re really porcelain or marble.

Such wall treatment will go far toward making a beautiful kitchen. Add
to this a well-arranged dresser for blue or white kitchen china, with a
closed cabinet for the heavy iron utensils which can hardly be included
in any scheme of kitchen beauty; curtained cupboards and short
window-hangings of blue, or "Turkey red"--which are invaluable for
colour, and always washable; a painted floor--which is far better than
oil-cloth, and one has the elements of a satisfactory scheme of beauty.

A French kitchen, with its white-washed walls, its shining range and
rows upon rows of gleaming copper-ware, is an attractive subject for a
painter; and there is no reason why an American kitchen, in a house
distinguished for beauty in all its family and semi-public rooms, should
not also be beautiful in the rooms devoted to service. We can if we will
make much even in a decorative way of our enamelled and aluminum
kitchen-ware; we may hang it in graduated rows over the
chimney-space--as the French cook parades her coppers--and arrange these
necessary things with an eye to effect, while we secure perfect
convenience of use. They are all pleasant of aspect if care and thought
are devoted to their arrangement, and it is really of quite as much
value to the family to have a charming and perfectly appointed kitchen,
as to possess a beautiful and comfortable parlour or sitting-room.

Every detail should be considered from the double point of view of use
and effect. If the curtains answer the two purposes of shading sunlight,
or securing privacy at night, and of giving pleasing colour and contrast
to the general tone of the interior, they perform a double function,
each of of which is valuable.

If the chairs are chosen for strength and use, and are painted or
stained to match the colour of the floor, they add to the satisfaction
of the eye, as well as minister to the house service. A pursuance of
this thought adds to the harmony of the house both in aspect and actual
beauty of living. Of course in selecting such furnishings of the kitchen
as chairs, one must bear in mind that even their legitimate use may
include standing, as well as sitting upon them; that they may be made
temporary resting-places for scrubbing pails, brushes, and other
cleaning necessities, and therefore they must be made of painted wood;
but this should not discourage the provision of a cane-seated
rocking-chair for each servant, as a comfor