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Historical Article
Home Fashions and Fancies
By Augusta Salisbury Prescott
Godey’s Magazine
1889
There is a pretty custom in vogue among the Japanese of changing the pictures and furnishings in the house to suit the seasons. A family of ordinary means will have one set of furniture and bric-a-brac for summer and another set for winter, alternating it spring and fall. Another family of larger possessions will change three or four times a year, and the very well-to-do have, perhaps, a dozen complete outfits of everything requisite to make a home pretty, so that no one set need be used more than a month at a time. In this way the appearance of the house is constantly varied, and one does not tire from seeing the same things day after day, year in and year out. The Japanese seldom display as much fancy work, or as many knick-knacks at once, as are seen in our dwellings, but there is about their homes a perpetual newness and charm, for the reason that home-eyes have had no chance to weary of sameness, nor to become blind to everyday beauty.
The wisdom and good taste of this is at once apparent. We all know how very pretty even a pin-cushion will seem when it is brought out after a long seclusion, and the added charm that a tidy will have after it has been put away for a time. Material, color and work are unchanged, yet how different when viewed in an atmosphere of unaccustomedness.
While it may not be within the reach of many of us to change as frequently as do the most prosperous of our Japanese cousins, yet in every home the general complexion of rooms and furniture may be so altered once or twice a year as to secure an all-the-year-round freshness...
By ripping a carpet and changing the breaths about, so that the best will lie in the centre of the room, a carpet may be coaxed with credit through another season; and where this had been done until there are no longer any best parts, the entire carpet can be cut into strips and woven into... mats. Brussels carpet, cut in strips with most of the warp pulled out on the under side, makes specially beautiful rugs, almost Oriental in appearance...
Curtains that are worn and faded may be re-hung so that the faded lengths will hang in less conspicuous places. A new look is given them by tying with ribbons of a different color from the one that has been used...
Dilapidated picture frames... are capable of treatment in a variety of ways...
For summer use, covers of pretty chintz or calico, slipped on over cushioned chairs and heavy pillows, make them cooler and at the same time protect the nicer fabric, so that it will emerge in the fall even enhanced in beauty by its long seclusion...
Turning goods often produces a new and pretty appearances...
Most fortunate of all house-wives is the one who possesses two sets of furniture and house trimmings; carpets, heavy rugs, curtains, upholstered chairs, and plush cushions for winter, and matting, hard-wood floors, light druggets, bamboo and wicker chairs, silk and satin pillows for summer. But for those who have not this complete change, a re-arranging of furniture, a putting away of things of which one has tired, or bringing out and freshening of others, almost discarded, will transfigure and glorify a home beyond one’s belief or fancy.
The wisdom and good taste of this is at once apparent. We all know how very pretty even a pin-cushion will seem when it is brought out after a long seclusion, and the added charm that a tidy will have after it has been put away for a time. Material, color and work are unchanged, yet how different when viewed in an atmosphere of unaccustomedness.
While it may not be within the reach of many of us to change as frequently as do the most prosperous of our Japanese cousins, yet in every home the general complexion of rooms and furniture may be so altered once or twice a year as to secure an all-the-year-round freshness...
By ripping a carpet and changing the breaths about, so that the best will lie in the centre of the room, a carpet may be coaxed with credit through another season; and where this had been done until there are no longer any best parts, the entire carpet can be cut into strips and woven into... mats. Brussels carpet, cut in strips with most of the warp pulled out on the under side, makes specially beautiful rugs, almost Oriental in appearance...
Curtains that are worn and faded may be re-hung so that the faded lengths will hang in less conspicuous places. A new look is given them by tying with ribbons of a different color from the one that has been used...
Dilapidated picture frames... are capable of treatment in a variety of ways...
For summer use, covers of pretty chintz or calico, slipped on over cushioned chairs and heavy pillows, make them cooler and at the same time protect the nicer fabric, so that it will emerge in the fall even enhanced in beauty by its long seclusion...
Turning goods often produces a new and pretty appearances...
Most fortunate of all house-wives is the one who possesses two sets of furniture and house trimmings; carpets, heavy rugs, curtains, upholstered chairs, and plush cushions for winter, and matting, hard-wood floors, light druggets, bamboo and wicker chairs, silk and satin pillows for summer. But for those who have not this complete change, a re-arranging of furniture, a putting away of things of which one has tired, or bringing out and freshening of others, almost discarded, will transfigure and glorify a home beyond one’s belief or fancy.
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy these:
Housekeeping in Foreign Lands: A Japanese Home (1888)
Japanese Folk Lore (1889)
Kingdom of Slender Swords (Fiction, 1910)
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