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COTTAGE INTERIORS AND DECORATION
of form. The space beneath the stairs can generally be used as a store
or hanging cupboard (p. 18).
The treatment of floors is a subject that has exercised the minds of many
people. If floors are of oak no great difficulty will be encountered, but
the good management of deal is an old problem and one not easily
solved. Deal floors wear badly when stained, and it is probably best to
follow the usual practice of covering them with carpets. Great advance
in carpet production has been made in recent years. A wide choice is
offered in the cheaper as well as the expensive kinds, that are woven
into pleasing designs and flat colours of almost every tint and shade.
Rush-matting and home-made woollen rugs are worth careful thought.
Mats plaited with Thames rushes are excellent for bedroom floors, warm
and soft to the feet and very cleanly. Hangings and curtains are so much
matters of individual taste that they cannot now be dealt with in detail.
One pattern only will be mentioned here. It is the coloured check
material now being made after the manner of the old design that was,
and is still, so fitting for cottages.
The work of our good furniture designers no doubt is best for modern
cottages. It has the advantage of being made for place and purpose, and
the beauty of graceful form. But these things are not for every one.
Many must be content with
the best they can afford. By
diligent search and wise se-
lection it is possible to dis-
cover inexpensive furniture
that may be used with real
success in cottage homes. The
rush-seated chair (p. 19), for
instance, is an admirable
specimen of its kind, and the
work of a countryman who
asks only a modest remunera-
tion for his labour. Chairs
such as are ordinarily seen
in churches, and elsewhere,
can be adopted for domestic
use. The book-shelves and
writing-desk (p. 19), con-
structed as one piece of furni-
ture, are likewise the work of
a village carpenter; but the
settee illustrated on the next
page represents a more ambi-
tious effort at cabinet-making.
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