The household (of the Detroit free press)

Or when you have an old-fashioned cupboard in the sitting-room that you don't seem to know just what to do with, take off the doors, paint the inside a deep rich red, or cover sides and shelves with cloth of the same red shade. Put a straight piece of leather, pinked on lower edge across the shelves, and fasten with brass upholstering nails. In this alcove or recess put all the quaint vases, china, brass ornaments — anything odd and pretty. Or it may be used for the book-case. Or arrange curtains on -a rod to draw across the opening. A few of these tastefully arranged things give an air of comfort and luxury to a room hardly to be estimated by the small amount expended. Small gypsy tables, covered with pretty material and fringe, are just the thing for the work-basket, books, or pots of flowers. An ordinary stone jar, such as pickles and other things are kept in, may be painted a chocolate-brown or dark red, and decorated with ferns, flowers, birds and butterflies. Ginger jars, small stone jugs, whatever has a good or classical shape, may be made a thing of beauty, if harmony and taste are carefully observed. There must be a bracket here and there beneath a picture, where a pot of ivy can be placed to form a graceful framing to the portrait perhaps of some loved one, or for an engraving or pretty chromo. A bunch of oats, with long, even stems, tied with a band of wide satin ribbon and suspended by the same under a picture, is a simple, pretty decoration within the reach of almost anyone. A large pampas plume with five or six long peafowl feathers, using the plume as a background for the feathers, all tied with a band of peacock blue or green ribbon, is often fastened on the wall in a corner, over the door, over or under a picture, or on the upper corners of an easel or high music stand. If these are pressed in packing, shake them over the grate or near the stove, and the heat will spread and make them fluffy. Large vases filled with one large or three smaller pampas plumes, ARTISTIC AND IDEAL ROOMS. , 159 make a pretty corner piece, and also add much to the attractiveness of a mantel-shelf. One or two bright tinted fans, hung on the wall, a bunch of catkins, tied with a bright bow of ribbon, or fastened on the picture cords, a large vase in the corner filled with sprays of autumn leaves, ferns, or wild grasses, are also desirable ornamentations. Long shelves can be made very handsome by putting on them shelf draperies, with window valances to match, for, by a judicious use of draperies, in curtains, window and mantel lambrequins, and bits of stuff arranged here and there, a home can be made to look very beautiful and artistic. It is not so much comfortable solidity in the best rooms that should be aimed at, but a bright and cheerful appearance, which can be obtained by artistic furniture, gracefully draped curtains, and well chosen wail hangings. ARTISTIC AND IDEAL ROOMS.