FURNITURE OLD AND NEW.
ONLY the other day we were appealed to by a friend for suggestions on
how to furnish a room prettily, and at the same time inexpensively,
and we know that there are many girls like this friend who, loving to
surround themselves with beauty and comfort, have not the means of
doing so in the ordinary way; but must depend largely upon their own
skill and ingenuity for the gratification of this taste. After all,
there is more real pleasure in planning and contriving the furnishing
of one’s room, even with only a small sum for outlays, than there
is in ordering a set from the furnishers which is exactly like a
hundred others. In the former case we make our room expressive of our
individuality; in the latter we walk in the beaten track of those who
have little or no individuality to express.
So much for the sentiment of the idea. Now let us turn to the practical
side, and find the best way of carrying it out, and putting our
theories into practice.
In mentioning old furniture in the heading of this chapter, we do not
allude to the antiques in such high favor just now; they are unique
and handsome enough in themselves, requiring no contriving to beautify
them; but there are few families who do not possess furniture that
is out of date, old-fashioned without being antique; furniture that
time and hard usage has reduced to a state of shabbiness anything but
beautiful, yet not worth sending to the cabinet-makers to be furbished
up. It is the renovation of such furniture that will help much toward
making a room pretty and attractive.
We need not attempt to restore the furniture to its original state,
that would be impracticable. But we can work wonders in transforming
it; in turning a homely article into one that will be an adornment
instead of a blemish.
=Bookcase.=
Take, for instance, an old bureau belonging to a cottage set. The
mirror, perhaps, is broken, or if it is not it can be used to better
advantage elsewhere. Removing that, there is left merely a chest of
drawers, which we will proceed to convert into a bookcase by the
addition of shelves placed on top. If you have a brother who is handy
with his tools the matter is simple enough; without him a carpenter
may have to be employed to make the shelves, or, by taking the plan
and measurements to a carpenter-shop the materials can be obtained
ready for use, and all you will have to do will be to put them
together. Although there is a saying that “a girl can never drive
a nail straight,” we have reason to believe the contrary, and feel
sure that a little practice will enable most girls to do many bits of
light carpentry work as well as the boys. Three feet is the height
of a bureau belonging to an ordinary set of cottage furniture, so we
will take that as our standard for measurement, and make our shelves
according to it.
[Illustration: Fig. 366.—Diagram of Book-shelves.]
Fig. 366 is the diagram for the frame of the shelves. The side pieces
are made of boards three feet four inches long and nine inches wide;
the top of each of these boards is sawed into a point as shown in
diagram. Four cleats made of sticks eight inches long and one inch
thick are nailed to the side of each board, the distance between being
nine inches.
The frame at the back is composed of two boards five and one half feet
long and seven inches wide, and two, three feet three inches long
(the width of the bureau) and seven inches wide. One of these short
boards is nailed across the top ends of the long boards, and the other
twenty-four inches below. The side pieces are nailed to the back as
shown in diagram, the nails being driven through the back board into
the edge of the side piece.
When the frame is made it is placed on the bureau, the sides resting on
the top and the long back boards reaching down behind where they are
nailed or screwed to the bureau. The shelves are thirty-seven inches
long and nine inches wide. They rest on the cleats and are not nailed
to the frame.
Screws may in some places, answer better than nails.
When the shelves have been adjusted, the whole is painted a dark olive
green.
If the knobs are removed from the drawers before the bureau is painted,
and brass handles substituted afterward, it will add materially to its
appearance.
The bookcase shown in our illustration is finished off with curtains,
which hang by brass rings from a slender bamboo pole. The pole is
slipped through brass hooks screwed into the side pieces near the top.
Curtains of canton-flannel, or any soft material, are suitable for this
bookcase. The colors may be a combination of olive green with old blue,
yellow, cherry, copper color, dark red, or light brown.
=The Chair=
in the same illustration is an ordinary rocking-chair painted olive
green, with cushions at the back and in the seat stuffed with
excelsior, covered with bright cretonne, and tied to the chair with
ribbons.
[Illustration: Bureau Transformed into a Bookcase.]
Chairs of this kind look well painted almost any color; one of yellow,
with yellow cushions and ribbons, is exceedingly pretty.
If the chair to be remodelled is bottomless, reseat it in this way: Cut
some strips of strong cotton cloth about one inch wide and sew them
together, lapping one piece over another, as in Fig. 367; fasten an end
on to the edge of the chair with a tack, and then pass the cloth back
and forth across, each time putting it under and bringing it over the
edge of the chair.
[Illustration: Fig. 367.]
When the seat is filled up with the strips going one way, cut the cloth
and tack the end to the chair; then, commencing at the side, cross
these strips, passing the cloth in and out as if darning. Fig. 368
shows just how it is done. Be sure to draw the strip as tightly as you
can every time it crosses the chair, for if too loose it will sag as
soon as the chair is used. The edge of the chair may be covered with
the cretonne, or a ruffle which is sewed around the cushion.
[Illustration: Fig. 368.—How to Reseat a Chair.]
Fig. 369 is an old settee fitted up with cushions, and a sociable,
comfortable seat it is. It offers plenty of room for two, and ensconced
thereon the girls may rock and talk to their hearts’ content.
These settees are not often seen in the city, but are to be found in
many a farm-house and country town. The one from which our sketch is
taken is painted black, but, like the chair, it would look well any
color.
