Cupboards, desks, chests of drawers, or bookcases can be built across a wall with a continuous top 29 to 31 in. above the floor, which can 'serve as a long work table or a shelf for ornaments, extra books or plants. Typical layouts illustrated in Figures 4.29 and 4.30 can be modified and improved to suit conditions. This lower t\pe of builtin fixtures can be used as a room divider in the same manner as were the high double cupboards. Sections which are to project into a FURNITURE MAKING AND CABINET WORK the screening effect being achieved by a partition from the top or counter, up to the ceiling. This partition can be constructed of glass blocks, corrugated glass sheets, latticework, or a series of backless shelves as illustrated in Figure 4.32. Under certain conditions it may be possible to place pots of ivy or growing plants on open shelves of this type, to form a semiopaque partition of living green. Fig. 4.31. Backless shelves combined with sliding door cabinets in a room divider. imitation fireplaces Modern heating efficiency has deprived many apartments and some homes of the traditional hospitality afforded by an open fireplace. The absence of this ancestor of interior heating creates a void in the consciousnesses of so many tenants that it has become common practice to replace the deficiency with a comforting imitation, complete with an artificial electric fire, which, when carefully assembled, creates a realistic illusion of warmth. The construction of these mantels and fireplaces is not difficult, and when carefully measured, not only requires no breakthrough or defacement of existing walk, but does not infringe upon available floor space to any appreciable extent. Once a basic framework of 2x2s qmilar to that pictured in Figure 4.32 is con BUILTIN FURNITURE AND CONVENIENCES 1 275 Core folding J4 Plywood Facing Holding Starting Course Composition Siding Wallboard Plywood Molding Fig. 4.32. Imitation mantel. structed, it is only necessary to fasten in place materials representing brick, marble, or stonework and frame them with suitable woodwork. Brickwork is successfully imitated by a maroon or tan composition siding, which comes in rolls whose outer faces of colored chips, cemented to an asphalt IF T тж 1 X : HHP ¦¦¦¦MBMl аянинм ямшшшнин ЯННННННШ ШШШвШШт цШШттпт ШШШШИЕщ Ш г-ш I m f Г J skiing in imitation brick. 276 FURNITURE MAKING AND CABINET WORK backing, are marked off into bricks, with darkcolored, cementlike divisions as in Figure 4.33a. Sections of this waterproof siding can be cut out and cemented to the wallboard falsework composing the front of the fireplace, with asphalt cement; brads can be tacked into the "cement" divisions where necessary. The wallboard firebox can be painted black to simulate the soot of many fires, or covered with blackened composition siding. For a more formal effect, there is wallboard available that so closely imitates various Italian marbles as to be almost indistinguishable from them.