Window box

“ The window-box brings the garden to one's room, while the garden obliges one to make it a visit in order to enjoy the beauty in it. With the window-box the upstair room can be made as pleasant as those below, and the woman in the kitchen can enjoy the companionship of flowers while she busies herself with her housewifely duties, if she does not care to make herself a back-yard garden such as I have spoken of in a preceding chapter. ”

“ Fig. 1 represents a home-made window box when completed. The box consists of well-seasoned one-inch white pine thoroughly nailed together. At one end of the box (A) a hole is bored to allow all surplus water to drain off and into the pan, also shown at A. To prevent the water and moisture contained in the soil from rotting and warping the wood-work, several coats of hot asphalt are applied with an old paint-brush—asphalt varnish will also answer—thus closing up all possible leaks, and thoroughly protecting the wood-work. There is no rule for the proportion of window boxes ”

“ Outside Window-boxes The outside window-box is a thing of beauty if well cared for, a disfigurement if neglected. So greatly does it add to the cheerfulness and apparent size of the rooms under the windows of which it is placed that I should advise its use whenever practicable. ”

“ Shutters that coil up into a box over the window or down into a box below it have the modest excellence of being always out of the way when they are not wanted, of staying where they are put when partially open, of occupying but little space and never standing in the way of the window curtains. They are, in fact, wooden shades similar to the old-fashioned green slat curtains, that were rolled up by drawing a cord, but are far more substantial. ”

“ Why should not everybody who owns a window-box make and enjoy a spring garden in it? Nothing is easier, and it may be done in an endless variety of ways. To begin with, a whole chapter could be written about Bulbs for the window-box. ”

“ Make a box, a foot high, eighteen inches wide, and about three inches deep. Two of the opposite sides of this box must be quite open, and in each of the other sides let there be a groove wide enough to admit a stiff paper or pasteboard. You fasten the box against a window, on which the sun's rays fall direct. The rest of the window should be closed up, that no light may enter. ”

“ About an inch and a half from either end of your box, mark a door space four inches high and two inches wide. Use a pencil and ruler for the work, so that it will be even. Half-way between the door spaces you have drawn, mark off an oblong window space two inches high and three inches wide. Now, you can take your scissors and cut the doors in the box. (To cut doors, see Diagram Two, A, page 167.) Cut the top line of each door space. Cut the bottom line also. The doors must open toward each other, so cut each door space down the side next to the window space. Push each little door inward. ”

“ Where one has a window opening on to an air shaft or a court that gives no view but infringes one's privacy a delightful screen which will not deprive one of too much light and air, but effectually screen the window is made from a box the length of the window-sill, fitted with double casters to allow it to be moved from place to place. ”

“ An ordinary window shade makes a good awning as well as a shade, if it is attached to the outside of the window with the device shown in the illustration. The shade and spring roller are put into a box for protection from the weather and the box is fastened in the window casing at the top. A narrow slit on the under side of the box permits the shade to be drawn out. The stick at the end is removed and a U-shaped wire inserted in the hem in its stead. ”

“ If a larger one is desired, the dimensions may be varied to suit, but it is not necessary to make it any higher for a larger one. If it is desired to have a window in the door, care must be taken to make it a good fit. The top, as shown in the sketch, is made without hinges so that it can be readily set on and removed. This makes it handy in case of repairing the heater and cleaning the box. The inside of the box, with the exception of the bottom, should be covered with asbestos paper.
Fig. 1—Box Details
After the box is finished, fit it with a tray, 1-1/2 ft. ”

“ At least you have a window of your own, or one in which you have a part interest. With very little help from the carpenter, you can arrange a safe box outside of it, that will hold earth enough to root something in. ”

“ From a town of 50,000 inhabitants a merchant writes: “I can no more expect my trimmer to create a good window without proper fixtures than a carpenter to make a good piece of cabinet work without tools. Windows that will attract attention to our goods are necessary; therefore 40we buy every fixture that is required.” A firm in a town one-half the size of the above, states: “If we were forced to choose between inside fixtures and window fixtures the window fixtures would get them every time. We could sell goods off a dry goods box when once we had brought the people into our store ”

“ Hot-beds are the best, and can be made with but little expense, by taking some old box, and if you do not possess an old window sash you can purchase one of some builder for a trifling sum of money, and fit it to your box by nailing strips at the sides ”

“ Make the turn in the belt by the use of small pulleys attached to the motor. Regulate the speed to about one revolution a minute, and you have a window that no man need be ashamed of.
CONTRA-REVOLVING PILLARS. The following mechanical fixture will serve to display almost any class of merchandise:
Make four boxes, ten inches square and seven and one-half feet long, by using 1-in. boards 10 in. square for the ends and 1-inch strips for the corners. Cover all four sides with pasteboard, it being puffed with cheesecloth. Then make a hexagonal box the same length, ten inches on a side. ”

“ We do not recommend the attempt to grow bulbs in the actual window-boxes. It is seldom entirely satisfactory. They should be treated in the manner advised under the several varieties in the following pages, and just as the colours are becoming visible, a selection can be made from pots or boxes for crowding closely in the ornamental arrangements for the window. When the first occupants show signs of fading, others can be brought forward to fill their places, and this process may be repeated until the stock is exhausted. ”

“ There are two high, curtainless windows with eight panes in the rear watt, and between them a small, low door. Two similar windows appear in the right wall. Night glooms through the windows, and when the door opens, the same deep blackness of night stares into the room. In general, however bright Man's rooms may be, the vast darkness of the windows engulfs the light.
On the left wall there is nothing but a small, low door leading to the rest of the house. At the window on the right stands a broad sofa covered with dark oilcloth. Man's desk is very simple and poor. ”

