Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 301, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1914 — PUTTING YOURSELF IN YOUR HOUSE [ARTICLE]

PUTTING YOURSELF IN YOUR HOUSE

A flat-dwelling friend of the writer’s felt a special averaicn for the readingtable in her sitting-room. It was too small, and it was too “fancy." She could not afford a new one of better design. Finally, in desperation, she bought an ordinary straight-leg pine table, like the one in her kitchen, and stained it a soft brown with a reliable wood stain (which did Mil it was advertised to do) and a waxed furniture polish did the rest The "fancy" table was put in the attic. Next she made for her new piece of furniture a long tahleriumer of coarse brown linen, stenciled in orange and browns at either end. Several much dilapidated plush chairs were given loose slip covers of pretty cretonne, at fifteen cents per yard, and a green and pink vase with gilt handles that stood on her writing desk was replaced by a common earthen mincemeat jar In which she put a bunch of "bitter-sweet,” with its orange berries. The effect was charming. The petty ornaments that had made the top of her piano look like a bric-a-brack counter were given, or hidden, away, and only a pair of candlesticks and/a few good books left there. Utile by little, piece by piece, this woman "made over” and refurnished at amazingly little cost, until what had been a room of non-descriptive character became a restful, beautiful living-room and—-what was more—an index to her real self.—The Christian Herald.