THE SITTING OR FAMILY ROOM

The sitting-room is the family room of the house. Here they gather for the pleasant chats of the day or evening ; here is spent the greater share of their time, and for this reason, if no other, should this room be the prettiest and cheeriest in the house. Let no formality preside here, When the room is entered it should be so bright, so cheerful, that sad- ness and depression drop away. A somber room will give any one the blues, and for this reason use all that is possible of the bright martial red ; it arouses triumphant feelings, joy and gayety.

Get a carpet with a deal of scarlet in it ; a cream-colored ground with deep scarlet roses is very pretty, if one can afford a Brussels, if not, the new ingrains have beautiful designs and bright colors. Have a low divan couch, with large square pillows across the back, then if one wants to lie down, one of the pillows can be transferred to the head. A Boston rocker, handsomely upholstered, a large, soft, easy chair, a small sewing chair, a bamboo chair, with broad, fiat arms, and a Shaker or rush-bottomed chair of artistic design, are all comfortable and cheap. Numbers of small, oddly-shaped tables, low and high, are placed about the room and used for books, work, photographs, and whatever one has "lying round." Or one large table, that symbol of comradeship and content, and it should always be covered with a quiet, rich, beautifully bordered cloth. Gypsy tables and window stands are covered with dark, rich stuff, the valance around caught up in small festoons and fas- tened with bows or tassels, finished round the edge of the table with cord. If you have a couch that is stiff and ugly, try what a few soft cushions will do.

If the furniture is already bought in sets, it can be covered with different patterns of cretonne, which not only protects the furniture, but gives a variety and breaks up the stiffness. Or buy the frame of a Turkish chair or easy rocker, get it upholstered in white cotton cloth, buy dark, rich colored cretonne and make a cover for it, binding it with some pretty contrast of braid, or cover to match the rest of the furniture ; you will get an easy chair much cheaper this way than by getting it already covered. A foot rest frame can be bought cheap ; stuff and cover it with cotton cloth first, then embroider a piece of goods and cover it yourself, finishing it off with cord or narrow gimp around the edge. A handy man with a few carpenter tools could soon make a nice easel out of black walnut, also screen and pedestals. An old sec- ond-hand cabinet, in dead black, might be bought for a httle, and, stowed away in a shady corner, would look as well as new, to hold a few bric-a-brac ; and for pictures select a few choice engravings in plain frames.

This room is also the place for the window garden (though some pre_ fer it in the dining-room), the aquarium, fernery, bird-cage, book-case

158 HOUSE FURNISHING.

(if you have no library), and in fact any of the odd things that add to the attractiveness and prettiness of home. If the book-case is not yet filled with books and has a bare look, pleat silesia or silk — in color to correspond with the room — and fasten at top and bottom inside on the door, or make a curtain or series of curtains, pulling back one of them to show an upper shelf of books (the filled shelf), or one filled with quaint bits of china or specimens. The upper shelf of a book-case is often devoted to china, curiosities, or specimens.

The panels in window-shutters, doors and over-mantels (as the shelves for holding china are called) are often painted in oils, or papered to match the walls. Tall, stiff flowers, such as the iris, sunflower, fox- glove, etc., are the best for painting, or a branch of cherry or apple blossoming tree straggling from panel to panel in Japanese fashion.

Or when you have an old-fashioned cupboard in the sitting-room that you don't seem to know just what to do with, take off the doors, paint the inside a deep rich red, or cover sides and shelves with cloth of the same red shade. Put a straight piece of leather, pinked on lower edge across the shelves, and fasten with brass upholstering nails. In this alcove or recess put all the quaint vases, china, brass ornaments — anything odd and pretty. Or it may be used for the book-case. Or arrange curtains on a rod to draw across the opening. A few of these tastefully arranged things give an air of comfort and luxury to a room hardly to be estimated by the small amount expended.

Small gypsy tables, covered with pretty material and fringe, are just the thing for the work-basket, books, or pots of flowers.

An ordinary stone jar, such as pickles and other things are kept in, may be painted a chocolate-brown or dark red, and decorated with ferns, flowers, birds and butterflies. Ginger jars, small stone jugs, whatever has a good or classical shape, may be made a thing of beauty, if harmony and taste are carefully observed.

There must be a bracket here and there beneath a picture, where a pot of ivy can be placed to form a graceful framing to the portrait per- haps of some loved one, or for an engraving or pretty chromo.

A bunch of oats, with long, even stems, tied with a band of wide satin ribbon and suspended by the same under a picture, is a simple, pretty decoration within the reach of almost anyone.

A large pampas plume with five or six long peafowl feathers, using the plume as a background for the feathers, all tied with a band of pea- cock blue or green ribbon, is often fastened on the wall in a corner, over the door, over or under a picture, or on the upper comers of an easel or high music stand. If these are pressed in packing, shake them over the grate or near the stove, and the heat will spread and make them fluffy.

Large vases filled with one large or three smaller pampas plumes,

ARTISTIC AND IDEAL ROOMS. 159

make a pretty corner piece, and also add much to the attractiveness of a mantel-shelf.

One or two bright tinted fans, hung on the wall, a bunch of catkins, tied with a bright bow of ribbon, or fastened on the picture cords, a large vase in the corner filled with sprays of autumn leaves, ferns, or wild grasses, are also desirable ornamentations. Long shelves can be made very handsome by putting on them shelf draperies, with window valances to match, for, by a judicious use of draperies, in curtains, win- dow and mantel lambrequins, and bits of stuff arranged here and there, a home can be made to look very beautiful and artistic. It is not so much comfortable solidity in the best rooms that should be aimed at,- but a bright and cheerful appearance, which can be obtained by artistic furniture, gracefully draped curtains, and well chosen wall hangings.