A-B-C of housekeeping

FURNISHING THE HOME

THE first details to be regarded in furnishing a house have to do with the woodwork and walls.

Sometimes the landlord has settled these and the tenant has no choice. This is especially likely to be the case with the woodwork. If it is a cheap and unattractive variety of “hardwood,” so called, or is painted in imitation of hardwood, it is difficult to induce the owner to change this. When he will consent to paint to please the tenant selection should be made either of white or of a soft, neutral tint which will not conflict with any color of furniture. The painting which simulates the graining of a natural wood is distinctly bad and should never be tolerated except when it cannot be changed.

The kitchen should be painted throughout, walls as well as woodwork, and in some good light color, such as buff; this will give the room a bright, cheery look, and the steam which accumulates on the walls of a kitchen can be scrubbed off the paint as it cannot be from a kalsomined or papered wall.

In choosing papers, the tenant should bear in mind that they will have to be lived with for a long time, and should pick out such as can stand familiar association without becoming objectionable. Striking patterns and assertive hues should be avoided. When two or three rooms open into one another it is well to have them papered alike and thus avoid the patchy effect produced by several small rooms all with different wall-coverings. In this day cheap papers which are also pretty and artistic can easily be found and it is worth while to bestow a good deal of time and thought upon their choice.

If possible, all painting and papering should be done and the workmen out of the house before the tenant moves in. This plan permits the rooms to be cleaned and saves double toil to the housekeeper.

The furniture of the house does not always lie within the tenant’s power of selection. Few are the homes which are freshly furnished throughout by a young couple. Almost invariably there are “left-overs” and “hand-downs” which are presented to the newly married pair, and they are fortunate indeed if such relics are desirable and not discarded pieces which no one else wants.

When even a portion of the furniture is to be bought, it should not be purchased at random. “Sets” of any sort are best avoided. For the parlor of a modest establishment, wicker and willow articles are far better than the conspicuous styles which attain a sudden popularity and then become old-fashioned and out of date. Comfort should be considered in every item chosen and nothing taken merely because it looks well or is reasonable in price. While sets are deprecated, a room need not look like a harlequin collection. A certain uniformity of style and coloring is to be studied, that the apartment may produce a harmonious effect. Odd pieces, such as a deep arm-chair, a fancy tea-table, an attractive set of book-shelves, are entirely suitable and will not strike an incongruous note in the general surroundings.

Bare floors are more used now than carpets, and rugs may make islands of safety here and there on the smooth surface. When fine antique rugs have not been given and cannot be bought, the best choice is from among the many good varieties of inoffensive native rugs. Or a rug may be made of a quiet-toned carpet, the breadths sewed together to form a square of the size desired, and surrounded with a border to match. Good druggets or art-squares may be found for the dining-room, matting or bare floors and rugs will serve for the bedrooms, and hall and stairs are to be covered with the runners which come for these purposes or with a neat stair carpet in quiet colors and pattern.

The dining-room furniture demands a good deal of deliberation. It is a mistake to buy it in too great a hurry and so to be laden down with something one does not really want. The table and sideboard are usually purchased for a lifetime, and it is better to put up with makeshifts for a while on the chance of finding something really good and satisfactory than to buy in a hurry and repent at leisure.

The wood of the dining-room furniture is not so much a matter of choice in many cases as of necessity. One must buy what one can. Every one cannot have mahogany or Circassian walnut, and it is a comfort that so many of the less costly woods are made up into excellent designs. It is much better to buy a good article of a low-priced material than a cheap variety of the more expensive woods. Oak, ash, cherry, birch, gumwood and other native growths may be found in pieces of excellent lines which will satisfy even an artistic eye. When there is money enough to get all that is wanted for the dining-room, a serving-table and a china-closet of some kind may be added to the sideboard, dining-table, and chairs that rank as essentials.

The requirements of the kitchen will receive more detailed consideration later on. Among the must-haves are the range, to which reference has already been made; a good kitchen table, supplied either with a zinc top or with a shelf to draw out and use as a bread-board; a refrigerator; a wire meat-safe; liberal pantry room, shelf room, and, if possible, a kitchen cabinet.

When the bedrooms are to be furnished the same simplicity must be followed which is recommended for the other apartments. The less furniture the bedroom contains the better, from a sanitary point of view. The Biblical inventory of a bed and a table, a stool and a candlestick, had much to commend it. The bedstead should be of iron or iron and brass; the dresser, table, etc., of white enamel or some light-colored wood. The heavy pieces our grandparents took for granted are fortunately out of vogue in a modest household. A box-couch may be included in the furnishing of the room, or what is known as a utility-box for holding shirtwaists and the like, and it is to be hoped there is either abundant closet room or an extra wardrobe or clothes-press.

Such are the large and important furnishings of the house. These may be reduced or increased, simplified or elaborated, in accordance with the preference and powers of the owners of the dwelling.

Other articles, hardly less essential, have to be considered. Take the question of draperies, for instance.

Within the past few years the fashion has grown of having two and sometimes three pairs of curtains for each window—inner hangings of lace or some similar fabric, outer draperies of rich and heavy goods, and frequently these will be supplemented by sash-curtains close against the pane, to say nothing of one or two shades to the window.

