Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-08-01
Hints on Household Art.
By ALICE NJ. WEST.

lSll HllSill soIilclllliS w til-
courage the women whose purses are
short and whose leisure hours are few,
but who nevertheless are full of desire
to make their homes charming, attrac-
tive, and truly homelike. If such an
one is willing to exercise little ingen-
uity and skill she may make her
home very pleasant at very slight ex-
pense. There are II thousand pretty
devices to be made in odd minutes out
Of inexpensive material which add won
derfully to the appearance of home,
and give it an aspect of feminine taste
and skill pleasant to see. Moreover,
such work is in itself SO fascinating that
as the delicate shapes and tints grow
beneath the touch one feels themselves
fully repaid for the effort by the pleas
ure received in the work, even if the
pretty lamp mat, sofa cushion, or chair
cover could not claim also az il does the
additional beauty of usefulness.
Even the lack Of furniture may be in
part supplied by articles of domestic
manufacture Get your husband or
some one else to make you frame for
a sofa, stuff the top with straw to give
1t rounded appearance, and cover
smoothly and nicely, add couple of
large, square sofa pillows covered with
the same material As the sofa, and orna-
mented with cord and tassels of Ger
mantown wool, and you will have II
lounge quite ~ comfortable and con-
venient rs anything you could buy.
Your old square topped stand you can
convert into a pretty center table by
saving boards to form round top for
it which few screws will fasten secure
~ in place, and staining or painting to
match the bottom, any deficiencies will
be concealed by cover of crimson or
green flannel, ornamented with border
of chain stitching and finished by Il
worsted fringe
In one corner of your room between
door and window is Just the place for
the book shelves /; these, together with
some shelves for the window on which
to place house plants, may be made of
pine, stained with solution of burnt
lumber and white lead mixed with boiled
linseed oil, and supported on iron brack-
cts the edges of the shelves you can
adorn if you like with lambrequins of
black cloth cut in points and orna-
mented with applique work or bits of
bright velvet cut i'll fanciful shapes and
stitched on with silk of contrasting col
or. Under the book shelves hang a
large cornucopia made of pasteboard
covered with plain brown or black pa
per, an inch wide band of gilt paper
pasted around the top or an oval picture
on the front.
Old boxes, their covers fastened on
with leather hinges, cushioned and COW
cred with pretty material make nee
seats to place under the windows or IN
the warm corner back of the stove,
and at the same time furnish wonder
fully convenient receptacles for pat
terms, work, the children's toys and all
sorts of odds and ends for which there
seems to be no other place. Do not
allow Your walls to remain bare and
unadorned for lack of pictures. Cut
the most suggestive opes from your
magazines, provide them with mat, a
back OF strong pasteboard and a glass,
then bind them with strips of morocco,
paper, or common cambria, black or
drab before binding, however, make a
little slit in the cardboard ON each side,
onc-third the height of the picture from
the top, and fastcn button ring on the
back at this point by running strip of
tape through the ring, then inserting
the ends of the tape through the slit,
and fastening them firmly with glue on
the inside of the pastehoard, When
all is firm and dry tasten the cord by
which your picture is to be hung to the
rings.
If your mantle is defaced and looks