Household book offers butler’s best

November 18, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Few of us have the luxury of a household staff like the one on “Downton Abbey” to attend to our every need.

But we can take some pointers from someone who ran a household and use them to run our own a little more efficiently.

Longtime English butler Stanley Ager shares a wealth of tips in “The Butler’s Guide to Running the Home and Other Graces,” a classic handbook he wrote in 1980 with Fiona St. Aubyn. The book has just been re- released by Clarkson Potter.

Some of the advice is outdated now.

And some of the advice deals with situations few of us will ever have to worry about.

Still, we can all benefit from Ager’s tips for setting a table, caring for shoes and packing clothes so they won’t wrinkle.

“The Butler’s Guide” sells for $21.99 in hardcover.

Chalkboard paint can be tinted

Love chalkboard paint but not the colors it comes in?

Benjamin Moore has introduced a chalkboard paint that can be tinted in any hue.

Consumers can choose from any of the 3,300 colors in the Benjamin Moore system, or they can use the company’s color-matching technology to create an unlimited array of choices.

Benjamin Moore Chalkboard Paint is a latex top coat with an eggshell finish. It can be used on walls or other surfaces, such as furniture, closet or cupboard doors or ceramic containers.

The paint is sold in quarts for a suggested retail price of $21.99.

You can find a nearby store that sells Benjamin Moore paints in the store locator section of its website, www.benjaminmoore.com.

McClatchy Newspapers