Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 203, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1910 — RENOVATING THE SETTLE [ARTICLE]

RENOVATING THE SETTLE

Old-Fashior.ed Bench With a Back Can Be Easily Converted Into a Porch Couch. If you are lucky enough to own one of the long, old-fashioned settles that are little more than wooden benches with high, open back, it can be converted into a novel couch for a porch or the living room of a country house. -Fasten to each arm of the couch the Inverted lid of a large flower barrel. This lid should have an inch-high rim. If the dimensions are too large to fit securely to the arm a prop can be added on the outer edge. This prop may be a strip of wood fastened to the seat of the couch diagonally, or a broomstick handle can be nailed to the lid to form a leg. The lids at each end of the settle make convenient and ornamental Bhelves for books, workbags and vases of flowers. When the couch is covered the lids can be adjusted in their natural position. To finish the settle scrape off the paint and varnish and give all the woodwork three coats of dark green, dark red or white paint, ending with a coat of enamel. For the seat, make a thin mattress stuffed witn hair or some patent filling. Cover with gay cretonne or denim. Arrange the cover so it buttons at the back for greater ease in washing. A flat pillow or two can be covered with the same material.

When intended for indoor use the settle may be left unpainted, though a coat or two of paint to make ends and couch alike will cost little, if the work is done at home. Fasten a thin mattress to seat and back and fit to the settle a cover of striped linen, such as is used for summer furniture coverings. The twotoned gray effects are cooling and do not soil so quickly as the more popular white. The inverted lids are supplied with a separate cover of the linen. Where the leg prop to the lid is used the covering is fitted around it to give the effect of a winged couch, the covered lid extending beyond it. None of the woodwork of the settle shows the cover reaching to the floor all around. If making such a cover is beyond your skill, it can be done more cceaply by having an upholsterer cut and fit it while you do the sewing and binding.