Such a room requires very little furniture. The walls should
be of neat and quiet tint, with two or three pleasing pictures
and some brackets for pots of ferns, or such vines as will grow
prettily in the shade during the hot summer weather. In
winter a few petunias and two or three foliage plants will fill the
sunny windows with brightness and bloom. There should be
along, substantial table, with plenty of elbow room for all, and a
side-board or cupboard for table-crockery. A small table will
be found a convenience — if there is no side-board — for holding
such dishes as are used toward the end of a meal at dinner
time, when the varieties of food have a tendency to crowd each
other. The window curtains may be plain shades of color
suited to the walls of the room. Nothing can be better for the
floor in summer time than an oiled surface, like that of the
kitchen, which can be made comfortable to the feet in winter
by a large " crumb-cloth " of drugget or home-made carpeting.
In more opulent farm homes, where the wife has liberty to
devote more time and means to house decoration and furnish-
ing, very handsome dining-rooms can be achieved with a
moderate outlay. There should be high walls, a fire place, and
a fine large window looking to the south or east. All the rest
is in the hands of the mistress. If the floor has been laid in
light and dark woods, well and good. It will be a thing of
beauty through more than one life time, and always look genu-
HOUSEHOLD. 85
me and substantial, as everything about a dining-room should.
If, however, the floor is of pine, it may be stained in blocks or
stripes, in a bordering two feet in width, covered with two
coats of the best varnish, and the centre adorned with three or
more breadths of pretty carpeting.
Have a carpenter construct a side-board of simple but sub-
stantial form, faced with oak or maple, or else made of the best
pine. Glue artificial wood carvings of fruits in the centre of
the top, and upon each door and drawer, and finish the whole
with oil and varnish.
The table may also be home-made, and large and solid, with
rounded comers, and substantial turned legs with casters. If
not of real oak, the legs should be nicely stained to imitate it.
If colored table-linen is used, it should be buff and white, with
green borders, or buff and green in any neat, small patterns.
These cloths, however, are generally covered with plain white
ones at meal time.
Above this table there should be a handsome hanging lamp
or small chandeli^, with perhaps a little basket of Kennelworth
ivy, or other gracefully growing vine, suspended from it. Such
a light glorifes the plainest tea table.
Page 57
Presented as published in 1883. 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
Such a room requires very little furniture. The walls should be of neat and quiet tint, with two or three pleasing pictures and some brackets for pots of ferns, or such vines as will grow prettily in the shade during the hot summer weather. In winter a few petunias and two or three foliage plants will fill the sunny windows with brightness and bloom. There should be a long, substantial table, with plenty of elbow room for all, and a side-board or cupboard for table-crockery. A small table will be found a convenience — if there is no side-board — for holding such dishes as are used toward the end of a meal at dinner time, when the varieties of food have a tendency to crowd each other. The window curtains may be plain shades of color suited to the walls of the room. Nothing can be better for the floor in summer time than an oiled surface, like that of the kitchen, which can be made comfortable to the feet in winter by a large " crumb-cloth " of drugget or home-made carpeting.
In more opulent farm homes, where the wife has liberty to devote more time and means to house decoration and furnishing, very handsome dining-rooms can be achieved with a moderate outlay. There should be high walls, a fire place, and a fine large window looking to the south or east. All the rest is in the hands of the mistress. If the floor has been laid in light and dark woods, well and good. It will be a thing of beauty through more than one life time, and always look genuine and substantial, as everything about a dining-room should. If, however, the floor is of pine, it may be stained in blocks or stripes, in a bordering two feet in width, covered with two coats of the best varnish, and the centre adorned with three or more breadths of pretty carpeting.
Have a carpenter construct a side-board of simple but substantial form, faced with oak or maple, or else made of the best pine. Glue artificial wood carvings of fruits in the centre of the top, and upon each door and drawer, and finish the whole with oil and varnish.
The table may also be home-made, and large and solid, with rounded comers, and substantial turned legs with casters. If not of real oak, the legs should be nicely stained to imitate it. If colored table-linen is used, it should be buff and white, with green borders, or buff and green in any neat, small patterns. These cloths, however, are generally covered with plain white ones at meal time.
Above this table there should be a handsome hanging lamp or small chandelier, with perhaps a little basket of Kennelworth ivy, or other gracefully growing vine, suspended from it. Such a light glorifes the plainest tea table.