Using a new kind of tack, Jan 1870

The first illustration shows how carpet or matting was put down without sewing the pieces together. Recall that in 1870 even even if carpets completely covered a floor wall to wall, they still came in separate rolls that were pieced together in the home.

The second illustration shows the edge of a carpet being secured to the floor with the new type of tacks.

The picture shows a window shade secured with the new style tacks. The tacks were also recommended as an excellent substitute for stair-rods.

Making A Beautiful Home 1870

MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER showed this window display in its May, 1870 issue. the article stated that any room could be improved by cutting the window larger, to make a low sill, then fill in the window with large panes of clear glass, training flowers and vines to grow about it.

A Ward Case stands in front of the window. Today we might refer to it as a terrarium. Here's an example from the April issue.

The April issue also included the following instructions for making the rustic frames that had recently become so popular.

"All that is necessary to construct one of these, or any similar frame, is to get the foundation, a thin board, of proper size and shape, with the inner oval or rectangular form to suit the picture. The edges are ornamented by nailing on branches of hard, seasoned wood, or gluing on pine cones. The corners may receive some device, both to cover the rude joint and to enhance the general effect.
One of the frames illustrated is made of either light or dark wood, neat, thin, and not very wide, with the ends simply broken off; or cut so as to resemble a rough break. The other is white-pine, sawn into simple form, well smoothed, and traced with delicate black lines.
This should be also varnished, when it will take a rich yellow tinge, which harmonizes admirably with chromos, and lights up engravings finely."

Another home beautification project was a fern basket...

"To make this fern-basket, take a flat piece of board, sawed out to something like a shield, with a hole at the top for hanging it up. Upon the board nail a nice pocket, made of an ox-muzzle, flattened on one side, or make a sort of basket out of stiff wire. Line this with a sheet of close moss, which appears green behind the wire net-work. Then fill it with loose, spongy moss, such as is found in swamps, and plant in it plumes of fern, and various swamp-grasses. They will continue to grow there, and hang gracefully over. It is only necessary to keep the moss damp, and sprinkle the ferns occasionally with a small broom."
And finally..."a flower-stand made of roots scraped and varnished."

A Womans Idea of what a Kitchen should be , 1870

To begin with, I would have a kitchen well lighted; come, yes a great deal of the broad, expansive sunlight coming in boldly, as if it had a perfect right to be there. That would, of course, necessitate large windows. And then I would give as much attention to the ventilation of a kitchen as I would to a sleeping-room. I would have a large circular device suspended over the cooking-stove, with a hole in the centre, and a tube leading to the top of the house, to carry off the savory smells which the process of cooking generates, and prevent them from permeating the whole house.

For these smells, however savory and agreeable, are apt to take away something from the keenness of our appetite; or, at least, cause us to anticipate something better than the reality. Then I would have a large sink, with a permanent soap-stone or marble wash-bowl for washing the dishes, and another for draining. I would also have an adjustable pipe, leading from the hot water tank to either of these basins. Besides this, I would have sundry cupboards and closets arranged upon the wall, so as to be tasteful and decorative as well as convenient.

Then I would have a space devoted to tiny drawers, such as one sees in a drug store, and labeled in this manner: soda, allspice, nutmegs, cream of tartar, etc., so that at a single glance I could discover just what I wanted, without rummaging to find these things in some out-of-the-way corner, placed there by some careless, untidy Bridget. This would save one a world of care now devoted to instructing every new servant as to all the places of things. Cooking is becoming so complicated nowadays, that one needs all the arrangements, and as many utensils, as a chemical laboratory; and the good architect should give the mater familias a place for everything.

from the May 1870 issue of MANUFACTURER AND BUILDER

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