board, with a door at the front, or a fairh BUILTIN FURNITURE AND CONVENIENCES 299 tight latticework enclosure can be erected on studding, with latticework doors, In many cases, however, the furnace will have been located with its back near one of the basement walls, causing it to project well into the intended game room. Not many basement remodelers will be as fortunate as the man who was able to enclose his cellar heating plant with the tall shutters from his windows, which had become excess when they were replaced by a solid type. A modification of this idea into a permanent enclosure constructed of fixed Venetian blinds, will not only successfully conceal the most unsightly of furnaces, but also permit a free circulation of air. As will be noted in the detail in Figure 4.52, the immovable slats are housed in diagonal dadoes, which incline downward in the lower sections, permitting the cold air to enter at the bottom, and incline upward in the upper sections so that the lighter warm air can escape from above. The front can be closed with double doors, slatted like the sides. Halfround moldings along the sides not only finish off the work, but also serve as stops for the slats on the outside. Thin pieces of flat lattice slatting serve the same purpose on the inside, thus eliminating the necessity for gluing each slat. harlequin furniture A study of furniture history reveals that multipurpose furniture is neither an invention nor a new development of modern times. Certain seventeenth century cabinetmakers produced pieces into which a whimsical secondary utility had been built for the edification of their capricious patrons, who promptly dubbed the resulting ingenuities as "harlequin," or "fantastic" furniture. Few fantastic qualities but much ingenuity is displayed in modern conceptions of spacesaving, doubleduty furniture. Although not usually classed as builtin furniture, because of their mobility, these dualpurpose pieces possess a basic kinship to builtin furniture because of the versatility that was designed and literally built into them. Therefore, the following examples are included to augment those already discussed. End Table Sewing Cabinet. For the busy housewife to whom a sewing room or alcove is not available, the popular step end table described in Chapter 2 . With the middle step omitted and the floor hinged to expose rows of thread and darning cottons, there is still room for thimbles, needles, scissors, tape measure, darning egg, and socks, without disturbing a lamp or ashtray on the top shelf, or books on the shelf below. After the legs are tapered to % in., a rabbet % in. wide is cut in the aprons, before they are doweled into the legs. The plywood bottom is cut out to fit around the inside leg corners, then glued and bradded into its rabbet, as indicated in Figure 4.53. The fixed back section of the first step is rounded on its three outer edges and fastened to the rear of the aprons with a in. overhang.