Design 2
As a consequence of the postwar trend toward compact living, attention has become more and more widely focused on builtin furniture and accessories. Formerly tolerated as ingenious conveniences, they have emerged, in many cases, as necessary expedience. As in urban real estate, when the floor space shrinks perceptibly, the value of height, or wall space increases in proportion. Thus it is not unusual to encounter snug little living quarters with builtins skyscrapering up the walls, leaving the moderate floor space uncluttered and hence, larger appearing.
The versatility of available wall coverings affords a variety of selection, which gives unlimited scope for harmonious treatments. Sheets of plywood with handsome hardwood veneers, or with wavytextured faces bonded to their outer surfaces, are excellent mediums for builtin doors, panels and semipartitions. Wallboards are available in a variety of textures, finishes, and shades that lend themselves to attractive combinations. Knotty pine in random widths, applied vertically, horizontally or in panels, is stealing into kitchens and even bathrooms. Glass blocks and cloudy plastic insets accent the modern note in lighting effects." The list of materials is limited only by the imaginations of the designers, the styling of the room, and the utility of the piece or part to be constructed.
Builtin furniture is understood to comprise units that are constructed as part of the walls or floor of a room.
Thus a console may be fastened to a wall, and for convenience, have its legs removed, leaving little more than a decorated shelf. So, too, various pieces of furniture such as bureaus, dressers, vanities, desks, chests, sideboards, and bookshelves find themselves flanked bv wirdrobes or closets into a continuous type of construction from wall to wall. Many older homes have eked out a scarcity of closet construction by the use of wardrobes and chests oi drawers, which necessarily jut out into the room at irregular intervals. In others, large, deep closets are not rendering the complete service they are capable itSuch being the case, it would appear to be highly appropriate to examine into possibilities of these builtin wardrobes.
Before becoming involved in the details of construction, however, a word of warning at this point is of urgent importance. Briefly stated it is the oftrepeated caution that when new construction or alterations are contemplated in an old house, it is a dangerous fallacy to assume that floors and ceilings are level, and that walls are plumb and meet at right angles.
Depending upon the integrity of the builders, the width and thickness of the footings, and the character of the soil or fill, all houses settle to a greater or less extent. Headaches and heartaches can be avoided, if all seeming right angles are viewed with suspicion, and all vertical and horizontal lines checked and doublechecked with level, plumb line, or square.