At one side of the room a generous chest of drawers can be built in a corner, and three feet up from the floor a long drop-ledge may be made fast to the wall and arranged so that hinge-brackets will support it. When not in use for drawing or studying, the brackets can be folded in against the wall and the ledge dropped down. Above this ledge, and extending from the chest of drawers to a window or door, a compartment-nest of shelves may be made from three boards with shorter ones for partitions. This is supported every two feet of its length with brackets screwed securely to the under side of the bottom shelf and to the wall. At the top it is also secured with small strips of metal screwed fast to the back edge of the top shelf, and through which screws pass into the wall. Short curtains of some light material may be hung from a wire stretched along the under side of the top shelf and caught up to it in one or two places with staples.
FIG. 5—A BOY’S STUDY ROOM
The floor in a boy’s room should be of stained and varnished narrow boards over which a rug can be thrown. This makes it possible for the outer edges of the floor to be wiped up frequently, and does not allow dust to settle at the corners or edges as it would in a carpet. All the metal-work, such as gas-brackets, hinges, hasps, escutcheons, handles, and catches, should be given a coat or two of black finish, which will lend them the appearance of being wrought iron.
Another Boy’s Room
The panelled wainscot in Fig. 6 is formed of vertical strips of wood four inches wide and four feet high, mounted above the surbase. On top of these a six-inch band of wood is carried all around the room, on which a five-inch ledge is mounted, the latter being supported on brackets which line with the centre of the vertical strips. The doors, door and window casings, surbase, and wainscot-rails are painted white, and all the hardware is black.
Hinge-straps of lead are cut and fastened to the doors and casings with large, oval-headed nails. To cover the panels in the doors, one large panel is made from thin wood. It is covered with burlap and nailed fast to the side of the door facing the room, with large-headed nails, or mock nail-heads not less than one inch in diameter. Four-inch ledges are placed over the door and window casings. These are supported by brackets at the ends that line with the middle of the casing uprights.
The walls above the wainscot-ledge are papered, and the panels in the wainscot are covered with burlap glued to the wall. The burlap on the panels and doors may be in a coffee or light-brown color, and the paper should then be a light shade of old green. The ceiling is tinted light buff.