WORK COLUMN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XII, 21 March 1896, Page 334

WORK COLUMN.

Curtains require to be of the thinnest lightest, description at the present moment, mere fripperies of soft drapery with just enough substance to be puffed out by the wind, giving the effect of coolness, even should none exist. Delightful muslins, figured with a colour and edged with a ball fringe to match, are now to be had by the yard. They save a great deal of trouble, as one has neither to run on frills or edging of any kind, and the colour of the little bobbles exactly matches the colour in the pattern. Pale, pinky, terra cottas, soft lettuce-greens, and ambers, are perhaps the prettiest shades amongst them. When thick curtains are required in the summer, plain dyed linens are newer than cretonne and perhaps more restful to the eyes than any patterned material can be ; at the same time thev are much more easily soiled, and this must be taken into consideration as well.

We cannot all afford revo’ving bookcases, and yet everyone is agreed that they are the most charming inanimate companions when sitting in a cosy arm-chair on a wet afternoon. It brings so much within reach, and you don’t have to go and sit by the bookcase, but can make the bookcase come and stand by you. which is a very great advantage. lam not at all snre that not being able to afford what one wants is not the mother of quite as many inventions as necessity ; at any rate my especial pet bookcase was the outcome of a great deal of wishing for what I could not have. I have had the bookcase sketched for you, and in its finished condition it is a very compact and pretty article of furniture, as well as being exceedingly useful. And yets its actual foundation is nothing more or less than a common square wooden packing-case, which any grocer will send vou on receipt of a sufficiently large order to fill it. The first thing to be done is to plane all the rough outside and inside parts into some degree of smoothness, and then stain it with mahogany and rosewood stain mixed (I find this produces a far better tone of colour than either stain used separately). As I wanted the bookcase for use in a general morning-room I covered it with dark terracotta silk laid on in tightly-drawn flutes from top to bottom, making all the edges neat with a double meshed ball fringe, tackmg it on with small brass-hsaded nails. Castors are, of course, a necessity, for they enable the little case to be moved about where it is required, and very useful

it’is for popping in work in one division, the book you may happen to be reading in another, and sundry newspapers and scrap-books between the two long narrow divisions. It does not make a bad resting place for an afternoon tea-tray, though mine is the home of a large pot of Benares brass, holding a palm.