The toilette muslin being made to open in the same place as the doors - i.e., in the middle of the front - will throw back and allow the doors to open easily. The dresses can be laid at full length in it.

All bedrooms require the same furniture, more or less. It should all be of the same kind of wood, whether mahogany, walnut, or painted deal, as harmony of colour is required to make the room look well.

Cheap bedroom bookshelves may be made thus: Cut a plank of about three or four feet in halves. The plank should be a good inch thick; plane the halves and paint them, also the edges; take four and a half yards of red or green cord; divide it in halves. Take the shelves, make four holes in them, one in each corner, exactly over each other in each shelf. Put one of the halves of cord through the front hole of the bottom shelf on the right side, tie a knot in the end to keep it from slipping through - a good large knot for the shelf to rest on; leave a piece of cord above the hole through which it is passed, the height of your highest book; tie another knot, pass the cord through the front hole at the righthand of the other shelf; then put it through the front lefthand side of the second shelf, and tie a knot, then pass it through the front lefthand hole of the bottom shelf and tie a knot; cut off; be careful that both sides are exactly the same height before you cut off the cord or tie the knots; it requires careful management.

Next pass a cord through the back right-hand hole, tie a knot below; measure the same length, or height rather, as front cord, tie a knot, pass the cord through back righthand hole of second shelf; carry it over to back lefthand corner; pass it through hole, tie a knot (after measuring with front cords), pass it through bottom left-hand hole and fasten with knot. Take care that the measurement of the cord is exact, or the shelves will hang crookedly. Then drive one large brass-headed nail into a firm part of the wall (a joist is the place), twist the cords together at the top, and hang up the shelves; or put in two nails, and stretch the cord over both, if you wish for more room for your books. A prettily made toilette pincushion, a glass or vase of flowers, will greatly enliven a chamber. We give two recipes for toilette pincushions.

No. I

Make a round pincushion, with a hollow in the middle of it large enough to hold a small tumbler. Paste a firm piece of cardboard at the bottom of it. Then make a cover of muslin over pink silk, leaving a hole just over the hollow in the middle of the pincushion for a tiny glass, which you must buy to fit it, and which, when the pincushion is on the toilette table, must be filled with a bouquet of delicate flowers. A lace frill should be sewn round the edge of the pincushion, to hang to the bottom of it.

No. 2

A small square deal box, lined with pink silk, and covered externally with the same. The inside lining should be quilted on flannel; the outside covered first with muslin, and then with a deep lace frill.

Make a pincushion on the lid, cover it with pink silk and spotted muslin, and edge it all round with pink silk ribbon rucheing.

A few good engravings, if possible, may be hung up on the bedroom walls. Short muslin blinds are required for the windows; and against the wall behind the washstand, it is well to fix a piece of spotted muslin, hemmed round with a broad hem, in which a coloured ribbon is run, to guard the wall paper from splashes.

Old boxes may be utilized and made into seats, by covering them with cheap chintz; the top made plain; a frill the depth of the box down the sides. The top cover should not be joined to the side frills, in order not to rumple them when the box is opened. It is sometimes well to stuff a cushion with chaff for the top, and to nail it on by the tape which binds it; the chintz cover goes over it, and the side frills are put on as when the box is covered without a cushion. But the cushion prevents it from being used for travelling purposes without some trouble in uncovering it. The loose, unstuffed cover is easily lifted off when the box is required elsewhere, or the chintz requires washing. A long trunk thus stuffed at the top and covered at the sides, makes a nice seat at the foot of the bed, and is very convenient tor putting away dresses at full length. Smaller boxes do for keeping bonnets or any other garments in. It is astonishing how a little ingenuity will help to beautify a room and make it comfortable.

For persons who cannot afford a toilette service, a nice box pincushion may be made from an old cigar-box, to be purchased for threepence at any tobacconist's. It should be lined with glazed pink calico, a pincushion stuffed and fastened on the top, edged with lace or quilted ribbon. The sides must be first covered with pink calico and then with muslin frills edged with lace, or hung with lace frills the depth of the box, fastened to the edges of the sides. The china pots in which potted-meat is sold will also help to furnish cheaply the lady's toilette-table.

One great defect of modern houses is the want of closets and cupboards. Ingenuity and industry can, however, often supply this deficiency. A good closet for hanging dresses may be made in a bedroom recess, by merely putting a shelf of deal a little way from the ceiling, and a thin slip of the same across the recess at the bottom; along the edge of the shelf fix a strong red cord, by a brass-headed nail at each end. Do the same at the bottom edge. Then take some cheap chintz, or cretonne, or dimity; hem it top and bottom, and put on small rings. Pass these through the cords, and the curtains will draw backwards and forwards quite easily; if they set in slight flutes so much the better, the housewife will thus have a pretty-looking wardrobe at little cost. Next as to cupboards. Nearly everybody possesses some old boxes, or packing-cases; place one on its side, with its open top towards you; another on it, and another on that if possible. They should stand by a wall on the landing-place of the staircase or in any convenient corner, and be fixed to the wall thus; hammer into the wall two strong nails on each side about the middle of each box. Make a hole large enough for a cord or rope to go through in the sides of each of them, and thus tie them securely to the wall.