If valances are desired, or simple curtains of cheese-cloth, muslin,
chintz or cretonne, they should be suspended from a rod. A cheap
one is made by taking two small wooden balls and putting them on the
ends of iron rods (the kind purchased at hardware stores), or turned
wooden rods, and put up outside the window casing, on large iron
hooks. The rods, balls and hooks should be painted or stained to
match the prevailing color of the curtain drapery, or to match the wood
of the furniture. These rods are simple, light and pretty, and do not
cost a tenth part of even the simplest bought at the upholsterers. If
gilded, they cost but little more, and are much prettier. These rods
for curtains are much more desirable than brackets or cornices of any
description. If the walls are low, the curtains can be hung above the
window frame next to the ceiling, and the walls will look higher, also
the windows. If only lace curtains are used, with neither curtains nor
shades underneath, a deep frill can be made of jute, rep, cretonne,
or any plain material, and trimmed with bands of velvet and fringe,
and put with the rings on the outside of the lace. If made of this
material they must be a little full and nearly half a yard deep ; if cheap-
ness is desirable, any bright color of silesia can be tacked on the wall
under the rod, scolloped on the bottom and hung under the lace, thus
concealing the wall.
A pretty ornament to put over the door is a large horseshoe, covered
with a row of peacock eyes and suspended by green satin ribbon. This
164 HOUSE FURNISHING.
is expensive where the feathers must be bought, but many have these
already, and this is a good way to utilize them. Cabinet photos may
be slipped by one corner under a band of ribbon, tacked to the wall,
and the spaces filled in with smaller cards. Steel engravings, crayons,
water colors, and, in fact, nearly all pictures except oil paintings, may
be simply framed with glass and paper binding, with rings at the back
to hang up by. Better have a good picture and a simple frame, than a
poor picture and an expensive frame. This simple binding does not
detract from the looks of the picture, but leaves it to stand upon its
own merits, and when able to buy a frame suitable to the wants of the
picture, all that is needed to be done is to put this as it is, glass, bind-
ing and all, in the new frame.
If back of the mantel shelf, brackets and statuettes, are put strips of
wine-colored velvet paper, it is a great improvement, throwing'out into
bold relief all the objects in front of it. Old fashioned vases, however
large and ugly, can be suspended in the corners by small silver wire and
rilled with growing vines, which half conceal the outlines and make it
appear to advantage. Or an old churn may be converted into a fernery
by painting it a suitable color and decorating it with bands of flowers
and vines or Japanese figures, and if placed in a wooden bowl, orna-
mented to match the churn, and it also filled with vines, it will make a
unique double fernery.
Page 145
Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
If valances are desired, or simple curtains of cheese-cloth, muslin, chintz or cretonne, they should be suspended from a rod. A cheap one is made by taking two small wooden balls and putting them on the ends of iron rods (the kind purchased at hardware stores), or turned wooden rods, and put up outside the window casing, on large iron hooks. The rods, balls and hooks should be painted or stained to match the prevailing color of the curtain drapery, or to match the wood of the furniture. These rods are simple, light and pretty, and do not cost a tenth part of even the simplest bought at the upholsterers. If gilded, they cost but little more, and are much prettier. These rods for curtains are much more desirable than brackets or cornices of any description. If the walls are low, the curtains can be hung above the window frame next to the ceiling, and the walls will look higher, also the windows. If only lace curtains are used, with neither curtains nor shades underneath, a deep frill can be made of jute, rep, cretonne, or any plain material, and trimmed with bands of velvet and fringe, and put with the rings on the outside of the lace. If made of this material they must be a little full and nearly half a yard deep ; if cheapness is desirable, any bright color of silesia can be tacked on the wall under the rod, scolloped on the bottom and hung under the lace, thus concealing the wall.
A pretty ornament to put over the door is a large horseshoe, covered with a row of peacock eyes and suspended by green satin ribbon. This
is expensive where the feathers must be bought, but many have these already, and this is a good way to utilize them. Cabinet photos may be slipped by one corner under a band of ribbon, tacked to the wall, and the spaces filled in with smaller cards. Steel engravings, crayons, water colors, and, in fact, nearly all pictures except oil paintings, may be simply framed with glass and paper binding, with rings at the back to hang up by. Better have a good picture and a simple frame, than a poor picture and an expensive frame. This simple binding does not detract from the looks of the picture, but leaves it to stand upon its own merits, and when able to buy a frame suitable to the wants of the picture, all that is needed to be done is to put this as it is, glass, binding and all, in the new frame.
If back of the mantel shelf, brackets and statuettes, are put strips of wine-colored velvet paper, it is a great improvement, throwing out into bold relief all the objects in front of it. Old fashioned vases, however large and ugly, can be suspended in the corners by small silver wire and rilled with growing vines, which half conceal the outlines and make it appear to advantage. Or an old churn may be converted into a fernery by painting it a suitable color and decorating it with bands of flowers and vines or Japanese figures, and if placed in a wooden bowl, ornamented to match the churn, and it also filled with vines, it will make a unique double fernery.