The covering of tables, chairs, etc., affords an opportunity to introduce color into the room, but it is not at all necessary that the chairs should all be covered with stuffs of the same quality or color. Unless very well chosen, plain colors are apt to stare, like the sharp green “rep” that was so long popular, and whose good wearing qualities made it so hard to displace. If the manufacturers had only kept pace with the times, and produced the stuff in good, plain shades that would keep their colors, or figured in good designs, it would still hold its own against all the so-called tapestry goods that the upholsterers offer us. “Rep,” however, was utterly unsuitable for curtains; it was stiff and wiry, and hung in ungainly folds. For our sitting room some light drapery at the windows is advisable. If the room has no blinds, there should be some sort of thick shades or venetian blinds. There is a yellowish brown holland that is admirable for the purpose; but with outside or inside blinds, a thin curtain like Madras muslin is all that is necessary to shade the blackness of the windows at night, or to temper the brightness of the sunlight by day. The advantage of Madras muslin or Cretan cloth over lace, muslin, or cheese cloth curtains lies in the color and figure; colored and figured curtains showing to better advantage against the light than plain white, and looking fresher much longer; they “furnish” a room more. Whatever curtains are used, they should be hung with rings from rods of brass, bamboo, or wood—varnished pine is good enough—so that they can be pushed entirely to one side with ease. Rods should not be too large and should be finished at the ends with some simple ornament, as a plain ball which pulls off at one end, so as to allow the rings to slip over the rod. The curtains may be long, if hung outside the window frame, and just reach the floor, or they may hang from the upper sash and just reach to the window ledge, so as to cover only the window; or they may be half curtains hanging from a small rod or wire so as to screen only the lower sash. It is not at all necessary to treat the windows alike. A bay window may have a long, heavy curtain running across the bay and forming a nook where two or three may sit cosily together, and the other windows may be treated to sash or half-sash curtains of soft silk, Madras muslin, or even Turkey red calico. Where a window is filled with plants, the little half curtain running upon a brass wire and falling over the lower sash serves, on winter nights, as a slight protection for the plants from outer air, and can be thrust to one side by day, and tucked up out of sight. A little drapery is a great relief in a room where there are bare floors and much display of woodwork in doors and window frames. Then, a portière in place of a closet door, a hanging before a book case, or curtains at the windows would relieve the bareness of the room as nothing else could.