Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife

by Marion Mills Miller

Housekeepers often prefer carpets to bare floors, and rugs for the reason that they "show the dirt" less. It is for this very reason that bare floors are best. Dirt is something to remove rather than conceal, and bare floors and rugs are more easily cleaned than carpets.

Covering the entire floor with plain filling, as a base for rugs, is an alternative for either hardwood or stained floors. It should be in the deeper tone of the color employed as a main part of the room's decoration.

When carpets are used, those in the hall, parlor, and dining-room should not be fitted into the corners, but a space should intervene between their edges and the walls. This may be filled with wood-carpetry, which, like all devices which suggest continuation of fine material through unseen parts, gives an air of art and elegance at comparatively little expense. Otherwise the floor, if hardwood, should be finished; if of other wood, stained and varnished. The carpet square is kept in position with brass-headed pins sold for the purpose.

Articles of furniture which are suitable for a parlor used chiefly as a reception room are light side chairs, and a settee, cane-seated with dark frames, or willow chairs, and settee, stained a dark hue, and brightened up with pretty cushions. These are not dear, so a little extra expense may be incurred in buying the parlor-table, which should be graceful in design and of rich dark wood, preferably mahogany, or in mahogany finish. A small table, of similar design and finish, should serve for afternoon tea, and a pretty desk stand near a window, with writing materials for the use of guests. There should be a clock upon the mantelpiece, and a few other articles of vertu, such as a vase or so, a bronze statuette, etc., all harmonized by the common possession of artistic elegance.

The pictures in the parlor should possess evident artistic merit. There should be no suggestion of amateurishness. Family attempts at drawing or painting, crayon portraits, etc., all photographs, with the exception of those intended as artistic studies, should be excluded from the walls. If good originals by capable artists are not obtainable, fine engravings, etchings, and even colored copies of noted pictures may take their place.

A few books, well bound and with contents worthy of the binding, should lie on the parlor table, with a late magazine or so, for the entertainment of the waiting guest. There should be fresh flowers arranged in pretty bowls to add their impress of cheerfulness and beauty to the room.

In most American homes the parlor is also the music room. Since a piano should be chosen for quality rather than appearance, an instrument of any finish is allowable in a room, whatever its decorative scheme. Except in a family containing an expert performer, a piano should be chosen for softness and richness of tone, instead of brilliancy. For most households the old cottage organ is a more practicable instrument than the "concert grand" often found in a small parlor, where its piercing notes, especially in combination with operatic singing, are so confined that tones and overtones, which should assist each other, mingle in jarring confusion. Indeed, when the parlor is large and high, a genuine pipe-organ built in a recess and harmonizing in finish with the woodwork of the room is not only the finest decoration possible, but the most appropriate musical instrument. Those families who possess an old-fashioned piano, such as thin and tinkly "square," are advised to have it overhauled and refinished by a competent piano-repairer, and preserved, if only for practice by the children. In case such an instrument has "overstrung" wires, it can be restored to a tone that is better than that of the usual upright piano.

The parlor that is put to family use is usually the best room to fit up for a library. In this case the form-and-color scheme of furnishing and decoration should differ entirely from that when the room is used only for the reception of guests. The furniture should be heavier and larger, indicating utility, and its finish, as also that of the walls, floor and woodwork, in deep shades of the more restful colors of the spectrum. Sage-green is a good color for the parlor-library. The furniture may be of this or even darker hue. There is no better style of furniture for the library than the Mission, made comfortable by leather cushions. If leather is thought too expensive, there are fair substitutes for it in such materials as pantasote. But leather should be procured if possible. It looks better and wears longer, and even when shabby keeps its respectability. With the Mission furniture may be mingled an old-fashioned upholstered chair or so, such as a large "Sleepy Hollow." A Morris chair is almost as comfortable as this, and perhaps upholds the dignity of the room a little better, though it does not give the same suggestion of "hominess." An old-fashioned sofa, wide-seated, and designed to be lain upon, should be placed in the room with its head toward the light, so that the occupant may read while reclining upon it. In almost every old house there is a horse-hair sofa, either put away in the attic or even in use, which can be reupholstered to fit the color-scheme of the room.

Books naturally form the chief ornament of the library. It is a mistake to give them an elaborate casing. The simplest form is the best; the shelves should run up evenly from the floor to a more or less ornamental and somewhat projecting top, terminating several feet from the ceiling. On this top a bust or so of an author may be appropriately placed, or copies of an ancient statue, and on the wall above, between the cases of shelves, may hang a few pictures, not necessarily bookish in suggestion, but reposeful in subject and tone, such as landscapes and marines.

A writing desk of comfortable size, with its chair, is essential in every library. It should be as far away as possible from the type of the modern business desk, and therefore an old-fashioned article with a sloping top, which, when let down, serves for the writing board, is an ideal form. Manufacturers continue to make these desks for home purposes.