There are very few crafts that a boy takes hold of with so much confidence as painting. In the average boy’s mind it merely means getting a pot full of paint, a brush, and daubing it on. This is painting in one sense of the word, but not painting as a real craftsman should do it.
Good painting is a skilled trade, just as are horseshoeing, plumbing, or bricklaying. But this manual is not intended to be an artisan’s guide; all that can be done is to lay down certain principles, and to give the practical hints that may make a boy’s efforts in this line worth while.
It is not necessary that a boy should know how to make paints; that is a branch of manufacture that requires years of experience, improved machinery, and chemical and mineral formulæ. A boy should know, however, what paints are made of, how prepared, and how they are mixed, so that he will be able to work with intelligence and success.
The basis of all good paint suitable for wood-work is lead or zinc. Some painters prefer all lead for outside work, while others take two-thirds of lead and one-third of zinc, and then add the coloring dust or ground colors to get the required shade. Both white-lead and zinc are ground in linseed-oil, and can be purchased in cans, or kegs, ranging in weight from one-pound tins to five-hundred-pound kegs. Zinc is sold in the same kind of packages, and the cost in small quantities is about ten cents a pound. Inside shades of any color are generally made of two-thirds zinc and one-third white-lead; then the dust or ground colors are added to tone down the white to any desired shade. Pure boiled linseed-oil and good turpentine should be used to thin paints. Benzine, naphtha, kerosene, or other oils should never be used in the preparation or thinning of paints unless for special purposes.
To make the best paint for outside use, take two pounds of white-lead and one pound of white-zinc, and mix them thoroughly, adding whatever oil is necessary to render the mixture about the consistency of rich cream. If coloring matter is to be added, it is best to use the ground colors rather than the dry dusts, because the colors ground in oil are much finer, and will mix better with paint than the dusts. Colors ground in oil may be purchased at a paint store for ten or fifteen cents a pound. A portion of the color should be thinned first with turpentine, and then added to the pot of mixed white, stirring the mixture while the coloring is added.
If the paint should not be thin enough to lay on the wood, you may add small portions of turpentine until it is the right consistency. A little experience is the best teacher in this matter, and to make sure, it is well to ask a painter. Painters, and all masters of arts and crafts nowadays, are much more easily approached than they were a few years ago, and a boy who really wants to know, and who goes about it in the right way, can generally get the knowledge or advice he is seeking. When making paint for inside use, take the proportion of two parts of zinc to one part of lead, then mix and thin with oil to the consistency of rich milk or thin cream.
Before new wood-work is painted, all knots or sappy places should be given a coat or two of shellac to “set” the sap. The priming, or first coat, should be composed of equal parts of boiled linseed-oil and white-lead for outside, or zinc with some turpentine for inside work. When this is dry one or two coats are to be laid on, taking care to apply the paint evenly and to work it into all cracks, crevices, and corners. The secret of good work is not in daubing a whole lot of paint on the surface to be covered, but in laying it on evenly and in a thin coating, so that it will neither gum nor run. Two or three thin coats are always better than one thick one, and the extra time spent in putting the thin coats on, and in going over the work several times, will be amply repaid, because the work will last. The thick coat will dry unevenly, and in time will chip, crack, and peel off.
When painting over old wood-work, it is always best to scrape or remove as much of the old paint as possible. Then sand—paper everything smooth, and wash all surfaces of painted wood-work with a sponge and sapolio, or other good scouring soap. If there should be any glossy surfaces to the wood-work it is best to give them a washing with a very strong solution of washing soda. A saturated solution of the soda is best. This is made by adding washing soda to water (about a pound to two quarts), and mixing or stirring it until the water has taken up all the soda it will hold. After the soda-water has been applied to the wood-work, be careful to wash it all off with clear water, changing the bucket of water frequently, so that no traces of soda will be left on the wood-work. Follow these directions explicitly, and do not try your own way nor trust to luck to have the new job look well and last. There is an old saying that “A little putty and paint hide a multitude of sin,” but get rid of as much of the “sin” as you can before the new coat is put on. The soda bath is particularly necessary on old furniture that has been varnished several times. Paint will not hold on varnished surfaces unless the varnish is first cut with soda-water or some of the prepared paint and varnish removers.
It is always best to mix your own paints rather than to purchase “ready-mixed” paints or “prepared paints” at a store. There are, of course, a great many reputable makers of mixed paints, and you may use their preparations if you so desire. But my advice to the young craftsman is to purchase the raw materials of a good dealer and learn how to mix his own paints.
