The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

The Practical Built In Funiture

Hardboards

Another material that is extremely useful in making built-in units of all kinds is known as hardboard. This is a panel material 1/8 to 5/16 inch thick, made by exploding wood chips into fibers and pressing the fibers, under heat, into dense, rigid boards. No bonding is used except the natural lignin already in the wood. The sheets vary in color from a light brown to almost a chocolate shade, and one is finished dead black. These boards may be smooth on one or both sides or have a pattern embossed on one surface. They can be nailed or screwed, drilled (preferably with a twist drill) and sawed.

Probably the most interesting if not the most useful of this series is a dark brown board finished to look like Spanish-grain leather — masonite leatherwood. Most of these hardboards can be bent. Some will stay bent only if fastened to a frame, but others can be bent when damp and will retain the curve when they dry. Others have to be bent under heat. Any of hem can be used in a variety of ways. They make especially attractive door panels. You can glue two sheets together to make a heavier board or to form a lip. You can glue sheets to both sides of a board to get a thick section with smooth surfaces such as you would need for a sliding cabinet door. Such a thick section could also be rabbeted to form an exterior panel or a lipped door. In place of a solid core, you can even use a wood frame around the edges and treat it in the same way.

Moldings

Another feature that contributes to the finished look of a built-in is the proper use of moldings. There are stock moldings available in wide variety. You can also buy boards with beaded or chamfered edges (for V-joints) and molded decorative strips or applied decorations such as rosettes and medallions. There is therefore no need for a home-made built-in to look any more amateurish or less attractive than a professionally made one.

The trick is in knowing where to use such decoration so you won't get merely a cheap and gaudy effect; the decorations should actually be a part of the complete design and not something that looks as if it had been slapped on as an afterthought.


Finishing and Coloring


Application of Liquid Finishes

BECAUSE you have mahogany furniture in a room does not mean that your built-in piece needs to be faced with that wood. On the contrary, it often happens that the built-in piece should be absorbed into the background by giving it the same color and finish as the general room trim. In other words, instead of being a featured piece of furniture, the built-in can quite properly be considered as part of the walls or the room woodwork and finished in the same way.