SOMETHING FROM NOTHING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 53, 4 March 1926, Page 19

SOMETHING FROM NOTHING.

It was a back room with one windowfacing the west. The rear wall sloped abruptly, which gave it a picturesque aspect that atoned in the writer's es-tima-tion for the discomforts involved. It was a fortunate opinion for this attic chamber was to be her home, records an American woman in "The Christian Science Monitor."

She herself put an oatmeal paper on the walls, trimming it with a narrow horder at top and bottom and around the doors and window. The woodwork ehe painted flat white, giving it three coats, and the floors a dark green. Her most promising piece of. furniture was an extension couch, which sagged like a hammock until she stripped it and replaced seven old springs by new ones. A chair in similar condition was treated in a similar manner. The final triumph, however, was achieved in their upholstery, which included an experiment in dyeing different from the usual

technique. Purple cloth was bought and tiii= was dyed in dark green and crimson till it finally assumed a most soft and mellow mulberry tone, which made a delightful covering for tho rejuvenated pieces. Cushions covered with silk in the colours which had produced the mulberry resulted in a really charming hprmony. The same idea was carried out in appliques on the back of the chair and the lower part of the couch, which consisted of a motive of flowers and leaves iv those tones buttonholed on in block.

A cane-seated rocker and drop-leaf table were painted mulberry and lined with yellow and black, as were also candlesticks and a desk set. A bedi-tead. commode nnd dresser nf maple were purchased and a dressing table chair to match was obtained. Four •■■trips ~,f green rass matting neatly bound were laid upon the green-painted floor. Wide-meshed ecru glass curtains allowed all the light there was to enter the one window, and the side draperies of pongee had stencilled on them motives in green and crimson. The result was distinctly unusual, and for a number of months gave a pleasant abode to the experienced decorator.