HOME-MADE FURNITURE

There are many larg-e houses that have empty rooms, ofttimes the pleasantest room in the house, that can be made to look very pretty at small expense, and not take much time either. The necessary materials and tools are a saw, hammer, tacks, gimp, cretonne, or chintz, barrels, boxes, boards and paint.

If the furniture be old, one may hide its shabbiness under covers of handsome stuffs in dark, rich colors and quaint figures like the ordinary broche shawls, or with reps, or chintz, or even unbleached muslin trimmed with bands or flutings of plain Turkey-red.

All covers should be made to wash, and come off easily; therefore tacks should be religiously avoided ; the cushion, which must be made separately, ought to come over the edge of the box a little, and be firmly tied on with tape ; the covers, if you can contrive to make therri fit properly, require no fastening. Not only may empty boxes be util- ized, but dressing-tables too shabby for respectability, too old-fashioned for pleasant contemplation, can, by the judicious use of colored roll muslin, and old lace or window-curtams, or worn-out grenadine evening dresses, be transformed into tasteful, graceful toilette tables.

Old Chairs and Couches can be transformed in the same way. See how they are constructed while taking them apart, and then put them together in the same way. The lounge we can easily manage without calling in the upholsterer. The old cover can be taken off, smoothed out, and used as a pattern for the new. New springs can be easily inserted in place of the old, and "excelsior" corn husks, curled hair, or any accessible material used to give softness and soundness to the cushions. Then cut a cover of strong, unbleached muslin and put it on. Afterward the material chosen for the covering can be nicely adjusted. It may be tacked along the front with brass-headed nails, or the line of attachment may be concealed by a strip of braid, or fringe, or gimp. If you want to tuft it, you will require an upholsterer's needle. It is over a foot long and curved. Thread in strong linen twine and pass the needle through from the bottom — if it is the seat which is being treated — slip on a button, or adjust a tuft and pass the needle down. If the stuffing material be soft and flexible, draw the thread tight, and a deep indentation will be the result. If you have a little ingenuity and faculty you will find your lounge quite as good and handsome as new, and will have done in a few hours what the upholsterer would charge several dollars for.

If the floor is bare, and a carpet cannot be afforded. It can be painted, even by an amateur, in pretty blocks, one dark, one light, alternately ; then, if rugs are scattered around the floor, it will not have the cold look that bare floors usually do have. For the rooms of this sort, cur-

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tarns should be used that fall from the ceiling' to the floor, draped back from the center ; this gives hight and breadth to the room, and a grace- ful appearance generally.

A Single or Double Bed may be made by having the sides and ends of a box six inches deep, wath slats put across for the springs, which are made of copper and fastened together by a hook of copper wire that makes the top flat and of even surface. Wooden legs may be put on the box, with castors. There is no foot or head board to these simple cots, only the large square pillows at the head. The box may be covered with cretonne or chintz, or painted, and with the spread falling over it all around, the bedstead is effectually hidden. Beds of this style are often used in England, in country houses, though, of course, made of more expensive material. The spread and pillow covers should be of chintz, though if white enters into the furnish- ing of the room, the bed may be entirely white. A valance should be put around this low bed, falling to the floor. Husk beds are often used on these instead of mattresses.

A Low DivaJi Couch is contrived in precisely the same way, with the exception that the large square pillows are placed at the bick. Hemp or jute fringe is an addition to a cretonne covering, with the cloth in two puffs on the box, with gimp between to cover the tacks, and the fringe below the puffs ; in this case a puff is set in the sides of the pil- low. The lounges are often made by having the deep box (no legs), with the castors on the bottom of the box, then a mattress and a chintz cover with deep flounce, that can be drawn over to the floor and taken off every night, making the divan serve the purpose of a bed at night. The pillow covers can be buttoned on during the day and taken off at night. The copper springs can be bought by the pound, and are very nice for this purpose, as they are high and fill the box to the top. Sometimes these bed lounges are put on quite high legs, giving room for a box on castors that may be rolled underneath and the bedding kept in it during the day time. They serve every purpose, making a comfortable bed at night, and a pretty, low, inviting-looking divan during the day. Jute cloth makes a v^ery pretty cover, with the jute fringe, but is a little more expensive than cretonne, though if the double width is bought (used for curtains ^ with border and fringe, it comes as cheap as cretonne, for the extra length that must be bought in order to get the border and fringe, can be used for the pillows. The pillows can be made of husks, soft cotton, feathers or hair — should be feathers, of course, if used to sleep on. A good size is three feet wide, six feet long, and box eight inches deep. The legs should be eight inches long including castors

Window Seals are much smaller, of dry goods boxes, and are

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placed underneath the windows. Make them just the length of the window, the top stuffed with moss, curled shavings, excelsior, hair or cotton, covered with chintz, and tied down in diamond patterns with covered buttons. A ruffle is nailed around the top with strong handles to lift the cover. They may then be used for packing boxes for nice dresses or clothes. The windows should be curtained with the chintz, draped back over the ends of the window seats, bracket or shelf. Shelf lambrequins can be made to match these covers.

