Two brackets cut from wood the same thickness as the shelf will support it at either end. These are cut three inches wide at the top and from six to eight inches long, in the shapes shown in Fig. 3.
It gives a more attractive finish to extend the ends of the ledge two or three inches beyond the door or window trim, as shown in the illustration of Fig. 1.
A Plate-rail
For cups and small pitchers a plate-rail may be arranged around the walls of a dining-room, as shown at Fig. 4.
A wall-plate six or eight inches wide is made fast to the wall about five feet up from the floor, and to it, at intervals of twenty to thirty inches, brackets are screwed fast. These are cut in one of the forms shown in Fig. 3, and are three inches wide. The top shelf is four inches wide, and is laid on the tops of the brackets and pushed back against the wall, where the rear edge is screwed fast to the top edge of the wall-plate. Where the rail meets a doorway or window-casing the corner is rounded, as shown in the illustration. This may be done with a compass-saw and small plane. A narrow strip of wood is nailed fast to the top of the rail about two inches out from the wall, to prevent the plates from sliding off.
A narrow plate-rail may be attached to the wall higher up, or about in the position occupied by a picture-moulding. Shorter brackets should support it, and they may be attached directly to the wall without the aid of a wall-plate, since the latter would give a heavy appearance to a rail at that height.
A Cup and Plate Rack
It is hardly advisable to give definite dimensions for the cup and plate rack (Fig. 5), since it should be designed in accordance with the amount of wall room that may be available. The rack shown in Fig. 5 is intended for a wall space three feet wide and seventy-two inches high. The two uprights are made of white-wood thirty-nine inches high, three inches wide, and half an inch thick. The lower ends are tapered, as shown in the drawing, and the upper ends are fashioned with a compass-saw. The brackets are six inches wide, nine inches long, and half an inch from the outer edge a depression is cut in the top to receive a half-inch dowel.
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7. Fig. 8.