A Heavy Fire-screen
For a dining-room, living-room, or library, an attractive design for a heavy fire-screen is shown in Fig. 7. This is constructed of oak, ash, or other hard-wood. It is thirty-six inches wide, forty-two inches high, and the rails and feet are one and one-eighth inches thick. The uprights and cross-rails are four inches wide, and the top and bottom of each upright are cut as shown in Fig. 8.
The cross-rails should be mortised in the uprights, or they may be made fast by butting one end against an edge and securing the joint with dowels. The feet are fourteen inches across at the bottom and fifteen inches high. They are glued and screwed in the laps cut at the lower ends of the uprights, and the screw-heads are covered with imitation wrought-iron nail-heads beaten from sheet-lead and attached with steel-wire nails, the heads of which are invisible when driven into the lead.
The side of the screen which faces the fire should be covered with burlap, denim, or other stout cotton fabric. The outer side of the screen should be faced with leather, on which the ornamental design is followed out with stains and pyrography (see Chapter XII).
The leather should be caught to the frame with tacks placed two inches apart, and also glue. Over the tacks imitation lead heads may be secured with slim, steel nails.
A Window-seat with Under Ledge
In the drawing of the window-seat with under ledge (Fig. 9) an odd but useful piece of furniture is shown. It is made from two boards fourteen inches wide and forty inches long, two end-pieces fifteen inches wide and twenty-two inches high, and four brackets eight inches on the right-angle edges. These latter are necessary to brace the top and ends, as shown in Fig. 10 A A.
The top shelf, or seat, is eighteen inches high from the floor, and the under ledge is made fast eight inches below it. The fastening is made with screws and liquid glue, and allowed to stand several hours before the drapery is attached.
For the upholstery material the dry-goods stores offer quite a variety of stuffs from which to choose. The least expensive are burlap, denim, cretonne, and some of the heavy, cotton, printed goods. Other fabrics, richer in appearance and more lasting, are velour, tapestry-cloth, rep, and brocade. Goods of this class will cost from fifty cents to several dollars a yard.
