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Show WOMAN'S WORLD Let Imaginative Decoration Add Personality to Rooms By Ertta Haley TjrrHAT a clever dressing table " you have in the front hall I " exclaimed one of the club members to ber hostess. "It's just small enough to fit, and yet so clever. Where can I buy one for my teen-aged teen-aged daughters' room?" The hostess explained that they had not. bought It. They'd had an old vanity table wished on them and had simply cut off the two drawers at either side and attached them to the wall In the hall. A glass top was used to provide a connecting connect-ing table top for the two drawers. Above this was a mirror. Result: an unusual dressing table. This type of strategy is being used In countless homes today. Very little outlay of money Is required to add these sparkling, personal and very decorative touches to rooms. The little work and effort involved in-volved in making them more than triples in the joy of achievement and the reward of compliments. "But howT Why can't I think of something clever?" are the questions ques-tions usually asked about anything that Is the result of imagination put to good use. The fact of the matter Is that you don't really have to think too hard. Just look around you, everywhere you go there are lots of Ideas which can be made to work for your own home. Think about some of your own decorative and furnishing problems prob-lems and how best they can be solved. You'll be well surprised at how often an easily made gadget or decoration can result which is Individually yours. Antiques, shelves, small chests and all kinds of old and impractical fancy carving on them. Visualize the chest without the legs, refin-ished refin-ished or painted attractively. Would It do in the hall, living room or dining room? Some old furniture is large and cumbersome. Can they be separated easily and used that way? Vanities, for example, those with drawers on both sides can frequently be cut into two pieces and used as small bedside bed-side chests. The table top is excellent excel-lent for magazines, ash trays or a decorative plant. Can some of those small chests be made Into chest-end tables for your favorite chair? This gives drawer space as well as table top. Old magazine racks? They don't Drawers can make m dressing table , . . furniture can be put to practical use. A bit of carpentry, some refin-lshing refin-lshing and imagination are your tools. Small Chests Reveal Many Unusual Roles First place to look for materials is in your own attic, if you have the kind of attic that holds many interesting inter-esting treasures from grandmother's grand-mother's day. They used lots of chests in those days, and many of them are interesting. Perhaps you have one of those old-fashioned highboys with the large drawers, and then the table top on which is perched a small chest with several small, shallow drawers. The chest itself could be modernized by removing the small chest, and with refinlshing and removing re-moving the "gingerbread" trimmings trim-mings might well fit into bedroom or den. As for the small chest, have you thought of placing it on a regular tray top table, and using it in the dining room for silverware? The drawers could easily be lined by gluing a tarnish-proof cloth to make a lining for the drawers. This gives you an excellent place for storing silverware. Or, perhaps you'd prefer pre-fer it in the bedroom as a jewelry chest! Old-fashioned spice racks might be rescued from oblivion to be pressed into service as shelves for plants or miniature china collections. collec-tions. They may be used in almost any room, kitchen, dining room, living liv-ing room or bedroom. all have to be used for magazine racks. Some of the old large ones are excellent to place at the foot of a bed to hold extra blankets or pillows. If they can be finished to match the bed, or at least to harmonize har-monize with the decor, you'll have a useful addition to the room, as well as a decorative one. Foot lockers and old chests can easily be placed on legs, sturdy and solid enough to be in keeping with the chest. These, too, can be placed at the foot of the bed for storage. Then, go a step further and pad the top of the chest and cover with some of the drapery or bedspread material mate-rial and use as a seat. It comes in handy for sitting down to dress. If your children have outgrown all their small stools, why not pad them appropriately and use as foot rests with your lounging chairs? Here Are Baslo Rules For Slip Covers Women who have selected washable wash-able materials for slip covers will find it easy to keep overstuffed furniture in excellent condition, for these covers can be washed along with the weekly laundry. Good quality thread, nicely finished fin-ished bindings and good construction construc-tion make the task of washing them a joy for there is usually no need for repairs. Vacuum cleaning before washing will help immensely In removing much of the loose soil which gathers. gath-ers. Use an attachment around the seams and bindings. Close zippers before laundering,' and baste pleats in 'place to save time during the pressing. Only one large piece should be placed in the washer at one time, then run for five minutes. Arms and backs, as well as those edges near the floor may need to be rubbed with soap jelly before the laundering because of their heavy soil and stain. Just rub in thoroughly before placing in the washer. Thin starch enhances many cotton cot-ton slipcovers which have become flimsy and lacking in body. If desired, when still damp, put the slipcover on the furniture and stretch to shape. Some can be pressed right on the furniture. If not, press out wrinkles on slipcover. teglldlj o o o o o ; n II- iron, and then place on furniture while still damp so that you can stretch it to fit if necessary. Sponre Method Simplifies Washing Woodwork Painted woodwork around the doors will undoubtedly require attention at-tention during a seasonal cleaning. There's a lot of it to be done, so make the task easy for yourself. Use a cleaner which dissolves readily in warm water, and which does not need rinsing. The use of soap is fine except for the rinsing necessary, and this usually doubles the work. Use a sponge for the actual cleaning clean-ing as it can be dipped in the cleaning clean-ing solution and wrung out more easily than a cloth. While you're doing the high places, set the container of cleaning clean-ing solution high enough to prevent pre-vent bending. - and chests a hallway decoration. Remember those old-fashioned salt boxesT Why not try a pair of those on either side on a hanging rack for plates to add more balance to the wall. The small boxes can hold bits of things and thus prevent clutter to your drawers: stamps, needles, pins, spools of thread In a convenient place for a quick bit of mending, package labels or change which you want to have handy. Renovate Furniture; Make it Adaptable Almost every home either has or acquires old furniture which cannot be used just as it is. Don't think of chopping it up for firewood before you investigate its true potential values. Perhaps there's an old chest standing stand-ing on spindle legs with lots of |