Fresh, dainty prettiness should be the principal feature of a young
girl’s room, and this can be obtained at very little expense, much less
than most persons suppose.
[Illustration: Fig. 369.—Come and Sit Here.]
Fig. 370 shows what can be done with the commonest kind of furniture.
This can be bought at the manufacturer’s unpainted, and may be left its
natural color and simply varnished, or, following the present fashion,
it can be painted white, and decorated with slender bands or circles of
gold.
As in the illustration,
=The Bedstead=
should have drapery suspended over it. This gives a soft, pretty
effect, and takes away its stiffness. Dotted swiss or thin cottage
drapery answers the purpose nicely.
Ten yards of material cut in two breadths of five yards each are
required for these curtains. The breadths must be sewed together
lengthwise and then passed through a small wooden hoop which has been
gilded or painted white.
When the hoop is directly in the middle of the breadths, the material
must be brought together close to the hoop and two of the edges sewed
or basted together. This seam is to go at the back and keep the curtain
from parting and hanging in two strips.
A ruffle of the same material, or lace, sewed on the edge and across
the ends of the drapery gives it a soft, lacy effect. The ribbons which
loop the curtains at either side should be of the prevailing colors of
the room. If the furniture is white and gold, they should be yellow.
The hoop can hang from a brass chain fastened to a hook in the ceiling.
The bureau belonging to this style of furniture is too clumsy for our
use, although without the mirror it will be convenient as a chest of
drawers. Brass handles in place of knobs will improve it.
=A Dressing-table=
to take its place, like the one shown in Fig. 370, can be made of a
small kitchen-table. The mirror suspended over it should have a broad
flat frame of white pine, varnished or painted to match the furniture.
Almost any cabinet-maker can frame a mirror in this way. Bracket
candlesticks made of brass, which are very inexpensive, should be
fastened to the frame on either side of the glass with brass nails or
brass-headed tacks.
[Illustration: Fig. 370.—What can be done with Common Unpainted
Furniture.]
With a brass handle on the drawer, a pretty scarf of linen crash,
ornamented with drawn work or outline, thrown over the table and
hanging down at each end, and the addition of pin-cushion and toilet
articles, this toilet-table looks very attractive and readily
challenges admiration.
=Washstand.=
A piece of white matting bound at top and bottom, with yellow
cotton cloth for a splasher, as in Fig. 371, and a pretty scarf and
toilet-set, presents this most ordinary washstand in a new light.
Three common kitchen-chairs and one rocker, when painted white or
varnished, as the case may be, and cushioned in pretty light-colored
cretonne, completes this novel, pretty, and remarkably inexpensive set
of furniture.
[Illustration: Fig. 371.—The Ordinary Unpainted Washstand in a New
Light.]
The curtains next to the windows should be of the same material as
that used for the bed-drapery, with the inner one of cretonne like the
chair-cushions.
White matting is suitable for the floor in summer, and during the cold
weather it can be mostly covered with a pretty ingrain rug or art
square, as it is called.
Instead of using gilt, the rings and bands on the furniture may be blue
or red, in which case the trimmings of the room should correspond.
[Illustration: Fig. 372.—Hall Seat Made of a Common Wooden Bench.]
=A Hall Seat.=
As another illustration of what can be done with the most ordinary
piece of furniture, we have chosen a common wooden bench, and by
painting it black and giving it a dark-red cushion with tassels at each
corner, have transformed it into quite an elegant hall-seat. Fig. 372
gives the effect.
[Illustration: Fig. 373.—Window Seat and Book-shelves Combined, Made of
Boxes.]
Fig. 373 shows a
=Window Seat and Book-shelves Combined,=
made of boxes. Eight soap-boxes of the same size are required for the
shelves, and a packing-box about two feet high, two feet in width, and
as long as the window is wide, for the seat.
Remove the tops and two sides of the soap-boxes, and bore holes with a
red-hot poker in one corner of the bottoms of six of the boxes, and in
two of the tops which have been removed, making the holes one inch from
either edge (Fig. 374). In the other two boxes bore in the same place,
but not entirely through, making the holes about half an inch deep.
Place these last two on the floor and pile the others on top of them,
three on each, nailing the bottom of each box to the top edge of the
one beneath it. On the two upper boxes nail the tops in which the holes
have been made.
Have ready two slender bamboo rods about four feet long. Insert a rod
in the hole in the top of an upper box and let it pass down, slipping
it through the holes in the bottoms of the other boxes and fitting it
in the cavity in the lower box.
[Illustration: Fig. 374.—Hole in Corner of Box for Book-shelves.]
In like manner put the other rod in place through the other pile of
boxes.
If the packing-box has a cover, it should be fastened on with hinges,
so that it may be used for a shoe-box as well as a seat; if it has not,
turn it upside down, place the soap-boxes at each end and nail them to
it.
Paint the shelves black or the color of the wood-work in the room, and
upholster the seat and the boxes on either side of it with cushions
made of strong muslin stuffed with excelsior and covered with cretonne.
Fasten the edges of the side cushions to the boxes with gimp braid and
tacks. Make a deep plaiting of the cretonne and tack it across the
front of the large box. When there is a lid a narrow plaiting must be
tacked across its front edge, which will, when the box is closed, lap
over the top of the deeper plaiting.
That this combination of window-seat and shelves is both comfortable
and convenient, one may easily imagine, and that it adds not a little
to the furnishing of a room, we leave to our illustration to show.
[Illustration]