drop and was 
papered with a plain mat paper in rather 
dark cream. 
My ideal was a rough plaster oil, 
stained. This was clearly impossible but 
I finally achieved the same effect in the 
following manner: 
All loose ends of wall paper were re¬ 
pasted carefully to the walls and the 
whole surface thoroughly sized. 
Sizing in drying has a tendency to draw 
the paper from the wall. 
Where this was the case it was again 
pasted and thumb-tacks used where the 
paper seemed obstinate. 
Over the sizing were applied two coats 
of ordinary cream paint, the shade of the 
lightest parts of the trim. Had the paper 
been a lighter color one coat would have 
been enough. 
When the second coat was thoroughly 
dry a coat of light wood-stain was applied 
with a carriage sponge. (Stain such as 
grainers use for white oak or maple.) 
The stain was reduced with turpentine 
to obtain the proper shade. 
Beginning at a corner at the top, the 
sponge was passed with a circular motion 
along the moulding to the nearest door or 
(390) 
