ORNAMENTS FOR THE FIRE STOVE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1747, 25 September 1879, Page 4

ORNAMENTS FOR THE FIRE STOVE.

In many houses Igo into (says a correspondent of the " Queen"), Ares are still laid, and no attempt is made at ornament to hide an ugly or embellish a pretty Btove. Yet there are some adventuresome ones who have gone in for " ornaments for the firestove," and for these Ido not write. I only wish to give ideas to those who do not know how to replace a cheerful fire, or coals, wood, and paper. There are a thousand and one ways of doing it cheaply, and as many of going a more expensive way to work. Then again the pretty tiled stoves, with the square grates and high mantelpieces require very little decoration; while the old-fash-ioned ugly black stove, which young couples, with aesthetic tastes, in doing up their houses cannot afford to replace, requires more decoration than any other. Shavings and the old-fashioned gaudy paper ornaments are ugly and obsolete, and now that so many people have curtains running under the mantelboard, made of the same cretonne or material with which their furniture is covered, and which, when drawn, serve entirely to shnt out all view of fireplace or fender, I should suggest these, though they are almost cheaper than anything else. Many people remove their brass !or iron fender, and in its place have one of canework, which they fill entirely with palms and ferns; but it is only the rich who can afford this, as the plants want changing so often, and are expensive in the first place. Peacocks and peacocks' eyes are very much in vogue. There are several pretty ways of using those. I have seen a stuffed peacock, with its tail outspread, standing on the hearthstone, which was Berlin blacked, and strewn with peacocks' eyes. The fender had been removed, and the peacock was placed bo that its grand tail spread entirely over the ugliest part of the top of the stove, and its body hid the' lower part. This snits the most aathetic rooms, as well bs those in the strictest Gillow style. Japanese paper umbrellas, though much used, are, to my mind,, ugly; but if you have the patience to coyer them entirely with peacock's eyes or dried ferns laid on thickly, so as not to betray their foundation, they become extremely pretty and novel. Palm leaf fans, which cost one penny and twopence each, can be nSed in various ways. The best I know is to make several into one huge fan, the shade of the palm leaf or the ordinary fan. This is done by sewing them together on a piece of cardboard cnt the shape you want your ornament to be. Leave the handles of the fans on or cut them short as you like. You can also use peacocks' eye fans and the Japanese paper ones in the same way, provided the latter are not too brightly coloured. Screens, the shape of the front of your stove, would look very pretty in these fans, and could be fixed by tin tacks, the tiny holes they make being filled up in the winter by putty Berlin, blacked over or coloured, according to the colour of your Btove. Virgin cork is inexpensive, you san have a small fernery made out of it to your stove, only take care to have hardy 'arns and creepers, and arrange that either you can take it out to water your plants, or nave some arrangement which may be emptied now and then fitted behind to hold the water. Then again you may have a tin, painted moss green, made to fit your grate, in which you can keep fresh flowers. Half fill your tin with moss, in which you can stick the Btalks of your flowers, and you can easily manage to hide the bars of the grate with fern leaves, and droop some branches of creepers over into the fender. When cut flowers fall short, pots of flowers may take their places. One very pretty, tho'igh rather expensive, ornament is to have a sheet of looking-glass fastened over the front of the atove. Then place in the fender pots of either palms, ferns, or flowers, covering the potsand filling up the interstices with moss, then you have your room and the plants reflected in the background, Or instead of the looking-glass have a frame rf light and dark brown cane, similar to the window blinds so much in vogue, and over it all train ivy, the roots of which must be in ♦heir pots in the grate, and muat be kept moist. If you h »ve a brass coalscuttle you can fill it with pot pourri and Etand it on the hearthstone in front of the grate, which you might fill with peacocks' eyes ; Jbut if you have neither pot-pourri or peacocks' eyes, have tall ferns planted in the coalscuttle, and they will tide both grate and stove.

All these ornaments are for black stoves ; for the new fashioned square-tiled ones I can Buggest nothing better than that you should use them as a what-not or mantelpiece, and place in them and round them blue and white china, or whatever china you have a fancy for, fans, and flowers. If you have not a surplus of these articles, and do not want to buy more, put a bunch of peacocks' eyes in a china jug, and set it inside the bars of the grate ; or instead of feathers, flowers. Some of the stoves are so pretty in themselves, that I am inclined to think " beauty unadorned is adorned the most."