Pillow shams are troublesome to keep in place, and can be discarded without regret, when a pretty covering of this sort conceals the whole bed. Of my own choice I would never make use of anything with so disreputable a name.
The fault of crazy quilts is their craziness. To be really pleasing they should have some design, like a Turkish rug which, though very irregular in detail, has yet a general plan, a distinct centerpiece, and a plainly defined border. One of the most objectionable features of the ordinary “crazy” quilt is the huddling together in the same piece of work of painting upon silk and embroidery, two widely differing sorts of decoration, which will not bear being brought heedlessly in juxtaposition.
Very pretty comfortables, to be folded like a silk quilt, and thrown over the foot of the bed, can be made of paper muslin, in dainty colors, or of cheese-cloth, lightly filled with cotton batting, and knotted with bright colored wools. Cotton comfortables are not so serviceable as blankets, but they are much cheaper, and it is well to keep a supply on hand for use in cold winter weather, or to make up an extra bed with in case of emergency. They can be folded under the sheet to soften a hard mattress, or white palliases filled with cotton can be made for the same purpose, but great care should be taken to air bedding of this sort very thoroughly.
A roomy lounge in a bed chamber is a great convenience. It affords an opportunity for an afternoon nap without disarranging the well made bed, and many a careworn woman would lie down for a few minutes upon a lounge in her bedroom who would not think of resting in the daytime upon the bed. A long, broad, pine box, with wooden castors attached, makes an admirable lounge frame, or a narrow cot bedstead could be cut down to be of suitable height for a lounge frame. This should be supplied with a good mattress, or a covering of chintz or cretonne could be drawn over it, with a frill falling nearly to the floor. From one to three square pillows, similarly covered, would perfect this lounge, which could serve readily for a bed in time of need.
Bed hangings and canopies are pretty and unnecessary, except in mosquito countries, where lace net, gathered full upon a hoop suspended horizontally from the ceiling, and falling in ample folds to the floor, will serve to keep many out, and one or two teasing marauders in, the long night through. Bed hangings proper are prettiest when made in the form of a canopy over the bed head, and should be of a material that will bear washing.
An ample supply of choice bed linen and towels, all handsomely marked, is no less a subject of pride with housekeepers than dainty table damask, and people of wealth in these days spend lavishly upon hemstitched linen or silk sheets, elegant towels, and elaborately embroidered letterings.
This fondness for well stocked linen presses is a womanly and pardonable weakness, inherited from our far away ancestresses, who strewed stalks of lavender between the sheets in their chests and presses, a custom that has not gone altogether out of date among old fashioned European housekeepers.
Other comforts of the sleeping room where bath-rooms are not attached are plenty of water and bath towels, a washstand for each occupant of the room, generous bowls, a well filled pail with which to replenish the pitchers, foot tub, a portable bath tub, capacious slop jars, a rubber or enameled leather cloth to spread upon the floor, a screen for seclusion’s sake, and room to splash. If the bedroom china, pails and jars be pretty in shape and color, so much the better, but at any rate, let them be large enough.
A wooden topped washstand should be protected with a piece of enameled leather, over which a plain towel can be spread for look’s sake. Fanciful fringed and colored mats are out of place on the washstand, where water should be free to spatter.
Where “splashers” are used to protect the wall, they should be simple of design and easy to wash, and mottoes, if introduced, should be appropriate to the place. “Sweet Rest in Heaven,” which I have known used for this purpose, can hardly be considered suitable; nor yet the prophet’s command to the leprous Syrian captain, “Wash and be clean,” a too suggestive motto, wholly subversive of the theory that bathing is a luxury indulged in for refreshment’s sake; nor yet again a representation of birds dipping into a stream, with the scriptural allusion to the Good Samaritan’s washing and binding up of wounds, “Go and do thou likewise.” These sentences might be appropriate in the accident ward of a charity hospital, but hardly suit the wall decoration of a lady’s dainty bed-chamber.