Country French Decorating Ideas

country french decorating ideaspage 32 of 107

great or small, and was moreover of Southern blood--confessed that her
ideal of service in her glittering kitchen was not a clever red-haired
Hibernian, but a slim mulatto, wearing a snow-white turban; and this
longing seemed so reasonable, and so impressed my fancy, that whenever I
think of the shining blue-and-silver kitchen, I seem to see within it
the graceful sway of figure and coffee-coloured face which belongs to
the half-breed African race, certain rare specimens of which are the
most beautiful of domestic adjuncts.

I have used this expedient of oil-cloth-covered walls--for which I am
anxious to give the inventor due credit--in many kitchens, and certain
bathrooms, and always with success.

It must be applied as if it were wall-paper, except that, as it is a
heavy material, the paste must be thicker. It is also well to have in it
a small proportion of carbolic acid, both as a disinfectant and a
deterrent to paste-loving mice, or any other household pest. The cloth
must be carefully fitted into corners, and whatever shelving or wood
fittings are used in the room, must be placed against it, after it is
applied, instead of having the cloth cut and fitted around them.

When well mounted, it makes a solid, porcelain-like wall, to which dust
and dirt will not easily adhere, and which can be as easily and
effectually cleaned as if it were really porcelain or marble.

Such wall treatment will go far toward making a beautiful kitchen. Add
to this a well-arranged dresser for blue or white kitchen china, with a
closed cabinet for the heavy iron utensils which can hardly be included
in any scheme of kitchen beauty; curtained cupboards and short
window-hangings of blue, or "Turkey red"--which are invaluable for
colour, and always washable; a painted floor--which is far better than

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