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The Editor zvill gladly answer queries pertaining to individual problems of interior decoration and furnishing. 
sired, please enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope 
When an immediate reply is de- 
Inside the House 
Timely Suggestions and 
Answers to Correspondents 
New Oval Frames 
JMPORT ERS are showing oval picture 
frames of gilt material, designed to 
appear as though suspended from the 
wall by a bow and strings of ribbon. The 
bow-and-ribbon effect is obtained by the 
modeled gilt. 
Cedar Chests 
HE newest things in cedar chests for 
the summer home are those con¬ 
structed in settee form. For cottage use 
they lend themselves admirably to being 
placed in an entry hall and are doubly 
useful in this new form. Miniature chests 
are also made for storing feathers. 
Basket Candelabra 
§ ILVERSMITHS are exhibiting candel¬ 
abra in several new forms. Among 
them are the four-armed table candelabra, 
each arm of which suspends a silver bas¬ 
ket of the same pattern in which bon-bons 
are held. These are very beautiful for 
the small dining-table. 
Wicker Bird-Cages 
JT ASHIONS for birds seem to be keep¬ 
ing pace with fashions for their own¬ 
ers. The latest things shown are wicker 
cages for doves, parrots and other large 
domesticated birds where a fine-mesh 
cage is not necessary. These wicker 
cages are very attractive and compara¬ 
tively inexpensive. They are modifica¬ 
tions of the old magpie cages familiar in 
the illustrations to fairy-stories, where a 
magpie in such a cage is always to be 
found hanging outside the witches’ door¬ 
way. 
Making a Gold Screen 
E had a Japanese four-fold screen, 
with embroidered pheasants on a 
black ground on one side, and plain dia¬ 
per-pattern on the other, after the fashion 
of all these cheap Japanese screens. As 
an experiment we procured sheets of Jap¬ 
anese gilt paper (such as one sees on 
packages of fire-crackers), and we cut 
them up carefully into squares four inches 
each way. Laying the screen open flat on 
the floor (black side down), we spread 
a paste of starch (not very thick, and free 
from lumps) over the plain-patterned 
side, a section at a time, pressing each 
square lightly with a cloth. The squares 
must of necessity overlap, and therefore 
the edges of the squares already laid must 
be paste-covered, one at a time, so that 
succeeding squares will all be stuck down 
and no loose edges rising to catch and 
tear. As the paste should be very thin, 
it makes little difference whether or not 
it passes over the gilt surface of the laid 
squares. A damp cloth will remove it 
later. When all the panels are covered 
this way the effect will he that of a screen 
of squares of gold leaf, such as one sees 
in expensive shops. We have used our 
screen four years now and it is admired 
by everyone. K. G. C. 
Papier-mache Flower Vases 
pAPIER-MACHE milk jars, seven and 
a half inches high by three inches 
in diameter, are now being made and sold 
by nearly every grocer for five cents a 
piece, or less. Covered with shellac, they 
make excellent receptacles for holding cut 
flowers and a little ingenuity in painting, 
staining and stenciling them will turn 
The conventionalized Iris pattern that was 
used in stenciling the living-room illustrat¬ 
ed in detail on the next page. The actual 
width of the group is 8'4 inches 
them into very decorative adjuncts to the 
furnishings of the summer home, where 
there seem never enough vases of the 
right sort to hold the wild flowers, ferns 
and garden flowers one wishes to bring 
into the house. 
Lavender Keeps Out Moths 
HAVE found, in putting things away 
for summer storage, that flat bags 
of lavender keep moths away as effica¬ 
ciously as anything else I have ever tried. 
Moreover the lavender method has the 
advantage of fragranev against the dis¬ 
agreeable odor of camphor and tar balls. 
M. J. C. 
Staining Burlap Panels 
\T7"E have a five-room apartment, the din¬ 
ing-room of which has a wainscoting 
running up seven and a half feet. The wood¬ 
work is oak, stained black. Everything about 
the room is good except paneling of red 
burlap, which the previous tenant had put in 
the wainscoting. The landlord will not go 
to the expense of substituting a more har¬ 
monious color, and l am writing to ask if 
you can suggest any way of covering it that 
will not be too expensive or clumsy. We 
have a lease for only one year, so we do not 
wish to expend any more than necessary. 
L. C. W. 
You will find that if you coat the of¬ 
fending red burlap with black wood-stain 
(Flemish oak), the result will be a blue 
effect so dark as to be almost black but 
not at all funereal in appearance. The 
same treatment can be applied to the 
bright green paneling that apartment 
landlords seem to enjoy inflicting upon 
their tenants. 
Panels for a Child’s Bookcase 
TN our playroom our children have a 
case for their books in which there 
are four blank panels across the top. I 
got a cabinet-maker to remove the mold¬ 
ings and carefully place therein four col¬ 
ored pictures I cut from a twenty-five 
cent copy of Walter Crane’s illustrations 
(238) 