When you have finished using your brushes they should be washed out—first with turpentine, then rubbed out in kerosene oil and laid away for future use. If they are to be used again within a few days, it will not be necessary to wash them out, and they may be allowed to stand in water. Bore a hole through the handle, and slip through a stout wire so that the ends of it will rest on the top edge of a can. The brush should then be placed in the can so that it will hang on the wire but not touch the bottom, as shown in Fig. 1. Then water is put in until it just covers the bristles, as shown at A. Never drop a brush into a pail or can of water for even so short a time as overnight. The brush sags and causes the bristles to curve, as shown at B, and it is then a hard matter to get them straight again. The several kinds of brushes that a boy will need for his work are shown in Fig. 2. A is a regular wire-bound bristle brush which can be had at a paint or hardware store in several sizes; B is known as a “sash tool”; C is a flat floor or varnish brush; D is a sizing, kalsomine, or whitewash brush; and at E a round-liner or stipple brush and a flat tool are shown. For light work the tin-ferruled, cedar-handle flat bristle brush can be had in sizes ranging from one to six inches in width.
Fig. 1. Fig. 2.
There is nothing that freshens up a room so much as repainted wood-work, newly papered or tinted walls, and kalsomined ceilings; and while it may not be possible for a boy to become an expert paper-hanger, it is quite within his ability to tint walls and ceilings, paint wood-work, and varnish the floors. If he has any artistic faculty whatever he can do a great deal of effective decorating, and this is a subject that we will now discuss at greater length.
Decorating
There is no secret in the art of decorating. Good judgment, good craftsmanship, and common-sense, coupled with the use of the best materials, will always bring about good results.
The schemes that are shown in the illustrations on the following pages are those that any boy can carry out; and with a fair knowledge of carpentry, painting, and other crafts he will find it an enjoyable task to change his room into one containing characteristic features of his own invention or creation.
A very simple effect is shown in Fig. 3, and for this room it will not be necessary to remodel or change any of the wood-work. After removing all old paper from the walls with hot water and a sponge (and cleaning off the ceiling also), the walls and ceiling should be given a coat of size. This is made by dissolving a handful of good ground or flake glue in a pailful of water, and then painting it on the wall with a wide brush. Do not slop the size over the floor, nor have your brush too wet with the glue-water when you are using it. Try to work it in well rather than attempt to lay it on thick. When it is dry you can kalsomine, paper, or tint over the walls, and the size will help to hold the covering material in place. The wood-work in this room is painted white or a light shade of any color that is easily washed and kept clean. If paper is to be used on the side walls, some very good patterns can be selected at a stock house that will not cost more than twenty-five cents a roll.
FIG. 3—A BOY’S ROOM
The pattern shown in this scheme is in stripes and running vines. Above the picture-moulding the wall is tinted or papered with a light-buff paper. With some apple-green fresco-paint the laurel-bush tops are drawn in above every other stripe, if they are wide enough apart. This makes a good finish to broad stripes that would otherwise stop at the moulding. A small desk can be built in one corner. It has a hinged top, and within it writing-materials may be kept. Above the desk a book-ledge may be attached to the wall with two brackets. Simple curtains at the windows and a painted or stained and varnished floor, with a carpet rug at the centre, will complete the decorating of this room. The cost should not exceed ten dollars.
Decorating a Bedroom
Of the many attractive schemes for the decoration of the bedroom, there are none so pleasing and lasting as the plain paper and an ornamental frieze.
A full-pattern paper soon becomes tiresome, and while there are thousands of pretty figured papers adapted to bedrooms, at least one-half of the bedrooms in our homes are overdone or poorly papered. Small figures and as nearly neutral shades as possible should be used, as they are restful to the eyes, particularly in time of sickness. In Fig. 4 a pleasing scheme is shown, and while its beauty lies in its simplicity, it is quite as inexpensive as it is attractive.
FIG. 4—A BEDROOM
Pink is the general tone, and the wood-work is painted cream color or light ivory. Four feet and six inches above the floor a rail is run around the room, and between it and the surbase vertical strips are made fast to divide the wainscot into panels.
Plain cartridge or ingrain paper is hung on the wall above the surbase, and between the rail and picture-moulding a lighter-pink paper is applied. This may be a finely figured paper, or a narrow, satin-striped paper that can be had at twenty-five to fifty cents a roll. A border paper with garlands and ribbons, to match the shade of the others, may be had by the yard or roll in several widths. Light shades of soft green or robin’s-egg blue, with white wood-work, always make an effective and cheerful combination.
An artistic effect for the door may be secured by making thin panels for the upper and lower sections, and covering them with a fabric or burlap as near the shade of the paper as it can be matched. These are attached to the door with a few large, oval-headed nails painted black. Sheet-lead escutcheons and hinge-straps can be made and applied to the wood with oval-headed upholsterers’ nails painted black. Any other metal-work in the room is to be coated black.
