SIDEBOARD SUBSTITUTES

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6613, 18 May 1928, Page 11

SIDEBOARD SUBSTITUTES

The sideboard, unless it bo a real antique, is out of fashion. In our wee flats and living room bungalows there is no room for any suporflous furniture of that description (says an English exchange). Dutch dressers (similar to tho kitchen dresser seen in a number of our homes) are found in dining rooms of any size, those of modern design being made absolutely plain and devoid even of beading to catch the dust, and with deep shelves as wide as the cupboard beneath. On these we arrange ’ the blue china, brass, and pewter, which are the decorative notes of the present time.

No one displays the family plate and elaborate fruit dishes on the polished surface of ponderous mahogany. But some pieces of furniture are necessary in tho dining room as a repository for trays.

Some people utilise a handsome oaken chest, such as our ancestresses kept as heirloom dower chests. Into it go plate basket and table linen, and the top is kept free, adorned, perhaps with a gay linen runner. If it is imperative to conserve every inch of space, a hinged |iap serves its purpose; but this should be very strongly made and evenly balanced. It is raised at meal times as a rest for a big tray and let down against the wall when not in use.

A plain, narrow table, with a draw for linen, is also simple enough. Perhaps tho easiest arrangement of all is a dumb-waiter. This is loaded in tho pantry, and run into the dining room, where it stands in the most convenient position. . While the top serves for trays, on the lower shelves are glasses, decanters, the plate basket, etc. After the meal it has only to be pushed out again, bearing the clearance from the dinner table, thus saving two or three extra journeys with a tray.

If a table or other surface against the wall is used in which selves, or tho old-fashioned sideboard mirror, arc absent, it is wise to fix a strip of plateglass, or merely a square of linen, at tho back. Otherwise, inadvertent splashes and marks arc apt to soil the wall behind.