In and around the house there is opportunity for the creation of a number of useful articles that can be made by any boy who is at all handy with tools. For example, the tops of doorways and windows in a dining-room may be improved by the addition of narrow shelves, or ledges, on which old plates, slim jugs, or some quaint old bottles may rest.
These ledges may be made from pine, white-wood, cypress, or other wood to match the trim. The wood should not be more than half or five-eighths of an inch in thickness, as shown at Fig. 1. The shelves should be three or four inches in width, with a straight front, or slightly curved, as shown in Fig. 2. This curve is called a serpentine line, and may be shaped with a draw-knife; or, if the wood is soft, it can easily be cut with a compass-saw and finished off with a draw-knife and sand-paper.
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.
The shelves on which the plates rest are three inches wide and twenty-one inches long. The dowels extend from three to six inches over each end, as shown in the drawing. From their under-sides cups may be suspended on hooks screwed into the wood. The front edges of the shelves are provided with a strip of wood fastened on with slim, steel-wire nails, to prevent the plates from, sliding forward, as shown in Fig. 6, which is a plan of the arrangement of bracket, shelf, and dowel. The dowels can be had at a hardware store for two or three cents each, and from a quarter of an inch to the diameter of a small curtain-pole.
A Cup and Plate Pyramid
The cup and plate pyramid (Fig. 7) is another attractive dining-room feature and is very simple to construct. Three of the shelves are cut with a serpentine front, as shown in Fig. 8 A, and measure twenty-six, twenty-two, and eighteen inches respectively; while the top one is twelve inches long and cut as shown in Fig. 8 B. The shelves are six inches wide at the middle, and three of them are two and a half inches wide at the ends.
Short brackets one and a half inches wide and two and a half inches long support the shelves at the ends. Under the middle of the bottom shelf a large bracket five and a half inches wide and eight inches long is cut and made fast with long, slim screws driven down through the bottom shelf. A notch is cut at the front of each shelf, and a corresponding one in the staff that binds the shelves together, so that they are spaced, from the bottom up, eleven, ten, and nine inches apart. Slim, steel-wire nails two inches long will secure the brackets to the wall, or long, slim screws may be used.
A Butler’s Tray
For the house that is not built with a butler’s pantry, or for the mother who does her own housework, the tray and drop-ledge shown in Fig. 9 will be found a very convenient piece of dining-room furniture.
Fig. 9. Fig. 10. Fig. 11. Fig. 12.
Two brackets on hinges will support the shelf when it is up. When it is dropped the brackets fold in against the wall, as shown in Fig. 10.
The ledge and brackets are of pine wood three-quarters of an inch thick and planed on all sides and edges. The tray is of white-wood five-eighths of an inch thick, and put together securely with glue and screws. The ends and handle-grips are cut with a compass-saw and finished with sand-paper; then the tray is stained and varnished to match the shelf and brackets.
Back of the drop-shelf a strip of wood two inches wide is fastened to the wall by means of a wall-plate securely screwed to the studding, and two vertical plates one inch thick make an anchorage for the brackets. The latter are attached by means of flat hinges, and the shelf proper is also hinged to the two-inch wall-plate. All these parts must be screwed very solidly together if the safety of the household crockery is to be considered.
Cup-pins and Brush-rack
In the butler’s pantry or near the kitchen sink it is sometimes convenient to have a brush-rack and some cup-pins, on which cups, drinking-glasses, and small hollow-ware may be kept.
These are easily made, as the illustration (Fig. 11) will show. The cup-pins are dowels sawed in five-inch lengths, and then made fast to a square pine stick with slim screws passed through holes that have first been made with an awl. The rack is then attached to the wall with screws passed into the studs or uprights behind the plaster.
The brush-rack is made from two pine sticks, one of which is cut out in places, as shown in Fig. 12. The two sticks are then screwed together and supported on brackets. Brushes kept in a drawer or on a shelf do not dry properly, so that it is always best to place them where they have a free circulation of air.
Lock-shelves
In a cellar or store-room it is often convenient to have a portion of the shelves arranged so that their contents can be locked up. For this purpose Fig. 13 shows a slat door arranged in front of several shelves and hung on hinges. At the lower edge a hasp and eye may be made fast, so as to make a padlock available.
Fig. 13. Fig. 14.
The slats are from one-half to seven-eighths of an inch thick and two inches wide; they are fastened to battens with clinch-nails or screws driven from the inside. A smart boy can make any number of these doors so as to lock up a whole lot of shelving, but for convenience of handling they should not be more than four feet long.
A Vegetable-bin
For a corner of the cellar, and where it is convenient to the staircase, a very useful vegetable-bin may be made from a few boards and slats (Fig. 14). The bin may be of any width and length, but for a house of the average size, it need not be more than six feet long and eighteen inches wide each compartment being from sixteen to eighteen inches wide.
