THE MANTELPIECE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1940, Page 19

THE MANTELPIECE

AN EASY IMPROVEMENT

The fireplace and the window are the two first points one notices in a strange room, and the proud housewife can do much to make a fireplace attractive, especially when, as is most often the case with ugly fireplaces, it is the mantelpiece that offends the eye. It "is narrow and mean looking. Well, it is easy to banish that. Decide how wide and long you would like to have it. Go along to the local timber merchant. Get him to cut you a piece of fin or inch thick timber to, the desired size. It will already be planed smooth. If the existing mantelpiece is of wood, fixing the hew shelf in place is simple enough. If, as is so often the case with these narrow mantel-

pieces, it is of iron, buy two brass flat wall brackets with four holes in them —or have them made, they will cost very little. Fix on to your wooden shelf at the two bottom holes, leaving the top two to fix into your wall. Plug the wall first. Rest the new shelf on the old one. Paint the board to match the rest of the fireplace and paint over the brass brackets to match the wall. The sketch shows you how a very ordinary black iron mantelpiece was improved in this way.