We will suppose that you have already a desk. Make two upright rows of bookshelves far enough apart to allow the desk to be placed between them. Shut off the lower part of the shelves, on each side, with a door, which may be decorated with iron hinges or blackened metal. These false hinges are of course placed against the real ones on which the door swings, and are purely ornamental. These little closets make fine places in which to store unsightly books and magazines which look untidy but which one always wants to keep. There is a shelf over the top of the desk on which could be placed a row of plates, a tankard, or photographs; and a poster or nice little etching would give interest to the big panel. This panel, by-the-way, need not be made of wood, but could be closed in by a piece of colored burlap or buckram. The case would then have to be braced by three slats of wood nailed across the back behind the buckram. When completed it will appear as shown in Fig. 23.
A Book-ledge and Stool
Two interesting and useful pieces of furniture are shown in the drawing of a book-ledge and stool (Fig. 24), and as the main shelf is but fourteen inches wide it will not occupy a great deal of space in a room.
The main shelf is forty-two inches long, fourteen wide, and one inch and a quarter thick. The side pieces, or legs, supporting it are twelve inches wide and thirty-three inches high, with V-shaped pieces cut from the foot of each one. These pieces are thirty-six inches apart, and arranged between them, and twenty inches above the floor an under ledge eight inches wide is fastened with long screws and brackets. Nine inches above the main ledge a top shelf is supported on side legs, which, in turn, are propped at the outside with wood braces, or blocks, six inches high and four inches wide at the bottom. The side supports are placed the same distance apart as the underside pieces, and are held in position on the top of the main ledge with short dowels, or pegs, driven in their under end, and which fit into holes bored in a corresponding position in the ledge. This upper section may be omitted, however, if the plain ledge is preferred.
The stool is twelve inches square and twenty-two inches high. The top is covered with a stout square of leather caught all around the edges with nails and imitation nail-heads. The lower rails that bind the posts together are one and three-quarter inches wide and seven-eighths of an inch thick. The posts are one and three-quarter inches square, and the rails are let into them three inches up from the floor. The top rails are the same width, and all let into the top of the posts with the lap-joint union, where they are glued and screwed fast. Small brackets under these rails will add an element of support, and they can be dressed out of seven-eighths-inch wood with a compass-saw, and made fast with glue and screws. These brackets are comparatively small, being two and a half inches wide and four inches deep, but they must be cut accurately to fit well.
Fig. 24.
Chapter XXI
CLOCKS AND TIMEPIECES
Among the many useful and attractive pieces of furniture that a boy can make to help furnish a home, clocks and timepieces offer a good field for endeavor. Now, a clock is more often looked at than any other piece of furniture; consequently, it should be a thing of beauty rather than a distracting eyesore. And, since it is no more expensive to construct a clock on good lines than on poor ones, there is no reasonable excuse for the inartistic, commonplace designs that are displayed for sale by jewelers, department stores, and house-furnishing shops.