The fixture in [Fig. 255] is better suited to the living-room and dining-room, and for fastening each side of the front door; the fixture in [Fig. 257] is better for the other rooms.
Decorating. Suggestions for decorating a doll-house are given in Chapter XIV, but here are some additional ideas to suit the conditions of the apartment. It is the modern practice to tint walls of apartments, and the best plan is to cover the walls of each room with plain paper, using a paper of a different color for each room.
The dining-room should have a plate-rail on which to stand plates (pictures of plates cut from advertisements and pasted upon cardboard), and the walls below the plate-rail should be paneled with strips of cigar-box wood for division strips ([Fig. 244]).
The Outside Walls of the apartment building are supposedly brick; therefore paint them a good red, brown, or yellow brick color, and paint the roof cornice, and the horizontal bands between stories, white, as a contrast.
[CHAPTER XVII]
HOME-MADE DOLL FURNITURE
The metal furniture which you can buy is very pretty when it is new, but this new appearance does not last long after it has come into a youngster's possession, for the pieces are very slender and delicate, and thus easily broken.
Wooden furniture is the most durable kind, and plain and simple pieces will generally outlast the fancy ones. The designs illustrated in this chapter make very substantial pieces, as there are no spindle legs or fancy arms to break off. They follow the lines of the mission furniture, that simple style used in the early American mission schools, and which is to-day being extensively made in handsome pieces for the furnishings of modern homes. You will find the