44 
House & Garden 
DECORATING YOUR OWN FURNITURE 
With the Aid of Stencils Even the Amateur Can Make Furniture 
Old or New Blossom With Color 
E 
VERY time you see a 
piece of beautifully deco¬ 
rated furniture in the 
shops or elsewhere, you are apt 
to think with longing of some 
old furniture of your own at 
home that would fully equal it 
if you only had this art of 
camouflaging at your finger 
tips and could reel off birds 
and flowers and unbelievably 
straight lines with the best of 
them. 
There’s that corner cupboard 
of your grand aunt’s, of an un¬ 
assuming cherry and badly 
worn in spots: beautifully high priced this 
would look painted in old blue with an interior 
of lemon yellow and decorated on its drawers 
and cupboard doors with nosegays of light yel¬ 
low, green and gray! Those quaint cottage 
chairs, so shabby that you have hid them in 
the attic years on end, how gloriously satisfy¬ 
ing they would be done in Chinese red, dull 
gold accenting their turnings, and new soft- 
yellow rush-bottomed seats! And your bird’s- 
eye maple wedding present would more than 
make up for its decade of blatant butter color 
by assuming a new dress of a putty tone, with 
lines of old rose along the edges, and colorful 
decorations where each should be, at head and 
footboard of the bed, on dresser drawers, on 
the backs of chairs! 
But why tempt you with these fond ideas? 
You have never painted? Designing is be¬ 
yond you? You know nothing of art, you 
say? 
Experience Not Needed 
But I have tempted you with a purpose, 
for it is not necessary to be experienced 
in any one of these. With faith in your 
powers, some colorful paint, the proper 
implements, some stencils cut and ready, 
these directions that will follow, and the 
experience that comes of practice, your 
decorated furniture that is to be will rival 
all those things you have been gazing at 
so long through eyes of envy. 
ETHEL DAVIS SEAL 
There are two fields for exercising your en¬ 
deavor. New furniture you have ingeniously 
bought for just this purpose, and your old, 
shabby things at home. New furniture in¬ 
tended for painting is either procured un¬ 
stained, if you are lucky enough to find it in 
this condition, or in the form of inexpensive 
pieces of excellent lines, in spite of some cheap 
and unattractive finish such as shiny oak: 
these you buy up for a song when you find 
them, promising a speedy new coat which will 
fit them for the highest society. 
And as it is never wise to put the cart before 
the horse, while I know that you are on tiptoe 
with impatience to be told how to achieve flow¬ 
ers and posies, it is really best for you to know 
first how to get the proper 
painted background for your 
effective decorations. If your 
furniture to be painted and 
decorated is in its natural 
state and has never before 
been guilty of even a finish, 
it should first be coated with 
shellac. This not only fills 
the open grain of the wood, 
and causes even the first coat 
of paint to go on better, but it 
seals any imperfection or any 
resinous knot that would 
thereafter give endless trouble 
by oozing inconveniently 
when brought in contact with heat, thus spoil¬ 
ing the painted surface. So much for abso¬ 
lutely unfinished furniture. 
If the furniture is old and shabby, and the 
former finish broken, cracked or worn, it should 
be removed by means of a paint and varnish 
remover or thorough sandpapering. After all 
the old finish has vanished and the surface is 
clean and dry, the coating of shellac should 
be applied as for originally unfinished furni¬ 
ture. 
If the furniture is new and varnished the 
finish may be disregarded, except for slight 
sandpapering, and the preliminary coat of 
paint laid on. Otherwise, if desired, the var¬ 
nished finish may be removed, in which case 
one has at once unfinished furniture requiring 
a coat of shellac as already described. 
The First Coats 
The first two coats of paint required 
for furniture may have their chief foun- 
of white lead with turpentine and dryer, 
but with no oil. This may be freely 
mixed with the color pigment to be used 
for the final coats if desired, though this 
is not necessary. After every coat of 
paint is finished it should be allowed to 
dry thoroughly, then before laying on the 
next one it should be well sandpapered: 
every surface should be smooth and free 
from lumps, drops, or other irregularities; 
also it should be sufficiently roughened 
