The Mission style of architecture also lends itself to
the making of chairs and other articles of furniture. A chair is,
probably, the most difficult piece of household furniture to make,
because strength is required. In this type soft wood may be used, as the
large legs and back pieces are easily provided with mortises and tenons,
affording great rigidity when completed. In designing, therefore, you
may see how the material itself becomes an important factor.

CABINETS.--In the making of cabinets, sideboards, dressers and like
articles, the ingenious boy will find a wonderful field for designing
ability, because in these articles fancy alone dictates the sizes and
the dimensions of the parts. Not so with chairs and tables. The
imagination plays an important part even in the making of drawers, to
say nothing of placing them with an eye to convenience and artistic
effect.

HARMONY OF PARTS.--But one thing should be observed in the making of
furniture, namely, harmony between the parts. For instance, a table
with thin legs and a thick top gives the appearance of a top-heavy
structure; or the wrong use of two different styles is bad from an
artistic standpoint; moreover, it is the height of refined education if,
in the use of contrasting woods, they are properly blended to form a
harmonious whole.

HARMONIZING WOOD.--Imagine a chiffonier with the base of dark wood, like
walnut, and the top of pine or maple, or a like light-colored wood. On
the other hand, both walnut and maple, for instance, may be used in the
same article, if they are interspersed throughout the entire article.
The body may be made of dark wood and trimmed throughout with a light
wood to produce a fine effect.

CHAPTER V

HOW WORK IS LAID OUT

CONCRETE EXAMPLES OF WORK.--A concrete example of doing any work is more
valuable than an abstract statement. For this purpose I shall direct the
building of a common table with a drawer in it and show how the work is
done in detail.

For convenience let us adopt the Mission style, with a top 36" x 42" and
the height 30". The legs should be 2" x 2" and the top 1", dressed. The
material should be of hard wood with natural finish, or, what is better
still, a soft wood, like birch, which may be stained a dark brown, as
the Mission style is more effective in dark than in light woods.

[Illustration: _Fig. 27._]

FRAMEWORK.--As we now know the sizes, the first thing is to build the
framework. The legs