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Show Woman's World Paint and Paper Will Revamp Old Furniture Into New Pieces MANY of us have tucked away old pieces of furniture into the attic or relegated odds and ends to the basement Now, if the house needs its face lifted, why not bring out some of these pieces to see how they can be made to fit the interior? I Surprising, delightful things can be applied to restyle odd pieces of furniture into something quite modern. A friend of mine recently picked up some old cabinets at a second hand shop. She stained the tops and sides light, while the drawer fronts were stained dark, leaving the knobs light. Three old cabinets were converted into modern mod-ern looking storage cabinets for the living room. Beds, chairs, chests and tables all can be made over very much the same way clothes are, changing lines or adding new color. You may have practically a gold mine in your home now simply by checking attic or basement for castaways. Make China Cabinet Into Attractive Bookcase Dated china cabinets are not used in many homes today, but the junk man does not need to claim them if you make them over into bookcases or a small closet. If you want to use as a bookcase either in the living room, den or bedroom, remove the glass front off the china cabinet, replace the side panels with plywood, cut off the legs, leaving about two inches, and add decorative moulding to the Brighten old chairs with deeds ... top. Sand the cabinet thoroughly and apply two coats of paint to make an attractive bookcase. If you want to make a storage chest for youngsters out of the china cabinet, pry out the glass front and replace with plywood panels covered cov-ered with wallpaper. The shelves should be removed and may be attached at-tached to one side of the chest for storage purposes. A wooden clothes pole, which might be a broom handle, is set across the top of the cabinet. A mirror with a shelf beneath be-neath it may be attached inside the door. The old legs also are removed. Remake Old Beds By Removing Molding The trend in furniture, is toward less fuss as well as simpler, cleaner clean-er lines. Fussy moldings can be cut .off, high headboards can be cut Give cabinets new paint. down. You may make a quilted headboard for the bed out of chintz or taffeta depending upon the style of the bedroom furnishings, or you might even like to pad or paper the headboard. High footboards can be cut down, leaving a five or six inch panel which may or may not be covered to match the headboard. It's a good idea to redowel the footboard before be-fore putting the bed together again. After you have removed fussy pieces from an old bed, instead of covering it, you might prefer to paint it a bright warm color like green, blue, pink or yellow. Use a simple but attractive spread. If the room is rather plain with cream walls and dotted swiss curtains, cur-tains, make a wallpaper border of a small floral print around the windows win-dows to add color to the bedroom. If you have used wallpaper on the headboard of the remodeled bed, this should be used as the frame around the window, too. Brighten Wooden Chairs By Painting, Padding What about those old kitchen or porch chairs you have relegated to the attic. Couldn't they be used if you trim off the ornate knobs and other bric-a-brac? The chair can be painted a gay color to match the kitchen, and you can relieve the solid color paint by adding some gay trimming with decals or stencils. Of if you want to use the chair on the porch or dinette, pad the back and seat,' and finish off with a gay flowered or solid color fabric. Chairs also can be stained if you want to use them in some other room in the home. Remove the old paint with varnish remover. It's Easy to Convert " Chests and Tables Have you a small table that once was used in the kitchen? There are two good possibilities for using this. One is to cover the table completely complete-ly and make a dressing table of it for the bathroom, bedroom or dressing room. You can cover the mirror frame with the same type of material as the skirt of the table. An old pwno bench or discarded box can be podded to make the seat for the table. This, too, is covered in the same material used for the skirt. Another possibility for using the table is to place it in a hall. A niche in the ball could be used for the table, which is refin-ished refin-ished as necessary. You can use a figure of some kind 'on the table, a few books or a lamp if light is needed. A mirror can be used above the table, if desired, or an attractive attrac-tive arrangement of pictures could be placed there. Shabby chests take on new brightness bright-ness if they are covered with a floral print wallpaper. These are good to use in bedrooms as night tables, especially if they are the small, two or three drawer type. Chests also can be papered, covered cov-ered or even painted to match or harmonize with closets. The legs can be trimmed down completely or at least cut down to a height more convenient if they are to be used In the closet. Long storage chests also can be brought out of hiding and either refinished or painted, papered or covered in some way to make them harmonize with the room. A cedar chest, for example, may fit nicely into a den against a row of windows. When refinished with the top padded and covered nicely, these will give two or three extra seats to the room as well as a storage stor-age chest for toys, clothing, furs, pillows, extra blankets or linens. |