Starch boxes, tobacco drums, small four-legged stools, made and covered the same way, are a great addition to the room in filling up vacant places or corners. The tops may be trimmed with cord and tassels, or pleatings.

Any Old Table may be utilized by the addition of a pretty cover. If a long table (even an old kitchen table will do), paint the legs black, as all the furniture of the room should be wherever the wood shows, and if the paint is varnished it is a very good substitute for ebonized wood. Make a long cover, with the ends hanging nearly to the floor, with a fringe or pleating of the same. If a round table, make a square cover of chintz or cretonne, and around the edge put a wide stripe of the same and fringe, if it can be afforded, or cut a cover the size of the table and tack it over the top, using gimp and brass-headed nails on the edge. Leather is also pretty. If fringe is added to the edge of the round table it is quite an improvement.

Very Nice Ottomans can be made out of those old-fashioned bed- steads which were used ever and ever so long ago. Take the head and foot-boards and cut four pieces, lambrequin shape — that is, long on the ends and short in the center — about two feet long and one foot high ; fasten these together, place a top down in about two inches, make a cushion with a fancy top that will fit snugly in the top, or fasten in springs and strap them over, and then place on the fancy top and fasten down securely. The legs will make anotiier of a different style. Cut them the right height, fasten together at the top with narrow pieces of boards, and put the top in the same as the other. Of course the wood in these will have to be oiled, as lying in the garret a hundred years, more or less, rather takes the " shine " off of them.

A Packing-case covered with chintz, and put in a convenient p'ace for a seat, will hold a dress-skirt at full length. Smaller boxes of this kind are very useful as window seats and will hold hats, jackets, work, etc. But now, l\ow to make one. Find a box of the shape and size you wish, and see that there are no nails sticking out ; if so, hammer them in or pull them out. Line the inside of the box, top, bottom and sides, with common white or gray glazed calico, using brass-headed nails or tin tacks, at long intervals, to fasten the calico on with. Then take a piece of the coarsest calico or canvas, double it and measure it with the

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top of the box; let it be nearly half a yard wider all round. Make it into a bag, leav^e the end open and stuff it rather tightly with horse-hair, feathers, or even old newspapers torn into the tiniest fragments. Now thread a packing-kneedle with very strong string and pass it once or twice straight through this cushion ; pull it tight and knot it firmly. Do the same at equal distances of six or eight inches all over the cush- ion, which will then, if nicely done, look as though padded by anything but an amateur hand ; nail the cushion firmly to the top of the box, and so far your work is done.

Now as to the covenng of the box : This must depend a great deal on the furniture of the room, of course ; rep, moreen or damask wear best, but cretonne or chintz is as cheap as anything, infinitely prettier and more clean, for it washes well. Take the piece of whatever material it may be that you intend for the top, and wherever there is a knot in the canvas below, sew a flat button of any kind to it. When this is done the covering must be nailed on all round, with a broad fur- niture gimp, or fringe and brass-headed nails. The sides are to be cov- ered with the same material, and can either be padded or the stuff put on plain. If this is chintz, it must have a calico lining, or probably the wood of the box will show through ; fasten this on with the same arrangement of gimp and brass nails as you did with the top. A really handsome box might thus be made for a drawing-room by covering the sides and top with different pieces of Berlin work, and it would be most useful to hold music, port-folios, etc. For such use, the inside lining would look best of chintz, instead of calico. These box-ottomans always remind one of those pretty box pin-cushions, in which form so many old cigar-boxes come into use for dressing-tables.