The front, back, and ends are ten inches high, and two of the partitions are the same height. The partitions for the potato and turnip compartments should extend eighteen inches above the top of the bin, since these vegetables bulk largely. The bin rests on two battens nailed to the brick or stone foundation-walls of the cellar, two feet above the floor. At the exposed corner a foot, or leg, twenty-four inches long, supports it. The bottom of the bin is made of long slats nailed an inch apart, so that the dirt from the vegetables will fall through to the floor, from which it can be easily swept up. The ventilation from the slat bottom prevents the vegetables from decaying as quickly as they would in a box or barrel with a tight bottom.
Across the tops of the high partitions, and propped up at the exposed end of the bin, a shelf or ledge ten inches wide will accommodate cabbages, lettuce, bunches of carrots and beets, parsnips, and various other vegetables. In the illustration only five compartments are shown in the main part of the bin, but a bin of almost any length can be constructed according to the space available and the requirements of the family.
A Spoon-bar and Saucepan-rack
For the kitchen, a rack on which to hang spoons, ladles, saucepans, cups, and other small accessories to the culinary department is shown in Fig. 15.
It can be made to fit any wall space in a kitchen, but the brackets should be twenty inches high and ten inches wide at the top. They may be made from most any wood one and a half inches square, and put together with lap-joints. Three rails, seven-eighths by two inches, are attached to the inside of the front bracket-rails or supports, with long, slim screws or steel-wire nails. All the wood-work is painted two coats of white enamel, or any color to match the wood-work of the kitchen. Brass screws or galvanized nails are driven in the bars at regular distances apart, on which to hang the utensils, and the rack is then to be securely attached to the wall.
A Medicine-chest
Every house should contain a medicine-chest, where the necessary boxes and bottles containing the family medicines may always be found in time of need. Chests may be made in any size and shape, and adapted to the spaces they may occupy on a wall or in a bath-room closet.
A convenient chest is shown in Fig. 16, and in Fig. 17 is given the plan of construction. For the average household it should be made eighteen inches wide and twenty-four inches high, with two shelves arranged so that the space between the lower one and the bottom of the box will be eight and a half inches. The space between the upper one and the top should be six inches, and between shelves seven and a half inches. The top and bottom wall-plates should measure four inches wide, and they are attached to the top and bottom of the box by means of screws driven into the edge of each through the top and bottom of the box.
Fig. 15. Fig. 16. Fig. 17. Fig. 18. Fig. 19.
A door is made from three pieces of board across the ends of which battens are made fast, as shown in the plan drawing. This is attached to the box by means of hinges, and a catch at the other side will keep it closed. The wall-plates and sides of the chest should be stained and varnished, and the door covered with burlap glued fast or tacked at the inner side. The letters, ornament, and imitation nail-heads are cut from sheet-lead, scraps of which can be purchased at a plumber’s shop, shaped with a shears, or an old knife, and light mallet, and afterwards trimmed with a penknife blade or a file. They may be attached to the door with slim, steel-wire nails, and painted black with a coating made by adding dry lamp-black to thin shellac, and applying it in one or two thin coats with a soft-hair brush.
Be careful to anchor this chest securely to the wall, as bottles are heavy and their weight must be taken into consideration.
A Convenient Plant-tray
In the illustration of a convenient plant-tray (Fig. 18) an idea is suggested for a receptacle that will accommodate several small pots in the lower tray and a large pot, or jardinière, on the middle deck.
The tray is thirty-six inches long and twelve inches wide and at the ends is four inches deep. But at the middle the sides are eight inches high, and support the stage or deck, which is thirteen inches square.
The tray is made of wood three-quarters of an inch thick and planed on both sides.
The legs are two inches square and twenty-four inches long, and at the bottom they are slightly tapered with a draw-knife and plane.
They are fastened to the inner side of the tray at the corners with long, slender screws driven down through the bottom of the tray and into the top of the legs.
Bracket-braces are let into the legs in lap-cuts made with saw and chisel, as shown at Fig. 19, and at the ends rails are let in between the legs to hold them rigidly.
The screws attaching these joints may be covered with mock nail-heads. The ornament at the side of the tray is cut from sheet-lead with a stout pair of shears, painted black, and applied to the wood with flat-headed tacks or gimp-nails.
An Indispensable Clothes-press
The available room in any clothes-closet can be more than doubled by adopting clothes-hangers and a rod. Fig. 20 shows the plan of a closet seen from above.
The projections around the outer edge represent hooks, while the bar through the middle and the cross-sticks represent the space gained.
Fig. 21 shows the usual rail and shelf, but under them are the bar and hangers that represent the new feature. This is a great improvement upon the ordinary closet, even when drop-hooks are used under the shelves for the support of hangers carrying clothes. The work necessary for this arrangement is very simple.
