Rejuvenating the Home

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23169, 15 October 1938, Page 6 (Supplement)

Rejuvenating the Home

Beauty Aid for The Furniture TT is amazing how much one can improve the appearance of even the shabbiest furniture if one sets about it in the right way when spring-clean-ing and home rejuvenation operations are in swing. A pot of paint and a systematic orgy of cleaning and polishing .will'work /ivonders. Preserving Old Oak Should you be fortunate enough to possess pieces of old English oak, 3*oll will possibly khow that beer is the very best thing with which to polish it. •Here is famous old recipe:—Melt a thimble-sized piece of beeswax away from the direct flame, and then add to it one pint of beer, and one dessertspoon of white sugar. Stir and beat slowly until well blended, and bottle •when cool. The oak is first washed with ■warm beer, dried, and then polished with this .(to us) extraordinary mixture. '" For highly polished and waxed woodwork there is still nothing to compare ■with that old favourite, neeswax and turpentine. If you would like to make your own, here is the recipe, hundreds of years old: —Shred about slb. bees;wax finely (a vegetable grater will serve the purpose), and just cover it "with turpentine. Let this stand for tome days until the wax becomes soft, and then stir it to a smooth paste, adding more turps, drop by drop, until the mixture is the consistency of thick icreani. Pour into a jar, seal securely, and keep away from the fire. Apply , a yery little of this cream to the wood, using a woollen cloth folded as a pad; and then pub hard with a second sol't cloth until a high polish appears. It pays to t keep three cloths for special polishing—one used as a soft pad to rub the polish well into the wood, another to restore the glossy surface and absorb any superfluous polish; and a third, of silk or velvet or chamois. Scratches and Heat-marks To remove scratches, the best thing thing is a mixture, in equal proportions, of turpentine and linseed oil, rubbed on gently with a soft rag. The most frequent worry that housekeepers have is how to remove white spots caused by heat or moisture. These usually come after a vase of flowers has Ijfen left standing on a table, or hot dishes on a polished dining-table, or a service trolley having a finish that whitens with hent or water. This state of B{fairs is not Always easy to ronipdv. If tho spot is only on ttia surface it ca ?, penerajly bo removed by vigorous rubbing with u soft rag dipped in •pints of camphor, followed by a polish with furniture cream. Another method » to rub with linßeed oil, and then polish with spirits of wine. A splendid polish, which is excellent for tempering polished wood to resist m ®V 9 ' ls . made by mixing equal ; turpß and vinegar. Bottle andshfike well before/using. j n keat-marks are more 5™ ho *« v .er. the table ¥ refinibhed. Better,

glaze does not extend round the bottom of the vase, there is apt to be leakage. Also, if the bottom of any decorative pottery used has the least suspicion of roughness, the table underneath should be protected, in order to prevent those tiny scratches which are often difficult to remove. Ebonised furniture should be rubbed with milk, then polished—first with a chamois, and, lastly, with a soft piece of silk. To remove scratches from ebony paint them with Indian ink, then smooth with fine sandpaper and paint again. When dry, smear over with linseed oil. and when this has soaked in, polish with beeswax and turpentine. Paint and Enamel

Carved furniture can be cleaned by applying furniture cream with a soft brush. Then use another brush for pol-

ishing. When French-polished furniture gets dull-lopking, it can be brightened by rubbing with a piece of cotton wool dipped in boiled linseed oil. White enamelled furniture should be washed with soapy water, dried thoroughly, then polished with furniture cream. When the whiteness needs restoring, a little whitening dissolved in warm water is good, and also helps to preserve the enamel. Hub this mixture on with a cloth. When washing paint avoid three things: very hot water, soda and scrubbine. To begin with, the woodwork should be scrupulously dusted. Use a small paint brush for any beading or comers, so that nil the dust is removed. Then take two old flannel cloths, one for washing, and the other for drying. Have ready a pail of lukewarm water, and add to this some soap jelly and a little powdered borax. Some people use ammonia, but this is a Pfc to dull the paint. Wring out the cloth well, otherwise the water will run down and give a streaky appcarn?n°' v 1 P® over a section, then rinse, still using a well wrung-out cloth. Drv with the second cloth, rubbing with an up and down motion. When drv and P Tu- Bh . Wltb il a little furniture I S3S2LS"? keep - the P ai n Work from [ K«ttmg dirty again so soon*