Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1877-02-01
How to Furnish a House.

be sat upon nor covered up; but it is the
very point in furnishing that is most fire.
quently open to criticism Wallpapers
are seldom what they should be; and
many "sweet things" at the paper-hang-
ers are transformed into unexpected ugli-
ness by the process Of hanging. Looking
at paper in the roll is such a different mat
ter from seeing it on the wall that pre-
vent disagreea5le surprise, several
widths of it should be held side by side
in the room for which it is intended, be-
fore the paper is decided upon. 1t is apt
to look darker when on the wall For a
hall, the palest of greens or browns is
usually the most pleasing in effect; or the
walls may be paneled artistically.
Paper is a very important item in the
furnishing of a room, and should be Sc
lected with great care, to harmonic with
the other appointments. Plain papers,
that have the effect of painting, are gen
orally the most satisfactory, and they
should contain just the least suspicion of
the tint to be aimed at The palest of
pinks, with lines Of vivid crimson in the
corners and narrow band of it Just be-
low-the moulding of dead gold, is beauti-
full for a parlor where the prevailing tone
OF the furniture is gray. If furnished in
crimson or blue, the wallpaper should be
OF pale gray or cream color. a paneled
paper for halls may be made by covering
the whole surface with paper of the body
color, and then taking darker shade Of
the same color to form the dividing lines.
6 Falien-leaf'' shade is recommended.
by good authority, for a dining room
particularly if the pictures there are in
gilded frames. But the tint is only to be
distinguished from white by laying a
sheet of pure white paper on it. 1t is
further advised that "the woodwork of
the room so papered should be of dark
oak or black walnut; and just under the
cornice, and two inches from the wood
work, should be fine, ribbon-like line,
cut out of paper, of pure aud bright
primary red about one-siXth of an inch in
width. The corners may be enriched by
giving to the lines some curving knot or
rectangular fret; a little ingenuity and a
sharp pair of scissors will produce them
as fast as wanted" This is intended to
give the effect of fresco or oil painting at
small expense.
Another authority says that paper hang
ings should never cover the whole space
of a wall from floor to ceiling; but that a
dado,' or plinth-space, OF plain color,
either in paper or distemper, should be
left to height of two or three feet from
the floor. A light wood molding, stained
or gilded, should separate this from the
paper above. A second space, or frieze,
just below the ceiling, filled with ara
besque ornament painted on distem-
pered ground, is always efeCtive-but, of
course, involves some additional expense.
An unrelieved pattern of monotOnous de-
sign, or plain paper, continued over an
entire wall. has very dreary effect, as the
eye Graves rest in travelling over a large
space.
The wonder is, that people don't &c
more pretty things with their houses
when there are so many to be done Fol-
who, while extending the cordial invita-.
ton of Madame Arachne, can supplement
it as she did:
It's the prettlest little parlor that ever you die
Not people who furnish in g suites" and
have their ornamental things in pairs, like
the contents of toy arks; but, possibly.
some unacknowledged poet, or poetess
who has to save, and consider, and gel
things by piecemeal. 1t is blessing in
disguise to people when they cannot get
everything they want at once, nor get it al
the same place. Picking up here and
there, at odd times, produces charming
results; and furniture thus obtained has
an individuality and meaning which the
upholsterer, who makes to order, fails tC
give it.
People who are not in slavery to the
carpet-idea can do great things with lit
tie money; while those who are need ex-
pect nothing beyond the orthodox yards
Of flowers and foliage, or geometrical pat
terms, done in wool. A room with a grand
new-looking carpet in it, and very little
else, is dreary place enough; while one
with scarcely any or no covering at all,
but plenty of other things, can be made
coy and delightful. Let it be straw mat,
ting and home made rugs, or painted
floors and ditto; but, until ID parlor is pro
vided with few good pictures, flowers
either cut or growing, and, at least a
Whlte-clay figure, or group of some kind,
it has no right to a carpet. These things
educate, and the carpets do not; no one
ever called a carpet loop-hole of the
soul!
Very few carpets are properly used
Men with slippers on their feet and tacks
in their mouths pull and stretch it into
every possible corner, SO that not an inch
of space shall be left uncovered, and
obligingly notch out places for various
recesses, until the expansive fabric is
utterly spoiled for any other room than
the one to which it is fitted. 1t is very
ugly, too, arranged in this way-being
far more picturesque as a large square, Oh
oblong rug, bordered and trimmed with
fringe, and showing all around it yard
or SO of dark, polished floor. A border
ing of inlaid woodwork, known as par
quetry, is very pretty, and not much more
expensive than frst-class Brussels car
pets. Such floor covering has a sort of
old-time and Eastern look about it, and
may be taken up and shaken with COM
paratlve casa few nails along the edges
keeping it in place when down.
The designs on Turkey carpets are
small, and the colors admirably blended,
which makes them particularly desirable /;
but they are expensive, and often so well
initiated in Brussels, and even in ingram
fabrics, that the additional outlay is
scarcely warranted where economy is at
all to be considered. A crimson carpet
OF very small pattern, in two or three soft
shades of the same color, is very pretty
with dark floor neutrality-suspicious.
with a pale-pink or cream colored paper,
with corner lines of crimson in it. With
this carpet the furniture-cov should
be ashes of roses, Ornamented with GRIM
son fringe and brass headed nails; the
sofas of divan shape, we'll stuffed, but
with no woodwork visible; the chairs
may be bought at chair factory in a
skeleton state, and either transformed into
enameled wood by painting with three
coats of dead-white and vanishing, using
a little dead-gol judiciously, or ebonized
by substituting black paint for white
Apptet0n's Journal for February
A Monster Sea-Serpent.