Obtain two sockets and a small curtain-rod, and fit the rod into the sockets screwed to the wall under the hook-rail, taking care to drive long, slender screws through the plaster. From a hardware or house-furnishing store obtain a number of coat-hangers composed of a wood bar and iron hook. These can be had at all prices from two for five cents to twenty-five cents each, or if it is impossible to purchase them they can be sawed out of wood by any boy and provided with iron-wire hooks. The bars are eighteen inches across and slightly curved at the top, like one’s shoulders. Underneath the bars, near the ends, small hooks may be screwed into place, on which trousers may be hung by using clamps (Fig. 22). In this manner from four to six suits can be hung to every running foot of the pole.
This method will keep the coat or trousers in shape. If loops are sewn fast to the skirt-band, the skirt will hang on the two lower hooks much better than on a single hook, when this system is applied to mother’s or sister’s closets.
Fig. 20. PLAN OF CLOSET
Fig. 21. Fig. 22.
This device is so simple and useful that once tried it will always be used, and where economy of space is a feature, this idea is a valuable one for both the city and country house.
A Divan
A comfortable divan banked up with pillows is always an inviting addition to a room, and helps to furnish it. In Fig. 23 an idea is given for a piece of furniture that will serve a double purpose—that is, a couch and a skirt or trousers press, with a compartment for shirt-waists or fancy waistcoats.
In Fig. 24 the box, or framework, is shown. It is five feet six inches long, twenty-eight inches wide, and fifteen inches high.
The tray is ten inches deep, and divided into a long and short compartment. This is supported by the ends, which are fifteen inches high, and made from several pieces of board with matched edges. Corner-brackets at front and back lend additional strength, and prevent the frame from racking.
The top, or lid, is made from several matched boards held together with two or three battens; it opens on three or four stout hinges securely screwed into the wood of the back.
A valance is made of some good upholstery material, and tacked all around the upper edge of the box. For the couch proper use a mattress which is to be placed on the lid, and covered with the cloth used for the valance. This should be tacked securely to the under side of the lid. This will hold the mattress in place and make a good finish for the edges of the top.
LOUNGE AND CORNER DRESSING-TABLE
Fig. 23. Fig. 24. Fig. 26.
Make a few holes through the lid, and with a long needle pass a string up through them, through a stout button and down again, where the string is to be tied around a tack, and then the tack is driven in so as to hold the string securely. This will give a tufted effect to the cushion top, and will make the mattress more secure.
Run a line of gimp or narrow belting around the top of the box over the tacks that fasten the valance, and with large, oval-headed upholsterers’ tacks make a line of heads three inches apart all around the sides and front. This will make an effective finish.
A Corner Dressing-table
A very pretty dressing-table for the corner of a girl’s room is shown in the illustration (Fig. 25). This can be made by a boy for his sister, or by a girl with a liking for such work. As shown in Fig. 26, it is built up on a sugar barrel, which is thirty inches high and twenty-four inches across at the widest place. When it is inverted, screws or nails can be driven through the bottom to hold the triangular ledge or table-top in place.
Three boards should be cut to form a quarter of a circle thirty inches long on the two straight sides, as shown in Fig. 26 A. The sweep, or curved edge, is one-quarter of a five-foot circle. Fig. 26 A also shows how this quarter-circle is placed on the top of the barrel.
To keep the boards together, two battens thirty inches long are nailed or screwed underneath the straight edges.
Screws rather than nails should be used in fastening the quarter-circle to the barrel. They will not pull out or work loose so readily as nails.
The canopy top is supported on a framework consisting of three sticks, each three feet long, and a triangular top made of three short sticks, as Fig. 26 shows. At the top the sticks are joined as shown in B, and the lower ends are attached to the table-top with long, slim, steel-wire nails.
Fig. 25.
If the color scheme of the room is pink, pale-green, or canary color, this same color may be carried out in the drapery. Sateen or colored cotton goods may be overlaid with a dotted swiss or scrim, and tacked to the framework. At the bottom a valance is made and caught to the circular edge of the ledge, which is covered with gimp held by brass-headed tacks.
The upper sticks of the frame are bound with strips of white muslin before the drapery is attached. This is to prevent the wood from showing through the goods, and also to make an anchorage in which some stitches can be taken, if necessary, to hold the canopy drapery in place.
For this top it will be necessary to have two swiss or thin scrim coverings, between which one thickness of the colored material is laid. Both sides of the drapery will be seen, and it is necessary to show the colored goods on both sides.
A shirred band of the goods may be arranged along the top stick of the canopy, and bows at the corners of the top and the edge will add to its appearance.
An oval or square mirror in a white or light enamelled frame can be suspended by wires from the top.
The directions as to methods and the suggestions of designs given in this book open a broader and more inviting field, it is believed, than has been accessible in similar form before. That there is need of a new handy-book comprehensive, well tested, and designed on practical modern lines seems to be indicated by the popularity of the preceding volumes in this series: Harper’s Outdoor Book for Boys and Harper’s Electricity Book for Boys, which, together with Harper’s How to Understand Electrical Work, form the modern “Boy’s Own Library.”
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