A Barrel Chair is made by sawing one-third of the way around a common flour barrel, and within one and a half feet of the bottom. Then saw the remaining staves in a curve, gradually ascending so as to form the back and arms of the chair. Have the wires on which the cushion is to be placed stretched across the chair in different directions, within one foot of the bottom of the chair. This will also aid in more firmly securing the staves. Cord may be used instead of the wire, if preferred. Rockers may be added, making a very comfortable rocking- chair. Cover all with cloth and make a cushion of the same. Around the edges tack dress braid (this may be used for all these articles instead of the gimp), or gimp with brass or white-headed tacks, or the tiny black tacks used by upholsterers. Kitchen chairs, old-fashioned ones, that have been banished to the garret, camp chairs, rocking chairs — all may be covered and their oldness disguised under fresh, bright coverings and paint. Coffee bagging, burlaps and hemp cloth, may be worked in bright zephyrs, and thus old chairs be covered and transformed into a thing of comfort if not beauty. Striped cretonne,

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put clown the back of the chairs, on a plain background, is very pretty; narrow stripes may be feather-stitched on, or the back and seat may be woven of dress braid or other stripes. If the chair is covered with worked burlaps, several may be covered in this way, with differ- ent designs, only carrying out the same idea and color in all the fur- niture.

A Pretty Dressing Table has shelves underneath, a board for the back at the top, and brackets to support the mirror, with curtains of chintz or muslin, and table covered with the same. An old-fashioned bureau is modernized by putting on the top a long cover, falling far down the ends; this, made of Turkish toweling, edged with linen fringe, embroidered or worked in colors, and the same tied in the linen fringe, changes its looks wonderfully.

A Low Toilette Chair can be made of a round wooden box, covered and padded, the back made by nailing two broomsticks up the back for sides, and one across the top, painting them and making a net-work of cloihes-line braid or picture cord.

A Wood Box is constructed of a painted vinegar keg, the hoops painted a contrasting color, or a pretty stripe of gay wall-paper pasted on the hoops and at the top and bottom, then the whole varnished.

A Hattging Book-shelf may be made of three shelves of walnut or wood painted black and hung with picture cord and tassels, one above the other. A corner bracket may be made with one shelf only, sus- pended from the ceiling by cords and tassels. A long bracket to hang against the wall, with one tiny shelf near the bottom, is very pretty for tiny vases or a statuette or bust.

A Small ''Hour Glass " table is made by cutting out two round pieces of wood, nailing a stick between, and covering by chintz, drawn in around the center by a band of the same or ribbon. This may be cut with an eight-cornered top and a pocket be put between each cor- ner for work or scraps. These pockets are made by taking a straight piece, dividing it into sections, allowing room for a box pleat at the top of each pocket ; take another piece of the same length, sew it with the back in a seam and fasten it at each end of the pocket or back piece, letting the front piece fall forward, thus forming the pocket. Tack this piece straight around the hour glass top after all is covered.

If there is no closet for the clothes hamper, a convenient and pretty soiled linen receptacle is contrived in this way : Take an ordinary flour barrel, line with paper muslin, and on the outside cover it with cretonne, laid in box plaits. Around the top finish with a lambrequin made of turkey red, with cretonne flowers transferred on the center of each point. Cover the lid with cretonne inside and out, and put a full plaiting of the same around the edge. For the handle on top use an iron trunk handle. By leaving the handle off the top and having the lid

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made large enough to fit over instead of the ordinary way, the barrel can stand in a room and be used for a table.

Or it may be used for wood, kindlings, or to hold the coal hod and the rest of the homely appurtenances of the stove.

A Wardrobe for bed-room, ccrmping out, or for summer cottage use is thus designed : Take a pine board six feet long, six inches wide, and thick enough to allow iron or brass pegs to be firmly screwed in. Off each end of the board saw seventeen inches, and attach them again at the same place to the longer poraon of the board by hinges. This looks like a rough book-slide. Cover the board by pasting chintz over it. Then screw in a row of pegs or hooks. Place this sort of book- slide against the wall, and judge the best place to screw two very strong rings into the top edge or thickness of the central three feet long board to hang the wardrobe by. There are thus formed three sides of a square, but the fourth side of the square, namely, the front of the wardrobe, is open. Across it fasten two rods of wood, iron or brass, each of course three feet long, with holes at each end. These holes slip on to small hooks fastened into the ends of the shorter boards furthest from the hinges. The best place to fix these hooks will be obvious to the workman. The rods are to support the curtains, and should be placed parallel, but one a little behind the other, to enable the curtains to overlap freely. Into the wall, about six feet from the floor, drive two very strong nails, and hang the wardrobe upon them by the two rings. Take chintz, cretonne, or any other material. Of this make a three-'^ided plain bag, one side (for the back of the wardrobe), three feet wide and six feet long, to reach the floor, the other sides each seventeen or eighteen inches wide, and six feet long (for the sides of the wardrobe). For the front have curtains, each six feet long, but wide, according to taste. These have

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