The household (of the Detroit free press)

There are many large houses that have empty rooms, ofttimes the pleasantest room in the house, that can be made to look very pretty at small expense, and not take much time either. The necessary materials and tools are a saw, hammer, tacks, gimp, cretonne, or chintz, barrels, boxes, boards and paint. If the furniture be old, one may hide its shabbiness under covers of handsome stuffs in dark, rich colors and quaint figures like the ordinary broche shawls, or with reps, or chintz, or even unbleached muslin trimmed with bands or flutings of plain Turkey-red. All covers should be made to wash, and come off easily; therefore tacks should be religiously avoided ; the cushion, which must be made separately, ought to come over the edge of the box a little, and be firmly tied on with tape ; the covers, if you can contrive to make them fit properly, require no fastening. Not only may empty boxes be utilized, but dressing-tables too shabby for respectability, too old-fashioned for pleasant contemplation, can, by the judicious use of colored roll muslin, and old lace or window-curtains, or worn-out grenadine evening dresses, be transformed into tasteful, graceful toilette tables. Old Chairs and Couches can be transformed in the same way. See how they are constructed while taking them apart, and then put them together in the same way. The lounge we can easily manage without calling in the upholsterer. The old cover can be taken off, smoothed out, and used as a pattern for the new. New springs can be easily inserted in place of the old, and "excelsior" corn husks, curled hair, or any accessible material used to give softness and soundness to the cushions. Then cut a cover of strong, unbleached muslin and put it on. Afterward the material chosen for the covering can be nicely adjusted. It may be tacked along the front with brass-headed nails, or the line of attachment may be concealed by a strip of braid, or fringe, or gimp. If you want to tuft it, you will require an upholsterer's needle. It is over a foot long and curved. Thread in strong linen twine and pass the needle through from the bottom — if it is the seat which is being treated — slip on a button, or adjust a tuft and pass the needle down. If the stuffing material be soft and flexible, draw the thread tight, and a deep indentation will be the result. If you have a little ingenuity and faculty you will find your lounge quite as good and handsome as new, and will have done in a few hours what the upholsterer would charge several dollars for. If the floor is bare, and a carpet cannot be afforded, it can be painted, even by an amateur, in pretty blocks, one dark, one light, alternately ; then, if rugs are scattered around the floor, it will not have the cold look that bare floors usually do have. For the rooms of this sort, cur- tains should be used that fall from the ceiling to the floor, draped back from the center ; this gives hight and breadth to the room, and a graceful appearance generally.