TO PRESERVE FLOWERS SO THAT THEIR BEAUTY WILL LAST FOR YEARS.
Make a strong solution of gum arabic, two ounces of the gum to one pint of boiling water; shake until dissolved; then take your flowers and immerse in the solution, taking care that every part is well wet with the solution. When dry, repeat the operation. Do this three times. Flowers treated thus will last for years.
CHAPTER XIII.
HOME DECORATION.
The chief features to be observed in house furnishing are color, form, and proportion. All stiffness of design in furniture should be avoided. Do not attempt to match articles, but rather carry out the same idea as to color and form in the whole. It is not en règle to have decorations in sets or pairs; the arrangements should all be done with odd pieces. Every room in the house should be arranged for occupancy, having nothing too good for use, and the judicious housewife will follow a medium course and adopt no extreme of fashion.
The style and arrangement of the furniture should correspond with the size of the room, with a due regard to the place a piece of furniture or ornament will occupy. The order of arrangement in furnishing is subject to individual taste, but the following suggestions may not be inappropriate:—
In decorating a dining-room, deep, rich tones should be used; a drawingroom or parlor should have bright, cheerful shades; in a library use deep, rich colors, which give a sense of worth; a sleeping-room should have light, pleasing tints, which give a feeling of repose.
THE HALL.
The hall being the index to the whole house, due care should therefore be given to its furnishing. Light colors and gilding should be avoided. The wall and ceiling decorations now mostly used are in dark, rich colors, shaded in maroons or deep reds. Plain tinted walls and ceilings in fresco or wainscot are also frequently used. The latest shades of wall paper come in wood colors, dark olive-greens, stone color, and grays, in tile, arabesque and landscape designs, and with these are used a corresponding dado and frieze.
A tile or inlaid floor is the most appropriate, but if circumstances do not admit of one of these, a floor stained a deep wood-brown, base board and moldings to correspond, may be substituted; when India mattings and rugs may be used.