The Washington times., 1894-03-29
MAKING PRETTY THINGS
AND UsIAG LITTLE MONEY

know one young girl whose father was a
he could afford to give her, SO she put her
wits to work not long ago and got up plan
of her own to ilt up her bedroom. And
this is what she did.
She had an imitation maplewood bedroom
set which she was tired to death of. She
took knife and by days work of several
weeks she scraped of every inch of the var
nish and paint. Then she bought some mixed
paint at 80 cents box, holding a pint, and
new paint brushes Of large and small sizes.
She took the bedstead down and piece by
piece went over every part carefully with
knife and afterward with sandpaper. When
she had put on the plain color she invited
friend of hers, who was in the art league, to
paint bunch of flowers on the headboard,
and she painted bunch of wild roses on it.
1t was Just lovely. Then Miss Contrivance
vanished it all with furniture varnish;
that is. as soon as the paint was
dry. The bureau and washstand were
treated in The same way. There were
three chairs with their original cane seats all
worn ont. She tackled perforated bottoms in
their places and cushioned them first with an
old comfortable folded, and over that fitted a
creton cover with a gray ground that
matched the bedstead. It, by chance, had
rosebuds on it. 1t did not take quite two
wards. She tackled the stuff on with brass
headed tacks, and had enough of the "rem-
nant'' left to upholster the back and seat Of
the low rocking-chair.
By chance, this girls room had been pa
pered q year before, on which a pink
rose was the pattern. When all the furniture
was painted just to her liking and to look as
nice as new set, she took them all out of
the room and oiled the floor. Fortunately it
had venere boards and looked very nice
when done.
For this room she had no rugs or carpet
ing and she cut up into yard and one-half
lengths some old white straw mating. which
she painted on both sides in grey. On this
she painted japanese lozenges and fans all
over il at intervals. She bound the ends with
a dark bit of crimson plush. cut from an old
table cover There were four of these home
made mats, one on each side of the bed, one
before the bureau and washstand: but still
there was a little look of stiffness about it that
she did not quitellike. Everything too much
'iust so - -guf
Then she remembered an old japanese mat
that once was in the parlor. but had been
laid by for some time When it was unrolled
and spread upon the floor bias, that broke up
the stiff look charmingly, and it had a clouded
border of blue. II was not out OF harmony
were OF gray linen. and the only needs were
sash curtains.
She thought of some snowy blue curtain
goods which she once bought for cents
yard that had never been used that would
just exactly meet the want. She went to
work and made them, and they looked beauti-
fully when put up. When that room was
completed she counted the cost and this was
it: sE v1ra-
Four cans of gray paint. s1.20.
Three and one-half yards of creton, a rem
nant. 45 cents. H. l.
Furniture racks, o cents per dozen. GO cents,
One pint of yarnish. 10 cents. Total, S2.65.
''Gumptioni'is Is above price. and it was that
which enabled this young woman to make
such good use of What otherwise would have
been useless. Some women will have things
nice where some others would sit down and
cry because they couldn't, or mag their
fathers and husbands to death with their con-
t-''al burden of complaint, which is so
O wing o. NC '"rves.