Pink, black, and cream, or pale-green, black, and ivory color make pleasing and cheerful combinations for bedroom decoration, and they do not become tiresome.
A feature in this scheme is the mode of suspending small pictures from the rail by means of harness-rings and large-headed nails painted black. The larger pictures hung above the rail are arranged so that the bottom of each is on a line with or touches the rail.
A Boy’s Room
The arrangement and scheme for one side of a model boy’s room is shown in Fig. 5. In this attractive room the wood-work is white, or very light in color, and the walls a soft, light-tea or olive green. The border above the picture-moulding is a light shade of old pink ingrain paper on which the wreath and garland border is painted in fresco colors or stencilled.
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.
FIG. 6—ANOTHER BOY’S ROOM
A Nursery
If a boy has some younger brothers or sisters, he can fix up their room or nursery in some such manner as shown in Fig. 7. The walls are to be cleaned and sized; then the wood-work is painted white, and a toy ledge or rail is made fast with small brackets, two feet and six inches up from the floor, or about on a line with the window-sills.
The lower part of the wall is to be covered with dark-colored burlap, and above the ledge a lighter-colored burlap or denim is applied with heavy paste, to which a handful of glue has been added.
Another but narrower rail is made fast to the wall about on a line with the middle rib of the windows. Above that the walls and ceiling are painted in imitation of the blue sky with fleecy white clouds floating about. Paint in some birds flying in the air, and one or two perched on the tops of the window and door casings. If this work is well done it will have a very realistic appearance. Pictures may be hung above the toy ledge and under the top strip by means of large rings painted black.
Stencilling
The art of stencilling, although a very old one, is constantly being revived through the efforts of amateur craftsmen. Many of the art textiles now to be had in the art and dry-goods stores have printed patterns in imitation of this style of decoration. Nothing in the way of machine-printing, however, can equal the hand-stencilled fabrics.
FIG. 7—A NURSERY
Simple figures are easily stencilled on fabrics, papers, or walls, and the beginner will be wise in using the small, clearly defined figures; then, as proficiency is acquired, the more intricate and ornate patterns and designs may be employed. Every young craftsman should cut his own stencil-plates from fibre or oil-board. It should be about the thickness of two ordinary calling-cards, and stiff enough to hold its shape. The design is drawn directly on the material, or on a piece of brown paper, and then transferred to the board. With a sharp knife-blade the outline is carefully cut, taking care to leave the bridges which are necessary to hold the parts together. This is clearly shown in Fig. 8, which is a small stencil for a fleur-de-lis. In Fig. 9 A the effect is shown after the pigment has been applied to the fabric or wall. If the ornament had been printed or stamped, however, it would have been made without any breaks, or as shown in Fig 9 B.
Fresco colors should be employed for stencilling on walls, but on fabrics aniline colors or diluted oil-paints may be used to good advantage. When preparing colors for fabrics, the tube oil-paints, or body colors ground in oil, should be employed. They should be thinned with benzine, and placed in the bottom of a dish or saucer, so that the stencil-brush will take up the colors at the tip ends of the bristles. Fresco colors for walls should be used thick, or about the consistency of rich cream, while those of oil or aniline need not be thicker than milk. Regular stencil-brushes must be used for this work. Such brushes may be had at any paint store, and will appear as shown in Fig. 10. Stencil-brushes are round, something like a shaving-brush, but the bristles are stiffer and are stubbed or cut square at the ends.
Fig. 8. Fig. 9. Fig. 10. Fig. 11. Fig. 12. Fig. 13.
When cutting your stencils, keep turning the oil-board so that you always make the cut towards you. Lay the material on a smooth piece of close-grained wood, or a sheet of zinc, and hold your knife with the blade in a vertical position, and not to one side or the other. Do not make bevelled cuts. Straight ones are necessary or there will be smeared edges.
For a stencil-plate to make the garland and ribbon border shown in the frieze of the room (Fig. 4), a one-half section only is necessary (see Fig. 11). The full length of a garland is marked on the wall by indicated dots, with chalk or pencil; then the half garlands are stencilled all around the room. When completed, the stencil-plate is carefully wiped off; then it is reversed and the remaining halves are done. The stencil-plate for the wreath ribbon and garland border shown in the room (Fig. 5) is illustrated at Fig. 12. This is a half garland and wreath, and is used as described for Fig. 11. The stencil-plate shown in Fig. 13 can be used as the frieze or border in Fig. 6. This is an empire design, and its dignity and beauty make it a fitting ornament for any room in a house.