CLEANING FURNITURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19125, 17 September 1925, Page 13

CLEANING FURNITURE.

Spring-cleaning time provides an occasion for making the small necessary repairs to articles in daily use in the home.

Chairs generally need overhauling at this time. Loose and shifted springs caused by broken webbings can be readjusted. The canvas under the seat must be removed, exposing the webbings. Broken webbings must be cut off and new ones tacked on firmly and sewn with strong thread to the springs*they support. If the canvas lining has also broken through a new piece to cover the whole of the under-seat will make a neat finish.

A tapestry seat that needs darning can first be cleaned with carpet soap and neatly repaired with wools or silks to match the pattern if the gimp that binds the edge of the seat to the frame is removed and the cover lifted enough to get the hand beneath. Lift the cover in the same way when the front of a seat has become crushed and unsightly. Pad up the front with hair or wool packing. Leather chairs can be restored and should first be washed with a Sponge wrung out in soapy water. Where the colour has gone spirit dye should be applied with a fine paint brush and finished with wax polish. Patches where the surface of the leather is completely worn should have a coat Of varnisn after the dye has been applied. Sometimes covers of silk-velvet will become crushed and flattened at muchused places. Such covers can be cleaned with carpet soap, which, by the way, should be used always with a sponge wrung almost dry. To raise the pile again a thin cloth should be spread over the flattened patches while they are damp and a hot iron applied so lightly that it scarcely touches it. With a little patibnee the pile will come up again. If it resists the first hot iron damp it again and repeat the process.