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House Furnishing and Decorating: Sheets

Sheets.-Linen is, of course, the best material for sheeting, for comfort, appearance, and durability, but cotton sheeting is more commonly used, because it is less expensive.

Buy unbleached linen or cotton for sheets and pillow slips, as it is not only less expensive, but much more durable and can be easily bleached when being laundered.

To Make Sheets. - When making sheets, tear off one length, pin the first end of this length to the sheet and measure off the next. Then sew up as you have pinned. Thus the threads run the same way and the sheets will never pucker in the middle when washed.

Look over sheets before they go to the laundry and mend any tears at once. Sheets usually wear first and split in the middle. When this happens tear them down the middle, sew together the outer selvage edges to make the middle of new sheets, and hem the torn sides. This should be done as soon as the sheets begin to wear thin, without waiting for them to tear. It will double the life of the sheet.

J HOUSE FURNISHING AND DECORATING Bathroom. When possible, cover the floor of the bathroom with tile, cement, or other washable material, but linoleum is a good substitute for these. Or use cork carpet, which is warm to the feet and is washable and desirable, although it spots easily.

Hang the walls with waterproof paper. Or tint the walls with a natural cement that has no glue and does not require a glue size.

THE DINING ROOM Besides the regular dining-room furniture, tables, chairs, sideboard, and serving table, the addition of a plate rail or rack for plates, pitchers, and other decorative china objects, and of a china cabinet with glass doors for displaying the best china, help to give a room character and beauty. The effect of these articles will be very much heightened if the wall coverings are in solid or doubletoned colors, and, as in other living rooms, hard-wood floors or floor coverings in solid colors, with a large rug or drugget coming within a few feet of the wall all around, make perhaps the most effective treatment. The color scheme of the dining room should preferably be in cheerful tones, as blues, yellows, or reds, according to the amount of light the room receives.

China Closet. - The china cabinet is a useful and beautiful article of furniture, but in the absence of such a cabinet any ordinary closet opening into a dining room may be utilized as a china closet by removing the door and replacing it with a decorative door with diamond panes of glass, and lining the interior with denim to correspond in color with the furnishings of the room.

Or the door may be removed and replaced by a suitable drapery hanging from a rod, and drawn aside when the dining room is in use. Screw hooks on the inside of the shelves of the china cabinet or closet from which to hang cups to display them, save space, and prevent breakage. Tack a narrow strip of board two or three inches from the back of each shelf, as a rim to hold up the plates. Or put in a row of brass tacks standing an eighth of an inch above the shelf for this purpose.

Table Pad. A pad of table felt sold for the purpose should be laid over the dining-room table, both to protect the polish and to save the linen tablecloth. But an old blanket or thick cotton flannel may be used for this purpose, or clean carpet lining can be utilized by covering it with white muslin smoothly pasted on.

This will last for months and can be readily replaced.

To Store Table Leaves. - Fasten under the lower shelf of the pantry the frame in which the extra boards of the extension dining table come, and slide the boards in. Thus they take up no extra space and are always at hand.

China. Select a stock pattern when buying china, and preferably a standard design of some sort, as the wellknown willow or onion design, or some other that can be readily replaced as pieces are broken. When possible it is, of course, a good plan to have two sets of china, one for best, to be displayed in the china cabinet and only used upon special occasions, and another for ordinary wear, which may be less delicate and expensive.

THE KITCHEN, STOREROOM, AND PANTRY The kitchen, as the workshop of the house, is the room in which many housekeepers spend most of their waking hours. Hence it should be perhaps the lightest, airiest, and most cheerful room in the house. It is safe to say that much more attention might well be given to the matter of kitchen conveniences than they usually receive. There are very few housekeepers indeed who could not, by intelligent forethought in planning and arranging the contents of the kitchen, pantry and storeroom. save themselves daily miles of useless traveling to and fro.