boy or girl. The other way. to buy a small set, has the advantage 
of assuring furniture fitted to its owners, adding to the comfort 
and happiness of small persons who feel lost among the large 
pieces suited to grown-ups. A third way is sometimes followed 
by the lover of the antique, who picks up small chairs, stands 
and dressers, perhaps designed for small children of a hundred 
years ago, at an antique shop, or making occasional visits to the 
second-hand shops abhorred by the conventional, finds treasures 
If sleeping-room and nursery must be combined, a connecting porch with high parapet is a 
desirable feature 
curtain material in an inexpensive scheme, as is dotted Swiss. 
Cheesecloth is astonishingly pretty, and may be stenciled in some 
simple repeat pattern. 
If a drapery is desired for a closet doorway or as wind shield 
at the foot of a crib, a home-made piece of embroidery in a bold 
applique is much enjoyed by children, and is not difficult to make. 
A wind shield of unbleached muslin was recently made for a 
small boy, its design of a castle, with primitively drawn bushes 
and winding road, adapted from a tapestry design b\ 
Harvey Ellis. The castle is an appliqued piece of 
silesia, whose stone gray came the nearest to castle 
color of any of the scraps of material in a piece-bag that 
furnished the color scheme, while bits of emerald and 
gray-green silk made the trees and bushes. The distant 
hills were bits of purple and deep-blue silk, and the 
setting sun a gorgeous bit of flame-colored ribbon. The 
border, including the child’s name, was appliqued in 
silesia, dull side out, and the outlining was done in dull- 
brown silk. Tied to the foot of a crib with silk cord 
this shield makes an amusing and effective design at the 
cost merely of the time of the draughtsman and em¬ 
broiderer. 
A room showing effective use of the odd pieces of 
furniture usually found about a house in attic or store¬ 
room was recently fitted up for a three-year-old grad¬ 
uate of the nursery. The room has a western exposure 
and is lighted by a group of three windows, which, since 
the outlook is open, give adequate 
air and a flood of afternoon sun¬ 
light. In winter these windows 
are fitted with muslin-covered 
frames , and are all kept open. 
The curtains are of unbleached 
C JS%j~ ) 
The joy of this playroom arrangement is the house-like alcove. Inside is room enough for a table and 
two chairs — a duck of a place for school and tea parties 
of mahogany or cherry, small enough for a 
child's use, that, done over and disinfected, 
prove pretty and appropriate. Country attics and 
barns are another good source of supply,and the 
quaint types of cottage and farmhouse furni¬ 
ture, the small chairs, tables and dressers found 
in country places make an admirable setting for 
the quaint type of child. 
The cost of furnishing a child's room, of 
course, varies greatly. Furniture may often be 
purchased at a factory or at a retail shop con¬ 
nected with it, or at sales in a large city, at quite 
reasonable prices. A newly designed set, on the 
other hand, of mahogany or Circassian walnut, 
may be as costly as is large furniture of the 
same grade. For draperies or curtain ma¬ 
terials the cost also may vary greatly. The 
English linens in white, with flowers and birds 
in gay colors, cost about a dollar and a half a 
yard, and can be had also in gray-blue and 
other colors, with figures in white. An imita¬ 
tion in quaint, flowered pattern costs sixty-five 
cents the yard. An attractive, yellow madras 
costs a dollar and a quarter a yard. Small bird 
patterns — since children are fond of figured de¬ 
signs it is as well to give them the preference — in the newly re¬ 
vived chintzes printed from old blocks, cost about one dollar and 
fifty per yard. Japanese crepe is to be had at reasonable prices 
at Oriental shops, and Japanese towelling, making a pretty side 
curtain and valance for a group of windows, can be found at any 
department store at ten cents a yard. Scrim is always a pretty 
muslin. The woodwork was painted a creamy white. Below 
the picture rail — a flat molding — the walls were painted a pale 
gray in water colors; above it a light cream color was applied. A 
squirrel design was stenciled in two corners of the room, the line 
of the creature’s tail following the angle of the roof line, and the 
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