02 / 07
Libraries
Cyma Recta — Compound curve — a section this series commonly carries
How the work is built
A library is panelled wall work with shelving built into it, and it is drawn as a wall elevation before it is drawn as a set of cabinets. The shelf openings, the pilasters between them, the height of the base and the depth of the cornice are all set on that elevation so that the bays repeat evenly across the wall and the last bay at each end is not a leftover.
Shelving in a room of this kind is rarely a plain box. The standard construction is a case with fixed shelves at structural points and adjustable shelves between them, faced with a bead or an astragal that stiffens the front edge and hides the shelf-support holes. Long shelves need that stiffening more than they need thick stock: a shelf faced with a solid edge deflects far less than the same shelf without one.
The panelled surround carries the room. Stile-and-rail panelling runs from a plinth up to a chair rail or straight to a frieze, with the panels set in grooves and the sticking run on the frame edges. Where a panel meets a fireplace, a window return or a door casing, the frame members are widened rather than the panels stretched, because a run of panels reading at consistent width is what makes the wall look designed rather than fitted.
The cornice at the head of a library is generally the largest built-up section in a house of this type, and it is assembled from separate members for the same reason a kitchen crown is: shadow, scribing and stock width. A cyma recta crown over a frieze board, with a bed moulding and a fillet beneath, is the standard New England assembly and takes paint or a clear finish equally well.
Doors in library casework are often glazed. Glazed doors are stile-and-rail frames with a rebate instead of a groove, divided by muntins that are coped and mitred where they cross. The muntin profile is deliberately slight, since its job is to hold glass without closing the opening visually.
Series facts
- Series02 of 07
- Profile shownCyma Recta, compound curve
- ConstructionStile-and-rail and carcase joinery in solid stock and panel