Part 122

Trim the skeleton screen to harmonize with the fittings of the room.

A carpenter constructed the framework for the two panels, with the bar across the top, and the little shelf for twenty-five cents. The pine used was an old packing box. The panels must be three and one-half feet high and eighteen inches wide, made of strips three inches broad. The shelf should be eight inches wide and twelve inches long.

Four yards and one-half of chintz in cream-tinted ground, sprinkled with Dresden nosegays gaily dashed with pink and delicate green color, eight cents a yard. Four grades of delicate pink silesia and two and one-half yards of unbleached muslin for interlining, made an item of fifty cents. Hinges and corners and nail-heads of brass, satin ribbon and tacks, by considerable calculation, can be pressed into the amount of seventy-five cents.

A Saturday morning industriously spent in the upholstery of the little screen presented it in completeness.

Screens can be used to protect from drafts of air, by day or night, to keep the sun from an exposed spot on the carpet, to shade the light from weary eyes, to temporarily close archways that have no doors, and to conceal a door that is not often used. They will divide a large room into two small ones when a sudden influx of company arrives, or even close in a corner for the same hospitable emergency. They make delightful nooks in sitting-rooms for the little folks' playhouse, or they may screen off, from the morning caller, a temporary sewing-room in the back parlor, and in sleeping-rooms, occupied by more than one person, a cosy dressing-room may be made by their use.

Draperies.

The new swinging portières that have appeared have a handsome swinging crane fastened to the wall near the ceiling, upon which a portière or curtain is suspended. This can then be swung back against the wall or swung out to make a cozy corner or to shut off one portion of a room from another. These swinging portières can in many cases be made to take the place of screens and often fit with great advantage where a fixed portière of the old sort could not be used.

The handsome cranes are of course more or less expensive, but a home-made substitute will answer the purpose very well. It is not exactly home-made, however, for the services of a blacksmith may have to be called in to bend the three-eighths inch iron rod into shape for use. The ends are bent to fit into screw eyes or other sockets fastened to the wall, upon which this improvised crane can be swung. The portière is suspended from the iron rod by rings.

Denim is one of the best of all fabrics for a portière in rooms constantly used. It may be washed out and will look quite as well as new. If you want a variety put one entire width in right side out, and split another and join to the first section, putting the side pieces wrong side out. Sew the seams, then fell them and featherstitch the outside of the seams in colored linen. Then with a teacup or saucer draw some circles, intersecting or lapping at one edge. Work these with linen in short stitches and make eccentric lines or spider-web lines from the central design. The edges may be hemmed or featherstitched or done in buttonhole and cut out in scallops. It is better to have the edge of the facing instead of making a turned-in hem.

Then denim, as a floor covering, wears far better than low-cost matting and never becomes disagreeably faded; for, being made for hard usage, it but takes a quieter tone when other blues would surely fade into unpleasant, soiled-looking hues.

Some Useful Bits of Furniture.

A settee table of oak has an adjustable top, which can be turned over by the removal of two pegs, making a high back to the bench, whose deep seat is utilized as a household linen closet. These tables are in great demand where the saving of space is an object and come in various sizes. They can be purchased without the top and used as a window seat. One in a pretty studio of a woman artist in New York was most artistically treated. It was painted a dull green. The back and the lid of the seat were upholstered in an effective gold colored tapestry drawn over a padding of hair and held down by gimp and gilt nails, making a most artistic seat or table, as its use for either was required. Another one was stained green, and on the back and lid of the seat was used natural toned burlap, with stenciled griffins in dark brown as a decoration.

These tables may be treated in various ways to suit their surroundings. It is suggested in The Decorator and Furnisher that one stained the natural oak and upholstered in green rep, turcoman, corduroy, burlap or denim would be most attractive, or for green, substitute brown in the same materials and put on with dull brass nails, making an effective seat for a hall.

Another, painted white and enameled, would be charming in a blue and white dining-room. Upholster in dark blue denim with white nails, and fill with a number of pretty pillows in various designs of blue and white, and one of vivid scarlet to give a warm touch, which is needed in these coldly decorated rooms.

The lovely liberty chintzes in dark blue and white, and sometimes yellow, red and white on blue, are good to use on these settees, which are first painted black.

A Hanging Desk.

The economy of space necessary in apartment living has brought about the evolution of some remarkable pieces of furniture that may be useful in small houses anywhere.

The writing desk may be included in the list of household wonders directly attributable to the necessity of fitting that most useful household article in a six by ten apartment. When closed, it really occupies the very smallest amount of room imaginable, and for the young students' use, or in flat bedrooms, where space is at a premium, it is unique and valuable.

The material may be oak or such wood as one fancies. Pine enameled in white or black is as good, so long as it matches the woodwork or furniture of the room. Two strips of the wood, each two inches by three feet, are attached to the wall by long screws. Across the top of these are placed three shelves about five inches wide, supported by brackets of brass. Between the two upper ones partitions are glued in to form pigeonholes.

From four to six inches from the lower end of each of the strips of wood is firmly placed a strip about two inches wide, to which is hinged the shelf that forms the desk. This is upheld when open by brass chains, and is thus made firm. When it is desired to close it, it is merely shut to the wall, the chains falling into place. The ledge upon which the lid is hinged forms a firm place for the inkstand and other necessary fitments of a desk.

Against the wall, between the supporting strips, may be fixed a Japanese panel or some tapestry or silk, as taste may dictate. A picture can be so fastened to the panel as to form a good letter or cardholder.

The whole affair is simple and easily managed. Any good carpenter will make the necessary woodwork for a very small sum.

A Window Desk.

One of the most convenient and altogether satisfactory contrivances quite in the power of a woman to manipulate is a window desk.

Take a board about fifteen inches wide and saw it the length of the window sill. Put small iron hinges on it and screw it to the sill, so that it can hang down against the under wall when desirable.

Tack a narrow strip of wood under the board, near the front edge. Resting on the floor and wedged under this cleat there is a prop of planed wood, slender and neat looking. You can put a beading around the board, with small brads and stain it cherry or some other color.

The sill holds pens, pencils and inkstands, and a large blotter laid on the board, is a most desirable writing pad. This idea comes from an art student in Paris, who dotes on her window desk.

It will be found useful in the nursery as a place for pasting pictures, drawings, etc., and when done can be swung down and out of the way.