The household (of the Detroit free press)

Now as to the covering of the box : This must depend a great deal on the furniture of the room, of course ; rep, moreen or damask wear best, but cretonne or chintz is as cheap as anything, infinitely prettier and more clean, for it washes well. Take the piece of whatever material it may be that you intend for the top, and wherever there is a knot in the canvas below, sew a flat button of any kind to it. When this is done the covering must be nailed on all round, with a broad furniture gimp, or fringe and brass-headed nails. The sides are to be covered with the same material, and can either be padded or the stuff put on plain. If this is chintz, it must have a calico lining, or probably the wood of the box will show through ; fasten this on with the same arrangement of gimp and brass nails as you did with the top. A really handsome box might thus be made for a drawing-room by covering the sides and top with different pieces of Berlin work, and it would be most useful to hold music, port-folios, etc. For such use, the inside lining would look best of chintz, instead of calico. These box-ottomans always remind one of those pretty box pin-cushions, in which form so many old cigar-boxes come into use for dressing-tables. A Barrel Chair is made by sawing one-third of the way around a common flour barrel, and within one and a half feet of the bottom. Then saw the remaining staves in a curve, gradually ascending so as to form the back and arms of the chair. Have the wires on which the cushion is to be placed stretched across the chair in different directions, within one foot of the bottom of the chair. This will also aid in more firmly securing the staves. Cord may be used instead of the wire, if preferred. Rockers may be added, making a very comfortable rockingchair. Cover all with cloth and make a cushion of the same. Around the edges tack dress braid (this may be used for all these articles instead of the gimp), or gimp with brass or white-headed tacks, or the tiny black tacks used by upholsterers. Kitchen chairs, old-fashioned ones, that have been banished to the garret, camp chairs, rocking chairs — all may be covered and their oldness disguised under fresh, bright coverings and paint. Coffee bagging, burlaps and hemp cloth, may be worked in bright zephyrs, and thus old chairs be covered and transformed into a thing of comfort if not beauty. Striped cretonne, put down the back of the chairs, on a plain background, is very pretty ; narrow stripes may be feather-stitched on, or the back and seat may be woven of dress braid or other stripes. If the chair is covered with worked burlaps, several may be covered in this way, with different designs, only carrying out the same idea and color in all the furniture. A Pretty Dressing Table has shelves underneath, a board for the back at the top, and brackets to support the mirror, with curtains of chintz or muslin, and table covered with the same. An old-fashioned bureau is modernized by putting on the top a long cover, falling far down the ends; this, made of Turkish toweling, edged with linen fringe, embroidered or worked in colors, and the same tied in the linen fringe, changes its looks wonderfully.