GARDEN FURNITURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22260, 7 November 1935, Page 3

GARDEN FURNITURE

SUMMER renovations These sunny spring days are too good to spend indoors when there is a sheltered corner of the garden or verandah where one can take an easy chair arid cushions, books and needlework. So the garden furniture that has been neglected throughout the winter months will be called into service again., after it has been treated to a mild spring cleaning of its own. For in the bright spring sunshine you will probably find it seems dusty and drab and shabby and badly in need of a little sprucing up before it can be returned to its conspicuous summertime post on the verandah. Wicker furniture is charming and comfortable, but it has one very' real drawback—it is hard to keep clean. Thorough and regular dusting will .keep the closely-woven kind fairly spick and span, especially if the chairs and lounges are occasionally wiped over with a damp cloth. It is an excellent plan, too, to apply the vacuum cleaner, using the smallest sucker to all the crannies. The cheaper type ot wicker furniture with a very tfide weave is rather harder to clean, for it seems to catch and hold the dust tenaciously. The best method of cleaning furniture of this kind is to wash it over with warm soapy water to which borax has been added in the proportion of a teaspoonful to a quart of water. Scrub it well with a stiffish brush, and then rinse in clear water, wipe as dry as possible with a soft cloth and leave out in the sunshine until- all trace of dampness has gone. Hot water should not be used, for it destroys the natural polish of the wood, while strong soaps and sodas should be avoided, tocr, for fear of injuring the wicker. Brown wicker furniture is best cleaned by rubbing with a rag dipped in paraffin, while wicker that has become yellow or darkened can be bleached effectively by scrubbing with strong suds containing half-a-cupful of salt and 2oz. of bleaching powder to the gallon. Apply'rWith a stiff brush and leave out of doors to dry. These cleaning methbds can be used only for wicker that is not enamelled or varnished, for if water is used on enamelled or varnished wicker there ia danger of the finish being spoilt. The best way to clean this furniture is with a preparation of chalk Titod sawdust. Make several, small bags from butter muslin and fill these with a mixture composed of equal parts of chalk and sawdust, slightly moistened. Rub the furniture well with these bags, substituting a clean one as the one you are using becomes soiled, and finally go over the furniture with a soft brush. If wicker furniture soils easily, it is also easily and that most effectively simply by brightening it UP with a gay new coat of paint. The transformation will be complete, and last summer's set of garden furniture can be made to look like new with the help of a couple of tins of enamel paint. A. good plan is to paint the furniture in a two-tone effect* rather than in solid colour, for then,if some crevioe escapes your brush the lapse will hardly be noticeable. Green and light buff, gay primrose yellow and orange, blue and yellow, are all attractive colour schemes, but you most choose colours, of course, that will harmonise with your cushions or the sun awnings on your verandiah. The wickerwork must be cleaned thoroughly and dried before the painting is begun. Suppose you are working in a primrose and green colour scheme. Paint the whole chair. over with the primrose paint,, leave ifc to dry, then paint it over again .with the i green, taking care to get the -paint well into the crevices. Then take a dry ploth, 'and rub over the wicker, removing the green paint except in , tjie crevices. The result will be a mottled twortone effect that looks extremely well.