Spons' Household Manual: A treasury of domestic receipts and a guide for home management
General
Spons' Household Manual: A treasury of domestic receipts and a guide for home management
Home economics
things in inaccessible places, where they are seldom dusted, and only
help to breed dirt and disease.
_Windows._--If instead of the usual heavy and ugly valances, which
so many people still insist upon placing over their windows, as
a top-finish to the curtains, we were to provide framed recesses
constructed with the architraves, or mouldings, which run round
the window-openings, with slightly arched heads, leaving room for
a slight iron rod to be fixed behind and out of sight, with space
for the proper and easy running of the curtain, we should have not
only a much more artistic, but certainly a much more healthy and
less expensive arrangement; and these arched heads would form part
of the constructive finishing, at no more cost than the framed and
panelled window linings and architraves, and if carried up to the
ceiling, with the cornice returned round, would leave no spaces for
the accumulation of dirt and dust, such as are now provided by the
projecting boxed linings and the heavy valances, fringes, and poles,
which the modern upholsterer provides.
_Bedrooms._--The wall surfaces of bedrooms should be hung with some
small and simple decorative paper of one general tone, but with no
particularly emphasised design, so that we are annoyed at night with
flights of birds, or symmetrical patterns of conventional primroses,
daisies, or fruits, which might in any way suggest a countless and
never-ending procession along the walls. Any pattern or design which
shows prominently any set pattern, or spots which suggest a sum
of multiplication, or which, in the half-light of night or early
morning, might be likely to fix themselves upon the tired brain,
suggesting all kinds of weird forms, are especially to be avoided.
The design should be of such a description that, saving as regards
colour, it should offer no specially marked pattern.
The general wall surfaces should be varnished if possible, so that
they may be easily cleaned down and be made practically non-absorbent.
The general woodwork of the doors, windows, and skirtings should be
painted in some plain colour to harmonise or contrast with the wall
decoration, and the whole varnished; woodwork finished in this way
can be easily washed or cleaned, and the extra expense of varnishing
will be saved in a few years. The bedstead should be of brass or
iron, the furniture of light wood, varnished or polished; and, now
that good painted tiles can be obtained at small expense, they may
be used in washing-stands with good effect, or the wall above may be
lined entirely with them to a height of 2 or 3 ft.
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