HOME-MADE FURNITURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2254, 19 May 1881, Page 4

HOME-MADE FURNITURE.

Share are many large houses that have empty rooms, oftimea the pleasantest room in the homo, that can bo made to look very pretty at small expense, and sot take much time, either. The necessary materials and tools aro a saw, hammer, tanks, gimp, cretonne, or chintz, barrels, boxes, boards and paint. If the floor is hare, and a carpet cannot be afforded, it can bo painted, even by an amateur, in pretty blocks, one dark, one light, alternately; than, if rugs are scattered around the floor, it will not have the cold look that bare floors usually do hove. Of curtains or lambrequins I will speak in the future ; there is no exhausting that subject. For rooms of this sort, curtains should be used that fall from the ceiling to the floor, draped back from the centre ; this gives height and breadth lo the room, and a graceful appearance generally. Lambrequins, without curtains underneath, give a stiff look to a room, particularly one that is intended for a sitting or bedroom. These curtains may be made of muslin, cheese cloth, cretonne or chintz, to match the furniture coverings of the room. They ore hung on wood or brass polos, or with a deep valance at the top. A single or double bod may bo made by having the sides and ends of a box made six inches deep, slats pub across for the springs, which are made of copper and fastened together by a hoop of copper wire that makes the top flat and of even surface. Wooden legs may be put on the box with castors. There is no footer bead-board to these simple cots, only the large square pillows at the head. The box may be covered with cretonne or chinlz, or painted, and, with the spread falling over it all around, the bedstead is effectually hidden. Beds of this style are often used in England, in the country houses, though, of course, made of more expensive material. The spread and pillow covers should be of the chintz, though if white enters into the furnishing of the room the bed may be entirely white. A valance should be put around this low bed, falling to the floor. Husk bods are often used on these instead of mattresses.

A low divan couoh is made in precisely the same way, with the exception that the large square pillows are placed at the back. Hemp or jute fringe is an addition to a cretonne covering, with the cloth in two puffa on the box, with gimp between to cover the tacka, and the fringe below the puffs ; in this case a puff is sot in the sides of the pillow. The lounges are often made by having the deep box (no logs), with the castors on the bottom of the hex, then a mattress and a chintz cover with deep flounce, that can be drawn over to tho floor and taken off every night, making tho divan sorvo tho purpose of a bed at night. Tho pillow covers can ho buttoned on during tho day and taken off at night. The copper springs can be bought by tho pound, and are very nice for this purpose, as they are high and fill the box to the top. Sometimes these bed lounges are put on quite high legs, giving room underneath for a box on castors that may bo rolled underneath and the bedding kept in it during the day time. This, about lounges, is in answer to many who have but one room and do not want a bed in it. They servo every purpose, making bod at night and a pretty, low, inviting-look-ing divan during tho day. Juto cloth makes a very pretty cover, with the jute fringe, but is a little more expensive than cretonne, though if tho double width is bought (used for.'curtains) with border and fringe it comes as cheap as cretonne, for the extra length that must be bought in order to get tho border and fringe can be used for the pillows. The pillows can be made of husks, soft cotton, feathers or hair—should bo feathers, of course, if used to sloop on. Ono that I had made was three feet wide, six feet long, and the box eight inches deep. It was quite low—have forgotten the length of tho logs, think six inches—haven’t it now or would measure. The apparent width of the couoh was decreased by the largo pillows at the back that made it look narrower.

These may be made much smaller, of dry goods boxes, and used for window seats. Make them just tho length of the window

the top stuffed with moss, curled shavings, excelsior, hair or cotton, covered with chintz and tied down in diamond patterns with covered buttons. A ruffle is nailed around the top with strong handles to lift the cover. They may then bo used for pocking boxes, for nice dresses or clothes. The windows should bo curtained with the chintz, draped back over tho ends of the window seats, bracket, or shelf. Lambrequins can be made to natch these covers. Starch boxes, tobacco drums, small fourlogged stools, made and covered the same way, are a great addition to the room in filling up vacant places or corners. The tops may be trimmed with cord and tassels or pleatings. Any old table may bo utilised by the addition of a pretty cover. If a long table, even an old kitchen table will do, paint the legs black, as all the furniture of the room should bo wherever tho wood shows ; and if tho paint is varnished it is a very good substitute for ebonised wood. Make a long cover, with the ends hanging nearly to the floor, with a fringe or pleating of the same. If a round table, make a square cover of chintz or cretonne, and around the edge put a wide stripe of tho same and fringe, if it can be afforded, or out a cover the size of the table and tack it over tho top, using gimp and brass-headed nails on the edge. Leather is also pretty. If fringe is added to tho edge of the round table it is quite an improvement, I am accused, and perhaps justly, too, of writing of things that the ordinary purse cannot reach. I give tho ideas of what would, in my opinion, be pretty, and then it can be imitated in cheaper material. A pretty calico may be as effective as chintz if the colors harmonise, and tho article is made tastily. Turkey red calico is particularly pretty for house furnishing, and there are many now calicoes now that come for this purpose. Make the home as comfortable as ingenuity and patience will allow, and see if it won’t shame the husband —if penurious—into giving you spending money for this purpose ; if too poor, then let him give the willing heart and hand to help you, and both together you can make sacrifices until, little by little, the house may be furnished with these simple but comfortable homo articles. Tho question of a wife’s pocket money is one that I could write volumes about, but I forbear, as X believe I am writing up homo furnishing, not pocket money.—“ Monica,” in the “ Household.”