NOW THAT SPRING IS COMING

Ladies' Mirror, Volume 3, Issue 4, 1 October 1924, Page 35

NOW THAT SPRING IS COMING

Home Decoration Welcome Change and Variety YERYBODY knows the benefit to health and nerves' which is derived from quiet and pleasant change in one’s everyday circumstances, and the housewife has less of this sort of pleasure than almost anyone. During spring cleaning some sort of change, even if trifling, should be made in the home, and it can be effected quite inexpensively if necessary. Most of us delight in new paint-work and fresh wallpapers, but these are very high in price nowadays, and, of course, it is not possible to change one’s furniture very frequently. NUMEROUS DETAILS But the spirit of change can he introduced in a hundred little ways, even supposing the furniture, decorations, and carpets are to remain unaltered. Of course, the furniture should be moved — the bookcase changing places with the sideboard and the piano with the china

cabinet. Curtains and cushion covers should not he merely washed or cleaned and replaced should he changed. The very popular Government net is delightful if dyed black and ornamented with brightly coloured roses, or posies, cut from odd scraps of cretonne, and the change in appearance is most delightfully complete. The dye-tub is useful again where loose covers require a new and quite different hue. A housewife had some dilapidated cretonne loose covers that became unrecognisably pretty from a bath of red dye, which turned them a glorious purple. Old cream curtains were turned a rose colour to harmonise, and grubby cushions were slipped into rose and purple covers of casement cloth. It is advisable, too, to dispose of all those pictures and vases of which one has grown heartily tired. They may go in a local auction sale, or a dealer will buy them. With the money some quite different pieces of china or a couple of coveted prints may be bought. It is very wise to aim at producing an entire change in the home at spring-time and to abandon the mere scouring and replacing of the same old things that so often takes place. FURTHER SUGGESTIONS For fabrics the cheap and effective way to change them is to dye them; chairs

that have no covers can be covered; white valances, table-mats, and duehessesets can be tinted, so that they can return to their whiteness whenever required. A pot of enamel will transform picture frames, wooden shelves, mantelpieces, so that an entirely fresh appearance is given to all the old and homely things to which one has grown so accustomed that they cease to amuse or interest. o o o On Arranging Furniture There should be a winter arrangement and a summer arrangement of furniture in the sitting-room. In summer the window is the point round which the easy chairs are grouped. In winter the fireplace is the chief place of interest. Comfort as well as decoration should guide a woman in the arrangement of her rooms. She should remember the tastes of her family. Some rooms look very picturesque, but there is no comfort in them. The lamps are in an inconvenient place for reading or for working, and the chairs are so placed that an intimate conversation between two people is impossible. THE BEST POSITION Few women know where to put a writing-table. In many households it is placed in a dark corner, where, neither by day nor by night, can the person who sits before it see to write. The piano is another piece of furnihire which needs placing with a view to I use as well as decoration. It should be w out of a draught, and it should be in such a position that the pianist and singer can feel themselves comfortably aloof from their audience. The tea-table also needs careful placing. It must not be an obstruction. The way should be clear for the maid to reach it from the door, and for the hostess to attend to her guests. The arrangement of bedroom furniture calls for no less care than that of a sitting-room. The bed should not face the light, but be placed so that one side is towards the window. There should be a lamp beside or over the bed, and plenty of hanging accommodation and generous drawer space in the room.

THE WISE HOUSEWIFE THINKS OF SPRING CLEANING AND RENOVATING: HERE ARE SOME ECONOMICAL SUGGESTIONS THAT WILL BE WELCOME

Home Accessories Beautified Some Artistic Suggestions In every house there are certain articles —such as umbrella stands and wastepaper baskets— are decidedly ugly but have been tolerated on account of their usefulness. The modern housewife may hesitate to spend money on superfluous objects, but she spares no pains to make all the useful articles in her home as ornamental as possible. She realises, for instance, the importance of beautiful toilet ware in a bedroom, and takes care to see that it is not only attractive in itself, but thoroughly in keeping with its surroundings. The unattractive basket for soiled linen is no longer tolerated; one woman transformed hers in a charming way by painting it all over with black enamel and then decorating it by adding trails of gay flowers in gesso powder. A CLEVER ADAPTATION The umbrella stand generally' has nothing but its utility to recommend it, and is an eyesore in the hall which contains handsome old furniture, but the de-

sire to have something really in keeping has led to the clever idea of adapting old mahogany bootracks for the purpose, and very charming stands they make. Waste-paper baskets need no longer spoil the effect of a charming room, for nowadays there are so many different kinds of decorative receptacles for waste paper. The cane basket gilded and decorated with bunches of satin fruit looks well in a boudoir, and those of beautiful painted leather are suitable for libraries. IMPROVING A DULL ROOM Sometimes the room itself is so ugly that it needs treating by a beauty specialist in home decoration. If it has ugly proportions the furniture must be arranged to disguise the faults as much as possible. Or it may have a southerly aspect; most women are aware that plenty of interior colour will counteract a bleak aspect. One clever woman recently transformed a south room in her new home . by having the walls covered with ivory paper and the woodwork in a shade of yellow, for which the decorator took a lemon as a pattern; the upper moulding of the skirting, board and the outer one of the door frames were painted in silver. oi. uie aoor iiamtis were paimeo in silver.