The spare room or rooms need never necessarily have the “half tester” bedsteads, and so you are saved the expense of buying a quantity of bedhangings and what follows in their train--a heavy washing or cleaning bill. In the event of your not wanting to spend much money on the furnishing of your spare bedroom, remember that at sales very often good things can be picked up at a low price. If you will have a charming bedroom suite at a low rate, be on the look-out for some common deal furniture--never mind its being second-hand and the paint dirty, so long as the wood is whole. Perhaps a friend has an old toilet table or a chest of drawers that she wants to get rid of, or you come across a cheap lot at a broker’s; do not be dismayed at the paint being gaudy, perhaps, or dirty, for this is the secret--have them all painted some uniform neutral colour (grey, picked out with dark mouldings, looks well), and then varnished, and you will be delighted with the result. In conclusion, a good substitute for a wardrobe may be made in this way. If there is a small recess in the room (there very often is one by the chimney), put across it a deal board, stained or painted, and varnished, about 6 ft. from the ground, with an ornamental moulding depending from the front edge, and hang curtains in front, putting up underneath as many dress pegs as the width of the recess will allow. (C. H. D., in the _Queen_.) _Ceilings._--If the cornices of the rooms be deeply recessed and filled with heavy plaster ornaments, they must of necessity hold dust and other impurities, which are increased by the action of damp air causing decomposition, and by mixing with the air in the room, when stirred or blown away from their resting places by draught from opened door or window, must render it impure and unhealthy. In addition to this, they are more or less choked up by every coat of so-called distemper decoration, and this again, by absorbing damp and obnoxious exhalations, adds materially to the sense of stuffiness and foulness which can be appreciably felt on first opening up the room after it has been closed for some hours. It is better, if possible, to paint all ceilings and cornices than to distemper them, so as to render them as non-absorbent as possible; by painting, the plaster-work is covered with a non-absorbent coating, on which if desired a coat of distemper may afterwards be added.