“ If your group of windows is so placed that there is no danger of people passing and looking in, then a short sash curtain of swiss muslin is all that you require, with inside curtains of some heavier fabric—chintz or linen or silk—that can be drawn at night.
If you are building a new house I strongly advise you to have at least one room with a group of deep windows, made up of small panes of leaded glass, and a broad window-seat built beneath them. There is something so pleasant and mellow in leaded glass, particularly when the glass itself has an uneven, colorful quality. ”

“ The lattice at a distance resembles fret-work, but is really elaborately pieced together. Some of the older windows contain exceedingly fine work, but even when it is well done it is not very durable, and nowadays they can only do very rough work. Some of the work that is forty or fifty years old is marvellous, but could not be done at the present time for love or money. The French window itself consists of two doors which are supposed to meet in the middle. There are no hinges, but each door has a wooden foot which turns in a mud socket. ”

“ In the house there is less need than in the church for severity, and more for liveliness, less occasion for breadth, and more for delicacy. The scale of the dwelling-room itself justifies, perhaps demands, a smaller treatment. Here, if anywhere, is opportunity for that preciousness of execution which, in work of more monumental character, it seems a pity to expend upon so frail a substance as glass—frailer than ever when it was the thin white glass employed for window panes. ”

“ Above this backing it is desirable to have a sash reaching to the ceiling, which will serve to admit light and prevent dust reaching the trim.
The distance of the backing from the glass is a matter of choice. Some prefer very deep window embrasures, and for furniture, carpets, stoves and like bulky articles, they are undoubtedly best. For displays of light, small articles, a shallow window is very desirable, and furnishings, notions, etc., may be effectively arranged in thirty inches space. ”

“ A specially made box is, of course, best of all; this should be divided into four or six rooms, and should have a sloping roof to give attic room for boxes and odd furniture. The house can be stained outside or papered a plain dark color. One or two windows should be cut out of the walls of each room by the carpenter who made the box, and there must be doors between the rooms. A piece of thin glass cut to the right size can be fixed on the windows at home. ”

“ Windows without panes of glass are seen here, formed by upright panels, an inch wide, nailed to a crosspiece three inches wide, each having four such crosspieces. Intersecting the spaces made by the panels and crosspieces are smaller pieces of lath, which form three-inch squares in the window. In these three-inch 358 squares flat pieces of light-colored seashell are placed, which admit light, but through which the hot sun cannot penetrate. The windows do not raise or swing, but slide from side to side, when closing or opening. ”

“ Leaded or art glass is attractive if not overdone. Small panes are difficult to keep clean, of course; but we can probably endure that if all else be equal. In living rooms the upper sash should be made smaller than the lower, so as to get the median rail above the level of the eye. In some parts of the house a horizontal window gives a fine effect, besides affording light and air without affecting privacy. Casement windows have their points of excellence, and are additionally expensive chiefly in hardware. ”

“ The chest serves the purpose of all except the washstand, and they find that (as much as they have of it) at the draw-well in the little back yard. The window is just a square hole in the wall, closed with a wooden shutter, so that light and air—if not wind and rain—come in together. A looking-glass they have, but a poor makeshift it is, being of metal and rounded; and those who know what a comical aspect your face takes when you see it in a metal teapot, can guess how far anybody could see himself rightly in it. It is nailed up, too, so high on the wall that it is not easy to see anything. ”

“ He must know them and humour them. Bars have to be accepted as needful supports, leads to be acknowledged as convenient joints; glass must be allowed its translucency, and painting kept to what it can best do. A window should own itself a window.
And what is the aim and use of a stained glass window? To “exclude the light,” said the poet, sarcastically. Yes, to subdue its garishness, soften its glare, tinge it with colour, animate it with form perhaps.
The man who means to do good work in windows will devote as serious study to old glass as a painter to the old masters. ”

“ The windows are always sash ones; the usual size of the glass is eight inches by ten; the windows are sometimes made to open with hinges, and others to slide backwards and forwards, while others take out and in. When the doors are made of sawed boards they have eight or ten panes of glass in them, and then it is seldom there is any other window in the cabin. A porch is often made before the cabin, the whole length of it, and covered with cleft boards; which cost seventy-five cents a hundred, cutting the trees and cleaving out; they are always made from large trees, mostly the black {172} oak. ”

“ The lighting fixtures are of the same type found in the adjoining room and are also side lights, considered more effective because softer than a ceiling light.
In order to let the light in from the hallway, windows were inserted which follow the early window casing in their plain style and contain small panes, there being no elaboration. They are placed on either side of the entrance door, which is glassed in the upper portion. Here, as all through the house, the early style of small-paned [Pg 229] windows has been retained. ”

“ But what was the use of taking down the boards in front of the window? I could not jump down from the attic floor of the building. Yet I could go to the next window, come into the house again, and then go down-stairs, the same as anybody would. I noticed that the lowest board was not more than two inches wide: it had been cut to fit what remained uncovered of the window. I applied my knife to the screws in this narrow strip. ”

“ Back to the cabinet de toilette I went to find a suitable object to which to fasten my rope. There was nothing in the little room save the washstand, and that was fragile and quite unsuited for the purpose. I noticed that the window was fitted with shutters on the outside fastened back against the wall. They had not been touched for years, I should say, for the iron peg holding them back was heavy with rust and the shutters were covered with dust. I closed the left-hand shutter and found that it fastened solidly to the window-frame by means of massive iron bolts, top and bottom. ”