Home › Household Art And Taste › Window-Plants In Dining-Room

Window-Plants In Dining-Room

well lighted and cheerful, especially so when also used as the living-room, Break the glare of the sun, when necessary, with curtains. The illustration of Window-plants in Dining-room shows a pretty effect. To produce this costs little besides the necessary care of the plants, which may be made a labor of love as well as an educator to the children.

V. The Kitchen.

THIS is the most important room in every house of moderate expense, if not in all houses. The furniture should be ample and of the best manufacture consistent with the means of the owner. All kettles, stew and sauce pans should be of good tinned ware, or of stone or other silicate finish. Granite and other enamel coatings are now made so cheaply that they soon pay their cost in the ease of cleaning. The sink should be ample; the stove provided with a hot-water apparatus, the pantry and other closets easy of access. Let the floor be of hard wood, and covered with a good oilcloth, if you can afford it, or, if not, well painted; rugs may be used in places where the work usually stands, for a woman's feet should not be in constant pressure either on oil-cloth or upon the bare floor. Here again the good sense of the mistress of the house may be shown in furnishing, both with a view to comfort and for the economy of work.

If servants are employed, they must be instructed in the proper care of the kitchen utensils, or there will be much waste from breakage or misuse. Hence, the necessity that the mistress fully understand how things should be done. If she must do the work herself, it will be a pleasure to be able to do it deftly and neatly; for light-handed neatness is the crowning glory of housekeeping.