This may answer for the woman who is at a loss what to do with her money and can devise no better use to make of it than a multiplication of her possessions, but the custom is not one the young housekeeper need feel it incumbent upon her to follow. One shade of a neutral tint at each window of her living-rooms, a pair of curtains of some material which can be readily washed, are all that she requires. For the principal rooms a good Madras, a pretty scrim, a pleasing though inexpensive lace (all fabrics which will look well after careful washing) will meet every necessity and present an attractive appearance.

In the chambers two shades may be demanded by those who wish to have a dark room for sleeping, but short white curtains of wash-goods, or sash-curtains, are sufficient here, and something of the same sort, but possibly a little better in quality, can be procured for the dining-room. As a rule plain, straight curtains, without ruffles, are not only more easily laundered, but look better after they are done up than those pranked out with frills.

When ornaments are to be considered one generally makes the best of what one has. The newly settled couple may be thankful if they have not been burdened with pictures and bric-à-brac which not only do not please their personal taste, but refuse to harmonize with one another or with anything else. In some cases one can only make the best of conditions, and after endeavoring to arrange the unwelcome gifts to the best advantage and scattering them over the house so as to dispel the curse to as many different quarters as possible, resign oneself to endurance until such time as the presents can be removed, one at a time.

Those fortunate persons who can buy their own luxuries will recall the Oriental proverb: “If thou hast but two loaves of bread, sell one and buy jacinths for the soul!” What form the jacinths may take will be determined by individual preference. One will find more joy and uplift in really fine pictures than in anything else; another will concentrate upon books and magazines; another will turn from both of these and toward music. It makes little difference which way the window is opened into the Infinite. The vital point is that such an outlet must be provided if soul and spirit are to be nourished and grow as well as body and physical strength.

However much the importance of such plenishing as this may impress either the man or the woman, the latter would be profoundly lacking if she did not display a keen interest in other essentials of her new home. The pictures, the books, the other arts, may rejoice and help her, but she would be wanting in femininity if she failed to select her table and bed linen with almost as much thought as she would expend upon her “jacinths.”

Even with unlimited means, it is not wise to buy more linen than can be used in a small household. Plenty there should be, but not a large stock which will lie aside and yellow from lack of service. Three or four dinner-cloths, each with its accompaniment of a dozen napkins, will be ample for her average needs, especially if she uses a centerpiece and doilies on the bare table for breakfast and lunch. In her purchasing she should avoid the fringed articles; these wear badly and are difficult to do up well. Fruit-plate doilies to place under finger-bowls, fish-cloths, centerpieces, tray-cloths, sideboard and dresser covers, tea and carving cloths, and other ornamental as well as useful linens will probably be given to her by relatives or friends, or she may pick them up from time to time as she has need for them or the chance to purchase them advantageously. As her table-cloths and larger pieces begin to wear out she can usually cut from them squares which will serve to lay under hot baked potatoes in the dish, to wrap about rolls or other hot bread, to use for fish-cloths.

A dozen each of dish and china towels she should have, and the same number of heavier towels for kitchen use, as well as three roller-towels. But the napery in this line she should keep under her own hand, if she has hired service in her kitchen and pantry, and give the towels out a few at a time in order to save her linen as well as to inculcate habits of care.

When bed-linen is to be considered, the housekeeper should follow the same line as that she has laid down in her purchase of table-linen. The ornamental may be selected as suits her fancy, but there are certain must-haves in the plainer articles. Six pairs of cotton sheets are none too many, and pillow-slips to go with them. If she and her family cherish a weakness for linen pillow-slips, some of these may be provided in place of so many pairs of the cotton cases. For three beds three or four spreads should be procured, so as to allow of change, and these spreads should be of the kind which wash easily and look well afterward. Mattress-covers are also essential, as are blankets and extra coverings. Silk or lace counterpanes cannot be reckoned among must-haves, any more than can like dressings for the bureau, but may be supplied at will.

At least two or three dozen fine towels must be included in the list of essentials, half a dozen good firm bath-towels, and wash-cloths at discretion, as well as a dozen heavier towels for the use of domestics. Guest-towels, bath-sheets, bath-mats, and the like are luxuries which may be accumulated after the necessities are attained.

When the housekeeper is filling out her list of household linens and cottons she must not overlook dusters, floor-cloths, mop-cloths, dish-cloths, or mops—I hope she uses the latter!—and other similar requirements. In this advanced day there are new articles in this line which present themselves constantly and which the housekeeper must decide for herself to be luxuries or necessities.

For supplying the china-closet a fixed rule is almost impossible. The best plan is for the housekeeper to make out for herself what her family will need and then to consult an intelligent clerk in a good china-shop. Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a whole set of china than to select from “open stock” the pieces that are absolutely required. Soup, dinner, dessert plates; plates for lunch and for breakfast, for afternoon tea, for salad, for entrées; service plates; meat and vegetable dishes in china or silver, can all be purchased in a charming variety and at a reasonable price. The same is true of glassware. Many gifts will fit in well here, and the stock of silver is pretty sure to be received from the family or friends.

In the kitchen matters are different. Few persons present culinary plenishing, and it almost always devolves upon the housekeeper to select it for herself. While she may have developed needs in certain explicit directions, there are a few rules which can be laid down for her general guidance, certain articles which it is safe to declare essentials. Such are the following:

Other no less important articles are as follows:

Brooms, dust-pans, whisk brooms, carpet-sweeper, etc.