Welcome to my blog about Home Arts Needlecraft Magazine! I "discovered" this publication about 2 years ago and fell in love with it to the extent that I had to start collecting issues as I ran across them. The magazine began publication with its September, 1909 premier issue, and continued through March, 1941. It has been interesting to follow the changes through the 30 plus years the magazine was published. It is a great source for needlework, fashion, recipes and short stories. Through my journey of sharing my issues online, I hope to discover a pattern of what was popular in different forms of needlecraft over the 3 decades. I hope you enjoy my blog as much as I am (so far!) enjoying posting articles and projects from the issues. Thanks for visiting!

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Concerning the Footstool

1913 08, page 23

 

These present-day footstools are not the small, doll-like articles which gave pleasure to your grandmothers.  They are sizable pieces of furniture, most of them twelve by eighteen inches square, perhaps, and they stand from eight to twelve inches from the floor.  Some, to be sure, are smaller, perhaps eight inches wide, a foot long and four or five inches above the floor.  These generally have little arms or handles at the ends and can be easily carried from place to place.

One of the most serviceable footstools is shown with a mahogany frame in straight, simple lines, with red, brown or green leather cushion.  Tapestry in various dull hues and upholstery of other sorts in colors that would blend with the color-scheme of almost any living-room are also used to cover the cushions of these useful footstools.

A very comfortable design is the inclined footstool.  The dull mahogany frame, covered with a cushion two or three inches thick, is only an inch or so from the floor in front.  The back is perhaps eight inches from the floor, so that the top of the footstool is fixed at a slant that would assuredly bring rest to the weary foot.

Little stools which suggest old-fashioned hassocks are also made of upholstery-stuffs mounted on wooden frames or bases.  Some of these are tufted with a button in the middle, some are almost cushionlike in their softness and some have the octagonal form.  These octagonal footstools are especially attractive.

Cushions – flat, square, hard cushions – covered with bits of oriental carpet are also used for foot-rests.

Mission footstools are made for the living-room furnished in this style, with straight oak frames in the various dull finishes applied to mission furniture, upholstered in leather or with caned tops, and caned tops, too, are shown with mahogany frames.

Perhaps the latest device for physical comfort is the leg-rest, which is nothing more than a footstool grown up.  These leg-rests are about the height of the seat of an ordinary chair, sixteen or eighteen inches, and are covered with leather or tapestry.  They are perhaps two feet wide and three feet long, sufficiently big at all events to suggest untold relief from fatigue.  The leg-rests, of course, belong to the dens or bedrooms of the men of the family.

 

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